Education in
Early British Columbia
Company Schools
The first school in Victoria was established in 1849. Although Fort Victoria
itself was established in 1843, white settlement did not begin in earnest until
the Colony of Vancouver Island was founded six years later. Many historians
have commented upon the “fairly rigid class structure”[1] that characterized the Hudson’s Bay
Company. One’s rank within the company determined one’s social standing and it
was inconceivable that children of different classes would mix in a common
school. As Barman notes, “In the new colony as in England,
education was perceived as having two prime functions: preparation to maintain
existing place within the social order, and inculcation of denominational
religious beliefs.”[2] Therefore, the first school established
was a “Company School” for the children of the senior managers within the company. The
Reverend Robert Staines was an Anglican cleric who arrived from England
on March 17th,
1849 and was expected to take care of the
spiritual and educational welfare of the new colony. He was assisted in his
educational duties by his wife. He received a salary from the Company of $1700
a year for maintaining a fee-based boarding school as well as $1000 a year for
serving as chaplain.[3]
Common Schools
Two years later it was decided that the privilege of an education
should not be restricted solely to the upper classes and Governor Douglas
recommended the establishment of a school for “the children of the laboring and
poorer classes.”[4] As a British colony, this school was to
provide “a good sound English education and nothing more” and was to be run by
an individual “of strictly religious principles”.[5] A company labourer by the name of Charles
Bailey was hired to be teacher and in 1852 Vancouver
Island’s first common school opened.
Despite receiving government funding, students were required to pay a $5 annual
fee towards the teacher’s salary as well as provide their own books and
supplies.[6] Originally housed in temporary quarters,
this common school moved to the first purpose-built schoolhouse in Minie’s
Plain just outside of Victoria in 1853. That same year the Island’s second common school opened in Nanaimo, and the
third common school would open in the Company’s agricultural settlement of
Craigflower near Victoria two years later. 1855 was also the year that the Reverend Edward
Cridge arrived in Victoria to take over as chaplain and headmaster from Rev. Staines. Expected
not only to “take charge of a Boarding School of a superior class”[7] he was also appointed Superintendent of
Schools for the Colony of Vancouver Island. In November 1856, Cridge reported
to Governor Douglas that the common school in Victoria was attended by
seventeen boys, aged 6-15, whereas the common school in Craigflower is attended
by twenty-one pupils, both male and female, aged 4-16.[8]
The distinction
between company, colonial, and common schools can be confusing although it
depends on what era is being referred to in order to differentiate between
them. The “Company School” refers to the elite boarding school first established in 1849 for
the upper-class employees of the HBC. “Common schools” are like our modern day
public schools in that there are publically funded and in 1865 the Common
School Act was passed. Therefore, any school established before this date was
often called a “Colonial School” although this term could also characterize any school established
prior to 1871 – the date British
Columbia entered
Confederation.
Catholic Education in BC
The Company School was not
the only school established in 1849. All the schools mentioned so far fell
under the jurisdiction of the HBC and were therefore very British – meaning
Anglican – in character. There were many Catholic settlers and employees of the
HBC as well and prior to the creation of the Colony of Vancouver Island
settlers of the Willamette Valley in Oregon Country requested that a priest be sent to their region.
This request was answered when Francis Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers
arrived to oversee the entire territory between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. In The History
of Catholic Education in British Columbia Edith E. Downs notes that both
priests had specific instructions to establish schools and catechism classes to
ensure the Christian education of youth among other tasks.[9] The diocese of Vancouver Island was
established on July 24, 1846 with Modeste
Demers in charge. A year later Demers travelled both to France
and Quebec in order to raise funds and obtain help for his new mission. While
he was away, the Reverend Honore Timothy Lempfrit was put in charge and it was
he who started Victoria’s first Catholic school in 1849. As Lempfrit originally boarded
with the Douglas family, it is not surprising that this occasion is mentioned by Sir
Douglas is one of his colonial reports of 1849.
"While on
the subject of schools, it will interest you to learn, that
Father Lempfrit,
a Roman Catholic missionary of the religious order of
“Oblates”, having
been deputed by the Archbishop of Oregon City to
prosecute his
ministry among the natives of Vancouver Island, was received
in this
establishment and is now in addition to his missionary labours,
conducting a
promising school, composed of the wives and children of the
Company’s
Canadian servants, who derive great benefit and are rapidly
improving in
respectability, under his zealous instructions. The Reverend
Father boards
with us but has hitherto received no other support from the
Company."[10]
Lempfrit
himself describes his circumstances in a letter dated 1850:
"... We
arrived here on June 6th. The fort was truly crowded and they could
give me a lodging
only after a few days. Since there was no church, I was
obliged to set up
my chapel in a large shed at the edge of the water. But
since it was too
far from the fort, I obtained a place where I was able to set
up a more decent
chapel and to start a little school. For on arriving here I
found the poor
children of our French Canadians in the deepest ignorance,
not knowing even
how to make the sign of the Cross. I announced that I
was going to take
charge of their instructions without at the same time
neglecting my
poor Indians. From the beginning I have had from 20 to 25
pupils. Lately, I
have fewer because several have gone to other forts.
I think that
within a short time they will build me a house outside the fort,
where I shall be
freer, since the poor Indians are a bit fearful and since
nearly all our
French Canadians are living outside (the fort)."[11]
After
Father Lempfrit left Victoria in 1851, Catholic education was sporadic at best until the arrival
of the Sisters of St. Ann in 1858. Responding a request for service put forth
by Bishop Demers, the Sister’s arrived in a “tent city” instead of an isolated
fort as expected. The gold rush had struck and permanently altered the flavor
of Victoria. When asked during the journey if the Sisters too were attempting
to seek their fortune, Sister Mary Angele replied no and “they were astonished
that we were concerned not about gold but only for the welfare of society by
devoting our lives to the education of youth.”[12] The rustic conditions and lack of
resources necessitated the lack of class division: Blacks, Caucasians,
Aboriginals, elite, poor, Catholics, Protestants, Jews all sat next to each other
on the rough-hewn planks that were used instead of desks. However, as the town
grew and the Sister’s school expanded, more class divisions and race divisions manifested (See Beginnings - The First Ten Years). Commencing in 1859 a series of advertisements were placed in the Weekly
British Colonist by Bishop Demers announcing the opening of a “Select School” for
young ladies run by the Sisters.
Common School Act 1865 -1869
This “Select School” was
not the first of its kind in Victoria and a quick scan of the early issues of the British Colonist will
reveal many advertisements for similar private institutions. Before education
was regulated by the government, any one could become a teacher and anyone
could open a school. However, this system did not sit well with the editor of
the British Colonist, Amor de Cosmos, who as an outsider from Nova Scotia, would
regularly complain against the Island’s “Family-Company-Compact”. In one of his editorials published February 18th, 1860 he put forth an argument for the creation of a Free School
Plan. Noting that despite the creation of the
Colonial School, Victoria has no public system of education and the “tuition
fee is a burlesque on the value of a good education.”[13] De Cosmos did not wish to interfere with select
schools; he only wanted to extend the opportunity of education to all children
for “There is something noble – morally sublime, in a country so providing for
the instruction of its youth, that none, however poor or unfortunate, need grow
up untaught.”[14] This opinion was shared by a significant
enough portion of the population that by 1865 the campaign led by de Cosmos resulted
in the creation of the Common School Act. Providing for free,
non-sectarian education this Act was an important turning point in the history
of education on the Island and in British
Columbia.
Post 1869
Repealed by
the 1869 Common School Ordinance, this new Act did not specifically
state that education was to be free and non-sectarian. By the time British Columbia
entered Confederation in 1871 the “deteriorating educational and economic
situation of the last half-dozen years had amply reconfirmed the need for free
non-denominational school.”[15] According to the British Colonist,
this was one of the key issues in the creation of a new provincial legislature
and “no candidate, be his private opinion what they might, volunteered to say a
word against this form of education.”[16] In 1872, the Public School Act
was established. This allowed schools to be funded through revenue from the
Province and created school districts. A Board of Education and School
Superintendent were also appointed. The objective of this act was “to give
every child in the Province such knowledge as will fit him to become a useful
and intelligent citizen in after years.”[17]
Denominational schools had been recognized when British Columbia entered Confederation and thus
became part of the provincial system. However, with the passing of the 1872
act, the request for funding for any type of religious or non-public school was
firmly rejected. Public opinion supported this stance as illustrated by a
letter in the Colonist from April 1872.
"Now
to establish a denominational school in such a community is nothing more than
to keep up the caste divisions in a country where "Jack is as good as his
master" - where are we suppose to ignore the old fogey teaching of the old
country where children are taught to regard the squire and the parson with
dreadful and deferential awe."[18]
Not until over one-hundred
years later would the province extend official recognition and financial
support to private schools.
[1] Barman, Jean, “The Emergence of Educational Structures
in Nineteenth-Century British Columbia” in Children, Teachers, and Schools
in the History of British Columbia, 2nd edition, ed. Jean Barman and
Mona Gleason (Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd. 2003), 14.
[2]
Barman, Jean, “The Emergence of Educational Structures in Nineteenth-Century
British Columbia” in Children, Teachers, and Schools in the History of
British Columbia, 2nd edition, ed. Jean Barman and Mona Gleason
(Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd. 2003), 14.
[3]Barman,
Jean, “The Emergence of Educational Structures in Nineteenth-Century British
Columbia” in Children, Teachers, and Schools in the History of British
Columbia, 2nd edition, ed. Jean Barman and Mona Gleason
(Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd. 2003), 14.
[4]
Dunae, Dr. Patrick A., Timeline: 1840s-1940s, The Homeroom: British Columbia’s History of Education Website, March
25, 2008, <http://www.mala.bc.ca/homeroom/content/timeline/1840s/1850.html>
[5]
Barman, Jean, “The Emergence of Educational Structures in Nineteenth-Century
British Columbia” in Children, Teachers, and Schools in the History of
British Columbia, 2nd edition, ed. Jean Barman and Mona Gleason
(Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd. 2003), 14.
[6]
Barman, Jean, “The Emergence of Educational Structures in Nineteenth-Century
British Columbia” in Children, Teachers, and Schools in the History of
British Columbia, 2nd edition, ed. Jean Barman and Mona Gleason
(Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd. 2003), 14.
[7]
Barman, Jean, “The Emergence of Educational Structures in Nineteenth-Century
British Columbia” in Children, Teachers, and Schools in the History of
British Columbia, 2nd edition, ed. Jean Barman and Mona Gleason
(Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd. 2003), 15.
8]
Dunae, Dr. Patrick A., Timeline: 1840s-1940s, The Homeroom: British Columbia’s History of Education Website, March
25, 2008, <http://www.mala.bc.ca/homeroom/content/timeline/1840s/1850.html>
[9]
List of Objectives:
“evangelize
the natives.
bring
Christians into line with Church teachings.
spread
the gospel
establish
schools and catechism classes to ensure the Christian education of youth
study
the Indian languages and prepare a grammar.
baptize
and substitute lawful marriage for irregular unions.
establish
schools and catechism classes to ensure the Christian
education
of youth.
plant
crosses in all remarkable places.”
Down, Edith E. , The History of Catholic Education
in British Columbia, 1847-1900, CCHA, Study Sessions, 50
(1983), 569-90. March 25, 2008, 7.
<http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1983-84/Down.pdf>
[10]
Down, Edith E. , The History of Catholic Education in British
Columbia, 1847-1900, CCHA, Study Sessions, 50 (1983), 569-90. March
25, 2008, 8.
<http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1983-84/Down.pdf
[11]
Down, Edith E. , The History of Catholic Education in British
Columbia, 1847-1900, CCHA, Study Sessions, 50 (1983), 569-90. March
25, 2008, 9.
<http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/Back%20Issues/CCHA1983-84/Down.pdf>
[12]
Sister Mary Angele, Journal, 3.
[13]
Amor de Cosmos, “National Education”, The Weekly British Colonist, February
18, 1860.
[14]
Amor de Cosmos, “National Education”, The Weekly British Colonist, February
18, 1860.
[15] Barman, Jean,
“The Emergence of Educational Structures in Nineteenth-Century British
Columbia” in Children, Teachers, and Schools in the History of British
Columbia, 2nd edition, ed. Jean Barman and Mona Gleason
(Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd. 2003), 23.
[16] Barman, Jean,
“The Emergence of Educational Structures in Nineteenth-Century British
Columbia” in Children, Teachers, and Schools in the History of British
Columbia, 2nd edition, ed. Jean Barman and Mona Gleason
(Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd. 2003), 24.
[17]
Shirley Cuthbertson, A Highlight History of British Columbia Schools
from Royal BC Museum, Online Exhibits, Thunderbird Park, Schoolhouse Display. March
25, 2008,
<http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/exhibits/tbird-park/main.htm?lang=eng>
[18]
“Citizen”, Letter to the Editor, Colonist, April 13, 1872.
