_RYERSON AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS._
Normal Schools were mooted in Upper Canada before Ryerson became
Superintendent. As early as 1843, Sir Francis Hincks said that the
school system would never be complete without them.[115] In his Report
on a System of Education made in 1846, Ryerson made it clear that any
system of education must have as its basis trained teachers, and to
secure trained teachers was almost impossible without Normal Schools.
His report gives details of the Normal School systems of Great Britain
and Ireland, France, Holland, Germany, and the United States. One or two
schools had just been established in Massachusetts and one in Albany.
Ryerson visited these, but was most favourably impressed with the Dublin
Normal and Model Schools, as managed by the Commissioners of the Irish
National Board of Education, and our first Normal School was modelled
largely after the Dublin type.
[115] See extract from his speech, Chap. IV., pp. 101, 102.
The legislation of 1846 appropriated L1,500 for fitting up a Normal
School building and made an additional appropriation of L1,500 per
annum for maintenance. The School Bill of 1846 created a Council of
Public Instruction to work with the Chief Superintendent, and placed the
proposed Normal School under its management. The Council of Public
Instruction lost no time in beginning work. As early as May, 1846, they
were planning an early opening of the Normal School, and were in
communication with John Rintoul, of the Dublin Normal School, about
accepting the head mastership of the proposed Normal School at Toronto.
It was proposed to give Mr. Rintoul L350, Halifax currency, and L100 for
moving expenses. Mr. Rintoul accepted the appointment, resigned his
position in Dublin, and was about to leave for Canada when, owing to
some domestic affliction, he had to abandon his plans. The Commissioners
of the Irish National Board then selected Thomas Jaffray Robertson to
take Rintoul's place and the Council of Public Instruction chose as his
assistant Mr. Henry Hind, of Thorne Hill. Robertson sailed from Ireland
in July, 1847, and in November of the same year the Normal School was
opened.
It was a part of Ryerson's plan that the several District Councils of
Upper Canada should choose two or three promising young men and send
them to the Normal School, paying at least part of their expenses. The
following extract from the Regulations issued by the Council of Public
Instruction in 1847 will illustrate the requirements for admission to
the first Normal School in Upper Canada: "1st. That the Provincial
Normal School shall be open about the 1st of July next, and the first
session shall continue until the middle of October, 1847. 2nd. That
every candidate for admission into the Normal School, in order to his
being received, must comply with the following conditions: He must be at
least sixteen years of age; produce a certificate of good moral
character signed by a clergyman; be able to read and write intelligibly
and be acquainted with the simple rules of arithmetic; must declare in
writing that he intends to devote himself to teaching (other students
not candidates for school teaching to be admitted only on paying fees
and dues to be prescribed). 3rd. Upon the foregoing conditions
candidates for school teaching shall be admitted to all the advantages
of the Normal School without any charge either for tuition or for books.
4th. Candidates shall lodge and board in the city under such regulations
as shall from time to time be approved by this Board."[116]
[116] See Report of Superintendent of Education for 1848.
The school was formally opened by Dr. Ryerson, November 1st, in the
presence of a distinguished company. The Model School was opened the
following February.
The Normal School pupils were, many of them, poorly equipped for a
course of training. They had received no adequate secondary education.
In fact, many of them were direct from the Common Schools. A few were
mature men who had a considerable teaching experience.[117]
[117] Women were not admitted until the opening of the second term in
1848.
It was necessary to give a broad academic course and judiciously
interweave some professional training. Grammar and mathematics received
much greater attention than their importance merited. Physical science
and natural philosophy, together with some agricultural chemistry,
received a prominent place on the programme. Geography was also made
much of, but it was largely mathematical and political and elaborately
illustrated with globes and maps. Literature and history were taught,
but not in a way to arouse much enthusiasm. Pupils were supposed not to
learn by heart what they did not understand, but there was in practice
much memory work and repetition of rules.
On the whole, the Normal School was approved by all classes of people,
and the teachers trained there were in great demand. But there was some
criticism, especially of the provision by which four shillings a week
was granted to students to aid them in paying their board. Inasmuch as
this money was deducted from the school grant, it was argued that the
teachers in service were actually educating in the Normal School others
who would displace them. Exception was also taken to granting aid to
students who had no intention of making teaching their life work. To
meet this difficulty, students accepting public money towards their
expenses were required to give assurance that they would teach a stated
time, and others, called private pupils, were charged fees for tuition.
In 1849 the experiment was made of a nine months' session, but the
country was not yet ready for this step and the attendance was so
reduced that the plan was abandoned.
In 1850, the Council of Public Instruction attempted to widen the
influence of the Normal School by sending the Normal School masters to
attend Teachers' Institutes throughout the Province. In this way many
earnest teachers who had received no training were given suggestions
that bore much fruit.
When the Normal School was established, it was held in the old
Legislative Buildings of Upper Canada. After the riots in Montreal, in
1849, Toronto again became the seat of Government and the Normal School
had to move. Temporary quarters were obtained while the Council of
Public Instruction took steps to secure a permanent home, not only for
the Normal School, but for the Education Department. The present site
was secured and Parliament made an appropriation of L15,000 to provide
for it and for a building. In July, 1851, Lord Elgin laid the
corner-stone.[118]
[118] See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 5-14.
The address of Dr. Ryerson, in introducing the Governor, shows that he
had no thought of divorcing the Common Schools from agriculture, the
backbone industry of the people. He says: "The land on which these
buildings are in course of erection is an entire square, consisting of
nearly eight acres, two of which are to be devoted to a botanical
garden, three to agricultural experiments, and the remainder to the
buildings of the institution. It is thus intended that the valuable
course of lectures given in the Normal School in vegetable physiology
and agricultural chemistry shall be practically illustrated on the
adjoining grounds, in the culture of which the students will take part
during a portion of their hours of recreation.... There are four
circumstances which encourage the most sanguine anticipations in every
patriotic heart in regard to our educational future. The first is the
avowed and entire absence of all party spirit in the school affairs of
our country from the Provincial Legislature down to the smallest
municipality. The second is the precedence which our Legislature has
taken of all others on the western side of the Atlantic in providing
for Normal School instruction, in aiding teachers to avail themselves of
its advantages. The third is that the people of Upper Canada have during
the last year voluntarily taxed themselves for the salaries of teachers
in a larger sum in proportion to their numbers and have kept open their
schools on an average more months than the neighbouring citizens of the
old and great State of New York. The fourth is that the essential
requisite of a series of suitable and excellent textbooks has been
introduced into our schools and adopted almost by general acclamation,
and that the facilities of furnishing all our schools with the necessary
books, maps, and apparatus will soon be in advance of those of any other
country."[119] In November, 1852, when the buildings[120] were formally
opened, the Honourable John Beverley Robinson, Chief Justice of Upper
Canada, said: "Without such a general preparatory system as we see here
in operation, the instruction of the great mass of our population would
be left in a measure to chance. The teachers might be, many of them,
ignorant pretenders without experience, without method, and in some
respects very improper persons to be entrusted with the education of
youth. There could be little or no security for what they might teach,
or what they might attempt to teach, nor any certainty that the good
which might be acquired from their precepts would not be more than
counterbalanced by the ill effects of their example. Indeed the footing
which our Common School teachers were formerly upon in regard to income
gave no adequate remuneration to intelligent and industrious men to
devote their time to the service. But this disadvantage is largely
removed, as well as other obstacles which were inseparable from the
conditions of a thinly-peopled and uncleared country traversed only by
miserable roads, and henceforth, as soon at least as the benefits of
this institution can be fully felt, the Common Schools will be
dispensing throughout the whole of Upper Canada, by means of
properly-trained teachers and under vigilant superintendents, a system
of education which has been carefully considered and arranged, and which
has been for some time practically exemplified. An observation of some
years has enabled most of us to form an opinion of its sufficiency.
Speaking only for myself, I have much pleasure in saying that the degree
of proficiency which has been actually attained goes far, very far,
beyond what I had imagined it would have been attempted to aim
at."[121]
[119] See D. H. E., Vol. X., p. 6.
[120] These included what is now the main Departmental building and the
Model School to the north. The present Normal School building was
erected later.
[121] See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 278-283.
The following from Honourable Francis Hincks leaves us in no doubt as to
Ryerson's part in securing the building. He says: "With regard to this
institution, so far it has been most successfully conducted, and I feel
bound to say that we must attribute all the merit of that success to the
reverend gentleman who has been at the head of our Common School system.
It is only due to him that I should take this public opportunity of
saying that since I have been a member of the Government I have never
met an individual who has displayed more zeal or more devotion to the
duties he has been called upon to discharge than Dr. Ryerson. A great
deal of opposition has been manifested both in and out of Parliament to
this institution, and a good deal of jealousy exists with regard to its
having been established in the city of Toronto. I can speak from my own
experience as to the difficulties experienced in obtaining the
co-operation of Parliament to have the necessary funds provided for the
purpose of erecting this building. I will say, however, that there never
was an institution in which the people have more confidence that the
funds were well applied than in this institution. There is but one
feeling that pervades the minds of all those who have seen the manner
in which this scheme has been worked out. In regard to the Normal School
itself, the site has been well chosen, the buildings have been erected
in a most permanent manner, and without anything like extravagance, and
I have no doubt there will be no difficulty in obtaining additional
Parliamentary aid to finish them."[122]
[122] See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 282-284.
In his report for 1853, Ryerson suggests Normal training for Grammar
School teachers. I shall give his own words: "The Provincial Normal and
Model Schools have contributed, and are contributing, much to the
improvement of our Common Schools by furnishing a proper standard of
judgment and comparison as to what such schools ought to be and how they
should be taught and governed, and by furnishing teachers duly qualified
for that important task. There is equal need of a Provincial Model
Grammar School, in which the best modes of teaching the elements of
Greek and Latin, French and German, the elementary mathematics and the
elements of natural science, may be exemplified, and where teachers and
candidates for masterships of Grammar Schools may have an opportunity
for practical observation and training during a shorter or longer
period. Such a school would complete the educational establishments of
our school system and contribute powerfully to advance Upper Canada to
the proud position which she is approaching in regard to institutions
and agencies for the mental culture of her youthful population."[123]
[123] See Superintendent's Report for 1853.
The Legislature voted L1,000 for a Model Grammar School, and in 1855
plans for a building were prepared under direction of the Council of
Public Instruction. The estimate exceeded the means at the disposal of
the Council and nothing was done until 1856, when Ryerson wrote the
Executive Council as follows: "There is no branch of our system of
Public Instruction so defective as our Grammar Schools, and the 'Model'
for them as to both structure and furniture, discipline, modes of
classification and teaching is of the utmost importance.... I am
persuaded that a saving of one-half of the time and expense usually
incurred in the Grammar School education of youth may be saved by
improved methods in teaching and directing their studies, a result which
will greatly increase the number of those who will aspire to a higher
literary education apart from other advantages and intellectual habits
and discipline. It is proposed to erect the Model Grammar School in the
rear of the present Model School.... The proposed mode of admitting
pupils will prevent the Model Grammar School from interfering with or
being the rival of any other Grammar School. It is also intended to
afford every possible facility and assistance to masters and teachers of
Grammar Schools throughout the Province to come and spend some weeks in
the Model Grammar School."[124]
[124] See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. XII., p. 321.
The Government now authorized the Council of Public Instruction to
proceed with the erection of a building to accommodate one hundred
Grammar School pupils. The school was opened in 1858. It was the
intention to give a preference to the two or three pupils from each
county and city in Upper Canada who were recommended by the respective
Municipal Councils. Ryerson's circular to these Councils will throw some
light on the subject: "The object of the Model Grammar School is to
exemplify the best methods of teaching the branches required by law to
be taught in the Grammar Schools, especially the elementary classics and
mathematics, as a model for the Grammar Schools of the country. It is
also intended that the Model Grammar School shall, as far as possible,
secure the advantages of a Normal Classical School to candidates for
masterships in the Grammar School; but effect cannot be given to this
object of the Model Grammar School during the first few months of its
operation."[125] In 1859, in a report to the Government, Ryerson speaks
further and says: "In regard to the Model Grammar Schools the buildings
are completed and the school has been in operation several months and
with the most gratifying success. Upwards of thirty masters of Grammar
Schools have in the course of a few weeks visited and spent a longer or
shorter time in the Model Grammar School with a view to improving their
own methods of school organization, discipline, and teaching; and I have
reason to believe that it has already exerted a salutary influence in
improving the several Grammar Schools--an influence that will be greatly
increased when we are enabled to form a special class consisting of
candidates for Grammar School masterships."[126]
[125] See copy of Circular in D. H. E., Vol. XIV., p. 65.
[126] See Report of Superintendent for 1859.
In 1861, Mr. G. R. Cockburn, Rector of the Model Grammar School,
resigned to become principal of Upper Canada College. Ryerson wished to
transfer the functions of the Model Grammar School to Upper Canada
College. This was not agreed to, but the same year provision was made
for admitting candidates for Grammar School masterships to a course in
training in the Model Grammar School. Up to this time the School had
been of professional service as a school of observation, the holidays
being so arranged that its classes were in session while Grammar School
masters were on holiday.
In July, 1863, the Model Grammar School was finally closed. The
following from a letter sent by Ryerson to the Provincial Secretary
makes clear the reasons for this action: "When the Model Grammar School
was established it was expected that nearly every county in Upper Canada
would be represented in it and provision was made for that purpose. That
important object has not been realized; and although the attendance at
the school has been larger during the last year than during any previous
year, reaching even to 100, the attendance as in former years has been
chiefly from Toronto and its neighbourhood. I do not think it just to
the General Fund to maintain an additional Toronto Grammar School.
During the past year a training class for Grammar School masterships,
consisting to a considerable extent of students in the University, has
been successfully established. But it has been found that the
instruction in all subjects, except Greek, Latin, and French, can be
given in the Normal School to better advantage than in the Model Grammar
School."[127]
[127] See Ryerson's letter in D. H. E., Vol. XVIII, p. 69.
Trained teachers for the Grammar Schools were much to be desired, and
Ryerson deserves credit for his progressive ideas. But just at that
stage in their evolution, although they contained many scholarly men,
the Grammar Schools as a whole were more in need of teachers with sound
scholarship than of teachers with a little professional training.
There continued to be complaints that teachers trained in the Normal
Schools did not continue to teach. In his Report for 1856, Ryerson makes
clear that in his opinion these defections from the teaching ranks were
no condemnation of Normal Schools. He says: "The only objection yet made
to the training of teachers, as far as I know, is that many of them do
not pursue that profession but leave it for other employments. Were this
true to the full extent imagined, the conclusion would still be in
favour of the Normal School, since its advantages are not confined to
schools or neighbourhoods in which its teachers are employed, but are
extended over other neighbourhoods and municipalities.... In all
professions and pursuits there are changes from one to another. I do not
think it wise, just, or expedient to deny to the Normal School teacher
the liberty, if opportunity presents itself, to improve his position or
increase his usefulness.... In whatever position or relation of life a
Normal School teacher may be placed, his training at the Normal School
cannot fail to contribute to his usefulness."[128]
[128] See Report of Chief Superintendent for 1856. See copy in D. H. E.,
Vol. XIII., p. 51.
Nor was all the criticism of Normal School affairs directed towards the
teachers who left the profession; those who remained in it were
emissaries of evil. Then, as now, there were croakers who thought that a
boy born on a farm naturally belonged there, and that any enlightenment
which tended to make him dissatisfied with his surroundings was an evil.
One, signing himself Angus Dallas of Toronto, wrote several pamphlets
attacking the school system. Speaking of the Normal School, he said:
"The young men who have attended six months at that institution and
leave it with certificates to teach, go forth into the country with the
most mistaken estimate of their own importance. They open schools
wherever accident places them, and by teaching and familiar intercourse,
combined with the example of nomadic habits, for they seldom remain
longer than twelve months in one place, they soon contaminate the minds
of the older pupils and also of young men who may reside in the
neighbourhood, by their doctrines of enlightened citizenship; and thus
these pupils soon learn to disdain honest labour."[129]
[129] The Toronto schools were at this time very expensively managed as
compared with schools in other cities of Upper Canada. This could not be
attributed to the expense of Normal-trained teachers. In 1858, ten years
after the Normal School was established, no Common School in Toronto was
in charge of a Normal-trained teacher, and only two or three such
teachers had ever been employed there. See D. H. E., Vol. XIII., p. 299.
In 1855, the Legislature had authorized a museum and library in
connection with the Department of Education. These were formally opened
in 1857 and the library contributed much to increase the efficiency of
the Normal School by widening the scope of the students' reading.
In the following year the Council of Public Instruction revised the
Normal School Regulations. Qualifications necessary for admission were
accurately set forth and the course of study defined for both second and
first-class certificates. There continued to be two sessions a year, but
students who entered to qualify for a second-class certificate spent two
or more sessions before reaching a standard entitling them to a
first-class certificate.
An interesting sidelight is thrown upon the nature of the instruction
given in the Toronto Normal School by the Report for 1868 of George
Paxton Young, Inspector of Grammar Schools. Young was trying to raise
the standard of the Grammar Schools, and shows how their improvement
would affect the Normal Schools. He says: "I suppose there can be no
doubt that if High Schools like those which I have described were
established, it would be necessary to modify the work of the Normal
School considerably. Teachers who would have to perform different duties
from what have hitherto been expected at their hands would need a
different training from what has hitherto been given. The instructions
in English in the Normal School would require to be raised to a far
higher level than is now aimed at. Much of the elementary drilling which
Normal School students at present receive might be dispensed with. Our
institution for the training of teachers ought not to be a school for
teaching English grammar. In the same way I would lighten the ship of
such subjects as the bare facts of geography and history; not rejecting
of course prelections on the proper method of teaching geography and
history. The English master in the Normal School might thus be enabled
to devote a portion of his time to lessons in the English language and
literature of a superior cast--lessons which he would have a pride in
giving and on which the students would feel it a privilege to wait. Such
lessons would be immensely useful even to those young men and women who
might only desire to qualify themselves for becoming Common School
teachers. In the department of physical science, it is plain that if the
views which I have expressed in regard to the way in which science
should be taught in the High Schools be just, the object of the
prelections in the Normal School should not be to cram the students with
a mass of facts but to develop in them a philosophic habit of mind and
to make them practically understand how classes in science ought to be
conducted in the schools."[130]
[130] See D. H. E., Vol. XX., p. 127.
No man in Canada was better qualified to estimate the real work of any
educational establishment than Young, and although he was not closely
connected with the Normal School, we may assume that his analysis was
essentially correct and that the study of formal grammar and the
acquisition of scientific facts bulked large in the Normal School
programme. In his report for 1867,[131] in speaking of the Normal and
Model Schools, Ryerson says: "They are not constituted as are most of
the Normal Schools in both Europe and America to impart the preliminary
education requisite for teaching. That preparatory education is supposed
to have been attained in the ordinary public or private schools. The
entrance examination to the Normal School requires this. The object of
the Normal and Model Schools is, therefore, to do for the teacher what
an apprenticeship does for the mechanic, the artist, the physician, the
lawyer--to teach him theoretically and practically how to do the work of
his profession."
[131] See D. H. E., Vol. XX., p. 139.
A little consideration will show us that a school trying to realize such
an aim and attempting to teach only the rudiments of the science of
education, upon which the theory of teaching is based, must become
empirical and rule-of-thumb in its methods. The real difficulty lay in
the inadequate preparation with which the teachers in training entered
upon their work. The Normal School could not improve until an
improvement should be effected in the Grammar Schools.
During the first nine sessions of the Normal School no certificates were
granted which entitled the holder to teach. The Normal School graduates
simply received certificates of attendance and had to submit to
examination by a County Board before securing a license. It almost
invariably happened that Normal School graduates were able to take a
high standing at these examinations, and hence Ryerson met with no
serious opposition from County Boards when in 1853 he proposed to issue
Provincial certificates to Normal School graduates upon the
recommendation of the Normal School masters. From 1853 to 1871 a dual
system of granting certificates was in operation. Normal School
graduates received Provincial certificates of various grades, and County
Boards issued certificates valid only in the county where issued. In
1871 a radical change was made, by which County Boards were allowed to
issue only third-class certificates valid for three years in the county
where given, and renewable on the recommendation of the County
Inspector. Second and first-class certificates were granted only by the
Department of Education and valid during good behaviour, and in any part
of the Province. A first-class certificate of the highest grade (Grade
"A") was made the qualification for County Inspectors. It should also be
noted that the third-class certificates referred to above were granted
after 1871 only upon the passing of a written examination upon papers
prepared by a central committee chosen by the Council of Public
Instruction. This was a radical change from the old method, which
allowed each County Board to fix its own standard, a plan which
necessarily led to many certificates being granted to wholly incompetent
persons.
The change of 1871, which virtually established a Provincial system of
licensing teachers, brought upon Ryerson's head much abuse from
incompetent teachers and their friends. The Superintendent stood firmly
by his guns, knowing well that his act was in the best interests of the
Province. A few words from his reply to those who objected that old
teachers were being set aside because of failure to pass the Provincial
examination is worth mentioning. He says: "I answer, as government
exists not for office-holders but for the people, so the school exists
not for the teachers but for the youth and future generations of the
land; and if teachers have been too slothful not to keep pace with the
progressive wants and demands of the country, they must, as should all
incompetent and indolent public officers, and all lazy and
unenterprising citizens, give place to the more industrious,
intelligent, progressive, and enterprising. The sound education of a
generation of children is not to be sacrificed for the sake of an
incompetent although antiquated teacher."[132]
[132] See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XIII., p. 131.
Having secured the adoption of a system by which all licensing of
teachers was under Departmental control, Ryerson next turned his
attention to an extension of facilities for training teachers. His plans
were comprehensive and had to wait thirty-five years for complete
realization. In 1872[133] he reported to the Provincial Treasurer as
follows: "I desire to state in reply that last year I thought and
suggested to the Government that two additional Normal Schools were
required, one in the eastern and the other in the western section of the
Province, but I am now inclined to think that three additional Normal
Schools will be required to extend the advantages of a Normal School
training to all parts of the Province--one at London, one at Kingston,
and one at Ottawa. If provision be not made to establish them all at
once, I think the first established should be at Ottawa--the centre of a
large region of country where the schools are in a comparatively
backward state, and where the influence of the Normal School training
for teachers has yet been scarcely felt except in a few towns, and which
is almost entirely separated from Toronto in all branches of business
and commerce, and therefore, to a great extent, in social relations and
sympathies.... As the whole Province east of Belleville is less advanced
and less progressive in schools than the western parts, I think a second
Normal School should be established at Kingston. The whole region of
country from Belleville, on the west, to Brockville, on the east, has
very little more business or commercial connection with Toronto than the
more eastern parts of the Province. Although London is not so remote
from Toronto as Ottawa or Kingston, yet it is the centre of a populous
and prosperous part of the Province from which an ample number of
student teachers would be collected to fill any Normal School.... With
the establishment of these three Normal Schools I am persuaded there
would still be as large a number of student teachers attending the
Toronto School as can advantageously be trained in one institution.... I
think all the Normal Schools should be subject to the oversight of the
Education Department and under the same regulations formally sanctioned
by the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council. This I think necessary on the
grounds of both economy and uniformity of standard and system of
instruction. As to the extent of accommodation in each Normal School, I
think that provision should be made for training 150 teachers in each
school."
[133] See D. H. E., Vol. XXIV., p. 22.
In the meantime, while negotiations for more Normal School accommodation
were in progress, an attempt was made to give some professional training
through teachers' institutes. As far back as 1850 the Legislature had
made a grant for such meetings, and they had been conducted by the
Normal School masters. In 1872 the plan was revised and some very
successful institutes held. The movement is important because out of it
grew County Model Schools, and the adoption of a principle which meant
some professional training for every teacher.
In 1875, a Normal School was opened at Ottawa, but the plan of having
schools at Kingston and London was abandoned largely because of the
apathy of the Legislature in regard to the expense. In fact it is
doubtful if any Government could have forced through the Legislature a
vote for such a purpose.
Ryerson found the schools in 1844 taught by teachers without
certificates and without professional training; he left them in 1876
with teachers, all of whom were certificated under Government
examinations, and many of whom were Normal-trained. More important
still, he had, by his lectures at County Conventions and by his
writings in the _Journal of Education_, created a sentiment throughout
the Province in favour of trained teachers. He thus made easy the
pathway of his successors in securing increased efficiency; but it may
be doubted whether any of his immediate successors achieved results in
keeping with the material advance of the Province.