| ||||||||||||||||
| The educational programmes of the small schools were designed, first and foremost, to instill solid moral and Christian principles. This was, moreover, the reason the schools had been established in the first place. Most of the children were generally admitted to school around the age of eleven, and only remained several months — at most, a year — this being the amount of time required to prepare for their first communion and acquire the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Those who remained in school longer were learning the basics, then pushing on to acquire manual skills: trades for boys; sewing, spinning, knitting and even fine embroidery for girls. For the latter, however, acquiring a fear of God, combatting idleness, keeping themselves tidy, behaving properly and learning to make their own “rags” were the essential teaching goals. | ||||||||||||||||
Other Times, Other CustomsOn the subject of education for girls, Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier released the following recommendation in the rules for boarders of the Congrégation Notre-Dame in 1689:
In the trade schools, boys remained longer. Amédée Gosselin notes several cases of students who remained at the schools from one to six years, depending on the child’s family situation and the generosity of the benefactors who underwrote the cost of their boarding. |
|
|||||||||||||||
Go to School, Yes, But . .The time devoted to education depended on several factors, including the geographic milieu (urban or rural), the social class of the child (nobility, middle class, working class), the status of the student (boarder or day pupil), the type of religious community which offered the teaching (secular or religious) and the status of the students themselves (religious or secular).In addition, in a young colony early settlers had to adapt to a range of unusual factors. In New France, these included an immense open territory, a sparse population,a harsh climate and a lack of good roads — to say nothing of the numerous conflicts between the French and the Native peoples, which would endure throughout the entire French colonial period. No Report CardsIt remains impossible to obtain a precise idea of the knowledge acquired by the children of the colony, since lesson plans, class records and report cards are lacking for the French regime. Except for those boys who followed the Classics course at the Jesuit college, there wasn’t a fixed period of study, either. The schoolmaster or schoolmistress in religious teaching communities was the one who evaluated the progress of each child, deciding if he or she should pass from one level to the next: for example, from the learning of letters to the formation of words, then sentences; or from the learning of numbers to the more advanced operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.Humble SurroundingsTo get an idea of what a school was like under the French regime, one must imagine one or two premises, dividing students of different ages. In boarding schools like those of the Ursulines or Jesuits, boarders were further separated from day pupils in order to avoid “bad outside influences”, and Native children were separated from the children of French colonists, since they couldn’t follow the same courses in the same languages. Canadian and Native boarders, however, shared the same dining halls, dormitories and recreational courses.In general, furnishings were minimal. There were long benches without backs, a few tables reserved for writing (supplemented by the dining hall, if writing tables weren’t available) and pious images on the walls. A lectern stood in a corner, holding the one book used for reading, of which only the schoolmaster or schoolmistress was allowed to turn the pages. A single cupboard held pens, ink, paper and the primers which were used by students to help them form their letters. These materials were used sparingly, since they had to be imported from France and were thus expensive. A Personalized ApproachTeaching was individualized. The schoolmaster or schoolmistress moved among small groups, formed of three or four students at a time, each group practicing different activities. Some took turns reading aloud; others traced out their letters; still others repeated their catechism lesson or a new prayer. When the teaching personnel was numerous enough, teachers specialized in catechism, writing or crafts succeeded one other with the students. It should be underlined that arithmetic was considered a writing activity. When a student had mastered a lesson, he or she could pass to the next one. Progress thus depended on a student’s ability to learn.In addition to respect for the learning rhythms of children, another important principle of teaching consisted of never overburdening the spirt of a student, or of inculcating notions too advanced, particularly in religious matters. Care was recommended in the regulations of teaching communities, underlining that the instruction of children is “a very hard thing” and very delicate. Teachers being responsible for the innocent “little souls” entrusted to them, they were warned that they would have to render a very precise account to God after death. |
|
|||||||||||||||
Other Times, Other Customs
