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.
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]
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 3s. 9d. each. In some districts the salaries allowed to the schoolmasters of the Common Schools are exceedingly small. They range from £12 10s. 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: