Public schools offer education to all children now from age 5 to 17. The benefit for the childhood experience that allow growth, social interactions, and knowledge that will allow equal opportunity for all socioeconomic groups was not always available in previous time periods. After all, free education was not introduced until the 1800’s and continued to grow and change. The biggest changes were the enforcement of regular attendance and the ages in which children attended. The benefit of the public school system was a way to protect children as explored by Robert McIntosh in “The Boys in the Nova Scotia Coal Mine 1873-1923”. The effect on families once these new regulations were implemented were examined in McIntosh’s article as well as Christopher Clubine’s, “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto”. Clubine’s article examine how these changes affected the families and how they had to adjust to the new legislations. There were many reasons to enforce regular attendance as it was not just a convenience to the teachers but it would be beneficial for everyone in the school system; including staff which was the main focus in “Teachers Institutes in the late 19th Century Ontario” by Patrice Milewski. Although these articles offer different perspectives regarding free education, all offer strong cases that school should be mandatory.

Although in Robert McIntosh’s article “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines: 1873-1923” there was resistance with the new School Legislation and Mine Legislation, these new standards were to protect the children from heavy workloads and to have access to more opportunities that school could provide[1]. In the long run, by eliminating these children in these low paying dangerous jobs, it actually benefited the men to keeping their jobs and getting a better rate. The author showed data regarding the risk and injuries and death that these children were exposed to. It may seem that these laws and rules were interfering with how children were raised, however, exposing children to horrible environments and forcing them to work does not seem like a better alternative. The fact that children as young as 6 years of age were put to work in mining seems almost implausible had it not been so well documented[2]. This particular article sheds light on the conditions these youths faced and it’s a great argument to want to ensure these laws stay in place so we can keep children in school. The resistance at the time of these changes were that these children provided extra income for the family, however this seems to be dispelled later when it states that once boys were no longer in the work force at such low wages, in fact it allowed the men better income[3]. This article goes hand in hand with the previous one as it has an argument of supporting education over work that restricted children to attend school.

In Christopher Clubine’s article “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto” gives personalized perspective by using the Truant officer, Wilkinson’s journals. These journals showed how the lower classes had conflicting schedules with the compulsory attendance that the public schools were enforcing[4]. The families relied on their children with other duties to do at home and found it difficult to follow the specific school schedule. Children were not going for multiple reasons, they were working on farms, looking after siblings, household duties and some getting supplies (ie wood/ coal) and then a few that just wanted to have fun[5]. Although, some cases appear that parents did not want children in school it was suggested that it was not the fact, some just didn’t want the rigid rules of days/times as it may have conflicted with work and other duties, the compulsory attendance is what caused some issues within these family dynamics[6]. Of course, it can be seen clearly the pull this had. On one hand, the parent needs the help and wants the child to attend school even if irregularly. Of course, this doesn’t work in a system that depends on attendance so that teachers are not having to constantly reteach and hold back others in the process. Throughout the struggles that lower class families faced with regular attendance, it gave insight on how much effort the families had to put in, in order to making adjustments to meet the schedules and requirements for their children in public schools.

In the article “Teacher Institutes in the late Nineteenth- Century Ontario” by Patrice Milewski focuses more on teachers attending meetings and conventions in order to further free public school education as well as educating themselves on how to improve their methods[7]. Teachers are essential in order to allow free education as well as the improvement of attendance for themselves as well as their students. There were consequences for teachers who were not attending meetings in order to enforce it as mandatory as stated by Milewski, “created the conditions and mechanisms that enabled school authorities to challenge and, in some cases, discipline teachers who chose not to attend institute meetings regularly.”[8] This article gives insight on how much effort the teachers themselves had to put in to able these public schools to run successfully and continue to further education itself. This article shines light on the teacher’s aspect, as the other articles main focus is the students attending these schools.

 

Bibliography:

Clubine, Christopher, “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 115-126.

McIntosh, Robert, “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines: 1873-1923,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of  Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 126-139.

Milewski, Patrice, “Teacher Institutes in the Late Nineteenth- Century Ontario” International Journal of the History of Education, Vol. 44, No. 5 (2008): 607-62. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.tru.ca/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=dc1ef   59-ee76-452c-9e07-3f13d688e6c3%40sessionmgr4009

 

Endnotes:

[1] Robert McIntosh, “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines: 1873-1923,” Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012), 126- 139.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid, 134.

[4] Christopher Clubine, “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto” Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012), 115-126.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Patrice Milewski, “Teacher Institutes in the late Nineteenth- Century Ontario” International Journal of the History of Education, Vol. 44, No. 5 (2008): 607-620.

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.tru.ca/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=dc1ef159-ee76-452c-9e07-3f13d688e6c3%40sessionmgr4009

[8] Ibid, 608.