Chapter IV: Education in Ontario--Past and Present (2)

As to the character of the private schools thus established, and the facilities of education which they afforded, we learn incidentally from letters and early books of travel, what they were. In a "_Tour through Upper Canada, by a Citizen of the United States_," published in 1799, we learn that the policy of the government of that day, was to exclude "schoolmasters from the States, lest they should instil Republicanism into the tender minds of the youth of the province."

FIRST OFFICIAL EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENTS IN UPPER CANADA, 1797, 1798.

As the result of the correspondence between the Governor and Bishop Mountain, the question of a University and free grammar schools was discussed. The Governor referred the matter to the Upper Canada Legislature, which, in 1797 memorialized King George III, soliciting a grant of land for the endowment of a grammar school in each district, and a University for the whole Province. To this request the King gave his assent, and, in 1798, the "chief civil officers" in Upper Canada recommended that "500,000 acres of land be set apart for the establishment of a grammar school in each district and a central University for the whole Province." They also recommended a grant for the erection of a "plain but solid and substantial building for a grammar school in each district, containing a school room capable of holding 100 boys without danger to their health from too many being crowded together, and also a set of apartments for the master, large enough for his family and from ten to twenty boarders."

The salaries proposed to be given were: £100 for the head master, £50 for the assistant master; and £30 for repairs, etc., Kingston and Newark (Niagara) were recommended as eligible sites for schools; after which, when the funds were sufficient, schools were to be established at Cornwall and Sandwich. York (Toronto) was recommended as entitled to the University, and for the establishment and support of which a sum at least equal to that granted to the four schools was named.

In 1799, an act was passed by the Upper Canada Legislature "to provide for the education and support of orphan children." It authorized the township wardens, with the consent of two magistrates, to bind and apprentice, until they became of age, children deserted by their parents. In the same year an orphan school was opened near St. Catherines.

EDUCATIONAL PIONEERS IN UPPER CANADA.

Governor Simcoe authorized the Hon. Messrs. Cartwright and Hamilton, to select a person to take charge of the proposed college. The celebrated Rev. Dr. Chalmers having declined the appointment, it was accepted by Mr. (late the Right Reverend Doctor) Strachan (Bishop of Toronto) then a schoolmaster at Kettle, Scotland; but his arrival at Kingston, on the 31st of December, 1799, he found that the project of a college had been abandoned, Governor Simcoe, in the meantime, having left for England.

It was soon discovered that half a million of acres of land would endow but few grammar schools, land being then only worth a shilling per acre: the schema had, therefore, to be abandoned. Meanwhile the Hon. Mr. Cartwright made an arrangement with Mr. Strachan to instruct his sons, and a select number of pupils for three years. In 1804, Mr. Strachan, having been ordained, removed to the mission of Cornwall, where, at the request of the parents of his former pupils, he opened a private school.

For several years this school was the only one of any note in Upper Canada; and in it and in Mr. Strachan's school at York, were educated many of those gentlemen who have filled some of the most important positions in the province. Subsequently Mr. Strachan's school was constituted the grammar school of the Eastern district. In 1806, a temporary act was passed by the Legislature and made permanent in 1808, establishing a classical and mathematical school in each of the eight districts into which Upper Canada was then divided. In the same year(1806) at the suggestion of Dr. Strachan an Act was passed, granting £400 for the purchase of apparatus for illustrating the principles of Natural Philosophy, which were to be deposited in the hands of a person employed in the instruction of youth. In 1807 an appropriation of £800 a year for four years was made to provide for the salaries of masters in the Grammar Schools to be maintained in each of the districts into which Upper Canada was divided. These masters were to be engaged by trustees appointed by the governor, and the governor's sanction was also necessary for the teacher's appointment. There is still in existence the letter, dated, April 16th, 1807, signed by Governor Gore, appointing the Rev. George Okill Stewart, D.D., Archdeacon of Kingston, first Head Master of the Home District Grammar School at York (Toronto).

North of what is now Adelaide Street (formerly Newgate Street), bounded westward by Church Street, and eastward by Jarvis Street, was a large field, almost square, containing about six acres--for many years the playground of the District Grammar School.

In the south-west corner of it, some hundred feet or more from the street boundaries, was elected the plain wooden building, about fifty-five feet long by forty wide in which, on the first Monday of June, 1807, when the population of the town was only about five hundred, the Grammar School was opened. It was attended by the sons and daughters of the well-to-do citizens of York, and on the few existing records may be found many a well known name.

In 1812, the Rev. John Strachan. D.D., was appointed Rector of York, and succeeded the Rev. Mr. Stewart as Head Master of this school.[22] Mr. Barnabas Bidwell (father of the late Hon. M. S. Bidwell) kept a good Latin School at Bath, on the Bay of Quinté, in 1811. In 1813, he removed to Kingston, where he taught for twenty years until he died in 1833.

[22] _Canadian Educational Monthly_, February 1889, page 58.

In 1820, the "Central School at York" was opened under the mastership of Mr. Joseph Spragge, father of the late Chief Justice Spragge. Lieutenant-Governor and Lady Sarah Maitland took a special interest in the success of this school.

In a _View of Upper Canada_, published at Baltimore in 1814, by Mr. M. Smith, (who resided in the Province from 1808 until the breaking out of the War in 1812) he said:--

"The greater part of the inhabitants are not well educated,
for, as they were poor when they came to the Province and the
country being but thinly settled for a number of years, they
had but little chance for the benefit of schools. But since the
country has become settled, or the inhabitants rich, or in a
good way of living, which is almost universally the case, they
pay considerable attention to learning. Ten dollars a year is
the common price given for the tuition of each scholar by good
teachers."--Page 52.

In 1813, Rev. John Langhorn (a Church of England missionary at Earnestown and Bath from 1787 to 1812, and teacher of a school) made a present of his library to the inhabitants of the Bay of Quinte district. In 1814 Rev. Robert Baldwin was appointed Grammar schoolmaster at Cornwall, vice Rev. John (afterwards Dean) Bethune resigned. In 1815 the Midland District School, so-called, was incorporated.

Dr. Strachan resigned the head mastership of the District School on July 1st, 1823. He was succeeded by Mr. Samuel Armour, M.A., a graduate of Glasgow University, who afterwards became a clergyman of the English Church, and officiated many years in the township of Cavan.

The Rev. Thomas Phillips, D.D., an accomplished scholar, came out from England in 1825 to take charge of the school, and remained in the position of headmaster, much honored and beloved by his pupils, until, in 1830, chiefly by the exertions of the Governor, Sir John Colborne, Upper Canada College was established and the work of the college began in the old District Grammar School building. Classes were opened in the new buildings erected in another part of the city for the college in 1831, and the Grammar School was closed, the building being removed from its original site to the line of Nelson street (now Jarvis street), and fenced into a plot about 70 × 120 feet. The remaining portion of the six acres was handed over to Upper Canada College.

On the active remonstrance of the citizens living in the eastern part of Toronto, the school was re-opened and secured to the city, Mr. Charles N. B. Cosens being appointed headmaster in 1836, and succeeded by Mr. Marcus C. Crombie in 1838.[23]

[23] _Ibid._, page 59.

EARLY EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH COMMON SCHOOLS 1816-1820.

In 1816, seven years after the establishment of District Grammar Schools, a praiseworthy effort was made to provide for the establishment and maintenance of common schools."[24] A liberal grant of $24,000 a year, for four years, was made as an experiment. Whether the experiment was a success, or not, does not appear, but in 1820, the grant was reduced to $10,000 a year.

[24] In 1816, an Act was passed granting £800 for the purchase
of a library for the use of the Legislative Council and house of
Assembly.

STATE OF EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA, 1784-1819.

In regard to the state of education of Upper Canada in 1817, and the fluctuating character of its progress since the settlement of the Province, in 1784, up to that time, Mr. Gourlay, a well-known Canadian politician and author, writes as follows:--

"There is no college in Upper Canada, but there are said to be
several townships of land set apart for the purpose of endowing
such institution, when the population and circumstances of the
Province shall require it.

"No provision is made by law for free schools. The inhabitants
of the severe! townships are left to a voluntary support of
schools, according to their own discretion.

"An Act of the Provincial Legislature, in 1807, granted a
hundred pounds a year to the teacher of one school, in each
of the eight districts under the direction of trustees. In
some districts the school thus provided for is made a free
school; but in other districts the salary is considered as a
public encouragement to a teacher of literary eminence, in
addition to the compensation received for the tuition of each
scholar."--_Statistical Account of Upper Canada, etc., by Robert
Gourlay, 2 vols., London, 1822._

The Rev. Dr. Strachan became a master of one of these schools, and Rev. George Ryerson and his brother, Egerton, master and usher of another.

As to the state of feeling in the rural parts of the oldest settled portions of Upper Canada, we make the following extracts from a letter written to Mr. Gourlay from the township of Grimsby, in 1818, by a highly respected resident there, William Crooks, Esq. Mr. Crooks remarks:--

"The state of education is at a very low ebb, not only in the
township, but generally throughout the [Niagara] district;
although the liberality of the legislature has been great in
support of the district (Grammar) schools, (giving to the
teachers of each £100 per annum), yet they have been productive
of little or no good hitherto, for this obvious cause, they
are looked upon as seminaries exclusively instituted for the
education of the children of the more wealthy classes of
society, and to which the poor man's child is considered as
unfit to be admitted. From such causes, instead of their being
a benefit to the Province, they are sunk into obscurity, and
the heads of most of them are at this moment enjoying their
situations as comfortable sinecures. Another class of schools
has, within a short time, been likewise founded upon the
liberality of the legislative purse, denominated common, or
parish, schools, but like the preceding, the anxiety of the
teacher employed, seems more alive to his stipend than the
advancement of the education of those placed under his care:
from the pecuniary advantages thus held out, we have been
inundated with the worthless scum, under the character of school
masters, not only of this, but of every other country where
the knowledge has been promulgated, of the easy means our laws
afford of getting a living here, by obtaining a parish school,
which is done upon the recommendation of some few freeholders,
getting his salary from the public, and making his employers
contribute handsomely beside.

"It is true, rules are laid down for their government, and the
proper books prescribed for their use; but scarcely in one case
in ten are they adhered to, for in the same class you will
frequently see one child with Noah Webster's spelling book in
this hand, and the next with Lindley Murray's. However prone
the teachers are to variety in their schools, much blame is to
be attributed to the trustees, who are in many instances too
careless and I might almost add too ignorant to discriminate
right from wrong, in the trust they have undertaken for the
public benefit. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at why
the parish school system should meet with almost universal
reprobation from most discerning men.

"Of these parish schools, we are burdened with a liberal share,
having no less than three of them. If the establishment of this
system was meant by the legislature to abbreviate the present
enormous price of education, they have been miserably deceived;
for I can see no alteration or reduction from the charge made
before the passing of the act. The price then was 12_s._ 6_d._
[_i.e._ $2.50,] and is now the same, per quarter."

In July, 1819, provisions was made for an additional district grammar school; for holding annual public examinations; for reporting the condition of the schools to the governor, and for educating ten common school pupils, free of charge, at each of the nine public grammar schools already established; but the provincial allowance to teachers of grammar schools was reduced to £50 in all cases where the numbers of pupils did not exceed ten.

FITFUL EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS FROM 1822 TO 1829.

In 1822, Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor, submitted to the Imperial Government a plan for organizing a general system of education, including elementary schools; and, in 1823, he obtained permission from England to establish a Board of Education for the general superintendence of this system of education, and for the management of the university and school lands throughout the Province. The members of this Board, with Rev. Dr. Strachan at its head, as chairman, were: Hon. Joseph Wells, Hon. G. H. Markland, Rev. Robert Addison, Hon. J. B. Robinson, and Thomas Ridout, Esq. This Board prepared some general regulations in regard to the schools and proposed a plan by which to exchange 225,944 acres of the less valuable of the school lands for the more productive Clergy Reserve lands. The plan having been approved by the Home Government, was carried into effect by the Governor soon after. In 1824, the first attempts towards providing the public with general reading books, in connection with the Common and Sunday schools, were made. The sum of £150 was annually appropriated for this object, and authorized to be expended by the Provincial Board of Education in the purchase of "books and tracts designed to afford moral and religions instruction," and distributed equally among all the districts of Upper Canada.

Thus were presented the dim outlines of a system of public instruction which it was clear the necessities of the country required, but which for want of a vigorous and systematic supervision was gradually permitted to languish, and the legislative enactments themselves were suffered to become almost obsolete on the statute book.

In January, 1824, the Common School Act was made to apply "to all schools that are now or may hereafter be established and kept among the Indians who shall be resident within the limits of any organized county or township within this Province, excepting such schools as shall or may be otherwise provided for."[25] Provision was also made for the examination of Common School teachers by County Boards of Education.

[25] All the Indian schools of the Province, which are chiefly
sustained by various religious bodies are now under the control
of the Indian Department at Ottawa. The following is an account
of a typical Indian school at the Credit in 1830: The school room
in a large and commodious apartment with tiers of raised benches
in the rear: on one division of which sit the girls, and the boys
on the other. There are also desks, and slates for ciphering and
copy-books and copper-plate lines for whose who write. The Bible
and Testaments, and some of the other books, are English printed
and some American. No sectarian intolerance prevails in that way.
Among the school furniture are a handsome map of the world, the
arithmecon, attractive alphabets in pasteboard, regular figures
illustrative of geometry, some of them cut out of wood and some
of them made of pasteboard: the picture of Elijah fed by ravens,
figures of birds, fishes and quadrupeds on pasteboard, coloured,
accompanied with the history of each animal: the figure of a clock
in pasteboard, by which to explain the principles of the time-piece.
The walls are adorned with good, moral maxims; and I perceived that
one of the rules was rather novel, though doubtful in place here. It
was, "No blankets to be worn in school." The attendance is about 50
Indian children. The girls are taught by Miss Rolph, sister of the
late Member of Middlesex: the boys by Mr. Edwy Ryerson, a younger
brother of the late editor of the _Christian Guardian_, Rev. Egerton
Ryerson. The translating office is occupied by Mr. Peter Jones, the
Indian minister.

STATE OF EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA, 1827-1829, FROM THE OFFICIAL REPORTS, ETC.

The number and condition of the Common and other schools in Upper Canada in 1827 may be gathered from "An appeal to the Friends of Religion, and Literature, in behalf of the University of Upper Canada," published in London in 1827 (of which I have an original MS. copy). Dr. Strachan says:--

_School in Upper Canada, 1827._--"In about 340 Common Schools
in Upper Canada from 12,000 to 14,000 children are taught
reading and writing, the elements of arithmetic, and the first
principles of religion. The people, scattered as they are
over a vast wilderness, are thus becoming alive to the great
advantage of educating their children ... insomuch so, that
schools supported by subscriptions are more in number than
those established by law. Provision is made by statute for the
translation of some of the more promising scholars from the
Common to the District Schools, where the classics and practical
mathematics are taught. In these schools (eleven in number)
there are at present 300 young men acquiring an education to
qualify them for the different professions....

_Niagara District Board of Education, 1828._--"It must be
admitted generally that after the approval and appointment of
teachers by the Trustees the Board have not rejected teachers
however incompetent, from a regards to the wishes of their
employers, the terms for tuition being so very low as not to
induce men of sufficient qualifications generally to engage in
the humble and ill-requited duties.

Reading, writing and arithmetic have been uniformly taught
in all schools. Grammar and geography in a few. Religious
instruction has not been overlooked. Upon the whole, the system
of education in this district may be considered as efficient as
can be expected upon the footing on which it is placed."--_Rev.
Thomas Creen._

_Provincial Board of Education, 1828._--The number of District
Grammar Schools in operation in the Province is 11; pupils in
attendance, 372. Number of Common Schools, 401; number of pupils
in attendance, 10,712--increase over 1827 of nearly 2,000 pupils.

The President of the Board (Rev. Dr. Strachan) last summer
visited in person all the districts of the Province, and not
only inspected the grammar schools, but examined minutely the
systems of management adopted by their respective teachers.

In order to produce a greater uniformity of the system to
supply, in some measure, the want of experience to younger
teachers, the President has submitted an outline of study for
the grammar schools, the adoption of which, the board cannot but
think would be highly beneficial, and produce a higher standard
of education throughout the Province.[26]

[26] This course of study is appended herewith on the next page.

In some places girls are admitted to the district schools,
for want of good female schools, but the admission of female
children interferes with the government which is required in
classical seminaries.

In a population of nearly 200,000, at least one-fifth, or
40,000, is composed of children between the ages of 5 and 15
who should be going to school. Taking the number of those who
are benefited in the Common and Sunday schools at 15,000, then
the expense to the Province is about 3_s._ 9_d._ each. In
some districts the salaries allowed to the schoolmasters of
the Common Schools are exceedingly small. They range from £12
10_s._ downwards. In some little more than £5, and in one less
than that trifling sum. Many schools continue only six months;
others eight months in the year. The natural consequence of this
state of things is that superior teachers desert the Common
Schools as soon as they can procure any other employment, and
many persons resort to the occupation of teachers merely as a
temporary expedient. These latter are without experience, which
is all-important to an instructor of youth and can have little
desire to establish a reputation in an employment to which they
have only recourse for present convenience.

In the sister Colony of Nova Scotia, the sum of £1,000 is
annually appropriated to the Common Schools and divided among 12
counties, not equally, but in proportion to population. One law,
by giving the same sum to each district, whether populous or
not, in that particular requires alteration.

The Board would submit that in addition to the public allowance,
a power should be given to the townships to assess themselves
for the schools. In Nova Scotia it is provided in the statute
that two-thirds of the freeholders may, under certain
conditions, tax themselves according to their ability for the
support of education, and that no school of 30 scholars shall
be entitled to the stipulated aid of £20, unless the teacher
receives _bona fide_ from his employers £10, together with this
sum, exclusive of and in addition to board, etc.; and that no
school of 15 scholars shall be entitled to the stipulated sum of
£15 unless the teacher receives from his employers £25 per annum
as aforesaid. The Board had distributed to the Common Schools a
large quantity of useful school books including Mavor's Spelling
Book. They have also contracted for 2,000 copies of this
excellent work to be executed on cards for the township schools.
There appears to be a great scarcity of arithmetic books in
the Province, and those in use are in general too difficult
or deficient in matter, etc. The President has, therefore,
undertaken to draw up a short manual on the subject, suitable to
the state and business of the country.

Neither the sick nor the destitute have higher claims upon the
public than the ignorant. The want of knowledge brings all other
wants in its train; and if education be regarded as a charity,
it is a charity of which the blessings are without alloy. It
demands no jealous scrutiny of the claims of its applicants,
nor does it require to be so stinted as not to multiply their
number.--_Rev. John Strachan, President, York, 5th February,
1829._

* * * * *

_Midland District Grammar School, 1829._--It is to be lamented
that so few of the wealthy farmers of the Midland District
avail themselves of the means of giving their sons that degree
of education which the public school can readily afford, which
would qualify young persons to discharge the duties of the
magistracy and other public situations with credit to themselves.

The trustees regret that no poor children are educated gratis
under the patriotic and very benevolent provision of the
statute, in consequence of no returns being made to them of the
most promising scholars from the Common School. The trustees,
therefore, submit, whether in order to encourage native genius
in humble circumstances, some means might not be devised of
maintaining all the 10 children whom the statute authorizes the
trustee to select for gratuitous instruction.--_Rev. George
O'Kill Stuart, Thomas Markland and John Macaulay, Kingston,
December 30th, 1829._

* * * * *

NOTE.--The local reports for the succeeding year are chiefly
statistical and explanatory and contain no general remarks. From
a report signed by the Rev. Dr. Strachan and Hon. Wm. Allan in
1839, it would appear that things had for years remained in
_statu quo_. They say:--

"For many years elaborate reports were sent from this (Home
District) Board of Education detailing what were believed to be
the alterations necessary to render the present Common School
Act efficient. In consequence of these, and like reports from
other districts, a measure for the establishment of such schools
has been for more than six years before the Legislature, which
purposes to provide remedies for the defects which are met with
in the working of the present system."

COURSE OF STUDY SUGGESTED BY REV. DR. STRACHAN AS SUITABLE FOR THE DISTRICT GRAMMAR SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT THE PROVINCE, 1829.

In a "letter from the Rev. Dr. Strachan to Rev. A. N. Bethune, Rector of Cobourg," dated October 6th, 1829, he thus sketched a course of study for Grammar Schools:

_First Year--Boys from 7 to 9._

1st. _Latin._--Eton Grammar; Vocabulary; Corderius; Selectæ e Profanis.

2nd. _English._--Mavor's Spelling Book; Enfield's Lessons; Walker's Lessons; Murray's Lessons; Blair's Class Book; English Grammar; Writing; Arithmetic, chiefly mental.

_Second Year--Boys from 9 to 11._

1st. _Latin._--Grammar; Valpy's Delectas; New Testament; Daley's Exercises; Exampla Minora; Entropius; Phædrus; Cornelius Nepos.

2nd. _English._--Grammar and Reading, as before; Writing and Arithmetic (mental and mixed); Geography; Civil and Natural History and Elocution.

3rd.--To commence French.

_Third Year--Boys from 11 to 13._

1st. _Latin_--Grammar; Bailey's Exercises; Cornelius Nepos; Cæsar; Ovid's Metamorphoses; Nonsense Verses; Psalms into Latin Verse; Exampla Moralis; Versions or rendering English into Latin.

2nd. _Greek_--To commence about the middle of the third year: Eton Grammar, or Nelson's edition of Moore's Grammar; Greek Vocabulary; New Testament; Greek Exercises.

3rd. _English._--Grammar; Writing; Elocution; Civil and Natural History; Geography, Ancient and Modern; English Composition.

4th. _Arithmetic._--And to commence Algebra.

5th. _French._

_Fourth Year--Boys from 12 to 14._

1st. _Latin._--Grammar; Terence Virgil; Horace; Sallust; Cicero; Livy; Latin composition, verse and prose; Grotius de Veritate Exampla Moralia.

2nd. _Greek._--Eton Grammar; Græca Minora; Greek and Latin Testament; Xenophon; Homer.

3rd. _English._--Grammar and Composition; Civil and Natural History; Geography, Ancient and Modern, use of the globes; construction of maps.

4th. _Mathematics._--Arithmetic; Book-keeping; Algebra; Euclid.

5th. _French._

_Fifth Year--Boys from 14 to 16._

1st. _Latin._--Virgil; Horace; Livy, Juvenal; Tacitus; Composition, in prose and verse.

2nd. _Greek._--Græca Majora; Homer; Thucidides; Composition, in prose and verse.

3rd. _English._--Grammar and Composition; Elocution; Civil and Natural History; Geography, Ancient and Modern; use of the globes; construction of maps.

4th. _Mathematics._--Algebra; Euclid; Trigonometry, Application to heights and distances; Surveying; Navigation; Dialling; Elements of Astronomy, etc.

5th. _French._

REV. DR. STRACHAN'S SYSTEM OF SCHOOL MANAGEMENT.

Rev. Dr. Scadding, in his sketch of Dr. Strachan, "The first Bishop of Toronto--a Review and a Study," says:

"The system pursued in Dr. Stachan's school at Cornwall and
afterwards at York, exhibited features that would have gratified
the advanced educationists of the present age. In that system
the practical and the useful were by no means sacrificed to the
ornamental and theoretical, or the merely conventional. Things
were regarded as well as words.... In regard to things--the
science of common objects--we doubt if in the most complete of
our modern schools there was ever awakened a greater interest
or intelligence in relation to such matters. Who, that had once
participated in the excitement of its natural history class,
ever forgot it? Or in that of the historical or geographical
exercises? We venture to think that, in many an instance, the
fullest experience of after life, in travel or otherwise, had
often their associations with ideas awakened then; and often
compared satisfactorily and pleasurably with the pictures of
places, animals and persons given, rudely it may be, in text
books, ransacked and conned in a fervour of emulation then.
The manner of study in these subjects was this: each lad was
required to prepare a set of questions, to be put by himself
to his fellows in the class. If a reply was not forthcoming,
and the information furnished by the questioner was judged
correct the latter 'went up' and took the place of the other.
This process, besides being instructive and stimulating to the
pupils, possessed the advantage of being, as it often proved,
highly diverting to the teacher."

On this system Dr. Strachan himself remarks:

"The method of instruction by question and answer possesses
many advantages over any other, and is not only the very best
and shortest, but the most satisfactory. In this system the
deficiencies of each scholar becomes manifest, and the teacher
knows to what particular points he must direct his explanations.
There is no time for inattention or wandering; the question
and necessity for reply compel attention and recollection. The
children, if the teacher proceed with conciliatory firmness,
acquire lively interest in the lesson, for each is particularly
addressed and brought forward with action."[27]

[27] The _Christian Recorder_, edited by Rev. Dr. Strachan, York,
1830, vol. 1, page 182.

The late Bishop Fuller, who was also one of Dr. Strachan's pupils, also states that:--

"He had a remarkable talent for interesting boys in their work;
and, by taking a deep interest in it himself, he led them to
do the same. He was very original in many of his plans for
promoting the good of his school. Amongst others, which I never
met with elsewhere, was one of making the boys question one
another on certain of the lessons. This made the boys quick at
seizing on the leading points in the lessons, ready at shaping
questions, and deeply interested in the questions and answers.
The Bishop took as deep an interest in the questioning and
answering of the boys as they did themselves; and thus this
plan, whilst it was of great service to the boys in various
ways, tended strongly to bind master and scholars together."[28]

[28] Sermon on the Death of Bishop Strachan, _Journal of Education_
for U. C., vol. xx. (1868), page 182.

As to his method of teaching arithmetic, he explains it in the following words:

"In a new country like this, a variety of branches must be
taught in every respectable school. Young men ... are anxious
to get forward as fast as possible, and even those destined for
the learned professions are seldom allowed the time requisite
for acquiring the knowledge previously necessary. These
considerations induced me to turn my thoughts to the discovery
of some sure, and at the same time, expeditious method of
teaching arithmetic. This object I have accomplished with a much
greater degree of success than I dared to promise myself.

"I divide my pupils into separate classes according to their
progress. Each class has one or more sums to produce every
day, neatly wrought upon their slates. The work is carefully
examined, after which I command every figure to be blotted out,
and the sums to be wrought under my eye. The one whom I happen
to pitch upon first gives, with an audible voice, the rules and
reasons for every step, and as he proceeds the rest silently
work along with him figure for figure, but ready to correct him
if he blunder that they may get his place. As soon as this one
is finished, the work is again blotted out and another called
upon to work the question aloud as before, while the rest
proceed along with him in silence, and so on round the whole
class.... This method of teaching arithmetic possesses this
important advantage, that it may be pursued without interrupting
the pupils' progress in any other useful study. The same
method of teaching Algebra has been used with equal success.
Such a plan is certainly very laborious, but it will be found
successful, _and he that is anxious to spare labor ought not to
be a public teacher_."[29]

[29] Preface to "A Concise Introduction to Practical Arithmetic, for
the use of Schools: By the Rev. John Strachan, Montreal. Printed by
Nahum Mower, 1809."

Desiring to give a local interest to the exercises in his book, Dr. Strachan gave several examples from Canadian subjects. Thus a question is addition reads:--

"From Quebec to Montreal is 180 miles--from thence to Kingston
200--from thence to York 149--from thence to Niagara 78
miles--from thence to Detroit, 210. Required the distance from
Quebec to Detroit. _Answer_--317 miles."

Again a question in multiplication reads:--

"The distance from Quebec to Montreal is 180 miles, supposing
the road 17 yards broad, how many square yards does it contain?
_Answer_--5,385,600 yards."

As to his diligence as a student, while yet a teacher. Dr. Fuller remarks:--

"The late Bishop said to me on one occasion: 'I had to study
every night quite as hard as the boys; for I was not much in
advance of the highest class in school. These and parochial
duties demanded sixteen hours every day,--and yet these nine
years were the happiest years of my life."

REV. DR. STRACHAN'S CAREER AS A TEACHER.

Having been appointed Minister at Cornwall in 1803, Dr. Fuller states that there he was:--

"Induced to resume his school, at the solicitation of the
parents of those boys who had been in his school at Kingston,
and of others, both in Lower and Upper Canada, who were desirous
of placing their sons under a master so practical, wise and
successful, as he had proved himself to be. Thus he commenced
the school at Cornwall, which afterwards became so celebrated,
and at which were educated the first men that Canada has
produced, and of whom she may well be proud--such men as the
late Sir J. B. Robinson, Judge Maclean, Sir J. B. Macaulay, Sir
Allan MacNab, Judge Jones, Mr. Stanton, the Bethunes (Alexander,
John and Donald), Sir James Stuart, and his brother Andrew
Stuart, besides many others who have reflected credit on our
country.

"The Bishop had a great faculty for not only attaching his
scholars to him, but also for inducing them to apply themselves
most assiduously to their studies. He told me he made it a rule,
during the time he kept school, to watch closely every new
boy, and at the end of a fortnight, to note down in a book his
estimate of the boys who had passed through his hands.

"He was never afraid of having his dignity lowered by liberties
taken with him, and he always felt every confidence in his
position and entered warmly and personally into many of the
boys' amusements, and thus gained an immense influence over
them. The influence over his pupils has been shown in the
fact, that almost all of them embraced his principles; and the
love and affection for him of his celebrated Cornwall school
was shown many years ago, when the surviving members thereof
presented him with an address[30] and a most beautiful and
costly candelabra. Nor did his more recent scholars entertain
less affection for him, though they never proved it so
substantially as did those of his Cornwall School.... He was
an excellent teacher. His scholars were well grounded in their
work. The grammar was well mastered, and every rule thereof
deeply impressed on the memory. Every lesson was thoroughly
dissected, and everything connected with it thoroughly
understood, before we passed on to another lesson."[31]

[30] The principal signers of the address were Sir J. B. Robinson,
Sir J. B. Macaulay, Very Rev. Dean Bethune, Right Rev. Bishop
Bethune, Hon. Chief Justice McLean, Hon. Justice Jones, Hon. W.
B. Robinson, Hon. G. S. Boulton, Rev W. Macaulay, Judge (George)
Ridout, Surveyor-General Chewett, Col. Gregg, Capt. Macaulay, R.A.,
Inspector-General Markland, Sheriff McLean, Messrs. T. G. Ridout,
P. Vankoughnet, S. P. Jarvis, J. Radenhurst, R. G. Anderson, R.
Stanton, and others.

[31] _Journal of Education_ for U. C., Vol. xx. (1868), page 183.
For further reference to Dr. Strachan's educational efforts see the
sections on universities, page 59 _et seq._

MR. JOSEPH HUME'S ESSAY ON EDUCATION EDITED AS A CATECHISM BY MR. WM. LYON MACKENZIE IN 1830.

In 1830 Mr. Mackenzie republished at York (Toronto), in pamphlet form, the first part of a Catechism of Education, prepared by Mr. Joseph Hume, M.P., in England. The pamphlet in my possession is worn and weather-stained. It is inscribed to David Thorburn, of Queenston, and extends to 46 pages. In his preface Mr. Mackenzie says:

"To Mr. Joseph Hume.--The compiler is indebted for an Essay on Education, which lays down and explains principles of vital importance to the best interest of the Canadians, the perusal of which first suggested the design of this catechism.

"In the first parts, under the heads Domestic, Technical, Social and Political Instruction, it has been attempted to shew chiefly what the means are by which the human mind may be endowed with those qualities on which the generation of happiness depends."

VICISSITUDES OF EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA, 1830-1839.

For many years subsequently spasmodic efforts were made from time to time by progressive and earnest men in the Legislature to establish a system of schools. Enquiries were instituted and reports made, chiefly but not wholly, by the House of Assembly. A vigorous contest was maintained between that body and the Legislative Council on the subject. Bills were passed by the Assembly and rejected by the Council. The contest continued until the Rebellion occurred, and this event turned all men's thoughts into another channel for the time.

Of the able and zealous men who, almost single handed, fought the battle of elementary education in the Legislature, prior to the rebellion of 1837, I may refer to the efforts in this direction of Dr. Charles Duncombe and Mr. Malhon Burwell, who did good service in the cause, as also did Archdeacon Strachan, Hon. William Morris and others for higher education.

In the light of the growth and educational progress of to-day, the miserable condition of public education in the days of the educational pioneers to whom I have referred, can hardly be credited. And were it not on record in the proceedings of the Legislature, the statements there made would appear to apply to some other country rather than to ours.

There were in the House of Assembly in those days (as I have intimated) men of rare power and ability, who did noble service in the popular cause, and in behalf of general education. They passed school bills, founded on elaborate reports, year after year, only to see them defeated by a majority in the Legislative Council. This state of things continued for some years, and with disastrous effects on the intellectual life of the country. This fact is illustrated in the proceedings of the House of Assembly. For example: In a petition of the United Presbytery of Upper Canada, presented to the House in 1830, the signers say:--

"It is with deep regret that your petitioners (in their
ministerial capacity, connected with a very large portion of
His Majesty's subjects in this Province) are compelled to say
that the state of education is, in general, in a deplorable
condition."

The reason for this state of things is thus clearly set forth by the House of Assembly in an address to the Lieutenant-Governor, adopted in the same year:--

"We the Commons of Upper Canada, in Parliament assembled,
most respectfully represent that there is in this Province a
very general want of education; that the insufficiency of the
school fund to support competent, respectable and well-educated
teachers, has degraded common school teaching from a regular
business to a mere matter of convenience to transient persons,
or common idlers, who often teach school one season and leave
it vacant until it accommodates some other like person, whereby
the minds of our youth are left without cultivation, or, what
is still worse, frequently with vulgar, low-bred, vicious or
intemperate examples before them, in the capacity of monitors."

EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS OF MR. MAHLON BURWELL IN THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, 1831-1836.

Few men exerted themselves more or to better purpose in the cause of education than did Mr. Burwell during the time he was a member of the old Upper Canada Legislature, in 1831-1838.[32]

[32] Col. Mahlon Burwell was born in the State of New Jersey, but
early in life came to Upper Canada. He settled first at Fort Erie,
then at Long Point, and finally removed to the Talbot Settlement. He
was near neighbor, and for a long time, right-hand man of the noted
Col. Talbot, of Port Talbot. He was a surveyor by profession, and
in 1810 surveyed the townships of Malahide, Bayham, and part of the
then village of London.

Amongst the many motions relating to education which were moved by Mr. Burwell in the House of Assembly from time to time, was the following important one, which was concurred in by the House in February, 1831:--

"That a standing committee be appointed on the subject of
education generally in this Province....

"That it be a principal duty and business of the committee to
enquire whether an appropriation of 500,000 acres of land was
not made, in virtue of a joint address of both houses of the
Provincial Parliament, adopted at their session of 1797, or
1798, and whether the same is not subject to the control of the
Legislature of this Province; to enquire if anything, and what,
has been done with the lands or any part of them, and what is
their present situation.

"That the said committee do enquire in what way the several
district schools of the Province can best be endowed with
portions of the said lands, so as to render them more efficient
and fitting for the improvement of the rising generation than
they are at present."...

Such were the comprehensive terms of a motion which gave to the subject of education a status in the House of Assembly at the time by making a committee on the subject a Standing Committee of the House, and clothing it with important powers. Mr. Burwell also, of the same month, moved for the production of all the despatches, reports, and other documents relating to the royal grant of lands by George III. for grammar schools and colleges in Upper Canada. In response to this latter motion, the Lieut.-Governor, Sir John Colborne (Lord Seaton), sent down to the House a mass of papers of great value, showing what steps had been taken by the Imperial and Provincial Governments during the intervening years for the promotion of public education. These papers were printed at the time, but little is now known of their contents.

In April, 1831, Mr. Burwell, as chairman of the Quarter Sessions of the London District, presented to the Lieut-Governor a memorial setting forth the advantages to that locality of endowing a college at London. Amongst the reasons given are the following:--

"Your memorialists are aware that education of a superior kind
cannot be brought to every man's door, and that under any
arrangements, the inhabitants of the Province generally must
send their children a short distance from home; but such is the
extent of the several districts, that the school can seldom be
a day's journey from any part of them; and the scholars can
return to their homes without expense during the holidays; and,
if sick, they can be visited by their parents in a few hours,
and removed to their habitations without difficulty. Added to
all this the cheapness at which board can be obtained in country
places, and the easiness with which, in most cases, it can be
paid for by produce from their farms."

These reasons are somewhat primitive in their character; but they throw light on the social condition of the people in these days, and illustrate the common practice then of paying even for education "in kind," or by "produce from the farms." The object of the memorialists was to obtain such an endowment for the London District Grammar School--

"As shall render it efficient as a classical seminary, and a
nursery (as such schools are intended to be) for the University
of King's College....

"The endowment should be such a one as would furnish a good
school-house, a commodious residence for the head master--to
enable him to keep boarders and produce an income of four or
five hundred pounds."

In the following June a similar, but a much longer and more strongly worded, memorial was presented to the Governor from the trustees of the Kingston "Royal Grammar School," protesting against the withdrawal from that school of an extra grant of £200 a year and giving it to Upper Canada College, thus reducing the rank of the Kingston "Royal Grammar School" to that of a district grammar school.

EFFORTS AT EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION BY DR. CHARLES DUNCOMBE, 1831-1836.

As one of those who took a prominent part in the troublesome events of 1837-38, in Upper Canada, Dr. Duncombe acquired considerable notoriety. He was, nevertheless, a man of broad views, of comprehensive aims and large sympathies.[33]

[33] Dr. Charles Duncombe was an American by birth, and win born
in the State of New Jersey in or about the year 1796. He came to
Upper Canada with his parents during the progress, or immediately
after the close, of the war of 1812-15, and settled in the "London
District." Charles Duncombe studied medicine and surgery, and in
1827 and 1828 began to practice his profession on the town line
between the townships of Burford and Brantford, near Bishopsgate. He
soon obtained a large practice and with it an extended influence.
During the rebellion of 1837-8, Dr. Duncombe took part and went to
the United States, and remained there until 1843, when he received
a pardon from Sir Charles (afterwards Lord) Metcalfe. He did not,
however, remain long in Upper Canada after his return, but soon
left for the Western States, whence he subsequently removed to
California, and died there.

From his first entry into the House of Assembly, Dr. Charles Duncombe, M.P.P. for the county of Norfolk, took up warmly the cause of popular education. In this he was actively supported by two other medical gentlemen--Dr. Thomas D. Morrison and Dr. Thomas Bruce--who were also members of the House of Assembly at that time.

Dr. Charles Duncombe's first motion in the House of Assembly (on the 13th December, 1831) was for an address to the Lieut.-Governor urging the setting apart of a sufficient quantity of the public lands of the Province to form a permanent fund for the support and maintenance of common schools. His motion was, however, defeated.

As Dr. Duncombe's motion is of historical interest, so far as the facts which it alleges are concerned, I give some extracts from it. The motion stated:--

"That there is in this Province a very general want of
education; that the insufficiency of the Common School Fund
to support competent, respectable and well-educated teachers,
has degraded common school teaching from a regular business to
a mere matter of convenience to transient persons, or common
idlers, who often stay but for one season, and leave the schools
vacant until they accommodate some other like person, whereby
the minds of the youth of this Province are left without
due cultivation, or, what is worse, frequently with vulgar,
low-bred, vicious and intemperate examples before them in the
persons of their monitors," (_i.e._, teachers).

The motion goes on to say that:--

"If provision were made for the liberal and punctual payment of
common school teachers ... the teaching of common schools would
soon become a regular and respectable calling, gentlemanly,
well-educated persons would not be ashamed to take charge of
youth, the schools would be no longer vacant, nor the scholars
ignorant. Upper Canada would then form a national character that
would command respect abroad and ensure peace, prosperity and
happiness at home, perpetuate attachment to British principles
and British institutions, and enable posterity to value, as they
ought, the inestimable blessings of our glorious constitution."

The motion went on to urge the Lieut.-Governor to represent to the Colonial Secretary the important necessity--in view of the facts cited--of entreating

"That His Majesty, William IV., be graciously pleased to place
at the disposal of the Provincial Legislature a portion of the
waste lands of the Crown as a permanent fund for the support of
common schools within the same."

Dr. Charles Duncombe, with a prescience of the future, and of the necessities of the case, (which were not then recognized, nor for many years afterwards,) strongly urged, as did other members of the Assembly, that at least one million acres of the "waste lands" of the Province should be set apart for the support of common schools.[34]

[34] It is gratifying to know that, although defeated at the time,
Dr. Duncombe's efforts bore fruit nearly twenty years afterwards--in
1850--when Hon. Wm. Hamilton Merritt, then President of the Council,
introduced and had a Bill passed by the Legislature setting apart
1,000,000 acres of the Crown Lands for the permanent endowment of
public schools in United Canada.

The motion was negatived. Dr. Duncombe was, however, determined not to be beaten. Mr. David Burn and other friends of his in the county of Oxford--no doubt on his suggestion--got up a petition to the Legislature on the subject, and on the 21st December--a week after his motion was defeated--Dr. Duncombe read this petition and had it referred to a select committee for report thereon.

On the 26th December an elaborate report on the petition was brought in by Dr. Duncombe himself, as chairman of the committee. In that report the whole subject was gone into fully, and a scheme elaborated by which the 1,000,000 acres of land were proposed to be hypothecated in advance, so that by the issue of debentures for $500,000, redeemable in ten, fifteen and twenty years, a sufficient sum would be at once realized on the prospective value of these lands to form a permanent fund for the support of common schools.

This report (as did the rejected motion) placed on record a few facts and principles which are interesting in the light of to-day. The report stated that--

"The common schools of this Province are generally in so
deplorable a state that they scarcely deserve the name of
schools."

It recommended that the common school law of the Province be so amended that hereafter the school grant be paid only to--

"Organized schools, taught by a person who had a certificate
from the District Board of Education, or school inspector, of
his or her ability to teach a common school."

It also urged that the Common School Fund should be large enough, with the local contributions, to provide an ample stipend for good teachers, instead of "transient persons" and "common idlers" then so often employed as teachers--

"So that common school teaching, instead of being a mere
matter of convenience to transient persons, or common idlers,
would become a regular, respectable business in the hands of
gentlemanly, well-educated persons. For surely the foundation of
the minds of our children (on which must depend the happiness or
misery we are to enjoy with them) and their own success in life,
is a business worthy to be respectable, worthy of the patronage
of men in the highest walks of life."

The report then laid down an important principle in regard to the necessity for a certain and permanent endowment for public education. It said:--

"Funds and appropriation for the support of education should
be permanent. They should not depend upon the annual vote of
the Legislature, nor on any other casualty that might, by
possibility fail, and thereby check the regular progress of
education."

Dr. Duncombe, in stating this principle, had no doubt in view the example (then well known) of the fickleness of the Legislature in the matter of school grants. In 1816 the vote for the support of common schools was $24,000. In three subsequent years the same vote was repeated; but, in 1820, it was reduced to $10,000--closing schools here and there all over the Province, and inflicting grievous hardship on many worthy (and, in the language of the day and of the report, unworthy) teachers. This miserable state of things continued for many years, and, as I stated on this subject in 1863--

"Thus ebbed and flowed, without a master hand to stay the
current, that tide which, in other lands, is regarded as the
nation's life's blood; and thus was permitted to ensue that
state of living death by which Upper Canada, in the significant
and popular metaphor of the day was likened to a 'girdled tree,'
destitute alike of life, of beauty, or of stately growth."[35]

[35] Historical Sketch of Education in Upper Canada, by J. George
Hodgins, M.A., LL.B., F.R.G.S. in "Eighty Years' Progress of British
North America," 1863.

No wonder that in these degenerate days the young men, with stirrings within them of noble impulses and patriotic devotion to their country, should have been compelled to depend upon themselves for intellectual enlightenment and advancement. The flippant sneer of many persons of to-day at such "self-made" men is unworthy of those who enjoy the advantages which these self-made men laboured to secure. They belonged to that noble band of pioneers, who achieved for us the civil and religious freedom which we now so richly enjoy. All honour to them, therefore!