|
Education
If
you were to add an expectation to the Ontario curriculum documents about the
importance of learning about the evolution of education, what would it be?
And then
how would you go about your research to achieve that Expectation?
Some
Regional and Contextual Background Information
-
In all liklihood, Robert Rae would have studied the classics at home, under
the direction of the Minister of St. Andrew's Church and, perhaps, Mr. James
Russell, a well-educated
Scarborough
teacher
-
The Sisters
of St. Joseph for the Diocese of Toronto in Upper Canada
purchased approximately 50 acres from Robert McCowan in 1916 for a new
school and convent.
-
Refer also
to D.B. McCowan, The Successful Teacher, 1830-1988, Scarborough
Historical Society, 1988. (Three generations of McCowans were educated in
the old School Section #9, later known as Scarboro
Village
School
)
-
Refer to
this overview page regarding education and
then follow the child-links
-
Go to our Search
page -- use your language and thinking skills to define helpful search criteria
The
“Imperfect System”, 1840
...
purchase 30 acres of land... near where the Village of Malvern now stands but in
order to accomplish the desirable object of purchasing land for a permanent
home, it was necessary that the children should commence work at an early age
even before they had acquired the ordinary Common School education that was
available under the very imperfect system that existed in the country at that
time. When I was sixteen years of age I was unable to write my own name and at
that time had acquired no knowledge of arithmetic or grammar but I had
completely mastered the Shorter Catechism at the age of seven and by studying at
home and attending Sabbath School and Bible Class conducted by the late Dr.
George, I was well grounded in Scripture subjects and doctrine.
About the year
A.D. 1840 the family moved from the Kingston Road and settled on the thirty
acres of bush land they had purchased on the east side of Markham Road. I was
then fourteen years of age and altho small for my age I was then able to do a
good deal of work and the thirty acres of bush land was in due time converted
into a fairly productive little farm within easy reach of Toronto markets about
fourteen miles distant where the widowed mother and family were able to make a
good comfortable living.
After I was
sixteen years of age I attended school about six weeks each winter until I was
nineteen years old during which time I acquired a fairly good Common School
education which seemed to create in my mind a strong desire to study for one of
the learned professions. Consequently I commenced the study of the classics and
made rapid progress in the study of the Latin and Greek languages, but after
prosecuting the study of these languages for about a year I decided to turn my
attention to mercantile business...
Autobiography
of Robert Rae (1826-1912)
From a first-person manuscript provided by his great-granddaughter, later
published in the third-person in the Biographical Record of the County of
Lambton
A
Private School, ca 1865
Gram [Hannah Ashbridge McCowan] said she had gone to a private school -- now I
wish I knew where. She liked to talk about Latin with me, and to work out with
me word meanings from their Latin derivatives.
Margaret
Heron Carr, 1990
Kindergarten,
1916
This afternoon, we were down in the field to see them lay the corner stone. They
expect their school is to be finished a year from this November. Today was the
four hundredth anniversary of the Sisters of St. Joseph, also their coming to
this country. They are going to have a kindergarten, so I guess we will have to
start Margaret. Won't it be handy!
Ruth
McCowan Letters, October 15 1916
Walking
to SS 9,
Scarborough
Village, ca 1925
Most of the time, Bob, Jack, cousin Walter and I walked to #9 school through the
fields. We had a path behind the barn, across the Stobo’s, then back of
Muir’s to Bellamy. From there, we went across
Edith Ave, through a vacant lot to Mason Road
and then up to Eglinton. If it was very cold or raining, Uncle Ashley used to
drive us.
In the spring
when it was muddy, Papa (my grandfather) came over to our place in the morning
and often would ask me my spelling words. Then, when it was time to start for
school, he’d shout “Hurrah Boys” and he would walk with us down the
highway to Muir’s corner at
Bellamy Road
. We had to go in single file in the same order -- Bob, Jack, Walter and then
me. Papa would take my hand and carry my school bag. There was quite often a
humbug candy for each of us when he left us at Muir’s corner.
Dad always
warned us that if we got the strap at school, we would get it again at home, so
I think we were all pretty well-behaved at school.
Helen
McCowan Thomson, 1990
A
Local
School
Benefactor, 1931
A new prize was given this year for the highest aggregate in Upper School
Science and Mathematics, by the late Mr. Robert McCowan. Clare Annis and Edward
Bonner ranked for this prize, but it was awarded by reversion to Douglas
Loveless...
Scarboro lost
one of her prominent citizens, and our school one of its benefactors, when death
came to Robert McCowan on January 16, 1931. The late Mr. McCowan was for many
years Councillor and Reeve of Scarboro Township. A man with genuine sympathies
for his fellows, and a high sense of public service, he succeeded in making a
vast circle of friends.
A proof of Mr.
McCowan’s devotion to the good of the community may be found in the fact that
he established a scholarship in our school to encourage intelligent study and
hard work. To the widow and family, we express our sympathy.
The
Scarboro Bluff, 1931 (The Year Book of what is now called
R.H. King
Academy)
School
Section Amalgamation, 1944
Many of the schools in
Scarborough
were one room with only one teacher for all grades. Our old school, SS #9 in Scarboro
Village, had four teachers by the mid ‘40s. The school sections were independently
administered by several Trustees. A
good deal of the local people, including our parents, were opposed to the school
section amalgamation that was being championed by Mr. Halbert, the Inspector. He
proposed that the old School Sections, including our school, should be combined
into much larger administrative “School Areas”. The poorly-managed schools
and the one-room schools stood to benefit the most from amalgamation. Many felt
that #9, a well-run larger school, would actually suffer. At the ratepayers
meetings, Mr. Halbert managed to overcome the local opposition and amalgamation
went ahead. Dad had been a Trustee of Number 9 school for quite a few years.
Bill and
Bob McCowan, May 2001
Learn
While You’re Young
“Learn while you’re young” Dad always said. I took this advice quite
seriously. Once I knew that universities existed, there was never any real
question in my mind that I would go to one -- of course I would. I know I wasn't
much of a communicator, so I doubt if Dad actually realized this when, one day
at the saw-horse (I was 11 or 12 at the time), I wasn't pulling my end of the
cross-cut with enough enthusiasm. He gave me a blast: "Boy, you'd better
get a good education, because if you have to work for a living, you'll
starve”. Of course, Dad was talking about the hard physical labour to which
he'd been accustomed on the farm.
Confessions
of D.B. McCowan, cited in
Bill
and Nancy McCowan Fortieth Anniversary Album
Exercises
Individual Exercises
1) Write a 200 word fictitious story about you as a hard-working youngster in
the pioneer days longing for the chance to attend school to obtain a good
education.
Class Discussion
1) Discuss the importance of “Benefactors” for schools and education in
general.
The
Scarboro Heights Record V14 #6
|