OF

EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA,

FROM THE PASSING OF THE

CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791,

TO THE

CLOSE OF THE REVEREND DOCTOR RYERSON'S ADMINISTRATION
OF THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT IN 1876.

VOL. VI: 1846.

Edited, under the direction of the Honourable the Minister of Education, with Explanatory Notes,

BY

J. GEORGE HODGINS, M.A., LL.D.,

OF OSGOODE HALL, BARRISTER-AT-LAW,

LIBRARIAN AND HISTORIOGRAPHER TO THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ONTARIO.

WARWICK BRO'S & RUTTER, PRINTERS, &c., &c., 68 AND 70 FRONT STREET WEST.

PREFATORY REMARKS BY THE EDITOR.

This Sixth Volume of the "Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada" is largely devoted to a Record of Proceedings, which detail what steps were taken in 1846 in laying " educational foundations."

As this Volume deals chiefly with the subject of "first things," in connection with our System of Public Education, and of "laying foundations," as connected with that System and University Education, I think it desirable to specify, in a somewhat genera! form, what is implied by these expressions in this connection. The "first things," which this Volume records, as having been accomplished in 1846, are :—

1. The publication of an extended Report on a Projected System of Popular Education for Upper Canada.

2. The preparation and passing of a Common School Bill, founded upon that Report, and the first School Bill prepared under the auspices of Doctor Ryerson. 3. The appointment of a Board of Education for Upper Canada.

4. The selection of a Series of School Text Books, which remained in use in the Common Schools for twenty-two years, and until 1868.

5. The organization of the Education Department under the School Act of 1846.

6. The Establishment of a Provincial Normal School-(formally opened in 1847).

7. The substitution of District School Superintendents for local Township Superintendents.

8. General Forms and Regulations for the Goverment of Common Schools, including provision for giving Religious Instruction in these Schools, under the School Act of 1846.

The only really and effective efforts put forth in 1846 were those of the newly appointed Chief Superintendent of Education, in regard to the Common Schools of the Province. The strenuous efforts made, during that year, to settle the University Question were practically abortive. They proved, nevertheless, in the end, to be highly useful in clearing the way to a final settlement, at least for the time, a few years later, of that vexed question; but just then they were only tentative in their effects.

On his return from an examination, during 1844, 1845, of the Systems of Education and various kinds of Schools in Europe, and in the eastern part of the United States, Doctor Ryerson prepared an elaborate "Report on a System of Public Elementary Instruction for Upper Canada," in 1846. This Report was

based upon his own personal observations and the experience of others, who had preceded him in making similar investigations, and whom he quotes, as authorities, in his Report.

In the preparation of that Report, Doctor Ryerson had the great advantageof which he availed himself freely-of consulting the Report of a prolonged inquiry, (like the one which he had just made), into the state of popular education in Europe, and the modes of teaching adopted in European Schools, by that noted American Educationist, the Honourable Horace Mann. Mr. Mann, at the time of his visit to Europe, in 1843, was Secretary to the State Board of Education of Massachusetts. His reasons for making that tour of observation were in effect those which had influenced Doctor Ryerson to visit Europe, with a similar object in view. They were also of a thoroughly practical kind, and they are stated very graphically, by Mr. Mann, in the preliminary part of his Report, as follows:

"I have attended a great number of Educational Meetings, and, as far as possible, have road whatever has been written, whether at home or abroad, by persons qualified to instruct mankind on this momentous subject; still, I have been oppressed with a painful consciousness of my inability to expound the merits of this great theme in all their magnitude and variety, and have turned my eyes, again and again, to some new quarter of the horizon, in the hope that they would be greeted by a brighter beam of light.

"Under these circumstances, it was natural that the celebrity of institutions in foreign Countries should attract my attention, and that I should feel an intense desire of knowing whether, in any respect. those institutions were superior to our own; and, if anything were found in them worthy of adoption, of transferring it for our improvement. Accordingly having obtained permission from the State Board of Education Europe on the first of May," (1843).

"I embarked for

"Among the Nations of Europe, Prussia has long enjoyed the most distinguished reputation for the excellency of its Schools. In Reviews, in Speeches, in Tracts, and, even in graver, works, devoted to the cause of Education, its Schools have been exhibited as models for the imitation of the rest of Christendom...

"I have seen Countries, in whose Schools all forms of corporal punishment were used, without stint, or measure; and I have visited one Nation, [Holland,] in whose excellent and well ordered Schools, scarcely a blow has been struck for more than a quarter of a century..

**On reflection, it seems to me that it would be most strange if, from all this variety of System, and of no System. of sound instruction, and of babbling, of the discipline of violence, and of moral means, many beneficial hints, for our warning, or our imitation, could not be derived; and, as the subject comes clearly within the purview of my duty, 'to collect and diffuse information respecting Schools,' I venture to submit to the Massachusetts Board the results of my observations."

In the light of to-day, and noting the great advance which has been madeespecially in England in the matter of public education during more than fifty years, this graphic bird's-eye picture of the state and character of popular Education and of Schools in Europe, is deeply interesting. It is the more so, and also the more valuable, from the fact, that the picture is drawn by a master hand,— one whose name is still a household word in educational circles in the United States, and especially in New England.

The late distinguished Doctor Fraser, Lord Bishop of Manchester, in his official Report of 1865, when, as Commissioner from England, he made enquiry into the state of Education in the United States and Canada, speaking both of Horace Mann and of Egerton Ryerson, he said:

What National Education in Great Britain owes to Sir James Kay Shuttleworth; what Education in New England owes to Horace Mann, that debt Canada owes to Egerton Ryerson."*

It was but natural, (as I have stated on page 213 of this Volume,) that, with so able and experienced an Educationist, who had but lately,—just the year before,-gone over the same field, Doctor Ryerson should "compare notes with Mr. Mann," and fortify his opinions and conclusions, by quoting, as he has largely done, in his Report, those of Mr. Mann, on the Schools of England, and of the Continent of Europe. Mr. Mann's Report it should be remarked, was reprinted in England at the time, and deservedly attained the rank of an Educational authority.

This Report of Doctor Ryerson was published, as a Parliamentary Paper in 1846; and, in 1847, 3,000 additional copies of it were printed in pamphlet form, and, for some years, largely formed the basis of subsequent School legislation in Upper Canada.

Soon after the publication of his Report, Doctor Ryerson drafted his first Common School Bill, which, during the Parliamentary Session of 1846, became the Common School Act of 1846 -known as the 9th Victoria, Chapter XX. This Act is inserted in full on pages 59-70 of this Volume. The emendations and additions to the original Draft of Bill made by the House of Assembly are printed in italics.

As this comprehensive Report on a projected System of Public Elementary Education for Upper Canada is somewhat elaborate, I shall here merely refer to some of the main features of it. In preparing the Report, Doctor Ryerson, wisely laid down certain fundamental principles which he believed to be essential to the success and stability of that System. These general principles may be

thus summarized :

1. That the machinery of education should be in the hands of the people themselves, and should be managed through their own agency; they should, therefore, be held, he consulted, by means of public Meetings and Conferences, in regard to all School Legislation. This he himself did every few years.

2. That the aid of the Government should only be given where it could be used most effectually to stimulate and assist local effort in this great work.

3. That the property of the country is responsible for, and should contribute toward the education of the entire youth of the country; and that, as a complement to this "compulsory education" should necessarily be enforced.

4. That a thorough and systematic Inspection of the Schools by competent persons is essential to their vitality and efficiency.

*

Speaking of his three weeks' stay in Toronto, making enquiries into our System of Education in Upper Canada, Doctor Fraser, in another part of his Report of 1865, said: "My best thanks are due to Doctor Ryerson, the Chief Superintendent, and to Mr. Hodgins, the Deputy Superintendent, for the abundant facilities they afforded me for making myself acquainted with the System of which they are the efficient administrators." Re port, page 205. The other remarks, quoted above, will be found on page 279 of the same Report.