'Skule Marms' and Nasal Harmony

Educating Victoria's Canadian Children

No doubt there are many arguments over who was the first Canadian teacher, but since we know that the aboriginal Canadians began educating their children from the time they took their first breath, we can safely say that he or she lived thousands of years ago. However, the first Immigrant or Euro-Canadian teacher was probably Marie Rollet, wife of Louis Hebert; who instructed the Huron children in French, reading and writing; as well as instruction in the Christian faith.

Two of My Great-Aunts Elisabeth and Therese

When the Jesuits arrived in the early seventeenth century, they set up residential schools, teaching not only religion, but reading, writing and even navigation; and later the convent schools instructed young girls; mainly in religion and domestic skills.

Until the late nineteenth century, most schooling took place in the home, but the skills learned were usually those of the parents, so if they were unable to read and write, their children would grow up in the same state. In wealthy families, the sons were often sent to the schoolmaster in the nearest town, where they would reside for the length of the school term.   When examining old census records, I found one of my ancestors listed as a  'Scholar', though he was only 9 years of age.  I later learned that this simply meant that he was a 'pupil' of the head of the household.   There were also  "dame" schools, where a young and educated girl would take a few pupils for their early lessons. However, generally speaking, education was sporadic.  In 1874, a British visitor wrote in The Gentleman Immigrant:

"Whether the absence of a school is a disadvantage, depends on the social status of the parents. National schools, such as one finds in the back townships of Canada, are in every way adapted to the requirements of the ordinary run of settlers, but they are not precisely the kind of academies to which a gentleman would like to send his children. It is doubtless very amusing to read of the rough-and-ready way in which instruction is imparted by the Canadian skulemarm. The man who had any real regard for his children, would much prefer to instruct them himself, and he could do that in the woods. The only accomplishments that girls would be likely to acquire in a back settlement, would be singing, or the nasal harmony which passes muster for it, quilting, and patchwork; and if they were every smart indeed, they might possibly attain to cross-stitch, and achieve a kettle-holder or a marker for the family Bible.

"In the large towns, there are excellent schools where boys are prepared for the learned professions, and where girls are taught everything, from sewing on a button to bravura singing and water-colour drawing. But hamlets are not towns, and in back settlements educational advantages in a liberal sense there are none".

In the 1849 A Treatise on Domestic Economy, Miss Beecher campaigns for "less intellectual excitements and more domestic pursuits" for young girls, stating that women needed no rights only homes. "... neat and cheerful kitchens would help girls grow up with good domestic habits. No matter what the circumstances of the family might be...sweeping, dusting, care of furniture and beds as well as the starching and fancy cooking should all be done by daughters and not by hired help". Throughout the Era, many books were published specially for children, though they were often expensive, and leaned heavily on theology.  Mrs. Wright, in Practical Life, published in Brantford, Ontario in 1881, stated: "Once a child could read, he could, be much entertained with home readings, especially when these are well selected: not expecting the young to be always satisfied 'with mouthing, Bolingbroke, or Pitt, or Burke, or Clay, or Pope -though they will be willing to use these with livelier works. Among pleasant readings for the home circle  we will find: Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome; Lamb's Essays of Elia; Hood's Lost Heir; Tennyson's Poems, Thackeray's Four Georges, etc." A little light reading.   The Bible and Pilgrim's Progress were also highly recommended and a must for every home library. In 1894, Light on Dark Corners, warns of the danger in reading evil literature:

Much of the evil literature is sold in nickel and dime novels, of which constitutes the principal part of the contents of such papers as the Police Gazette, the Police News and a large proportion of the sensational story books which flood the land. You might better place a coal of fire or a live viper in your bosom, then allow yourself to read such a book. Many of the papers and magazines sold at our news stands, and eagerly sought after by young men and boys, are better suited for the parlours of a house of ill-fame than for the eyes, of pure-minded youth.  When the devil determines to take charge of a young soul, he often employs a very ingenious method. He slyly hands a little novel filled with

voluptuous forms', 'reclining on bosoms', 'languishing eyes' etc. For years there has been a great craze after the nude in art, and the realistic in literature. Many art galleries abound in pictures and statuary which cannot fail to fan the fires of sensualism'; unless the thoughts of the visitor are trained in the strictest purity. Why should artists and sculptors persist in shocking the finer sensibilities of old and young of both sexes by crowding upon their view representations of naked human forms in attitudes of luxurious abandon?"

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