Speaking in a subsequent letter of another feature of the question of the Bible in schools, Dr. Ryerson says: "The principal opposition which, in 1846 and for several years afterwards, I encountered was that I did not make the use of the Bible compulsory in the schools, but simply recognized the right of Protestants to use it in the school (not as an ordinary reading book), as it was not given to teach us how to read but to teach us the way to Heaven), as a book of religious instruction, without the right or the power of compelling any others to use it. The recognition of the right has been maintained inviolate to the present time; facilities for the exercise of it have been provided, and recommendations for that purpose have been given, but no compulsory authority assumed, or right of compulsion acknowledged; and the religious exercises in each school have been left to the decision of the authorities of such school, and the religious instruction of each child has always been under the absolute authority of the parents or guardian of each child."
To the objection urged against the reading of the Bible in the schools because "a majority of the teachers are utterly unfit to give religious instruction," Dr. Ryerson replied: "The reading of the Bible and giving religious instruction from it are two very different things. The question is not the competency of teachers to give religious instruction, but the right of a Protestant to the reading of the Bible by his child in the school as a text-book of religious instruction. That right I hold to be sacred and divine."
State of Common School Education in Upper Canada, 1845.
From the reports then made to him by the County Superintendents of Schools, I select the following extracts, showing what was the actual state of education in the province when Dr. Ryerson commenced his labors as Superintendent of Education.
Mr. Hamilton Hunter, Superintendent of Schools in the Home District (County of York), in his report for 1845, says:—
"There is one fact with which I have been forcibly struck, in my visits to the schools, which shows, in the clearest manner, the great necessity that existed in this Colony for the establishment of a system of Common School education. It is this: That in our schools the amount of attainment, on the part of the pupils, is generally in an inverse ratio to their size and age, after they have reached their twelfth or thirteenth year. The largest scholars that attend our schools are by far the lowest in point of attainment, which shows how sadly the education of that portion of the community, now about to attain the years of manhood and womanhood has been neglected. In many of our country schools, it is a very common thing to find persons advanced to the age of young men and women commencing to learn the first rudiments. The mind feels pained upon contemplating this; but it is gratifying to think that a remedy has been provided against it in the establishment of our Common Schools, by which the elementary branches of education are brought within the grasp of all. It leads us to reflect upon the melancholy state of ignorance that must have existed at no distant period in this Province had no means been provided other than those which formerly existed for placing the elements of knowledge within the reach of the rising generation."
Hon. Hamnett Pinkey, Superintendent of Schools in the District of Dalhousie (Carleton, etc.), in his report, says:—
"The Common Schools are very indifferently conducted, and the masters in general very inadequately perform the duties required of them; a reform is expected from the establishment of the District Model School."
Rev. Alexander Mann, M.A., Superintendent of Schools in the Bathurst District (Lanark, etc) says:—
"In existing circumstances I have declined giving a regular certificate to any teacher.... I made an effort on my own responsibility, and at my own expense to improve teachers, by opening a private school, solely for their benefit, but as I did not meet with proper encouragement I was obliged to relinquish my purpose."