Public Education In Upper Canada

In The Idea of Popular Schooling in Upper Canada, Anthony Di Mascio analyzes debates about education in the burgeoning print culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In it, he finds that a widespread movement for popular schooling in Upper Canada began in earnest from the time of the colony's first Loyalist settlers. Reviving the voices of Upper Canada's earliest school advocates, Di Mascio reveals the lively public discussion about the need for a common system of schooling for all the colony's children. Despite different and often contentious opinions on the means and ends of schooling, there was widespread agreement about its need by the 1830s, when the debate was no longer about whether a popular system of schooling was desirable, but about what kinds of schools would be established. The making of educational legislation in Upper Canada was a process in which many inhabitants, both inside and outside of government, participated. The Idea of Popular Schooling in Upper Canada is the first full survey of schooling in Canada to focus on the pre-1840 period and how it framed policy debates that continue to the present day.

Excerpt from Public Education in Upper Canada Bill; Mr. Mahlon Burwell's Bill; visit of Dr. Charles Duncombe to the United States; his report and draft of a Common School Bill. The Com mon School Act of 1841; its chief provisions. Subsequent legislation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

We tend to think of contemporary concern for reform in education as unprecedented in its intensity and scope. But as this book about mid-nineteenth century educational ideology shows, the urge to improve society through its schools has been with us a long time. The author examines the attitudes that shaped the Ontario public school system during its formative years, when Upper Canadians first explored and the provincial government finally adopted the principle of compulsory mass schooling under the auspices and control of the state.