Influences by American Teachers and School Books Deprecated.
Schools in the Home District—No United States books permitted.—The schoolmasters, with the exception of two Americans who have been long in the Province, are all British subjects—that they have all taken the oath of allegiance—that during the last year the salary allowed was £10 (ten pounds each), and no books from the United States are permitted to be used in the schools.—John Strachan, Wm. Allan, Toronto, 8th March, 1839.
Schools in the Eastern District—Transitory Teachers.—Were the allowance to be increased teachers would come forward better prepared and be induced to remain. Many at present seem to continue for a few months, as a matter of convenience, and to assist themselves in following other occupations, which greatly retards the improvement of the children.—Joseph Aderson, D. McDonell, Cornwall, 9th May, 1839.
Schools in the Western District: Their State and Suggestions for Improvement.—The situation of the school houses is not always judiciously chosen, it being situated often more for the convenience of some one influential person than for that of the inhabitants generally of the settlement.
The school-house is often a wretched log hut, or a ruinous building altogether unfit for the purpose—especially in the winter season.
In too many cases the teachers are badly qualified for the task which they undertake; and some of them having taken up the profession more from necessity than choice are seldom permanent, and consequently very ineffectual teachers.
The remuneration which the teachers of common schools receive for their services are by no means sufficient to induce respectable and well qualified teachers to undertake the irksome and laborious task.
Hints for the Improvement of the Schools of the Province (condensed).—1. The school should be erected in a dry and healthy situation if possible, and situated so as to suit the majority of the inhabitants of the settlement in which it is erected. It should be a neat and commodious building, sufficiently large to render it airy and healthy in the summer season and well finished inside and out to cause it to be comfortable in the winter.
2. A comfortable dwelling should be erected for the accommodation of the teacher and his family.
3. Teachers throughout the Province might be divided into three classes, allowance from Government to be not less than £100, £75 and £50 respectively.
4. Every teacher, previous to receiving any appointment, should be examined as to his literary acquirements, his political opinions and his moral character.
5. A uniform set of elementary books should be compiled and published for the use of the common schools of the Province, and those republican productions that tend to poison the minds of the youth of the country should be driven out of the Province.
6. A discreet and competent person should be appointed by his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor to visit the schools in each district eight, or at least four, times in the year to examine the scholars and the internal economy of the schools and to report thereon—W. Johnson, Sandwich, 21st February, 1839.
Schools in the London District—"Boarding Round"—American Books.—The Board of Education cannot abstain from remarking upon a system commonly practiced by teachers and generally encouraged by the employers in the country, of receiving the teachers as members or lodgers with each family who are subscribers to the school in succession for the period of engagement, which in its influence and consequence has not hitherto been productive of good; and more especially in cases where the teachers have been Americans, a system than which none can be more mischievous in its effects, added to which the circumstance, as will be seen by reference to the books used in the schools, that a portion of American books, particularly geographies, have been permitted to be used (notwithstanding the Board have the power to order the discontinuance of such) because others could not be procured in the country, nor has any provision been made by the legislature for the formation of depots where proper books could be had.—John B. Askin, London, 12th February, 1838.
Names of text-books used in the common schools of Upper Canada in 1838, viz.:—
Old and New Testaments.
Readers—English, Murray's, Canadian and Reading Made Easy.
Spelling Books—Mavor's, Cobb's, Webster's, Graham's, Universal.
Grammars—Murray's, Lennie's, Kirkham's, McCulloch's.
Arithmetics—Walkingame's, Gray's, Dillworth's, Daboll's, Watson's, Pike's, Adams', Morrison's, Hutton's, Rogers', Bailey's, Hall's, Joyce's, Keith's, Allison's, Bonnycastle's.
Geographies—Goldsmith's, Hutton's, Olney's, Woodbridge's, Willett's, Evans', Stewart's, Parley's, Elvey's.
History—English, Goldsmith's, Tytler's, Hume's, Simpson's.
Geometry and Euclid—Ingram's, Hutton's.
Dictionaries—Walker's, Cobb's, Walker Johnson's.
Miscellaneous—Dillworth's Teachers' Assistant, Burham's Primer, Mason's Primer, Child's A, B, C, Scott's Lessons, Morrison's Book-keeping, Blake's Natural Philosophy, Blair's Rhetoric.
Number of schools in Upper Canada in 1838 (estimated), 835.
Number of pupils in attendance, " 23,776.