“The Ideology of All Democratic Nations”: World War II and the Rise of Religious Instruction in Ontario and Victoria*

Jackson, Stephen

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-89402-7_4

Stephen Jackson⁵

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

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Abstract

This chapter examines the establishment of legally mandated Protestant training in both Ontario and Victoria. Fearing moral decay at home and a menacing world environment seemingly unfavorable to the ‘British way of life’ in the 1940s, educators asserted that religion, and specifically Protestant Christianity, was the only means by which the moral core of democracy could be preserved. Legislation passed in Ontario and Victoria mandated that time be set aside for religious instruction. This was especially complicated for Victorian educators because, since its inception in 1872, the education system was legally secular. The solution reached was to allow an outside organization, the Council for Christian Education in Schools, to legally administer religious education in public schools. In both places religious minorities, particularly Catholics and Jews, opposed the legislation but were largely marginalized.

*Title from G.W. Morley, Brief 103 to the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, Archives of Ontario, RG 18-131, Box 13.

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Notes

1.
Sir Edmund Herring, “The Needs of the Nation,” in Speeches at a Conference of Headmasters, J.R. Darling, ed. (Sydney: Waite & Bull, 1948), 5.
2.
See Philip Buckner, “Whatever Happened to the British Empire?”, Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 4, 1993, 3–32; Philip Buckner, ed., Canada and the End of Empire; Philip Buckner with Francis eds., Canada and the British World : Culture, Migration, and Identity (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006); Carl Bridge and Kent Fedorowich, eds., The British World: Diaspora, Culture and Identity (Portland: Frank Cass Publishers, 2003); Duncan Bell, The Idea of Greater Britain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007); James Curran and Stuart Ward, The Unknown Nation: Australia after Empire (Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 2010); Kate Darian-Smith, Patricia Grimshaw and Stuart Macintyre, Britishness Abroad: Transnational Movements and Imperial Cultures (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007); Kevin Grant, Philippa Levine, Frank Trentmann, eds., Beyond Sovereignty: Britain, Empire and Transnationalism, c. 1880–1950 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007); Stuart Ward, ed., British Culture and the End of Empire (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001).
3.
For more of a discussion of civic and ethnic forms of nationalism, see Anthony D. Smith, Nationalism (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001).
4.
Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men’s Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
5.
C.P. Champion, The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism 1964–1968 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010); Curran and Ward , The Unknown Nation; José Igartua, The Other Quiet Revolution: National Identities in English Canada, 1945–1971 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2006) ; Deryck Schreuder and Stuart Ward, Australia’s Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008); Stuart Ward, Australia and the British Embrace: The Demise of the Imperial Ideal (Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 2001).
6.
Education was and remains the responsibility of the states in Australia and the provinces in Canada. Ontario, Canada, and Victoria, Australia, are here used as examples of wider trends in the English-speaking communities of Australia and Canada.
7.
John Dewey was a prolific writer and philosopher who produced important works on education throughout the first half of the twentieth century. For an example of his work, see The School and Society and The Child and the Curriculum (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1915) or Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (London: The Free Press, 1944).
8.
G.S. Browne, The Case for Curriculum Revision (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1932), 69.
9.
The Hadow Reports were a series of reports from a committee in England under the chairmanship of William Henry Hadow . See Great Britain Board of Education Consultative Committee, The Education of the Adolescent (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1926), The Primary School: A Report, (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1931) and Report of the Consultative Committee on Secondary Education: With Special Reference to Grammar Schools and Technical High Schools (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1938).
10.
See W.F. Connell, Reshaping Australian Education 1960–1985 (Victoria: The Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd., 1993), and R.D. Gidney, From Hope to Harris: The Reshaping of Ontario’s Schools (Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1999).
11.
Browne , The Case for Curriculum Revision, 25.
12.
Victoria Department of Education, “General Course of Study for Elementary Schools,” in Victoria Education Gazette and Teacher’s Aid, Volume XXXVIII No. 108, November 22, 1933, 437.
13.
Programme of Studies for Grades I to VI of the Public and Separate Schools 1937 (Toronto: Ontario Department of Education, 1937), 60.
14.
Programme of Studies for Grades I to VI, Ontario Department of Education, 8.
15.
Programme of Studies for Grades I to VI, Ontario Department of Education, 8.
16.
W.B. Russell, Report of the Committee on Religious Education in Victoria (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1974), 57.
17.
John Hope, Report of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario (Toronto: Government Printer, 1950), 221.
18.
George Brown, Building the Canadian Nation (Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1942), 455.
19.
Ontario Department of Education, Empire Day in the Schools of Ontario, May 22, 1942, 7.
20.
J.C. Hodgins, “Religious Education in the Schools,” RG 18–131 Container 27: Commissions & Committees, Royal Commission on Education in Ontario: Special Studies, 5.
21.
Brief 64: Board of Christian Education of the United Church of Canada Submission to the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, December 6, 1945, 2.
22.
Morley , Brief 103, 4.
23.
Ibid., 2.
24.
John Hope, Report of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, 216.
25.
Hodgins , “Religious Education in the Public Schools,” 1.
26.
Report of the Minister of Education for the Province of Ontario for the Year 1944, 11.
27.
Hope, Report of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, 38.
28.
A.G. Wedderspoon, ed., Religious Education 1944–1984 (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1966) 9.
29.
E.R. McLean later wrote his belief that the act passed specifically because of George Drew’s approval of the English legislation. Religion in Ontario Schools: Based on the Minutes of the Inter-Church Committee on Religious Education in Schools (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1965), 22.
30.
Roy Niblet, “The Religious Education Clauses of the 1944 Act: Aims, Hopes and Fulfillment,” in A.G. Wedderspoon, ed., Religious Education 1944–1984, 20.
31.
R.J.K. Freathy, “Ecclesiastical and Religious Factors Which Preserved Christian and Traditional Forms of Education for Citizenship in English Schools, 1934–1944,” Oxford Review of Education, Vol. 33, No. 3, 375.
32.
The abbreviation OICC shortened the formal name Ontario Inter-Church Committee on Weekday Religious Education and simply stood for: Ontario Inter-Church Committee.
33.
E.R. McLean, “Religious Education in the Public Schools of Ontario: The Relation of Education and Religion,” Ontario Inter-Church Committee on Weekday Religious Education, General Synod Archives: Anglican Church of Canada, Accession Number: GS75–104.
34.
E.R. McLean, Religion in Ontario Schools: Based on the Minutes of the Inter-Church Committee on Religious Education in Schools (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1965), 3.
35.
The Cambridgeshire Syllabus of Religious Teaching for Schools (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939).
36.
E.R. McLean, Religion in Ontario Schools, 45.
37.
Brief 69: Ontario Educational Association Submission to the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, February 21, 1946, Archives of Ontario RG 18–131 Container 11, 1.
38.
Brief 69, Ontario Education Association, 1.
39.
Ibid., 6–7.
40.
Ibid., 7.
41.
Ibid., 6.
42.
Ibid., 136–7.
43.
“Regulation 13 of General Regulations, Public and Separate Schools,” in Programme for Religious Education in the Public Schools: Teachers Manual, 25.
44.
McLean , Religion in Ontario Schools, 30.
45.
Betty Baker et al., The Friend of Little Children: Teacher’s Guide to Religious Education (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1947), viii.
46.
Ernest H. Hayes, Jesus and the Kingdom: Teacher’s Guide to Religious Education Grade 6 (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1944), 1.
47.
Hayes, Jesus and the Kingdom, 134.
48.
Lilian E. Cox, Mary Entwistle and Rotha M. Reed, Stories of God and Jesus: Teacher’s Guide to Religious Education Grade Two (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1944), 60.
49.
Cox, Entwistle, and Reed, Stories of God and Jesus, 61.
50.
Baker, Barnard, Jenkins, and Rose, The Friend of Little Children, 104.
51.
Inter-Church Committee on Weekday Religious Education, Brief 28 to the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, September, 1945.
52.
Morley , Brief 103, 7.
53.
Gus Harris, Brief 150: Submission of Gus Harris to the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, January 12, 1946, 5.
54.
Harris, Brief 150, 2.
55.
Morley , Brief 103, 3.
56.
Anti-communists across North America emphasized religion in the classroom. For more on this topic, see L. Canipe, “Under God and Anti-Communist: How the Pledge of Allegiance Got Religion in Cold War America,” Journal of Church and State, 45, Part 2 (2003), 305–324.
57.
Morley , Brief 103, 1.
58.
E.R. McLean, “Religious Education in the Public Schools of Ontario: The Relation of Education and Religion,” Anglican Church of Canada Archives, Series 4: General Board of Religious Education, 1918–1968 Box 17, February 1945.
59.
E.R. McLean, “Religious Education in the Public Schools of Ontario, 1956.” General Synod Archives: Anglican Church of Canada, M82-15, Series 34.
60.
McLean , Religion in Ontario Schools, 37.
61.
Charles Seager, Brief 77: Church of England in the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario, Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, RG 18-131 Container 12, 6.
62.
Ibid., 7.
63.
Dominique Clément, Canada’s Rights Revolution: Social Movements and Social Change, 1937–82 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008).
64.
A.B. Bennett, Abraham Feinberg, William Drazin, “Official Declaration by the Canadian Jewish Congress on Religious Instruction in the Public Schools,” Archives of Ontario RG 18-131 Container 20, Memorandum 1.
65.
Abraham Feinberg, “For Children in a Democracy: Religious Instruction in the Public Schools of Ontario,” September, 1945, 2.
66.
Ibid., 4.
67.
Ibid.
68.
Ibid., 3.
69.
Ibid., 11.
70.
Ibid., 16.
71.
Hope, Royal Commission on Education in the Province of Ontario, 168.
72.
Feinberg , “For Children in a Democracy,” 13.
73.
Ibid., 3.
74.
Catholic Bishops of Ontario, Brief 196: Catholic Bishops of Ontario to the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, 2.
75.
Ibid., 4–5.
76.
Ibid., 9.
77.
Frederick Bronkema et al., “The Christian Faith and the Religion in Ontario Schools,” Supplementary Statement to Brief 45 of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, 4.
78.
Ibid., Brief 45, 50.
79.
A.C. Cochrane et al., Brief 45: Association for Religious Liberty, October, 1946, 4.
80.
Ibid., 1.
81.
Jewish Congress of Canada, Brief 46, 6.
82.
Ibid., 1.
83.
J.G. Hodgins , “Religious Education in the Public Schools,” 1948, 3.
84.
Ibid., 5.
85.
Ibid., 5.
86.
Ibid., 5.
87.
Hope, Report of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, 49.
88.
Hope, Report of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario, 37.
89.
W.J. Dunlop to the Inter-Church Committee, July 10, 1952. General Synod Archives: Anglican Church of Canada, Series 4 Box 29, Folder 29/5.
90.
The CCES represented the Church of England, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist Congregationalist Churches, the Churches of Christ, and the Salvation Army.
91.
Victorian Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) Session 150 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1950), 2698.
92.
Ibid., 2709.
93.
CCES, “Minutes of Meeting of the Council Tuesday 17th September, 1946,” State Library of Victoria MS12019 Y Box 100.
94.
The Council for Christian Education in Schools Bulletin No. 2, December, 1946. State Library of Victoria MS 12019 Box 97.
95.
CCES, “Joint Council for Religious Instruction in State Schools Report and Balance Sheet for the Year Ended 21st December, 1943,” State Library of Victoria MS 12019 Y Box 96.
96.
Russell, Report of the Committee on Religious Education in Victoria, Melbourne: Government Printer, 1974, 7.
97.
CCES, The Agreed Syllabus (Melbourne: Spectator Publishing Co Pty. Ltd., 1946), 2.
98.
Ibid. , 2.
99.
CCES, Handbook for Teachers Based on the Agreed Syllabus of the Council for Christian Education in Schools (Victoria) Book 1 Grades 1 and 2 (Melbourne: Spectator Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd., 1946), 85.
100.
Ibid., 87.
101.
L.J. Blake, Vision and Realisation: A Centenary History of State Education in Victoria (Melbourne: Education Department of Victoria, 1973).
102.
CCES, Minutes of Meeting of the Council Tuesday 15th October, 1946, State Library of Victoria MS12019Y Box 100.
103.
Letter from Kent Hughes, Minister of Public Instruction to Rev. H.R. Trenaman (Director, Council for Christian Education in Schools), 2 March, 1948, State Library of Victoria MS12019Y Box 100.
104.
Hughes to H.R. Trenaman, 2 March, 1948.
105.
CCES, Minutes of Special Meeting of the Council Tuesday 13 July, 1948, State Library of Victoria MS12019Y Box 100.
106.
CCES, “Suggested Policy in Relation to Religious Instruction in State Schools,” 1948, State Library of Victoria MS12019 Y Box 100.
107.
The sources do not indicate any political reaction by the Jewish community in Victoria to the new religious instruction enactments. The Religious Instruction Act of 1950 specifically exempted Jewish children from compulsory attendance, significantly reducing the charge of discrimination. This is in obvious contrast to the situation in Ontario, where the Jewish community was highly organized and vociferous in their opposition to the Drew Regulations.
108.
Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic Church in Australia, Christian Education in a Democratic Community (Victoria: Renown Press, 1949), 3.
109.
Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic Church in Australia, Christian Education in a Democratic Community, 3.
110.
Ibid., 14.
111.
Ibid., 15.
112.
CCES, “Suggested Policy in Relation to Religious Instruction in State Schools,” 1948, State Library of Victoria MS12019Y Box 100.
113.
Minutes of the Meeting of the Council for Christian Education in Schools, December 13, 1949. State Library of Victoria MS12019 Y Box 100.
114.
Victoria Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) Session 150 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1950), 2969.
115.
Ibid., 2698.
116.
Ibid., 2969.
117.
Ibid., 2713.
118.
Ibid., 2717.
119.
Ibid., 2721.
120.
“More on Religious Instruction in State Schools,” Education Gazette and Teacher’s Aid Vol. LI, No. 6, June 21, 1951.
121.
Ibid., 2717.
122.
The Council for Christian Education in Schools Report for the Year 1952, State Library of Victoria MS12019Y Box 97.

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Assistant Professor of History, The University of Sioux Falls, Sioux Falls, SD, USA
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Jackson, S. (2018). “The Ideology of All Democratic Nations”: World War II and the Rise of Religious Instruction in 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_4

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89402-7_4
Published: 07 June 2018
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