Society and Education in Mid-Twentieth Century Ontario and Victoria

Jackson, Stephen

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-89402-7_2

Society and Education in Mid-Twentieth Century Ontario and Victoria

Stephen Jackson⁵

Chapter
First Online: 07 June 2018

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Part of the book series: Britain and the World ((BAW))

Abstract

This chapter introduces the education systems of Ontario and Victoria, examining the important social and political changes in Canada and Australia from the 1930s until the 1970s, changes that had a direct impact on educational policy and planning regarding the concept of Britishness. Specifically, it highlights the crucial importance of the demographic increase in both countries that happened as a result of natural population growth, and, more importantly, the large-scale immigration policies adopted shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War. All of these were signs of heady economic boom times that accelerated the pace of urbanization and precipitated a large increase in white-collar work, prompting a higher value to be placed on education. Ontarian and Victorian educators responded by increasing the structural capacity of their education systems, but they also lavished great importance on the modernization of facilities.

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Notes

1.
W.G. Fleming, Ontario’s Educative Society (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971).
2.
R.D. Gidney, From Hope to Harris: The Reshaping of Ontario’s Schools (Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1999), 11.
3.
For more information on the system of correspondence schools and for a detailed analysis of Victorian education, see L.J. Blake, ed., Vision and Realisation: A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria Volume 1 (Melbourne: Education Department of Victoria, 1973).
4.
Ontario Department of Education, Report of the Minister of Education for the Province of Ontario (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1947), 6.
5.
Actually, there was a system for ‘coloured schools’ in Ontario as well. At the time of the BNA Act there was a separate system of schools composed primarily of children of escaped slaves residing in Canada. But by the turn of the twentieth century these schools, although still protected under the BNA Act, had fallen out of use. When referring to separate schools I am referring to the Roman Catholic Separate School system.
6.
“British North America Act Document, 1867,” The Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/british-north-america-act-1867-document/, 1/2/18.
7.
Although the Roman Catholic Separate School system was a major feature of education in Ontario, it is not analyzed at any length in this book, the aim of which is to compare Anglophone populations that embraced Britishness for much of the twentieth century. R.C.S.S. were, for a variety of reasons, not as engaged in the wider imperial framework that was so dominant in the Ontarian Public Schools. Relations with French Canada and the Separate Schools will inform this study, but they are studied only in relation to the purportedly non-sectarian public school system. For more information on the Roman Catholic Separate Schools, see the multivolume work by R.T. Dixon and N.L. Bethune, A Documentary History of Separate Schools in Ontario (Toronto: Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, 1974).
8.
For more information on the operation of Catholic Schools in twentieth century Australia, see Thomas O’Donoghue, Upholding the Faith: The Process of Education in Catholic Schools in Australia (New York: Peter Lang, 2001) or Ronald Fogarty, Catholic Education in Australia 1806–1950 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1959).
9.
Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic Church of Australia, Christian Education in a Democratic Community (Victoria: Renown Press, 1949), 3.
10.
For more information on private schools in Canada, see Robert M. Stamp, The Schools of Ontario 1876–1976 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982); J. Donald Wilson, Robert M. Stamp, Louis-Phillipe Audet, Canadian Education: A History (Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice-Hall of Canada, Ltd., 1970); for information on private schools in Australia, see Simon Marginson, Education and Public Policy in Australia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
11.
Minister of Public Instruction, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1938–39 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1939), 9.
12.
Minister of Education, Report of the Minister of Education in the Province of Ontario for the Year 1941 (Toronto: Government Printer, 1941), 60.
13.
Gidney , From Hope to Harris, 15.
14.
A word should be said here about terminology. In an effort to prevent confusion I have consistently used the terms ‘Departments of Education’ and ‘Ministers of Education’ to refer to the state or provincial level educational authority and the political head of that division, respectively. Ontario had a Department of Education until 1972 when it formally changed the name to the Ministry of Education, though the title for the political head office was always ‘Minister of Education.’ In Victoria, the state authority was the Minister of Public Instruction who presided over the Education Department until 1948, when the Minister of Public Instruction officially became the Minister of Education.
15.
For more on the Ontarian system of administration, see Gidney , From Hope to Harris, especially chapters 1 and 2.
16.
G.V. Portus, Free, Compulsory, and Secular: A Critical Estimate of Australian Education (London: Oxford University Press, 1937), 34.
17.
G.S. Browne, Education in Australia: A Comparative Study of the Educational Systems of the Six Australian States (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1927), 82.
18.
Blake, Vision and Realisation, xxxviii.
19.
Minister of Public Instruction, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1942–43 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1944), 4.
20.
Minister of Public Instruction, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1938–39 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1939), 5.
21.
W.G. Fleming, Education: Ontario’s Preoccupation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972), 11.
22.
Minister of Education, Report of the Minister of Education in the Province of Ontario for the Year 1941 (Toronto: Government Printer, 1942), 2.
23.
Minister of Education, Report of the Minister of Education in the Province of Ontario for the Year 1942 (Toronto: Government Printer, 1943), 1.
24.
For more information on the war’s effect on Australian education, see Andrew Spaull, Australian Education in the Second World War (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1982).
25.
Minister of Education, Report of the Minister of Education in the Province of Ontario for the Year 1943 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1944), 2.
26.
Minister of Public Instruction, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction for the Year 1941–42 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1943), 22.
27.
The implementation of Protestant religious instruction will be a primary focus of Chaps. 4 and 5.
28.
Council of Public Education, Report on Educational Reform and Development in Victoria (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1945), 7.
29.
Ibid.
30.
For an overview of the recommendations of the Hope Commission, see Gidney , From Hope to Harris, Chapter 1.
31.
The Commission published a minority report as part of its recommendations that largely dealt with the treatment of the Catholic separate schools. See Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, Archives of Ontario RG 18–131, Container 3, Minority Report and Memoranda.
32.
See R.T. Fitzgerald, Through a Rear Vision Mirror: Change and Education, a Perspective on the Seventies from the Forties (Hawthorne, Victoria, Australian Council for Educational Research, 1975); R.D. Gidney, From Hope to Harris; Robert Stamp, The Schools of Ontario 1876–1976 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983).
33.
Freda Hawkins, Critical Years in Immigration: Canada and Australia Compared (Montréal, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1991), 33.
34.
James Jupp, From White Australia to Woomera: The Story of Australian Immigration, 2nd Edition (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002). For more on assimilationist policies in Australia, especially of the White Australia Policy, see Jatinder Mann, The Search for a New National Identity: The Rise of Multiculturalism in Canada and Australia, 1890s–1970s (New York: Peter Lang, 2016), Chapter 4.
35.
Valerie Knowles, Strangers at Our Gates: Canadian Immigration and Immigration Policy, 1540–2006 (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2007), 274.
36.
For more on debates in Canada and Australia over immigration, see Jatinder Mann, The Search for a New National Identity.
37.
The 1957 Victorian Report of the Minister of Education states, for instance, that a variety of methods were employed to meet the challenge of immigration: “It is surprising how quickly they [immigrant children] adopt Australian ways, manners, slang, appearance, and outlook… Assimilation proceeds rapidly even where the new-comers form a substantial percentage of a school’s enrolment.” Report of the Minister of Education for the Year 1956–57 (Melbourne: W.M. Houston, Government Printer, 1958), 21.
38.
W.J. Dunlop, Report of the Minister (Toronto: Government Printer, 1957), iii.
39.
Minister of Public Instruction, Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1937–38 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1939) and Minister of Education, Report of the Minister of Education of Education for the Year 1959–60 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1960–61).
40.
Gidney , From Hope to Harris, 25.
41.
W.J. Dunlop, Report of the Minister (Toronto: Government Printer, 1953), 77.
42.
Minister of Education, Report of the Minister of Education for the Year 1959–60 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1960–61).
43.
Minister of Education, Report of the Minister of Education for the Year 1950–51 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1952), 1.
44.
A.E. Shepherd, Report of the Minister of Education for the Year 1952–53 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1953), 3.
45.
W.J. Dunlop, Report of the Minister (Ontario: Government Printer, 1956), 7.
46.
O.C. Philipps, “Report on Primary Education,” In Report of the Minister of Education for the Year 1958–59 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1960), 18.
47.
W.J. Dunlop, Report of the Minister for the Year 1953 (Toronto: Government Printer, 1953), 87.
48.
Report of the Minister of Education for the Year 1952–1953 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1954), Public Records Office of Victoria.
49.
W.J. Dunlop, Report of the Minister for the Year 1951 (Toronto: Government Printer, 1951), 118.
50.
Gidney , From Hope to Harris, 43.
51.
Ontario Department of Education, Programme of Studies for Grades 1 to 6 of the Public and Separate Schools 1955 (A Reprint of the 1941 Edition with Minor Revisions), 1955, 3.
52.
Minister of Education, Report of the Minister of Education for the Year 1950–51 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1952), 16.
53.
Gidney , From Hope to Harris, 45–46.
54.
Ibid., 47.
55.
John P. Robarts , Report of the Minister, (Toronto: Department of Education, 1961).
56.
J. Donald Wilson, Robert M. Stamp, and Louis-Phillipe Audet, Canadian Education: A History (Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice-Hall of Canada Ltd., 1970).
57.
Simon Marginson, Educating Australia: Government, Economy and Citizen Since 1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 54.
58.
J.H. Brooks, “Introduction,” Curriculum and Research Bulletin , Vol. 1. No. 1, October, 1965, 1.
59.
For more on this topic, see Jatinder Mann, The Search for a New National Identity, Chapter 3.
60.
For more on the Quiet Revolution, see Michael Gauvreau, The Catholic Origins of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, 1931–1970 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005).
61.
José Igartua argues that “the flag debate [of 1964] marked the end of the British view of Canada.” José Igartua, The Other Quiet Revolution : National Identities in English Canada, 1945–71 (Vancouver, UBC Press, 2006), 192.
62.
E.M. Hall and L.A. Dennis, Living and Learning : The Report of the Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario (Toronto: Newton Publishing Company, 1968).
63.
Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, Report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1967).
64.
Report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism Volume 2 (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1969), 8.
65.
William Davis, Report of the Minister of Education, Ontario (Toronto: Government Printer, 1969), 2.
66.
Gidney reports that “by 1970 spending on the schools and post-secondary education accounted for 32.5 percent of the budget” compared to only 16 percent in 1950. Gidney , From Hope to Harris, 57.
67.
Gidney , From Hope to Harris, 58.
68.
Robert Stamp, The Schools of Ontario, 252.
69.
For more information, see James Jupp, From White Australia to Woomera: The Story of Australian Immigration (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
70.
Ibid., 31.
71.
This topic is a major focus of Chap. 7.
72.
A.J. Hunt and Norman Lacy, Green Paper on Strategies and Structures for Education in Victoria (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1980), 5.
73.
Minister of Education, Report of the Minister of Education for the Year 1963–4 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1965), 6.
74.
For more information on the early days of state education in Ontario and Victoria, see Blake, Vision and Realisation; Wilson, Stamp, and Audet, Canadian Education: A History.
75.
Tomkins, A Common Countenance, 258.
76.
Ontario Department of Education, Courses of Study for the Public and Separate Schools, 1936, 17.
77.
Dewey was a prolific author for several decades beginning in the late nineteenth century. For some of his more influential works, see John Dewey, The School and Society and The Child and the Curriculum (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990); Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (New York: The Free Press, 1944). For a collection of all of his works, see Levine, Sharp, and Simon, eds., John Dewey: The Collected Works, 1882–1953 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press, 1991).
78.
For more on the progressive educational movement in Ontario, see Gidney , From Hope to Harris, Chapter 2.
79.
Gidney , From Hope to Harris, 30–31.
80.
The Hope Commission said of the differences between the two groups: “We may think of the traditionalist as one who believes in strict discipline and the mastering of school subjects, and of the progressive as one who puts emphasis on interest and learning by experience.” John Hope, Report of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario (Toronto: Government Printer, 1950), 33.
81.
When writing about educational philosophy it is easy to categorize educators as either progressive or traditionalist, but the situation was more complex than this suggests. Many otherwise traditional educators were perfectly comfortable with some progressive reforms and vice versa. It might be more helpful to think of traditional and progressive ideologies along a continuum with educators falling somewhere along the line between the two.
82.
There were over six reports published by the English consultative committee on education under the chairmanship of Sir William Henry Hadow . For two of the most important to Ontarian and Victorian authors, see W.H. Hadow , The Education of the Adolescent (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1926), and The Report of the Consultative Committee on the Primary School (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1931)
83.
Hadow , Education of the Adolescent, xx.
84.
G.S. Browne, The Case for Curriculum Revision (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1932), 20.
85.
Browne , The Case for Curriculum Revision, 25.
86.
J. McRae, “General Course of Study for Elementary Schools 1934,” Victoria Education Gazette and Teachers Aid, Volume XXXVII, No. 10B, November 22, 1933, 434.
87.
Ibid., 435.
88.
Ibid., 437.
89.
The 1936–37 Annual Report, for instance, said: “It is but natural that in some cases the first wave of enthusiasm has almost expended itself. The new courses made great demands on the teaching staffs, and the handicaps have been considerable.” The report advocated setting up “refresher schools” for teachers “with the object of keeping teachers’ methods fresh, interesting, and educative.” J.W. Gray, “Report on Elementary Education,” in Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1936–37 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1938), 15.
90.
Ontario Department of Education, Programme of Studies for Grades I to VI of the Public and Separate Schools 1937 (Toronto: Government Printer, 1937), 3.
91.
Ibid., 7.
92.
D. McArthur, Report: Minister of Education Province of Ontario (Canada) (Toronto: Government Printer, 1940), 4.
93.
The list included: health, development of character, worthy participation in family life, knowledge of the fundamental learning processes, preparation for vocational efficiency, unselfish democratic citizenship, and the proper use of leisure time. Council of Public Education, Report on Educational Reform and Development in Victoria, 7.
94.
The group even advocated the establishment of kindergarten classes, a major item on the progressive agenda.
95.
Ibid., 8.
96.
Brief 79 to the Hope Commission: Toronto District Conference of Inspectors and Normal School Staff, Archives of Ontario, RG 18–131, Container 12, 4.
97.
Hope, Report of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, 42.
98.
Ibid., 221.
99.
Hilda Neatby, So Little for the Mind (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company Ltd., 1953), 3.
100.
Ibid., 40.
101.
Ibid., 16.
102.
Ibid., 15.
103.
Ibid., 14.
104.
Gidney , From Hope to Harris, 36.
105.
Ramsay , A.H., Report of the Committee on State Education in Victoria, 1960, 38–9
106.
Ibid., 94.
107.
Gidney , From Hope to Harris, 65.
108.
“Report of the Briefs Committee,” December 4, 1965, Archives of Ontario RG 2–168, Container 1, 1.
109.
Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario, Living and Learning : The Report of the Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario (Toronto: Newton Publishing Company, 1968), 59.
110.
Ibid., 77.
111.
Ibid., 75.
112.
Ibid., 122.
113.
James Daly, Education or Molasses? A Critical Look at the Hall–Dennis Report (Ancaster: Cromlech Press, 1969), 3.
114.
Ibid., 30.
115.
The Ministry of Education, The Formative Years: Circular P1J1 Provincial Curriculum Policy for the Primary and Junior Divisions of the Public and Separate Schools of Ontario, 1975. Ontario Historical Education Collections, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
116.
Gidney , From Hope to Harris, 83.
117.
Ibid., 91.
118.
Lindsay Thompson, Looking Ahead in Education (Clayton , Victoria: Wilke and Company Ltd., 1969), 4–5.
119.
Ibid., 5.
120.
The Russell Committee was initiated with the specific task of evaluating the continued utility of religious education in the schools. For more information, see Chap. 5.
121.
Victoria Department of Education, White Paper on Strategies and Structures for Education in Victorian Government Schools (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1980), 2.
122.
Ibid., 3.
123.
Quebec had its own internal publishing industry geared towards French-speaking students.
124.
Tomkins, A Common Countenance, 410.
125.
In many cases publishers still attempted to capture multiple markets with every textbook. For example, C.H. Wright’s The Australian Citizen: An Introduction to Civics was “written mainly for Victorian students, but it is hoped that it will prove a useful class book and reference book for schools throughout the Commonwealth.” (Melbourne: F.W. Cheshire, 1956), Preface.
126.
Ontario Department of Education, Circular 14 : Text-Books Authorized and Recommended and Text-book Regulations for Public, Separate, Continuation and High Schools and Collegiate Institutes (Toronto: Government Printer, 1941), 9.
127.
Parvin, Authorization of Text Books for the Schools of Ontario, 108.
128.
Brief 180 to the Hope Commission: Educational Committee of the Book Publishers’ Branch of the Board of Trade of the City of Toronto, April, 1946, Archives of Ontario, RG 18–131, Container 18, 1.
129.
Roy MacSkimming, The Perilous Trade: Publishing Canada’s Writers (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2003), 1.
130.
Parvin, Authorization of Textbooks for the Schools of Ontario, 116.
131.
Minister of Education, “Programme for Religious Education in the Public Schools: Teacher’s Manual,” 1944.
132.
Ernest Scott’s A Short History of Australia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947) is a good example.
133.
John Arnold and Martyn Lyons, A History of the Book in Australia: A National Culture in a Colonised Market (St. Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 2001), 296.
134.
Parvin, Authorization of Textbooks for the Schools of Ontario, 93.
135.
W.J. Dunlop, Report of the Minister (Toronto: Government Printer, 1958), 5.
136.
W.J. Dunlop, Report of the Minister (Toronto: Government Printer, 1957), 7.
137.
MacSkimming, The Perilous Trade, 33.
138.
Ibid., 113.
139.
Royal Commission on Book Publishing, Canadian Publishers & Canadian Publishing (Toronto: Government Printer, 1971), 169.
140.
Ibid., 16.
141.
MacSkimming, The Perilous Trade, 149.
142.
Valerie Ann Haye, “The Impact of Foreign Ownership on Australian Publishing of the 1970s,” M.A. Thesis, La Trobe University, 1981, 23.
143.
G.A. Ferguson, “Australian Book Publishing,” in Royal Commission on Book Publishing Background Papers (Toronto: Government Printer, 1972), 365.

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Jackson, S. (2018). Society and Education in Mid-Twentieth Century Ontario and Victoria. In: Constructing National Identity in Canadian and Australian Classrooms. Britain and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89402-7_2

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