ACTION AND ADVOCACY: ALFRED FITZPATRICK AND THE EARLY HISTORY OF FRONTIER COLLEGE

Erica Martin

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Adult Education, Cornrnunity Development and Counselling Psychology Ontano Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto

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Action and Advocacy : Alfred Fitzpatrick and the Early History of Frontier College

Degree of Master of Arts 2000

Department of Adult Education, Community Development and Counselling Psychology

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

Enca Martin

This thesis examines the early history of Frontier College, the oldest adult education organization in Canada. This examination draws upon social and educational influences on the organization's founder, Alfred Fitzpatrick. The thesis then documents and analyses the founding of the Reading Camp Association - later renarned Frontier College - and the development of the labourer-teacher model, both of which were designed to deliver educationd services on the frontien. It investigates Fitzpatrick's overall pnnciples and the achievements of his organization, specifically its capacity both to challenge and uphold existing rnodels of social and political power. Finally, the thesis draws conclusions about education, action and advocacy from a historical perspective. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my grandfather, who gave me the title, and everything beyond the words. To my grandmother, whose gifts sustain me.

And to George, who made this possible in every way. You gave me the spark, and more.

Thanks also to my family: my mother, Joanna, my father and Emma for harbouring me and humouring me throughout.

1am grateful to Frontier College for allowing me to complete this thesis. Special mentions to John O'Leary, George and JOCook, and Jim Momson.

Appreciations to Aian Thomas for his thorough reading and critical comrnents. And. finally, 1 th& Barbara Bumaby, for her acadernic support and her humanity, and for showing me it could be done. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ...... 1 Justification for the Study ...... -3 Contents of the Study ...... 3 LimitationsoftheStudy ...... 3 ANoteaboutLanguage ...... 6

I . Literature Review and Historiogruphy ...... 8 The Philosophy of Adult Education in Canada: Roots and Current Concems ... 8 Research on Canadian Educationai History: pre- 1970 ...... 10 Research on Canadian Educationai History: post- 1970 ...... 14 Goals of this Thesis ...... 18

2. Socio-historie Background: Immigration. Education und the Frontiers ... 20 Conditions on the Frontiers ...... 20 Immigration ...... 24 Xenophobia ...... 30 Summary:Immigntion ...... 33 Education ...... 34 Assistance for Immigrant Workers on the Frontiers ...... 42 Sumrnary:Education ...... 47

3 . FitqatrrWck's Eorly History ...... 48 Biography ...... 48 Fitzpatrick's View of the Problem and its Solution ...... 54 Summary ...... 59

4. The Labourer-Teacher ...... 61 Development ...... 61 Duties of the Labourer-Teacher ...... *...... 69 Thepeople ...... 76 GrowthintheProgram ...... 83 Operations during World War 1 ...... 86

5.Conclusion ...... 90 Cumulative Summary ...... 90 Fitzpahick's Principles ...... 92 Advocacy and Co-optation ...... 95 Contemporary Implications ...... 97

Bibliography ...... 102 INTRODUCTION

Alfred Fitzpatrick, the founder of Frontier College, was a passionate and eccentnc visionary. He has been described as a gentleman: "tall and graceful in appearance, always soft- spoken and courteous in manner" (Zavitz 1974: 13). He has also been portnyed as nervous, awkward and gaunt (Lucas in Rogers 1988). Many friends and colleagues mentioned that he was a drearner: according to Jessie Lucas, the secretary-treasurer of the organization, "when his innovative mind seized an idea, no infrequent occurrence, his hair would stand out from his head and his eyes sparkled with electnc excitement" (in Zavitz 1974: 13). Othen saw this

"dreamy" quality as absentmindedness or distraction. describing Fitzpatrick as a "shy, ascetic, bespectacled, nervous man . . . whose energy overcame his personality" (Cook 1976: 16).

Like these cornpeting views of the man, a study of Fitzpatrick's early work in founding the Reading Camp Association - later called Frontier College - leads to ambivalent conclusions. Fitzpatrick was an educational pioneer who experimented throughout his life with

ways of bringing leaming to the frontien. Many of his ideas were unusual for his time, genenting new pedagogical or social principles. At the same time, Fitzpatnck advocated a

liberai approach to social change; such a graduaiist view did not attempt to transform existing

oppressive situations. In this way, he both subverted and supporied the power structures of his day. Justification for the Studv

My f~stpurpose in writing this thesis is documentary: to help broaden and strengthen the insufficient body of literature on the history of non-forma1 adult education in Canada. As discussed below, little has been written on this subject despite a long history of innovative adult education work in this country. As Canada's oldest non-formal education organization,

Frontier College is under-represented in academic and non-academic writing. It is a topic which begs for further study.

My second motivation is interpretive. The current gospel about adult education in

Canada maintains that the field has undergone a gradua1 and enormous transformation: from a community-based movement which encounged societal change to a professionalized provider of autonomous skills to individual students. Over its history, Frontier College has stmggled with the coexistence of - and contradictions between - these two purposes for education. Thus, the institution is a medium through which this tension cm be exarnined.

When educators and poiicy maken are attempting to understand and resolve such tensions, they should look to the past, to the Canadian legacy of innovation in teaching methods and prognm design. Al1 of the facets of adult education - who participates, where, how, why, what they lem and in what socio-political context - have roots in historicai movements and events. An historicai analysis of the roots of the cuxrent system cm contribute to the necessary contemporary debate on the future of adult education in Canada. In this way, the reading of history can be "the basis for exarnining the philosophy which guides practice"

(Draper 1998: 35). Contents of the Studv

This thesis will examine the early history of Frontier College through its capacity both to challenge and uphold ideas about education, advocacy, oppominity and social change.

Chapter One focusses on research and historiography. It includes a literature review and an examination of the changing nature of historical writing about adult education in Canada.

Chapter Two looks at the socio-historic context of the turn of the Iast century . It pays particular attention to immigration. education and the motivations and practices of those organizations which served newcomers to Canada. Chapter Three examines Fitzpatrick's own history, including the people, social movements and contemporary ideologies which infiuenced his work and his principles. Chapter Four details the founding of the Reading Camp Association and the development of the labourer-teacher model, both of which were designed to deliver educational services on the frontiers. This section highiights expecta~ions,evaluations, characteristics and exarnples of early labourer-teachers. Finally, Chapter Five synthesizes the previous sections by examining Fitzpatrick's overall principles and achievements. It then draws conclusions about education, action and advocacy from a histoncal perspective.

Limitations of the Studv

The history of Frontier College is filled with fascinating possibilities for historical

research and anaiysis. However, for the purposes of this thesis, 1will cover ody a limited

penod in the organization's history. Foiiowing Robinson's 1960 taxonomy, the Collep' s history cm be divided into three periods. The fmt of these, from 1899 until 19 19, includes the founding and early development of the organization and its labourer-teacher model; this was "a period of establishment, recognition and rapid growth" (Robinson 1960: 13). It is distinct from the subsequent penod which involved the elaboration and diffusion of the organization's established principles into a rich variety of connected practices. Unlike Robinson, however, 1 will cover oniy the penod up to and including 19 18. This decision is motivated by several significant events which occurred within the organization in 19 19. First, the organization received an Ontario charter. which would lead to its doomed federd charter to gant university degrees; second, it began promulgating an ovedy political and anti-socialist agenda by sending labourer-teachers into relief camps. Both aspects extended the scope of the original labourer-teacher idea, and thus they correspond better with Robinson's second period. Both these events have also been studied extensively, by Cook and Zavitz-Robinson respectively.

In addition to restricting the penod of adult education history to be studied, 1 will also concentrate on statistics and perspectives from English Canada. It could be argued that generaiizing about such a region (more a cultural than a territorial domain) is impossible, given its geographic, econornic and historic variety. As Dawson and Titley note, "'diversity in

Canadian educational practice is not merely the consequence of making that service a provincial prerogative; it is also due to the peculiar historical expenences of each region"

(1982: 3). 1believe there are enough cultural sirnilarities and comrnon institutions (such as

Frontier College) to rnake the category workable. As the history, historiography, institutions and culture of education in French Canada are notably different from those of English Canada, I do not include that region in this studyl.

Although citizens of both cultures recognized the need for education and community development, they developed separate institutions to provide these services. For exarnple, like other parts of the country, French Canada was strongly involved in the cooperative rnovement.

The leader of this movement was Alphonse Desjardins, who founded the Caisses Populaires in

1900. As well, the Societé Jean-Baptiste, founded in 1834, and the Institut Canadien, founded in 1844, were both indigenous to Quebec and absent in the rest of the country. Frorn its early days, Frontier College was one of the few tmly national educational institutions. It employed a few French-speaking labourer-teachers, placing them in Quebec or other Francophone areas.

Bilingual labourer-teachers were often placed in English Canada; the role of these men in developing English-French ties within Canada remains to be explored.

Another significant challenge in completing this work is my close relationship to it. 1 was a labourer-teacher in 199 1; while 1 write this thesis, I am also working at Frontier College as the Assistant Director of the Labourer-Teacher Program and the de facto archivist on staff.

Wlethis gives me access to a great deal of historical and contemporary material, it dso puts me in a somewhat delicate position in terms of presenting the organization's early history,

"warts and dl".As Welton notes, "history written by insiders or movement activists suffers from a number of flaws: it is insufficiently cntical, seldom self-consciously interpretive and

' For a more detailed cornparison of English-Canadian and French-Canadian historiographies, see Gagan and Tumer ( 1987). overly focussed on the achievements of individual men and women" ( 1987: 5). 1 have tried, in this research, to be as objective as my necessariiy-subjective position dlows'.

A Note about Language

1 began my graduate studies after having worked for several years in the field of adult education. As a part of my work and my professiond development, I read reports, studies and papers about the field. 1 was cornfortable with the subject matter and eager for the chance to reflect on rny experiences and to expand my understanding. However, I was completely unprepared for the arcane language 1 encountered in the academy, particulariy in classes which used postmodem theory as a basis for their analysis. The only purpose of such, it seerned to me, was to make the uninitiated painfully aware of their status as outsiders.

To assuage my hstrations, 1 approached a professor whom 1 respected and explained my concems. No, he assured me, the "difficult" jargon was not designed to make people feel stupid. It was developed to describe concepts which were outside "everyday" perceptions: exuaordinary ideas, he claimed, needed new and unusual words to describe them.

This is not true. I have been irnmersed in many non-Engiish-speaking environments where 1was forced to cornmunicate in a language over which 1 did not have full control. 1 have also taught English as a secondlforeign language to people with various leveis of education. In our respective roles as second/foreign-language Iearners with lirnited vocabularies, rny

Recently, the writing of history has become increasingly contentious because of contemporary beliefs about its epistemologicai impossibility. By locating myself in relation to this snidy, 1 am refushg to submit to such an illogicd extension of postmodem paranoia. students and 1have ken eager and able to discuss remarkably complex ideas. This has taught me that anything - no matter how cornplicated or 'outside the everyday" - can be explained in simple language, if the speaker and listener are willing.

It is incongruous to me that adult education - which asserts that the content and design of educational prograrnming should be as inclusive and as accessible as possible - transrnits its messages in such a selective code. This further reinforces the divide between acadernics and practitioners, between researchen and their subjects, between teachers and their students. This contradicts the trend towards equality of participation and access to information which is recomrnended both by researches and practitioners of adult education.

For these reasons, 1 will present my thesis in (relatively) plain language. 1 hope it is both understandable and useful to others. CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW AND HISTORIûGRAPHY

The social, geographical. political and economic context ut any given time greatiy detennines not only what people leam. but [nlso] why and how they learn (Draper 1998: 39)

The Philosophy of Adult Educaûon in Canada: Roots and Current Concems

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, adult education began as a group of overlapping social movements nin by "gifted amateurs out to change the world (Welton 1995:

49). These idealistic men and women often combined adult education with either religious thought (particularly Christian beliefs. as with the Antigonish Movement) or with sociaiist piinciples (for example, J.S. Woodsworth). They were concemed with empowering individuals and communities to "overcome arduous circumstances" (Selman et al. 1998: 166) by collectively suuggling for learning, social justice and the redistribution of political and econornic power (Jarvis 1991: 307).

However, beginning in the 1920s, adult education began a metmorphosis into a

"secular" profession. This trend increased in the 1930s with the creation of the Canadian

Association of Adulr Education (CAAE). It accelented strongly during the 1950s, pnmuily

due to the efforts of J. Roby Kidd the CAAETsdirector. During subsequent decades, the

number of Canadians partkipating in adult education grew exponentialiy, from less than 5 percent in the 1960s, to 33 percent in the 1990s (Sehan et al. 1998: 378). The number of institutions delivenng adult education expanded analogously, both in the forma1 (i.e., community colleges) and non-formal sectors. Gndually, adult education changed from a system which fùnctioned on the cornmitment and goodwill of volunteer educaton to one which valued credentials, for both teachers and adult snidents3. The field was increasingly concemed with "the standards and problems of practice (and often . . . institutional self-interest)" (Selman

1995: 16). Furthemore. the validity of techniques in adult education was increasingly proven through theory and research rather than only through practice".

As the field becarne increasingly professionalized, its goals shifted from social transformation to the transmission of skills to meet individuai needs. This latter agenda did not set out to alter social or political relationships, although it allowed such modifications to occur as a byproduct of personal leamin$. More commonly, however. change was focussed at the individuai level rather than the societal level. While this shift in orientation gave adult education both recognition and (to some degree) status, rnany anaiysts have momed the

(perceived) loss of adult education's mission-dnven ideaiism:

Although the field of adult education has become increasingly concemed with credentials for teachers, it has not yet "acquired the two critical characteristics of professionalization: certification and convol of entry to practice" (Alan Thomas, personal communication).

4 It was only during the late 1950s that the first Canadian univeaity programs were developed to study adult education, at the University of British Columbia and at the University of Guelph. Similar programs had existed in the United States since 19 17. at Columbia University (Selman et al. 1998: 3 19).

Thomas suggests that "advocacy and the provision of skills have . . .gone hand in hand throughout the history of [adult education in Canada]" (personal communication). At the very least, the line be tween societal education and instrumental individual leaming is often "mystenous" (Selman 1995: 16). Many of our forefather and foremother educators of adults would have been shocked and dismayed at the extent to which the modem practice of adult education has capitulated to a technocratic ideology, market-driven logic and rampant individualism. (Welton 1995: 50)

This shift has also had consequences in ternis of the relationship between action and

advocacy. Adult education practitioners must now define their role: are they merely providers

of content or do they have a responsibility to change the socio-economic factors and related

policies which prevent their students frorn achieving learning and life goals?

Research on Canadian Educational History: pre- 1970

Most wnting in Canada on the history of education has focussed on the stnictures and

the effects of school systems designed for children (Graff 199 1: 204)'. Consequently. the study

of the history of adiilt education in Canada has been genenlly neglected. For example,

international adult education handbooks do not mention Canadian program developed before

the mid-1930s (Kidd 1950: 12). There was dso Iittie writing produced in Canada about adult

education before the 1950s (Selman et al. 1W8), with the few exceptions of Fitzpatrick's

writing (see below) and selected works by Sandiford (1935), the CAAE (1936- ) and Coady

Authors in Nova Scotia and Ontario had aiready produced works about their respective school systems before 1900 (Stamp 1968: 8). The fitcomprehensive work on Canadian education focussing primarily education for chiidren in the school system was The Developrnent of Education in Canada, written by C.E. Philiips in 1957 (Stamp 1968: 8). The fitanalogous work in the United States had been published 45 years earlier, in 19 12. (1939)~.A focus on schools also ignores the history and historiography of non-formal education - that which is delivered outside the school system. This is unfortunate, as Canada has a particularly strong tradition of non-govermental organizations developing and delivering innovative educational prograrns (Draper 1998: 42).

Like most early histoncal writing in Canada, most early histones of adult education in this country "tended to dwell on consensus and [were] unconcemed with the sources of division and disunity except insofar as these became subjects for the politics of compromise"

(Berger 1976: 263). Historical studies of education were generally positive-looking pieces pointing to continuous improvements in the field, with a strong bias towards education-for- nation-building'. One example of this perspective was F. Henry Johnson's 1968 classic work, A

Brief History of Canadian Education. Similarly, "traditional" histones of adult education looked to the past to discover the biographies of "heroic" founders of programs or organizations9.This was based on historians' class perspective and their belief (however erroneous) that such "top-down" history would be easier or more practical to study. Such attention to individual achievements camouflaged the work of those people in the background who worked to make educationai leaders' ideas practicd or possible. It also obscured the effect

As Thomas points out, writing about early adult learning and adult education does exist, although not often labelled as such (personai communication).

Ironically, the converse was seldom me: histories of Canada often focussed on political or economic factors, ignoring the contribution of education to national development (Starnp 1968: 2).

Reese notes that in the American context, many educational histories focussing on immigrants or cultural minonties are still guilty of this "biographical fallacy" (1983: 237). of social context on individuai effordO.According to Wilson (1984). few early wnters of educational history were histonans; most were educationalists engaged in training hiture teachers. However. their narrow perspective was typicd of early Canadian historiognphy and cannot be blamed entirely on their discipline.

In addition, most early writing about Canadian adult education prograrns was produced by the organizations described in the publications. Such panegync pieces, "with little evidence of a strong theoretical framework or an informing world-view", (Selman et al. 1998: 40 1) did not provide ngorous anaiysis (Gordon and Szreter 1989); instead. they served only to propagate existing rnyths about their organizations and foundee. This phenornenon was hardly surprising: since adult education has always been struggling for existence - not to mention legitimacy and funding - extemal or public criticism could be extremely detrimental to an organization's survival.

Such a singular f'ocus also did not dlow for comparative historical studies (Graff 199 1:

204). This could be based on a tradition established before adult education had developed into a movernent, in which practitioners often saw their affiliations with their particular institution, rather than with the field in total. Similarly, in early writing about Canadian adult education,

"idealistic views tendredl to be linked with the account of particular education prograrns nther than be[ing] stated as general philosophicai positions" (Selman et al. 1998: 298). It cm also be attnbuted to the lack of writing in the field: research on individual organizations - a

'O History does not happen in a vacuum. An awareness of the historiographical fallacy of individualism has spurred my examination of the contextuai factors - individuals as weil as social and political rnovements - which influenced the pnnciples and actions of Alfred Fitzpatrîck. prerequisite for comparative study - did not yet exist. Recent exceptions to such a singular focus cm be found in Selman et al. (1998), Welton (1995, 1987) and, to a smailer extent,

W itter ( 1979).

Frontier College has been well-represented in this kind of "traditional" histoncal writing. For example, several secondary sources have discussed the edy history of the organization through a biography of its founder. Alfred Fitzpatrick. These include Sutherland's

1968 B.D. thesis, "Alfred Fitzpatrick and the Frontier College" and Momson's "Alfred

Fitzpatrick: Founder of Frontier College". As well, throughout its 100 yem of history, the organization's work has been presented in popular magazines and books, including cornmernorative pieces like Momson's Camps and Classrooms. Robinson's 1960 thesis hirther exemplified this narrative approach.

The richness of historical writing on Frontier College is based partially on the fact that its early participants and administrators - particularly Jessie Lucas, the secretary-treasurer of the organization - kept meticulous records. There are hundreds of boxes of the organization's records in the National Archives of Canada and in the Coilege's own archives. Fitzpatrick was also a prodigious author. In addition to writing many magazine articles, he also published the

Handbook for New Canadians in 19 19, University in Overulis in 1920 (reissued in 1999, with a thoughdul and detailed introduction by Morrison) and A Primer for Adults in 1926. In the early

1930s, Fitzpatrick wrote the manuscript Schools and Other Penitentiaries, which was never published. He also wrote detailed Annuai Reports which illustrated (or proselytized on) a particuiar topic such as immigration or homesteading. Research on Canadian Educational Historv: post- 1970

Since the early 1970s' the wnting of history has undergone a significant philosophical shift in Canada. A new focus on social history influenced researchers to investigate the social contexts of historical events. As academics began paying attention to the struggles of marginalized populations, they began to see the field of history as the study of relationships between race, gender and class. The founding conference of the Canadian History of Education

Association, for example, focussed on "the way in which a number of topic areas within history

(such as women's history, ethnic history. children's history [and] demognphy) . . . relate to educational history" (Calam 198 1: 2).

These trends invigorated the field of educational history in Canada. Recognizing the importance of context, researchers began to "see [that] adult education . . . [was] a response to the particular socio-cultural forces and influences at work at particular times [and] that the best way to undersrand the history of adult education [was] to undentand the histoncal context in which it [was] placed. (Candy 1985: 427). Following Michael Kan, researchen began to study

history "from the bottom up". For exarnple, they investigated education by and for the working-class; examples of significant scholarship include Martin, Radforth and Sangster,

RockhiII, Selman and Welton. In addition, once women's history coalesced into a discipline in

Canada, more research was done on formal and informai educational practice by and for

women; examples of this research are visible in works by Gorham, Prentice, Strong-Boag and others". As well, research began duhg this period on immigrant history. Despite an increased histoncal focus on immigrant experiences (Wilson 198 1; Reese 1983). there has been Little research on the history of materiais and methods used at the tum of the century in Canada to teach English as a second language. This is surpnsing, given the official bilinguaiism of the country, the number of immigrants to Canada over the last century who have had to acclimatize to their new country's language(s) and the fact that "teaching or learning a language, to or by adults, is the oldest continuous tradition in [adult education] in Canada" (Thomas, personal communication).

A second trend in 1970s Canadian historiography was the belief by historical revisionists that education - Le., the school system - was an agent of social controi. reinforcing established ideoiogies by restricting opportunities for non-mainsueam children and adults. As

Graff - a former student of Katz's - remembers:

revisionism broadened the field and helped educationd history become a rich field of cntical inquiry. Excitement, controveny and self-analysis descnbed the process of reinterpreting history as networks of educational historias deveioped around competing ideologies: radical vs. moderate; social control vs. social contract; or Marxist vs. nationalist. (Graff 199 1: 94)

" The omission of wornen's history in generai fits into a histonographical pattern of "partial vision" (Buttenvick 1998); this is doubly mefor the history of women in education. Given the close relationship between community development - tmditionaiIy a "woman's domain" - and adult education, this negiect is even more glaring. Much still remaios to be done in the area of women's educational history, especiaily in temof work which does not foiiow haditional patterns of male histones, ie. history which does not focus on "women worthies" or on women's contributions to inexorable societal progress (Prentice 198 1: 42). While this trend gained a degree of favour, its reign was short-lived. Some historians criticized the pessimistic nature of such historicai inquiry, claiming that its "sense of inevitability of decay and worsening conditions over time" (Wilson 1984: 9) was just as restrictive an ideology as earlier beliefs in the certainty of progress. As well, in the rush towards a sirnpiistic

"victirnization" theory of histoncal explanation, "language and religious issues, so fundamental to Canadian educationai history, were aimost compIetely overlooked" (op cit., 10).

As the ideological pendulum began to swing back, educationai historians began to distance themselves from this hypothesis. Instead, they reinterpreted history through Gramsci's theory of hegemony, which States that dominant classes maintain control through a cornplex web of factors: this includes convincing margindized groups to internalize the rnainstream belief systems which support existing power structures. At the same tirne, histonans also recognized that marginalized populations have alivays been active agents in their own destiny.

First, immigrants had chosen whether - and to what degree - they would accept mainstrearn educational structures and beliefs. Second, newcomers "successfully resisted attacks on their culture and preserved their unique values while stmggling against a systern that was insensitive, if not hostile, to their needs" (Reese 1983: 23 1). Finally, the "ethnic group and host stood in a dialectical relationship to one another" (Wilson 198 1: 34). Acknowledgments of the existence of negotiation, rnutuality md agency continue to influence current historicai writing.

Finally, educational history continues to evolve through the filter of post-modem theory(ies). First, because of a growing lack of belief in the vaiidity, utility or even possibility of "grand narratives" of historyl', current work focusses more on "the particular and the narrative form"(Graff 199 1: 204-05). Thus, historians are now "much more circumspect about

[their] generalizations . . . If [they] attempt to generalize at ail, [their] theones are more tentative and [their] explanations are more pluraiist" (op cit.). As well, researches acknowledge the impossibility - and even the undesinbility - of interpretation-free data:

Wntten history represents a self-conscious effort to establish the meaning of expenence for the present and is subtly and unpredictably coloured by the milieu in which the historian lives. The concerns and preconceptions of his [sic] world constantly inte rject themselves into the complex diaiogue between the living and the dead. History, therefore, is not any Olympian record or past activity; it reveals a good deal about the intellectual climate in which it was composed. (Berger 1976: xi)

Research is aiso increasingly taking place within a critical frarnework - one which examines the intemalized (or "taken-for-granted") causes and attitudes to figure out why events and institutions have evolved into an inherently oppressive political and social frarnework. As

Welton explains,

critical theory is a theory of history and society driven by a passionate cornmitment to understand how societal structures hinder and impede the Fullest deveiopment of hurnankind's collective potential to be self-reflective and self- determining historical actors. ( 199 1: 24)

" Referring to the early nineteenth cenniry, Thomas noted that "in a pend of mixing of cultures [especially] by means of immigration . . .it is impossible to find narratives that more than a few people will accept" (personal communication). However, this statement applies equaiiy to the tum of the twentieth century. Criticai research should challenge institutions towards better practices and assist individually or collectively in the struggle to tmnsform such unjust structures. Good examples of such research in adult education are works by Faris ( 1975), Selman et al. ( 1998) and Welton (1995,

1987).

Like other Canadian adult education institutions, Frontier College suffers from a dearth of cntically-analyticai materials about its history. Ross Kidd's 1975 M.A. thesis, The Frontier

College Labourer-Teacher: A Study of his Role, Perception and Performance, completed a quater-century ago, mentions the need for "a historical study of Frontier College's poiitical role" ( 1975: 14 l, emphasis added); this kind of analysis is still under-represented in research.

Krotz's editorial content in the cornmernorative piece Frontier College Letters ( 1999) is a good counterexample, as are Cook's 1976 and 1990 articles and Zavitz-Robinson's thesis Tlze

Fronrier Callege and *BoBolshevism' in the Camps of Canada 1919-1925.

Goals of this Thesis

As demonsvated above, the interest and diversity of focus in the study of the history of education in Canada have increased greatly dunng the past century. Despite this proliferation, many areas and organizations still deserve fbrther research. Drawing from the early history of non-formal adult education in Canada, this thesis will investigate the founder and the foundations of Frontier College. It will pariicularly examine the organization's pals and practices in the context of the tension which existed (and continues to exist) between education for social change and education for individual advancement. From this examination, conclusions will be drawn about the possibilities for advocacy by Liberal educational organizations. CHAPTER TWO: SOCIO-HISTORIC BACKGROUND

People in Canada and the United States should know that much of the ivork rve are undertaking in Adult Education has historicai continui~with that of Smday Schools, the Addt Schools. the Mechanics' Institutes, the Working Men's Colleges. the Cooperative Movement, the extension of University Teaching, the Night Schools nnd Evening Classes . . . Lhless we get rhis historical perspective, it will be dificult to build soundly for the fiïtiîre. (Sandiford 1935: 6-7)

The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of rapid demographic and econornic transformation. This period was characterized by increasing humanitaianism and concomitant developrnent in education and social services. This chapter of the thesis will sketch social and historical factors - in particular immigration and education - which influenced Alfred

Fitzpatrick to found his unique organization.

Conditions on the Frontiers

The years around the mm of the century in Canada were shaped by large-scale indusuialization. This resulted not only in rapid urbanization, but also in an enormous economic expansion on the Canadian frontiers. For example, during three decades between

189 1 and 192 1 Canadian rail lines grew from 15,000 to 40,000 miles; between 1907 and 19 13 alone, almost 70,000 men ventured to the frontiers to work on ni1 gangs (Momson 1995: 32).

Parallei growth occurred in other frontier industries, including mining (coal, gold, and other minerais) and lumber. These industries had a stmng need for basic labour: loading and carrying supplies, wheeling dirt or gravel, dnving mules, laying track, setting the grade, sawing timber, clearing and cutting trails (Cook 1976). Al1 of these jobs were extremely physicdly demanding.

In al1 of these frontier industries, workers lived and toiled in appalling conditions. For example, workdays routinely lasted ten to fifteen hours; employers were reluctant to give their workers free time either because of mercenary motives or "because of the improper use which might be made of it" (Robinson 1960: 8). The work was also not financially rewarding. On rail gangs, profits were skimmed off the contract fees severai times before worken, on the bottom

rung, received their pay. Workers were sometimes paid unfairly reduced wages by foremen who toted loaded revolvers on payday (Mutchrnor 1965: 38). Pay cheques were cashed at a high premium. In addition. workers' expenses were high. While the men were paid by the hour

for a six-day week, they were required to pay board seven days per week. Inclement weather

would reduce houn and earnings, but not expenses. In addition, because frontier jobs were

located far away from cities, worken would have to purchase their supplies from a "company

store" at inflated rates. Advances often ate up much of a worker's wages. In sumrnary,

"workers [in frontier industries] existed on the margins of society in a zone of subsistence and

destitution" (Momson 1999: 1 1).

As weiI, most of the living conditions on the frontier were primitive. The bunkhouses in

which men slept were temporary structures; rnost were crowded and dirty, and lacked pnvacy

and enough biankets. Fitzpatrick recounted a scene from a lumber camp he visited in 1900:

One hundred young men in the prime of life [were] sleeping two in a bu*, spending fourteen out of twenty-four houn in a building about thirty by seventy feet with a few small lamps, sky high, with three tiers of bunks, and with two grindstones, every evening whining and droning out their nerve-wracking noises incessantly. ( 1934)

Bunkhouses were usually filled with damp, sweaty clothes drying over the heat of a wood stove. Combined with cod-oil larnps, this caused the air to become heavy and foui-smelling, and tumed the bunkhouses into penlous fire hazards.

There was also a serious lack of sanitation in the camps. Bedbugs and other vermin were cornmon, as were more serious diseases like smallpox, diphtheria and typhoid". Medical services - if any were available - were crude at best. and did not justify the monthly deduction from each labourer's pay. Because the work was inherently dangerous, work-related fatalities were cornrnon. For exarnple, between 1904 and 19 1 1,23 percent of al1 industrial deaths in

Canada occurred on the railways. Only in 19 12 were nilway contractors legally required to register deaths which had occurred in their camps, and even then, they did not do so regularly

(Avery 1972: 25). This not only made it difficult to trace lost famiiy members but also made it impossible to use statistics to advocate for regulatory changes.

Sixty to 70 percent of al1 worken in frontier lurnber camps in Ontario were illiterate

(Patterson 1903). According to Fitzpatrick, 75 percent of the men were also unable to calculate whether they had been fairly paid by their employen ( 1904-5 Annual Report: 2). Several factors contributed to this situation, including the minimal levels of formal education common at the tum of the century. The average Canadian-bom frontier worker had attended three years

''In 1920, Fitzpatrick predicted that, because of their military training, returned soldiers would bring a greater concem for sanitation to the frontier work camps (1999: 45). This impetus does not seem to have materialized. of public school (Cook 1990: 85) although many workers were drawn from newly-settled areas which did not yet have schools (Momson 1960: 43).

Although most workers at remote camps did not have the skills to improve their material situations, they also had no formal opportunities to increase their abilities. Because of the remoteness of their frontier work sites, the workers were effectiveiy prevented from improving their skills. Few reading materials were available on the frontiers: in one lumber camp, for example, in 1900, "there was no literature that could be seen anywhere in the camp

Save the wrappings of patent medicine bottles" (Fitzpatnck 1934). Furthermore, the windowless, dimly-lit bunkhouses did not allow in enough light to permit reading.

As weil, many camps existed in a state of virtual cultural isolation, relying only on "the evening chat with its retold yarns, a quiet smoke, a garne of poker with tobacco plugs as stakes, the occasional Song, or perhaps some music from the camp musician" (1906-07 Annud Report:

15). Fitzpauick estimated that with "a quarter of a million men . . . who spend four houn per day in idleness, to Say nothing of Sundays, public holidays and rainy days, an average of at lest a million houn every day wasted in absence of occupation" (1920, reprinted 1999: 73).

He added that "the monotony of life, especially arnong young people, causes more crime than does original sin9'(opcit.). Because of the difficult living and working conditions and the lack of other activities, rnost workers on the frontiers often partook in what J.S. Woodsworth called

"our least worthy institutions": garnbling, drinkingl' and frequenting the "wrong" kind of women ( 19 17, reprinted in 1948). Notably, Fitzpatrick did not blarne the workers for such

14 Mutchmor noted that there was no alcohol on some of the gangs on which he worked. This was not based on the moral value of temperance, but rather on a desire by the contractor to exuact a greater arnount of work out of the men on the gang (1965: 41). behaviour; as he wrote, "the wonder is that more of them do not go wrong. Were we compelled to live as they live, we would not be any bettei' (1920, reprinted 1999: 67).

The hmh conditions and low pay of frontier work (see above) meant that mines, lumber and rail gangs were always desperate for workes; they relied on a perpetual stock of economically-despente men to fil1 their labour needs. Immigrants were seen as the solution to

Canada's intense shonage of workers. While this helped male immigrants to obtain employment easily, it also reinfocced the prevalent belief that immigrants were only capable of such dirty and low-status work. For example, mirroring the ideology of his tirnes. Fitzpatrick wrote that frontier labour was so difficult that "white men fearing loss of self-respect [could] not be induced to perform it" (cited in Cook 1976: 17).

Around the tum of the century, the pace of immigration to Canada increased dramaticaily. The number of immigrants grew from 2 1,000 in 1897 to more than 400,000 in

19 1 1. Approximately three million immigrants arrived in Canada between 1896 and 19 14, hdf of those between 19 10 and 19 13. In fact, between 1890 and 19 10, the population of the country

l5 As explained above, this section focusses only on the history of English Canada. For most of the twentieth cenniry, immigration patterns differed significantly between that region and French Canada. For example. during the massive migration period around the beginning of that century, most newcomen to Caoada settled outside Quebec. (Jewish immigrants - many of whom settled in Montreal - were an exception to this rule.) Immigration policy for the rest of the country was largely set by Angio-Canadians since almost every minister and official in the national Immigration Branch was of British heritage and since Engiish-Canadian business interests were the strongest advocates for immigration. as a whole grew by 32 percent (Morrison 1995: 22), with most of this growth coming through

Traditionai scholarship about twentieth-century immigration to English Canada posits that European immigrants came to this country to homestead. Government policies at the beginning of the century encouraged this kind of immigration: Clifford Sifton (the Minister of the Interior, who was responsible for immigration) stated bluntly in 190 1 that "our desire is to promote the immigration of farmers and farm laboures" (in Tirnlin: 5 18). Many Canadians also felt that immigrants would be better off on the land. This feeling was a combination of complementary beliefs: the supposed "punty" of rural life; the patriotic desire to people the unsettled west: and, ptirnarily. the xenophobic view that immigrants' "disruptive" political influences on urban populations would be diminished if the newcomen settled in rural areas.

Although some immigrants did homestead upon their arriva1 in Canada, many others did not have enough money to buy land or supplies. Others, who had already settled on the land, still needed to supplement their fmincomes. These groups turned to the frontiers to amass funds".

16 These numbers serve only as guidelines. "Immigration [records] had many inadequacies: the ignorance of port inspectors of the complex political divisions of the Old World; the dishonesty of many immigrants in dealing with alien officiais; and the practice, sometimes adopted, of regarding the port of embarkation as a cnterion of the nationdity of the passengef' (Thomas in Avery 1979: 14). It is also worth noting that immigrant labourers were seen as expendable: after the initiai boom, when worken were laid off, immigrants - lowest in the job hierarchy due to laquage barriers and racist attitudes - were the fmt to go, and the number of emigrants from Canada was not always recorded..

" Industrialists believed this pattern of farm and frontier work would be beneficial for hem: immigrants would serve as a source of cheap labour in the construction of CPR branch lines, immigrant famiers' crops would bring funher business to the Company, and ultimately immigrant workers could be directed into complementary resource industries like lumbering Many other immigrants came to Canada with the goal of indusnial employrnent in urban areas. However, for newcorners m-iving in a discriminatory climate, with no money or

English-language skills and with few assets beyond their physicd strength, jobs on the frontier were the logical- if not the only - choice. As Fitzpatrick wrote:

our neglect of the frontiersman has dnven the English-speaking men back from the fust line to a seerningly more favoured position. They have retreated to the older settlements, where they find better sanitary conditions and more opportunities for giving schooling to a family. European races, men with an alien tongue, have taken their places in the camps. ( 1920, reprinted 1999: 138)

He noted that "about 90 percent of the men who work on Railway Construction and 50 percent of the men in lumber camps are foreignen" (in Zavitz 1974: 4).

A final group of migrants saw their stay in Canada as a way to make money before retuming to their homelandls. For these men, it made sense to take only seasonal employment.

Many so-called temporary migrants were recruited by pnvate labour contracton, often from the same country or tom as the workers. In 1904 there were about LOO of these agencies in operation; by 19 13 there were aiready 300 agencies bringing more than 200,000 workers a year and mining (Avery 1979: 23). The govemment also saw railway construction as a means to develop the unsettled areas of the country.

18 Officially, this temporary statu was not permitted: al1 migrants were expected, in theory, to apply eventually for Canadian citizenship. Consequently, Canadian employers were not allowed to offer immigrant workers only seasonal employment. In reality, however, many workers used the system for their own purposes and reninied to their homelands once they had satisfied their financial goals. It was the fear of such a system of temporary migration which caused American authorities to enact a quota system for southern and eastern European workers in the 1920s. Before this tirne, Canadian and Amencan immigration poücies had been remarkably similar (Men 1979: 12). to Canada (Avery 1979: 3 1). This labour contracting or "padrone" system filled a need for employers, providing non-unionized, intemaily-disciplined labour who usually did not have the

language skills either to unionize or to cornplain to mainstream Canadian media about their

living and working conditions. For workers, the non-monetary benefits of this labour contracting system were few, beyond the fact that the linguistic and cul~rdties within their group helped to support workers in their struggles to survive". Overall, these worken were extremely vulnerable because of their lack of English-langage skills. They were often brought

into locations and conditions which were far woae than what they had been promised. Once in

Canada they had no choice or control over their sit~ations'~.They were often cheated of their

wages - money that had to be used fint to repay the labour contracton both for job-finding

"commissions" and for passage to Canada. However, government officiais were so desperate to

obtain workers for these frontier positions that they rarely questioned conuacton' ethics or

practices.

l9 There was an interdependent relationship between migrants and labour contractors. "The padrone was considered by the receiving society [Canada] to represent the archetypai immigrant: slippery, furtive, ruthiess and violent. He was aiso an effective scapegoat for residual guilt feelings" (Perin 1987: 209). The padrone was aiso dependent "on the good graces of Canadian capitalist. on a state of non-belligerence and of grudging CO-operationwith the many padroni of North America, and on the forbearance of govemment" (op cit.). However, despite these vulnerabilities, the padrone was still in a position of power within a system which exploited migrant workea.

'O This paraiiels the current system of migrant farm labour in many provinces of Canada. Single male (and very few female) labourers are imported from Mexico and the Caribbean to do socially undesirable, diay, physically demanding work in Canada; they also repay their passage through their low salaries. At the turn of the century, such worken would have been offered Canadian citizenship; however, with current restrictive immigration policies - especiaily towards non-white, working-class migrants - this is no longer me. Because immigrants were seen as the solution to Canada's labour needs, agricui~rai and frontier-business leaders had little difficulty in persuading the govemment of the need for an "open-doof immigration policy. The govemment "allow[ed] the companies a free hand in the industrial use of immigrant workers" (Avery 1979: 33); its primary concem was making sure that immigrants were close enough culturally to "mainstrearn" Canadians to be able to assimilate. initially, the govemment targeted Great Britain and the United States as countries from which to entice immigration. Canadian officiais conducted a "hard sell" advertising campaign in these countries: distributing pamphlets, holding slide shows, bnnging newspaper staff and editors on "junkets" to Canada, and, later, offering bonuses to stearnship agents who could attract immigrants. However, the campaign was not an ovenvhelming success. English farmers - the supposed targets of the immigration campaign - generally had no desire to emignte. Those British citizens who did chose to emigrate were either economic refugees whose passage to Canada was provided by charitable societies or clerks who had neither the desire nor the suength to engage in physical labour. A significant number of people from both groups were considered "troublesome" and were forcibly retumed to their homeland. Many of those who stayed in this country treated Canadians with disdain, prompting signs in ernployment agencies that "no Englishmen need apply" (Berton 1999).

When the govemment's resettlement policies failed to attnct enough immigrants from

Britain or the United States, Sifton was forced to broaden his strategy? Chinese and Japanese

" Timlin distinguishes between the restrictive immigration policies of Sifton and the belief in the right of fkee entry maintained by Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier. For more information on the interplay between the beliefs of these two men with regard to immigration, see Timlin workers were considered docile and hardworking and therefore highly desirable for rdway labour. However, because of government fears that they were unassimilable and because of union feus that they would depress Canadian working conditions, Chinese and Japanese worken were dowed into the country only under strict conditions. Growing membenhip in the Asiatic Exclusion League and the nots in British Columbia in 1907 against Asian worken only compounded the govemment's fears. Head taxes were instituted to discourage immigration of Chinese and other Asian peoplesE.

Workers from certain other ethnic groups were not even considered as potential immigrants. These included the "Negro" newcomers, from whom "the very qualities of intelligence and manliness which are essential for citizenship in a democracy were systematically expunged . . . through two hundred years of slavery" (Woodsworth 1909: 19 1). and the "Levantine" races - "one of the least desirable classes of immigrants" (op cit.: 167).

Faced with a severe labour shortage, and unwilling to import either British, Chinese or

Japanese workers, the government began recruiting immigrants from northem and southem

Europe; J.S. Woodsworth descnbed these newcomers as:

-71 Despite these obstacles, the Asian population of Canada grew from 4000 in 187 1 to 43,000 in 1911. Of this group, 28.000 were Chinese and 15,000 were Japanese or "other Asian" (Kaibach 1979: 20). Because of exclusionary immigration policies, the vast majority of these were men; this initidy limited the role they could play within the developing Canadian society. Ruthenian peasants just emerging from serfdom; Russian Doukhobors bent on maintainhg their community life and ideas; sturdy Scandinavians from the remote vaileys of Iceland or the quiet hamiets of Sweden; colonies of German Mennonites trekking from the Russian mirs in another effort to obtain reiigious freedom; Itaiians and Greeks from their sunny vaileys and vineslad slopes; Jews seeking to escape the penecution and disabilities under which they labour[ed] in the Old World; Mormons gathered up from two continents and welded together in Utah; Chinese, Japanese, Hindus - and a score more strange groups. ( 19 17, reprinted in 1948: 5)

The Pace of non-British immigration to Canada was so geat that by 19 1 1, the census recorded only 55.5 percent of the population claiming British heritage. down from 6 1 percent a mere twenty years earlier. (hterestingly, because of high fertility rates in Quebec, the percentage of

Francophones in Canada declined only slightly during this penod, from 3 1 to 28.6 percent.).

The remaining 16 percent of the population was predominantly "other European" (83 percent) or "Asian" (4 percent).

Canadians, especially those in power, had decidedly rnixed feelings towards immigrants. Because the newcomen often settled in the poorer areas of cities, they were blamed for heightening (if not causing) the social problems induced by large-scale urbanization

(Barber 1975: 218)~.Inmigrants were accused of causing the political turbulence which bad

At the tum of the cenniry, rapid indusuialization forced many young people to move from their rural homes to increasingly large cities. This extrernely rapid urbanization produced urban areas rife with congestion, crime, disease, alcoholism, poverty and despair. J.S. Woodswoah maintained that "the coming of the immigrant has intensified and complicated the senous problems that would in any case have had to be solved in a young and developiag engulfed the United States in the early 1900s; many Canadians feared that newcomers would b~gthe same turmoil to this country. The predorninant fear, however. was that immigrants - especially those from southem or eastem Europe - could (or would) not be assimilated, and that, as a result, "Canadian standards" would be destroyed:

The presence of aiien and unassimilated elements has aggravated the difficulty [in developing public institutions, high political ideals and a social conscience] and tended to retard the development of a sense of comrnunity fellowship. or corporate responsibility. The general indifference to the conduct of public affairs. the lack of adequate means or the expression of disinterested public opinion, the difficulty of united action, has afforded an opportunity for the baser elements to gain a position of influence that has degraded the public life and service of Canada. (Woodsworth 19 17, cited in 1940: 7)"

On the other hand, most Canadians accepted that immigration was necessary to satisfy the intense senlement and labour needs of their growing young country. Thus. although there were occasional outcies in newspapers against foreigners, no movement was initiated to end their immigration3.

country ... The problem after all is possibly not so much the problem of the immigrant as the problem of the Canadian" (1917, cited in 1940: 7. Emphasis added). Most Canadians were significantly more vitriolic than Woodsworth in their xenophobia.

" At the same time, Woodswonh preached some of the rnost racially-tolerant (and Ieast- heard) messages of his era: "Let those who set out to Tanadianize and Christianize' the immigrants remember that there is roorn for other and perhaps higher Canadian types than those which predorninate either on our streets or in Our houses of parliament; that there is room, too, for other types of Christianity than those which prevail in Canada in this year. ... If ever we in Canada attain a national ideal, it must be big enough ... to give a place to the highest and best which each class of immigrant brings to this country" ( 19 17: 8).

15 The fmt World War "reinforced old national rivairies and generated considerable resentment towards certain potential migrant groups. After that time, the List of prohibited Within the general anti-immigrant sentiments held by many Canadians. subordinate racial distinctions favoured immigrants from northem Europe over those from southem

Europe. The former group was believed to be "accustomed to the rigours of a northem climate, clean-blooded, thrifty, arnbitious and hard-working [so thatl they will be certain of success in this pioneer country" (Woodsworth 1909: 92). Northem Europeans were also more iikely to be

Protestant, the dominant religion in Canada, which aided their standing in the eyes of mainsueam Canadians. Thus, they were recruited fitfor immigration. Northem Europeans who came to this country were generally given high occupational and social status in their new horneland (Avery 1979: 8); even in frontier work, they were treated more like "honourary

Canadians", given jobs that were easier or of a higher standing.

Southem Europeans, on the other hand. were seen as a less desirable group, "in general much infenor physically, mentally and morally to the North-Western Europeans and constitut[ing] or furnish[ing] Our most serious problems" (Rev. J.G. Shearer cited in Barber

1975: 209). Many Canadians believed that this group had a "primitive" nature which would make hem harder to assirnilate. However, because of the pressing need for unskilled labour, southem Europeans were recruited to Canada in increasing numbers - 29 percent of al1 immigrants in 1907, increasing to 48 percent in 1913-14 (Avery 1972: 24). Once at work on the frontiers, southern Europeans were given the most menial and difficult work. This both created and reinforced the racist ideology of the times which saw newcomers from southem migrant groups grew to include enemy aliens, as well as those groups who had opposed the war such as the Mennonites, Hutterites and Doukhobors, and the more usual standard list of such "unwanteds" as alcoholics, illiterates, strike leaders and some Asian groups" (Kalbach 1979: 20). This perception, which both fostered and was driven by the "red scare" of the late "teens" and early 1920s, later led to a curtailrnent of immigration. Europe as "stupid but strong", i.e., the "ideal" manual worker. For example, Woodsworth described the trope of "the ~alician"~~as:

[figuring] disproportionately to his numbers in the police court and penitentiary. Centuries of poverty and oppression have, to sorne extent, animalized him . . . The flowers of courtesy and refinement are not abundant in the fmt generation of immigrants. But he is a patient and industrious workman. (1909: 136)

Faced with such xenophobia, it is not surprising that many newcomers were suspicious or even hostile towards Canada and its citizens. This feeling was often arnplified by unfulfilled economic hopes in a country which was touted as both free and affluent but which provided to newcomers only exploitation and promises of continuous poverty. As Avery cryptically notes,

"the rising Dominion both prornised and threatened(l979: 8).

Summarv: Immigration

At the turn of the twentieth century, there was an unprecedented wave of immigration to Canada, spurred by enorrnous industrial expansion. Initially, the govemment attempted to restrict which nationalities would be allowed to immigrate, as most Canadians feared that immigrants - panicularly those from southem and eastem Europe - would "dilute" Canadian political and cultural standards. However, pressured by industrial interests which were desperate for labour power to work in dreadful social and economic conditions, the govemment

26 Many of Canada's ethnically Ukrainian immigrants carne from Gaiicia, a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Later, the term "Galician" came to mean ail Slavic immigrants. was forced to allow these supposedly unassimilable groups to immigrate to Canada. New and older Canadians then had to lem to adjust to each others' cultures, languages and institutions.

The degree to which integration was both resisted and accomplished by both groups continues to have a profound influence on the social and political history of this country.

Education

Adults have always leamed new skills for diverse and overlapping reasons: survival, creation, understanding, reacting to crises or change, or passing on language and cul~re

(Draper 1998: 37). In nineteenth-century Canada, more emphasis was placed on learning than on education (Thomas 1996). Since there were few formal opportunities available for adults at that time, men and women leamed pnmarily in non-formal ways, for example. by engaging in informal apprenticeships or by developing affiliations with voluntary organizations, clubs, unions or political parties. Weekly newspapers flounshed, especially after newsprint became cheaply available at the end of the nineteenth century (Candy 1985: 433); these were usehl educational tools for adults with at least minimal literacy skills. Religious groups were also very important sources of leaming and education. A number of denorninations - in particular the Protestant churches - provided literacy training to their members to allow them closer contact with religious texts. Across Canada, churches set up mission schools including both day schools for children and night schools for their ~arents?

" This was 'Tamily literacy", many decades before it was so named. Thomas characterizes churches as the "primary providea of adult education until the tum of the [twentieth] century . . . in Ontario" (personal communication) The decades around the beginning of the mentieth century saw a proliferation of initiatives and organizations providing education for adults. h a tirne when formal adult education had not been established as valid or useful, this was innovative pedagogical practice.

Many people at the tun of the century stili believed adults could not leam. (The term "adult education" began to be used in Canada only in 1924 "as a generic terni to describe a group of previously unrelated activities", according to Sandiford 1935: 6.) Others believed that adults who had not achieved a minimum standard in primary school should not be given a second chance. This was especially uue after the introduction of universal schooling for children in the

1880s'~: the argument was that forma1 adult education, which was primhly concemed with literacy, would be unnecessary once al1 children were taught these skills at school? Only a few politicd reformen - including Wiiliarn Lyon Mackenzie, James Lesslie, Jesse Ketchum and

Egerton Ryerson - promoted adult education in the fonn of "lifelong leaming" (Candy 1985:

434). However, since these men were preoccupied by the seemingly more urgent issue of schooling for children, they had little effect on developing Canadian adult education institutions or practices. It is ironic that the introduction of compulsory schooling for children diminished what Little momenturn there had been for formal education for adults; it would take many decades for adult education to recover frorn the mixed pedagogical blessing of universal primary education.

Compulsory education for children was introduced in several provinces in the 1880s. although it would be many decades - weU into the 1940s - before the idea was broady accepted (Johnson 1968; Thomas 1996). " According to Thomas, "the proponents of compulsory education [for children] were not much concerned with sacrificing a whole generation of adults, aithough employers and people interested in citizenship were not so sure about that" (persona1 communication). In nineteenth century urban environments, school boards and universities began offering evening classes or extension courses. The Toronto School Board, for example, developed non-credit courses for adults in 185 1. University extension courses were also given in cities across the country. Queen's University claims the oldest extension department in

North Amerka, with classes beginning in 1889". This innovative work was based in no small part on the beliefs of the univesity's principal, George Monro Grant (see below). Unlike

Queen's, most eastem Canadian universities were initially modelled on elitist, British institutions, and did not offer a broad system of extension classes. On the contrary, such courses were particularly strong in the religiously-affiliated universities West of Winnipeg.

Western Canadian universities offered extension prograrnming based on the American

"Wisconsin Idea" which maintained that post-secondary institutions were expected to meet the educational needs of al1 members of their provinces or States. One example of this was the

University of Alberta; its extension department was founded in 1912 by Henry Manhail Tory, later associated with the Khaki College, and Ned Corbett, later director of the Canadian

Association of Adult Education. Although it was perhaps the best-known extension depanment in western Canada, it was predated by two years by the agricultural extension programs at the

University of Saskatchewan, and followed three years later by programs at the University of

British Columbia,

The university later offered spondic extension courses to men on the frontiers. In 1907, for example, the director of Queen's School of Mines was invited by Frontier Coliege's precursor. the Reading Camp Association, to lecture frontier workers on mineralogy, geology and metdlurgy (Momson 1960: 44). Both school board and univeaity extension classes were only available to middie- and upper-class men, and, occasionaily, women3'. For urban working-class men and women, few organizations provided opportunities for basic or continuing education3'. One group, the

Mechanics' Institutes, offered further education to urban (predominantly male) skilled workers through lectures, vocational classes, a library and social events. Originally a British movement founded in 1825, the Mechanics' Institutes were transplanted to Nova Scotia and Ontario in

183 1 and to Montreal in 1840. They were promoted by middle- and upper-class Canadians both to develop the technical skills and to "uplift" the mords of the working class. The Institutes met with some success, both in their educationd aims and in their goai to create a middle class

from the skilled workersJ3.However, almost from their inception, the Institutes had difficulty maintainhg their membership, in part because the content of their instruction was not defined by those for whom it was intended. In attempting to keep the Institutes dive, radicai changes

were made: fiction was permitted in the library and (gasp!) women were dowed to attend

lectures. The Institutes eventuaily fell into bankniptcy: they collapsed in the 1870s.

In retrospect, the Mechanics' Institutes have been criticized for a lack of workingclass involvement and for the fact that the middle- and upper-cliiss benefactors determined what was

It took many decades of pressure before post-secondary institutions were willing to accept female students. Grace Annie Lockhart was the first woman to graduate from a Canadian university; she received a B.Sc. Degree from Mount Ailison University in 1875.

" It was not until 1899 that the govemment sponsored a Royal Commission on ''The Relations of Labour and Capitd*to investigate the social and economic plight of urban workers (Momson 1999: 12).

33 In the breadth of their offerings, early Mechanics' Institutes resembled contemporary community coileges (Thomas, personai communication). "useful knowledge" for workers (Welton 1987: 9). However, despite these criticisms (and despite thek short iifespan) the Institutes had far-reaching effects. Thomas (1996) crediü them with the development of important provincial and national institutions, including the Canadian

National Exhibition, the Toronto Art Coliege, the engineering faculty at the University of

Toronto and the local public library system in Ontario.

Another organization which provided continuing education was the Workers' Education

Association (WEA). It offered liberal arts training for workers through free. non-credit courses delivered (pro bono) by university professors. Besides the night-school courses for which it wûs best known, the organization also held outdoor summer nature-study classes and short- term residential summer workshops. Like the Mechanics' Institutes, the WEA was originally founded in Britain (in 1903 by Albert Mansbridge) and later expanded in Canada (by

D~mmondWren in 19 18): it was also initially supported in this countxy by membea of the

Canadian eliteY. Unlike the Institutes, the WEA functioned on the pnnciple that workers' education would succeed only if the workers maintained a stake in theù own learning. Thus, unlike most university extension courses of the the, the WEA encouraged students to participate in discussion groups and to influence the organization and development of their classes.

During its edyyears, the WEA sponsored a popular lecture senes on labour education and ran a highly successhil distance-education program - the "Labour Forum" - over the

" Supporters of the WEA inciuded W.L. Grant (son of George Monro Grant - see below) who was the principal of Upper Canada College. radio". The organization eventually gained a reputation as pro-labour, and confrontations began to develop with the Canadian political-educationai establishment, particularly the

University of Toronto (Radforth and Sangster 198 1/82: 661~~.In addition, once many people began to take inexpensive WEA classes in place of those offered by the university, the latter institution retaliated to protect its pedagogical temtory. Continuing confiicts of interest between the WEA's sponsors (elites wanting social control) and participants (worken promoting social change) taxed the organization severely, and it struggled through a number of challenges: the increasing professionalization of the field of adult education in the 1950s which led to expanding options for education: conflicts within and between the Canadian and international (particularly Amencan) labour movements: and development by labour unions of their own educational arms. By 1952, the WEA was struggling to survive: although it still exists today, it has never been resuscitated to its original scope of activity".

'5 Because of the spûrsity of its population, Canada has been a pioneer in developing distance education prograrns. A later series of broadcasts sponsored by the CAAE was known as the Farm Forum. Topics were national in scope but often led to the development of comrnunity projects. The broadcasts were used in conjunction with printed materiais and local discussion groups.

Ib Significant parallels exist between the University of Toronto's treatrnent of the WEA and of Frontier College during its degree-pnting phase (1922-3 1). In both cases, the university feared the upstart organizations would siphon students from its rolls. As well, in both cases, the University of Toronto used financial pressure to exert its wiIl upon smailer, less- established educational innovations. '' Efforts have been made recently to revive the WEA. Given the current lack of funding for education which is not directly related to job skills (and in particular for non-forma1 education for aduits), such a resurrection seems unlikely to tht-ive. Both the Mechanics' Institutes and the WEA provided educational oppomuiities to iirban working-class men (and, to a lesser extent, women). Rural men could learn new skills through the Fanners' Institutes. However, in the late 1890~~there was no corollary opportunity for nird Canadian women. The network of Women's Institutes (Wf) was a response to rural women's needs for leaming and comrnunity. This organization, founded in 1897 by Adelaide

Hunier Hoodless of Stoney Creek, Ontario, attempted to validate and standardize the management of the home by teaching "household science"? Instruction was provided through demonstrations, short courses and "loan papers" - instructional pamphlets which wornen could borrow from the Institutes. Branches engaged in philanthropy and community development, focussing their activities in the fields of education, culture and hedth.

As well as improving the living conditions for nid women and their cornmunities, the

WI raised the status of women's work; as attitudes changed and acceptable roles for women expanded, the WI helped women to develop cottage indusuies and provided educational extension courses for working women. The organization also disseminated and legitimized

women's views on a broad range of topics. The WI's increasing strength led the organization to shift its goals from philanthropy to structural reform, and its members began to leam about -

and lobby in - the domains of pclitics and law. Overall, while the WI did much work to promote and develop women's abilities and possibilities, its early efforts at speaking out for

Around the tum of the century, male and femde spheres of work were strongly differentiated; like other matemal feminists of her day, Hoodless did not advocate an increased role for women. Rather, in a period in which scientific knowledge was increasingly valorized in ail areas of Me, panicularly the home, Hoodless believed that women should be given the skills to perform "fernale" tasks b'scientifcaiiy"; professionalizing women's work would, in theory, elevate its stanis. change were restricted because the organization was fünded by the government'g; this effectively prevented the WI from achieving its full potential as a broad-based agent of social change.

Wornen's Institutes spread around the globe, and the organization, known internationally as the Associated Countrywomen of the World, is still strong. However, the situation is not the same in Canada: although local branches are still active in nid pans of die country. the national organization is no longer prominent. This deciine cari be blamed on severai factors, including increasing urbanization, the wane of matemal feminism and the proliferation of feminist organizationsJOacross the country.

39 Although J.R. Kidd in 1950 praised the connection between govemment and adult education in Canada (in conuast to the United States, where links were fewer and weaker), the relationship was problematic at best.

Early organizations specificdly for rural women included Home and School Associations, Homemalsers' Clubs, the United Farm Women of Alberta and the Women Grain Growers. Two decades later, the CO-oprnovement, especidly strong in Western Canada, aliowed its rural memben - male and female - the chance to improve their basic skills, to engage in vocational training, to leam about citizenship and community building, and to develop confidence, self-reliance and economic controi over their lives. Rural and urban women were iater involved in groups including the National Council of Women of Canada, the YWCA, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Canadian Fedention of University Women, the Elizabeth Fry Society, the Voice of Women, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, and the Canadian Congres on Leaming Opportunities for Wornen. Assistance for ùnmig;rant Workers on the Frontiers

The organizations described above catered predominantiy to the educational needs of men and women in urban or mrai settings. On the contnry, frontier workers had few opportunities to engage in formal leaming. As Fitzpatrick wrote:

the young men of Our towns and cities are the constant objects of care to philanthropie moral reformers and thousands of dollars are annually spent [on them] . . . h considention of this, it might be pertinent to ask how many dollars are expended each year for the benefit of the young men living in frontier camps. ( 1920. reprinted L 999: 67)

Ironically, workers on the frontiers were predominantiy immigrants. and among those in greatest educational need. Most of the foreign-bom workers had low literacy levels in their first language. compounding their lack of knowledge of either English or French: due to the location of their workplaces, they were effectively prevented from improving their situations.

Despite the obvious need to import workea, and the belief that immigrants needsd ro be quickly socialized into both a patriotic and imperialist value system, govemments neither initiated any plans nor spent any money on naturalization services - linguistic or othenvise - for newcomers. On the contrary, the "Dominion and provinces squabbled in meCanadian fashion over whose jurisdiction encompassed the responsibility for immigrant education"

(Avery 1972: 142). Because of the dispute between these two levels of administration. neither offered programs directly to those in need: nor did they support those private agencies (like the

YMCA) which did. In addition, neither the national nor the provincial govemments felt any responsibility for frontier workers' health or safety. The few regulations which existed were not ngorously enforced; as late as 19 1 1. the province of Ontario employed a total of ten inspectors to scrutinize working conditions in all its industries, both urban and frontier. In addition, when governrnent inspectors occasionally examined conditions at a specific site, they received few cornplaints from foreign-bom workea who had both low-level English skills and a strong desire to keep their jobs; contractors were most ofien exonerated of any accusation (Avery

1972; Cook 1976). These "acts of omission" were influenced in no srnall way by pressure from the owners of railways and other industriai powen who benefitted from a lack of attention to the conditions in their workplaces.

The labour movement was similarly inactive in the face of horrendous conditions for frontier worken. While unions had been active in Canada since the early 1800s and legal since

187 1, they spoke dmost entirely for urban workers. (Labour councils. for example, ran reading rooms for urban workers [Martin 1998: 731.) Unions' lack of interest in frontier conditions could have also been a result of the combination of two factors: the racism which beset early

Canadian labour activisrn and the fact that most manual workers on the frontier were immigrants. That foreign-bom worken were often used as strikebreaken did not help to alleviate labour's early inclifference. Seymour ( 1976) calls such racist attitudes shortsighted and tragic, particularly since many unionists were fmt- or second-genention immigrants. The labour movement would not begin to take an interest in frontier workers until the early 1920s, when unions felt threatened by "radical" groups like the International Workers of the World

(I.W.W.) which were attempting to organize camp men.

Clearly, Canada's growing industries depended on the physical suength of

(predominantly-immigrant) frontier worken; why. then, did the country develop so few efforts to provide these worken with social or educational services? Beyond the xenophobia described above, there are severai possible explanations for dijs neglect. First, the combination of rapid industriai growth on the frontiers of the country combined with the arriva1 of large nurnben of immigrants was a phenornenon which Canada had not previously experienced:

there were no distinctively "Canadian" institutions in place to contend with this new world. Thus in a real sense, immigrants were not assimilated into an older Canadian social and cultural order; rather they were a major force in creating a new and radically different one during a time of profound change for al1 Canadians. (Wilson 198 1: 27)

Obviously, the assignment of agency (however limited) to immigrant worken on the frontien does not excuse the conditions in which they toiled, nor does it justifj the apathy with which most Canadians met the news of these conditions.

As well, power was concentrated in urban centres in Canada, creating a relationship in which frontiers were dependent on cities for services (Dawson and Titley 1982: 6-1 L). Frontier workers. who lived far from population centres, were essentially forgotten by most urban dwellen. Other than the sporadic efforts of churches and mission societies (see below), there were no urban institutions assisting immigrant workea in the frontiers. While the "meuopolis- hinterland" thesis presents one reason for the lack of services on the frontien, it does not hlly address the complex connection between these two regions. While they were cenainly interdependent, the areas existed in an unequal power relationship to each other.

Well into the twentieth century, the major social service agencies providing assistance to immigrants were affiliated with churches. Some religious groups had missionary incentives when they helped immigrants adjust to their new environment:

aid given to the immigrants in temporal affairs - care for the sick, education for the children, instruction for the women in practicai skills - was seen not only as a work of Christian brotherhood, improving Canadian society, but also as the best and probably only way to break down barriers and led the immigrants to the tme religion. (Barber 1975: 193)

As well, Christianity was often linked with an Anglo-saxon value system, which was seen as integral to Canada's survival and development. Thus, reiigious groups also had nationalist motivations for helping immigrants. Protestant churches, in particular, systematicaily attempted to develop patriotism among their new-Canadian parishioners (Barber 1975; McDonald 1982b:

136-40). In addition, other religious men and women who believed in the Social Gospel (see below) were motivated to help immigrants because they saw it as part of their mission of redistributive justice. While Social Gospellers did not cater specifically to immigrants, their goal was to assist those at the lowest economic and social levels. In urban environments, these men and women were often immigrants4'.

Most Canadian institutions paid little attention to the teaching of English as a second languageC. especially to immigrants who were working on the frontiers. The only significant exception to neglect this was the YMCA, which sent books to workers in lumber camps, most frequently in the Maritimes. In this way, the YMCA made an "effort to reach men. wherever they might be, to provide them with some of the services which [they] had discovered young men liked and appreciated" (Ross 195 1: 245). Itinerant preachen also delivered sermons to men in frontier camps; however, because the ministers had large areas to cover, their visits to each camp were infrequent4'.

4 1 This evidence problematizes Morrîson's theory that churches were able to do little to help immigrants because of religious differences ( 1999: L 3).

" At the tum of the century, both English- and French-Canadians were intensely patriotic dong language lines (Wardhaugh 1982). It is therefore surprising that each group did not develop more of a language-training prognm in an attempt to linguistically convert the other - Le., that Anglophones did not develop cumcula and materials to teach English as a second language until the large-scale arriva1 of European immigrants. The Ontario Citizenship Division (the govemment branch responsible for language training for adult newcomers in the province) did not even use a Canadian textbook until 1963 (Martin 1972). '' The YMCA's project of sending books and sermons to the frontiers conrinued in British Columbia untii well after the First World War; at that time, itinerant secretaries (financed by lumber companies) also began organizing recreation programs in the camps. The YMfYWCA's work on the frontiers represented a smail but significant aspect of its work. More frequentiy, the organization provided educational opportunities through physical, cultural and spintual programs for urbm men (the fmt Canadian YMCA had opened in Montreal in 185 1) and women (the fitCanadian YWCA had opened in St. John in 1870). It also provided leadership training to its members. Notably, the YM/YWCA wiis one of the few organizations which offered language classes to urban immigrants. Summarv: Education

In the last haif of the nineteenth century, there was a prolifention of initiatives directed towds education in Canada. For the fint time in this country, organizations formally attempted to address adults' learning needs. While some of these organizations have been criticized retroactively, especially for their class bises, as a whole, they succeeded in bringing new educationd opportunities to rniddle- and working-class men and women in both urban and rural Canada. This is especially laudable, given that the belief in the utility of aduit education was then a recent phenornenon.

At the same time, however, signifiant gaps existed in the provision of adult education.

Workers in frontier industries, for example, had little access to the educationd opportunities which their urban and rural counterparts enjoyed. This was panicularly disadvantageous for these frontier workets. since most of them were either immigrants with few Engiish-language skills or native-bom Canadians with low levels of education. Despite the need for these workers, neither governments nor unions developed fomal oppominities for leanllng for them.

Churches did attempt to provide education sporadically, however, most worken rernained unserved or under-served.

It was within this socid context that Alfred Fitzpatrick developed the concems and beliefs which would lead him to found the Reading Camp Association, later cdled Frontier

College. The foiiowing chapter descnbes the personal, educational and philosophical factors which influenced Fitzpatrick's ideas. CHAPTER THREE: FITZPATRICK' S EARLY HISTORY.

Literatrtre wiZl stand fravel as well as pork and beans. (Fitzpauick 1920, repnnted 1999: 12 1)

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Nova Scotia's Pictou County was an area in transition from a shipbuilding economy to one based on industrial and commercial manufacniring. In addition. the population of the area was predorninantly Scottish. due to several wmes of immigrants who had arrived in the province in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Most of the migrants were Gaelic-speaking, and most who settled around

Pictou were either Church of Scotland members or Presbyterians.

Alfred Fitzpatrick's parents. Alexander and Mary Rae Fitzpatrick. had cleared and farmed a 100-acre lot at Millsville, Pictou County, Nova Scotia. They were United Empire

Loyalists and staunchly religious Presbyterians; both characteristics would influence their son's later work on the frontiers of the country. Fitzpatrick was raised in a pioneer fanning household, "where to survive the occupants had to toi1 constantly in a never-ending struggle"

(Cameron 1978: 68). However, this characteristic would have come only indirectly to Alfred: as the tenth of twelve children, and as the seventh son of the family, he was relieved of the need to spend most of his time at fmwork. Neither of Fitzpatrick's parents had attended fomal schooling. Although Alfred was bom on Apnl22, 1862, just before the introduction in Nova Scotia of the Free School Acts

( 1864-66), which pexmitted ail children to attend their local schools free of charge, he was initially schooled at home. Because his parents believed strongly in the value of educationu,

Alfred was later sent to Pictou Academy, a prestigious and academicaily-respected institution. which was the alma mater of many famous Nova Scotians. Founded in 18 16, the Academy was strongly influenced by Scottish educational traditions. These traditions have been interpreted in conadictory ways: either as an open and egaiitarian school system which encouraged free thinking (Candy 1985: 437; Kennedy 1999: personal conversation) or as an elitist consmict which promoted a superficially mentocntic ideology while "indoctrinat[ing] students with a deferential outlook more in keeping with the bureaucratie, centralizing policies at both provincial and national levels of govemment" (Wood 1994: 282). In fact, both of these confiicting philosophical influences can be seen in Fitzpatrick's later educational work on the frontiers.

Dunng his studies at Pictou Academy, Fitzpatrick was also infiuenced by Alexander H.

MacKay, the schoolTsprincipal from 1873 to 1889". MacKay - who was hirnself a graduate of the Academy - believed that education should be taken from the school out into the

35 This belief could have been influenced in part by Fitzpatrick's patemal grandparents, James and Janet Fitzpatrick, who had taught their six children at home in English and Gaelic (Sutherland 1968: 5).

4s Like Fitzpatrick, MacKay was also a staunch supporter of the Empire. In 1898, while serwig as the superintendent of education in Nova Scotia, he convinced the province to adopt the fmt motion in Canada in support of Empire Day, later known as Victoria Day (McDonald 1982a: 93). community: that "it was not enough to open the doors of the classroorn to all, but that knowledge should be made available well beyond the wdls of the classroom*' (Momson

199513)~.Fifty years later, Fitzpatrick would reminisce about his former principal, calling him "a brilliant teacher", "a very resourceful man" and "one of Canada's most famous sons".

In retrospect, however, he also criticized MacKay for not having gone far enough, either with his educational practises or with his cornmitment to economic and social progress. He Iater claimed that MacKay had "thought it would be impossible to break through the conservatism that hedged about school attendance and the study of 'humanities*" (1934) and thus was not as influential as he could have been in Nova Scotia educational history.

After graduating hmPictou Academy in 1884, Fitzpauick - the only one of his siblings to attend a post-secondary institution - entered Queen's University. Over the next six years, he received both an Arts degree (in 1889) and a theology degree (in 189~)~',winning a prize in English dong the way (Lucas. in Rogers 1988: 2). During his education, Fitzpauick was a broad reader of contemporary educational and social theory. including Dewey's ideas about the necessity for lifelong learning and about the relationship between education and

" As part of his cumcular reform, MacKay reorganized the classes at Pictou Academy into separate streams: mathematics/science and English/classics (Wood 1994:289). That Fitzpatrick studied only the latter may explain in part his inability in later years to appropnately manage the finances of the Reading Camp Association. " According to J.W. Fitzpatrick and Sutherland, Alfred Fitzpatrick studied medicine for some tirne at Trinity College. Many years later, he was also wtedan honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Queen's for "the unique work that [he had] done for the lumbermen of Canada, the fresh ground that [he] had broken in Christian and social service, and the entire detachedness and unselfishness with which De] had devoted [his] life to this work" (in Zavitz 1974: 87). democracy (Zavitz 1974: 18)~.His pedagogicd ideas were also influenced strongly by those of his mentor at Queen's, George Monro Grant, who was the university's principalJg.Grant sought to develop "noble, intelligent, and unselfish men who never forgot that the privilege of an education carried with it the obligation to serve and lead one's fellow man" (Cook 1990:

83). Grant "urged [Fitzpatrick] to take his talents and put them at the service of Canada"

(Momson 1995: 20). Even after Fitzpatrick left Queen's. the two men corresponded for many years. In Schools and Other Penitentiaries, Fitzpatrick praised Grant's contributions to individuals and to the social development of Canada. He called his mentor a "great educationist, reformer and statesrnm" and wrote that Grant

did more than any other Canadian to carry the library and labontory out to industry and agriculture, to homestead and camp . . . No treatise on unemployment in Canada would be adequate either historically, sociologically or educationally that did not give Grant his rightful place as a trailblazer in its solution . . . He beiieved that equality of opportunity would solve most of our social ills, including unemployment. He therefore allowed anyone to snidy at the ends of the earth for credits toward a degree with Queen's. (1934)

Fitzpatrick was also deeply influenced by the religious leanings at Queen's (known as the "seat of Canadian Presbyterianism", according to Cook 1976: 16). Many influentid

IS As Callan has demonstrated, Dewey's ideas are ambiguous and even self-contradictory. They can be interpreted as either advocating for the sociaily transfomative nature of education, or for the power of education to create social harmony by training workers to fit into existing (repressive)economic structures ( 1990).

49 Grant was the principal of Queen's University for 3-7 years, until his death in 1902. Like Fitzpatrick, he was a graduate of Pictou Academy (where he had won the prize for academic achievement in 1848). He was also of Scottish hentage; this cultural influence was further developed when Grant completed postgraduate work in Scotiand. mernbers of the university were strong believers in the Social Gospel, a reform movement in

Christian thought, especially prominent in Protestant churches (particularly Methodist and

Presbyterian). There are a number of theories explaining the development of the Social Gospel

Movement in Canada. Some scholan, especially those writing in the 1%Os, claimed that the movement arose out of a concem for the grave social problems induced by rapid industrial expansion at the end of the nineteenth century. Other academics point to a reaction against the inùividualist philosophies of the nineteenth century. Parts of Danvinian theories of environmental adaptation - that species or societies needed to cooperate in order to survive - also supported the social gospel's beliefs. The movement was further influenced in the early twentieth century by the rise in power of women, who were traditionally the ones who took care of social work, and whose influence in churches was pararnount. Finally, the development of the Social Gospel was strengthened by the revivalist movement, which was particularly strong ai the end of the nineteenth century, and which "spread the idea that radical change in life was possible; that man was not bound inside some system of predestinationW(Allen1973:

12).

Social Gospellen believed in demonstrating faith through practical acts to improve the welfare of those most in need. For exarnple, they fought to keep the Sabbath day sacred, to combat child labour and to encourage temperance in al1 things, especially akohol. They also worked to "uplift" the urban working class socially and economically, or, in another

interpretation, to make them less of an "embarrassrnent or danger to respectable society"

(Titley 1990: 8 1). For example, Social Gospellen developed local projects to care for sick children and adults and to provide food and shelter to those in financial need. The more radical segments of the Social Gospel Movement focussed their work on the political and econornic structures which perpetuated social injusticeso.This was a logicd belief for Social Gospellers who maintained that "al1 social and economic relationships were subject to divine direction"

(Cook 1976: 16). Such a belief led to advocacy and action towards cornrnon - and collective - solutions to social problems51.

One of the strongest advocates of the social gospel at Queen's was George Monro

~rant?He believed that "theology existed in what authors wrote in their books, and that to read and to appreciate the literanire of the day was as imponant as reading religious materials"

(Morrison 1995: 24). Fitzpatrick followed in his mentor's steps, later writing:

man being God's temple. and we are asked to *LoveGod with dl Our hearts and our neighbours as ourselves', it is clear God intends that we work for those in need . . . The great object of education is to enlist us on the side of, and qualify us for, helping God in His greatest task of making homes and work for the needy. ( 1934)

50 Perhaps the best-known advocate of this form of religion and social action was J.S. Woodsworth. Woodsworth was a Methodist minister who ran the Al1 Peoples' Mission in Winnipeg's north end. When he was forced to resign over political disagreements with the church, he worked as a longshoreman. Eventually, Woodswonh became a labour leader, and was arrested dunng the Winnipeg general strike of 19 19. In 1921, he was elected to Parliament, and sat as part of the "Ginger Group" (a group of progressive Membea of Parliament which was concerned about labour and social issues and which forrned the basis of the CCF). He Ied the CCF from 1933 until his death in 1942. " This contradicts the Canadian Labour Congress' view (Seymour 1976: 7) that Protestant Churches histoncally identified with middle- and upper-classes: employers had the most to lose from such a collective view.

" John McNaughton, a similady-minded theology professor at the univenity, reportedly told one of his students: "you were never meant to sit in a corner hatching the addled egg of your personal saivation9'(Kidd 1975: 233). After graduating from Queen's, Fitzpatrick became a Presbyterian minister. One of his early religious forays took place in the redwood forests of California. Alfred's brother Isaac, like many young men of his time, had been forced to leave his home in Pictou County in order to survive economically. He had found work in the lumber camps which dotted the less-settled areas of North Amenca, but. in doing so, had lost contact with his family. Leander, another of

Alfred's brothers, had dso migrated to California to find work and had drowned in 1880 during a timber drive. The young Reverend Alfred Fitzpatrick travelled to California in 1892, ostensibly to do mission work, but also to see if he could find Leander's grave and to make contact with Isaac. He found Isaac one year later, in the same location where the family had

Iast heard from hirn. Alfred retumed to Canada in 1893 and was placed in pastontes in

Kincardine, New hunswick ( 1893-96) as well as Wapefla ( 1896- 1897) and Fort Qu'Appelle

(1897-98), Saskatchewan. Later, he was transferred to Nairn Centre, Ontario, in the hem of the

Georgian Bay lumbering area to work as an itinerant minister.

Fitz~atrick'sView of the Problem and its Solution

In al1 these situations, Fitzpatrick witnessed the appdling conditions in which tens of thousands of frontier workers lived and toiled. He Ieamed that similar conditions existed in other frontier industries such as mining (coal, gold, and other minerais) and railroad construction. Fitzpatrick reaiized how much assistance was needed by these worken, and he was aware of the extremely small number of agencies advocating on their behalf. This combination of factors made it impossible for him to minister only to the workers' spiritual needs (Zavitz 1974; Cook 1976). At the same time, he observed that "there was simply no point sermonizing to men who were largely Catholic and Orthodox and who were unable to undentand either the language [of the sermon] or the message" (Cook 1976: 20). Fitzpatrick also rejected the mode1 of the itinerant minister, who "distributed a few tracts and Bibles and discoursed wildly and unsympathetically on oracular denunciation of common sins" ( 1904) but who would be unable to make strong connections with workers because he lacked contact with them.

For dl these reasons, Fitzpatnck decided to leave the ministry. This departure was unusual for a rninister of the Social Gospel during this period: other religious leaders with simila.ideas to Fitzpatrick's saw no contradiction in continuing to rninister to a church while they engaged in social service work. Methodist rninister William Ivens, for example, was also the editor of the socialist Western Labor [sic] News; during the Winnipeg strikes of 19 19 he was arrested and sent to jail for his overtly political work. J.S. Woodsworth (see above) also believed his work for economic and social justice fit in with his ministry (until the Church forced him to quit his post)S3.

Instead, Fitzpatrick decided to engage instead in secular work, providing educational oppomnities to worken on the frontiers, meeting the immigrant worker "at his first point of contact with our civilization" (1913 Annual Report: 60). Aithough his life's work would focus on education rather than proseiytising and although it would occur through a non-sectarian

53 See Jarvis 199 1 for more on the connection between religion and adult education theorists. group (the Reading Camp Association), because of his belief in the Social Gospel, Fitzpatrick saw his mission as a religious undertaking and considered himself a religious manY:

Let no religious zedot think that because it [the problem on the frontiers] is chiefly educationd it is, therefore, not religious. The fifty-five storey building is feasible only on condition that a foundation to correspond be fint built. Vitai reiigion is impossible on a foundation of ignorance and barbarism. (19 1 1 Annual Report: 30)

Fitzpatrick believed that oppressive conditions on the frontien would only be improved once workers had access to the power of knowledge through litency in the dominant language

(i.e., English or French). His belief - that the problem was educationd in nature - was derived from several influences, First, he had seen the lack of educationd facilities and the difficulties this lack caused arnong the (mainly immigrant) workforce there. In addition, the causal relationship between education and improved individual, social and national conditions was a prevailing idea in Fitzpatrick's time. This idea was espoused by conternporary liberai thinken including George Monro Grant and John Dewey; the latter ernphatically stated that bbeducation is the fundamental method of social progress and reform" (in Callan 1990: 84). Furthemore,

Fitzpatrick's belief could have corne from his own life expenence: he was the only member of

As he aged, Fitzpatrick's beLiefs becme increasingly anti-religious. For exmple, in 1934, he asked readen whether they could "enjoy the mockery of singing and pnying at public worship when you know that the cost of mnning your expensive church should be spent on providing the means of clediness, companionship, guidance and inspiration for God's real temples - that is, for the real bodies of settien good and bad - on our hinterland". He added the stronger cnticism that church leaders were co-opted by the Muence of the wealthy and powemil: "[because] clergymen's bread depend[s] on the weii-to-do, they hesitate to criticize . . . the formalism and snobbery of conventionai religion" (op cit.) his family to have attended univenity and one of the few who did not spend his life at manual worP5.

The belief in the relationship between education and better living conditions also had a moral component. Many Canadians associated poor standards of living not with structural or individual economic failure but with a lack of virtue. Thus, they believed, the less forninate could "cure" themselves of their low social and economic status by developing "better" values through education. This was believed to be particularly true for immigrants who were even more in need, supposedly, of b'correct" - Le.. Anglo-saxon - values and culturd noms. As J.T.M. Anderson

Iater wrote:

we may despise the "foreigner" and al1 that is non-English, but the fact remains that this element [immigrants] is here to stay. and its presence is bound to make an impression upon our future citizenship. The paramount factor in racial fusion is undoubtedly the education of the children of these non-English races. (19 18: 89)

Notably, Fitzpatrick was far ahead of his tirne in his understanding of the possibilities inherent in fomal education for adults. Although adults had always been Leaming non- formally, the field of adult education had not yet been established as a formal pedagogical practice; it would be another twenty years before the landmark " 19 19 Report" (in which a

55 Cook (1976) speculates that he may dso have been motivated in particular by his guiit at having received an education while his older and Iess-intellectual brother Tom was required to engage his life in manual labour. (Fitzpatrkk dedicated his work University in Overalls "to my brother Tom who did too much manual labour while 1 did too little".) govemment, for the fmt time, professed adult education to be a valuable enterprise) was produced by the British Ministq for Reconstruction. Fitzpatrick later explained his early ideas:

"if grown-ups and youngsten had an equal amount of theory and practice it is likely that there would be little difference in the progress they would make" (1934). He added that adults with

lower levels of education should not be blarned for their status; rather, they should be given a

second chance to acquire that education. This was a notable divergence from Fitzpatrick's contemporary educational theorists and policy maken.

In his search for solutions to the educational problems on the frontiers, Fitzpauick did

not look to the few existing social service organizations. Rather, he blamed the govemment".

He asserted that the state expected - and took - much from workers in the camps but gave little

in retum. Thus, he believed, govemments should provide or fund formal adult education

progMms for frontier worken. However, Fitzpatrick dso argued that the state should not be

held solely responsible for this. He maintained that business owners should also provide the

educational and social necessities of life for their worken? Despite this belief, he did not

blarne capitdists directly: "Are the employers the chief sinners . . . ? Are they to blame that

some of them treat their workrnen as they do their horses . . . ? No! Not wholly or chiefiy"

s6 This eexplains in part why early Annual Reports and other writings by Fitzpatnck are comprised almost entirely of exhonatory pieces airned at propelling goveniments into action. " It would be interesting to conduct further research into Fitzpatrick's beliefs about and relationship to the business elite. Discovering who he was associating with dunng this time and who his fnends were - both among govemment and employers - would shed iight on this important question. Unfortunately, given existing records, this research is exuemely difficult to carry out. (1910 Annual Report: 13). Several years later, he added that "it is as unfair to expect that the contractors alone should educate their employees as that the manufacturers of the cities should teach theirs" (Annual Report 19 13: [n.p.]). This exemplifies Fitzpatrick's gradualist, pro- capitalist approach to social change. In a circular argument, he asserted that business owners would not assist their workers unless they were forced to by the govemment; thus, because of its continuing "hands-off' policies towards frontier capitalists. the state wûs also responsible for the employers' lack of services for the worken.

The work [of education on the frontiers] needs the wealth and authority of the state. So long as it is subject to the veto of some ignoramus of a foreman . . . it is doomed to failure. Were it not that the state champions the cause of public education. Our common school system. apparent as the need is, would be a failure. Some means must be found of awakening public sentiment, bringing pressure to bear on our departments of education, and securing the necessary legislation. ( 1906-7 Annuai Report: 13)

Severd influences from Fitzpatrick's early years had significant effects on his life's work. By growing up in Pictou County, he was influenced by the Sconish belief in the value of open and accessible education. The principle that education should be available to everyone was reinforced by A.H. MacKay and George Monro Grant, his mentors at Pictou Academy and

Queen's University respectively. Subsequently, Fitzpauick's joumey to the lumber camps of

California gave him a fmt-hand look at the terrible working conditions endured by fiontier labourers. Contemporary beliefs - both in the Social Gospel and elsewhere - reinforced Fitzpatrick's personal experiences: inhumane social conditions, he believed, could only be rectified through education. Because few organizations were providing educational or cultural opportunities to frontier workers, and because neither govemment (whom he held responsible for the problems) nor labour was willing to get involved, Fitzpatrick decided to quit the rninistry to devote himself to this cause.

Fitzpauick's outrage at the appalling conditions on the frontien fused with his rnoral/religious background to induce in him a lifelong desire to help the men who worked tbere. He elabonted his beliefs through the Reading Camp Association (Iater Frontier College).

Through this organization, he worked for improved living conditions, social welfare and education for the men in lumber camps on the Canadian frontiers. The following chapter examines the founding and development of the Association, and its unique means of educational delivery: the labourer-teacher. CHAPTER FOUR: THE LABOURER-TEACHER

To many of the foreigners the [labourer-teacher] is a new type of Canadian - clean in life and lip. yet straighf-fonvardand doing a man's work alongside them. He stands for startnch Canadianism and British institutions, and teaches by example and daiiy Wear and tear. He is measured by this worth, not his rheor;. Quiedy und unassumingfy hr is a moulder of Cmildidnisr?i.(Bucknell 1932: 218)

In his new parish in Nah Centre, Ontario. Fitzpatrick began his service by sending books and magazines to men in the lumber camps. Originally, he gathered the reading materials from his friends; George Monro Grant. for example, donated books from his own collection and from the Queen's library to supply a reading tent at one of the camps. Within a year, Fitzpatrick had obtained donations of books, magazines, newspapea and writing materiais from church groups and women's associations. Supporters also donated fùmiture and other necessities (Lucas, in Rogers 1988: 5).

As detailed above, Fitzpatrick believed that the goverment was responsible for the lack of services, particularly educational opporninities, for frontier labourers. Thus, besides sending matends out to the camps, he simultaneously lobbied govemments to modQ laws so that municipalities could set up Libraries in unincorporated areas near the camps. In addition,

Fitzpatrick mobilized Iumbermen to petition the Ontario Department of Education to establish a travelling library service to the camps. The success of his appeals was a pivotal victory in an age when many Libraries hesitated to send reading material to camp workers, fearing their books would be destroyed, contaminated with disease or, at the very least, unused by the men

(Cook 1976: 26).

Fitzpatrick realized that reading was extremely difficult in the camp environment due to the dim and crowded conditions in the bunkhouses (see above). Thus, he proposed that in addition to a "sleep" camp (the precursor of a bunkhouse) and a "cook camp (predating the use of the term "cookhouse"). every frontier work-site should include a "reading" camp, constnicted either from logs or heavy canvas5'. In 1900, he persuaded a lumber baron, James

Playfair, to allow one of these stmctures in his camp. This building was stocked with books. newspapers and magazines. which were non-religious in nature. On the outside, the structure carried the slogan: "Reading Tent - Al1 ~elcorne"'~.As Fitzpatrick rememben thirty-four yean later, his organization began very rnodestly, with hirn (literally) carrying most of the

Load:

in the fall of 1900 [Il bought a car load of lumber for the roof, floor and benches of three camp log buildings. II]had part of this lumber shipped across the

58 Robinson claims that Fitzpatrick invented the term "reading camp", but adds that the structures would have been more appropriately named "reading rooms" or "reading shanties"(l960: 5). When the reading tents were later supervised by instructon, they were often cded ''camp schools".

59 Such unsupervised reading roorns were used as late as1924 The use of reading tents has been revived by the modem Frontier Coliege, which sets them up for chiidren at public events. The tents, now supervised by volunteers, still carry the motto "AU Welcome". Spanish River at Naim Centre on a scow and hauled 18 miles to the camp at which m intended to establish the fmt brancha.

To lobby the government further, Fitzpatrick founded the Canadian Reading Camp

Movement in 1899 or 190O6' (renamed the Canadian Reading Camp ~ssociation~'in NO1).

This was to be a temporary agency that would set up reading tents as demonstration projects onlyb3:once Fitzpatrick had proven that education was possible on the frontiers, the idea was to be taken up, in theory, by govemments, which would establish branch librarîes in frontier

The Association does not want to be intmsted [sic] with the work. It could not begin to do it. The task is a herculean one. It [the Reading Camp Association] has demonstrated the feasibility of camp education. and simply asks the state to

This lumber was stolen by employees at the camp before it could be made into a reading room. In retrospect, Fitzpatrick deemed it legitimate that "the pupils-to-be regarded a little privacy of more value to them than books and teachers". because "men who worked as hard as the lumbe jack [sic] with as few privileges were entitled to a little privacy and a few of the accommodations enjoyed in other cornmunities" (1934). A clear understanding of the hierarchy of needs, decades be fore Maslow's theory .

6' There is some dispute about the year in which his new organization was founded. Evidence points to both years; contemporary Frontier College has officialIy decided on the latter. For more details on the controversy, see Robinson (1960: 28).

6' In 1906, the organization became a legal entity called the Reading Camp Association. This nomenciahue would shift again in 19 19 to 'The Frontier College" and finally in the 1980s to "Frontier College".

63 There is an interesting parallel between the creation of the Association as a demonstration project and Fitzpanick's career as an inventor. As a sideline, he designed and developed a number of mations including a portable shower, a land-clearing machine, a new kind of razor, a clothes dryer and a precursor to granola. However, he was oniy interested in the process of satisfjing a need, not in patenting his ideas (Lucas in Rogers 1988: 7). perform its duty, and to take up the work of educating (1906-7 Annual Report: 10)

Govemments would be ûssisted in this plan by other agencies, including churches, the YMCA and the Women's Christian Temperance Union (Robinson 1960: 22). Once these structures were in place, die Reading Camp Association would giadly relinquish conuol of the projects.

However, Fitzpatrick stated that "until the State assumes the burden, the Association has no hesitancy in soliciting the continued cooperation of the general public for a work in the interest of men who so nobly do their share of producing the comrnunity wedth of our comon country" ( 19 13 Annual Report: 1n.p.1)~.

By 1901, Fitzpatrick ha6 refined his plan. He enlisted and sent univenity students - called "librarian-instructors" - to the camps to teach reading and mathematics and to lead activities during the labourers' (few) off-work houn. While unsupervised reading rwms were valuable for workers who could read, the practice of using librarian-instmcton was particularly helpful for workers with lower literacy levels. It also epitomised one of Fitzpatrick's fundamental principles: that education should be accessible, both geographicdly and fînanciûlly. Most educationd institutions of that time required workes on the periphenes of the country to leave their jobs and go to populated centres if they wanted to participate in formal education. However, Fitzpatrick proposed that the state should take education out to "the remotest corners of our land, wherevet there are citizens in need of instruction" (1920, repnnted 1999: 102). As he wrote, "wherever and whenever men [sic] have occasion to

64 As weU as making it easier to attract funding, caiiing a project "experimentai" also makes it Iess threatening to established power structures (Thomas, personal communication). congregate, then and there should be the time, place and rneans of their education" (19 13

Annual Report [n.p.]).

Fitzpatrick's plan was also ahead of its time in its support for part-time learning by working-class adults. Contemporary educational thinkers disagreed with this pnctice because, they believed, it put too many demands - both intellectudly and practically - on workers with littie time and few resources (both physically and mentally). Experts cited in John Seath7s191 1 woric, Education for Industrial Pwposes: A Report, noted that "strenuous work dunng the day leaves the men too exhausted for effective study at night". More condescendingly, they added that "the untrained man . . . lacks [educational] staying power", and since irregular attendance would result in slower progress, these experts predicied that participants would feel

"dissaiisfaction, or even disgust" (Ellis in Wigmore 199 1b: 268). On the contrary, Fitzpatrick believed that formal learning was possible in such an environment. He later wrote that "in spite of the long houn of labour something worthwhile can be accomplished [with the teaching]"

(19 14: 62). Thus, in spite of official pessimism, he persevered?

The first librarian-instnictor was Andrew O. Patterson, who served in 190 1. The following year, Fitzpatrick sent eleven young men to frontier camps, to teach and befriend the camp-men. These librarian-instructors included a few professional teachers, although, usually.

65 Fitzpauick also believed that a shorter workday was "inevitably" coming, and he saw the advantages for worken in having longer hours for education and leisure. However, he did not lobby offcials to bring in this regdatory change more quickly. This is another example of Fitzpafrick's gradualist approach to change. The much-anticipated shorter workday, which was evennially brought about through union activism, did not anive for frontier workers during Fitzpatrick's iifetime. these men and women were unwilling to endure the hardships of camp life? Fitzpatrick's attempts to make teachers from men already in the camps - labourers, doctors and clerks who could teach reading and writing - were not particularly successful. In fact, "evidence indicates diat [these men] rarely held classes and could only be depended upon, at best, to distribute magazines" (Morrison 1960: 38). Looking for a new source for frontier teachers, Fitzpatnck turned to university students. As its positions were increasingly filled by university students, the Reading Camp Association shifted its emphasis from winter to sumrner work to adapt to their schedules (Momson 1960: 39). B y 19 19, most labourer-teac hers were university students or graduates (ibid: 39).

In 190 1, the sarne year as Patterson did his pioneering work, the Reading Camp

Association convened its first Board of Govemon. This group was composed largely of the employers in whose camps the Association was active. For example, the president of the

Board, John Charlton, was an Algoma lumber executive; the treasurer. W.J. Bell, was the manager of the Sarnia Bay Lumber, Tirnber and Salt Company. Having such powerful industrialists on its Board gave the Reading Camp Association legitimacy. However,

Fitzpatrick refused to ask Board members - men who owned businesses which were benefitting from the Association's reading camps - for financial support for his indebted organization. He stated that "if they [business leaders] cooperate by giving space, they shouldn't be asked to

66 Candy notes that mm-of-the-century Canada had an abundance of skilled workers, artisans and professionals who were able to share their skills (1985: 443). Unfortunately, few of these people were willing to do so in the arduous living conditions on the frontiers of the country. give [money]" (Lucas, in Rogers 1988: 5)". In other words, because he needed to stay on their good sides so that he could continue placing labourer-teachers in the camps, Fitzpatnck would not risk alienating these businessmen by asking for financiai support. This is an early exmple of his unwillingness to subven existing power structures.

The next great pedagogical leap forward occurred during the 1902-03 season. when there were already twenty-four reading rooms functioning on the frontiers. During that winter, a young teacher named Angus Grey (or Gray, as he has equally been named over history), was placed as a librarian-instmctor at Hall's Lumber Camp in northern Ontario. After several months, he decided that attendance at his classes wouid increase if he laboured during the day with the men in his camp in addition to teaching them at night. Not only would this elirninate

Grey's redundancy at the camp dunng the day whiie the men were at work, it would also make him a more effective teacher. It would allow him to understand better the lives and interests of the men who worked in the camp, which would make his classes more relevant to his students' needs. As Fitzpauick wisely noted: "there is a certain prejudice against men who do not engage in the regular routine of the work in hand. There is danger of being classed with the several

67 A few businesses did donate "in kind" contributions to the Reading Camp Association. The Canadian Pacific Railway, for exarnple, shipped magazines to the camps free of charge. They aiso provided a free travel pass for Fitzpauick and occasionaily also for the supervisors of instmctors (Momson 1960: 52). While this must have been extremely helpful for Fitzpatrick, it is a token contribution by an enormous corporation which benefitted greatly from the Association's work. Twenty five years later, both the Canadian National and the Canadian Pacific Railways developed their own prograrns to provide educational support to frontier worken, in panicuiar immigrant adults and children. For example, from 1926 until 1967, the companies supported travelling school cars on the rails. For more details about this program, see Wigmore (1992) and Schuessler ( 1986). parasites who shadow the workmen for the sole purpose of exploiting hem" (1920, reprinted

1999: 132). Relating to his students as a CO-workernecessarily brought Grey and his students into utilitarian contact, from w hich rapport and leaming naturally arose.

While Fitzpatrick did not devise this change in teaching methodology, he was amenable to it for several reasons. First, he believed strongly in the reciprocd nature of teaching and leming - in education as an equal exchange. As he wrote, "dl should be leamers, al1 manual worken and al1 teachen together" ( 1934); in the newly-developed pedagogy, univenity students and manual labourers would teach each other based on their pmticular skiils and needs". As well, sending univenity snidents out as working "labourer-teachers" (instead of librarian-instructors) would decrease costs for Fitzpatnck's indebted organization. While librarian-instructors had been paid by the Reading Camp Association, labourer-teachers would be paid as workers by the Lumber Camp for their manuai work, and, for their teaching, would be given only a small honorarium by the ~ssociation~~.

Fitzpatnck thought a good teacher should be "a guide. a counsellor and friend" to his or her students, rather than a traditional lecnirer. This assertion of the value of "androgogy" and non-hieruchical teaching and leaming predates Paolo Freire and Malcolm Knowles by many decades.

69 Labourer-teachers were also aven a one-way train fare to their workplaces. At the end of their placements, if they had completed their work satisfactorily, they were given the retum fare. Duties of the Labourer-Teacher

From 1903 onward, labourer-teachers travelled to lumber camps, mines and rail gangs to fulfil their dual role of working and instnicting. Fust, they engaged in heavy manual labour dongside the other workers. As Fitzpatrick described the work in 19 12, labourer-teachea

have donned the rough dress of the frontiersman and engaged in every kind of labour known to the frontier. They may be seen shooting the npids of a mountain river with supplies for building a transcontinental railway, wheeling sand for cernent pillars, dnving mules ("skinning", as it is called), working on a bridge or trestle, cooking, track-laying, surfacing, building dumps, or at lumber camps "bucking" timber (sawing), "chickadeeing" (picking obstructions off the main hl),"falling", acting as "beavers" (cutting trails) and engaging in a score of other occupations on the fringe of civilization ail the way from Cape Breton to Vancouver Island (61).

They performed this dangerous, dirty, physically-taxing work often for [en to fifteen houn a day. During the early years of the Reading Camp Association, labourer-teachen also worked as handyrnen, chore-boys or generai labourers; axemen or teamsters: nawies (the lowest-rung unskilled labourers on rail gangs), brakernen, or graden; fish packers or soners, miners, carpenters' or machinists' helpers or blacksrniths in remote work-sites across canada".

This work was often exuemely difficult at f~stfor university students unused to manual labour. As Fitzpatrick poetically descnbed the situation, a university student

70 Within the organization's fmt decade, Canadian labourer-teachers were placed in the United States; this practice continued for severai years. Americans later worked as labourer- teachers in remote and northern communities in Canada in the 1960s and 1970s. luxunates in a rich soil and congenial atmosphere. It is a drawback that there is not sufficient Storm to stiffen the tender blades and freshen the soil about the roots. The plant savours the hothouse. Like serni-reciuses, they are paie in the spring and their muscles so lax that they are unfit for manual labour until a fortnight or more has passed. ( 1920, reprinted 1999: 104)

Compounding this diffculty. labourer-teachers - usually seen as effete "college kids" - were often given the toughest jobs to test their capabilities. Most penevered, survived the first few weeks, and prospered dunng their placements. Others did not. During their placements, labourer-teachers were to be given no special favours by the employers. They were to work at the lowest (unskilled) rung on the labour hierarchy. However, records show that this was not always the case. but rather the ideal: many worked as timekeepen or performed other similarly less-demanding jobs.

Secondly, Fitzpatrick expected two hours of teaching per night. with extra on Sundays.

Usually, there were no formal school environments in which to conduct the teaching:

At times the box car of the railway extra-gang [was] the camp-school of the labourer; more frequently a hut, one of a group which forms a Company camp [was] used for classes; upon occasion, however, the teacher's quarters [were] only a corner of a large bunkhouse. Whatever the accommodation, the classrwm [was] invariably fitted with a table, some rough benches, a blackboard, a large wail map of Canada and a shelf for a few books and current magazines. (Lucas 193.1: 12)

The workers varied enonnously in their abilities and their interests, so labourer-teachen had to modify prograrns to suit the needs of small groups or individuals. Since most of the workers on the frontiers were ment immigrants to Canada, instmction centred on English as a second language (or French as a second language in Quebec or other Francophone environments). In the early years of the twentieth cenniry, one of the oniy Canadian texts designed to teach English to adult immigrants was The Handbook for New canadians7'. This textbook was officially wntten by Fitzpatrick, although legend has it that the real author was

Edmund Bradwin, who was then the supervisor of instnictors. Certainly the work was based on the curriculum which Bradwin wrote based on his own expenences teaching in frontier camps.

The Handbook - and its later cornpanion volume A Primer for Addts - focussed on themes such as the geography. history and govemment of Canada as well as procedures for naturalization. It explained linguistic structures and presented the vocabulary of "everyday"

English through practical exercises involving situations which an immigrant working on the frontier would likely encounter. Unlike materials for urban immigrants, this textbook discussed bunkhouse life, saw mills and rail gangs. In addition, as it was wntten during a time of concem over the activities and loyalties of foreign-born worken, the work had overtly nationdistic aims (see below).

Besides newcorners, frontier camps aiso included native-bom Canadians with lower levels of education. To these latter workers, labourer-teachers taught basic mathematics and literacy skills, in addition to acadernic courses such as geography or agricultural science. They also helped workers with correspondence courses (Momson 1960: 44), although, given the nature of educational extension at the time (see above), this could not have been a frequent occurrence. More commoniy, the university students led informal "blackboard talks" on themes

7 1 The fmt series of school readen the Association reports focussing on Canadian themes was written only in 1864 (McDonald 1982a: 97). However, these texts were not designed to teach English as a second language, nor were they written specificaily for adults. as diverse as current events, mechanics, government structure, land settlement and forestry.

Occasionally, they invited lectures to deiiver addresses to the men in camps.

The Reading Camp Association continued to provide books and magazines to men in the camps, both for leaming and for pleasure reading. These materials were donated by church groups and the YMCA, as they had been since the Association's early days. The organization also paid for some subscriptions to current magazines. Gradually, Fitzpatrick accumulated a quantity of donated reading material large enough that he did not have to purchase more. By

19 19, approximately one hundred camps across Canada received weekly packages of books and magazines throughout the summer frorn the Association's head office in Toronto

(Momson 1960: 47).

Labourer-teachers were also counsellors - "father confessors, chums and confidants"

(Fitzpatrick 1934) for their CO-workers.For example, Grant Bucknell (who served as a labourer-teacher in 193 1, '32 and '33, on a gang constnicting the Trans-Canada highway near

Deux Rivières, Ontario) noted that "the men corne to me with ail sorts of requests. Some have a grievance for which they want an understanding ear. They corne for final opinions in disputes"

(1932: 22 1). Labourer-teachers also helped men to write persona1 letters and to prepare mail orders (Wigmore 199 1b: 270). In addition, they organized recreational activities for their co- workers, including games, competitive sports, "magic lantern" slide shows and musical events, panicularly singalongs. These comrnunity-building activities also served as a locus for leaming

English and for leaming about cultural nom in Canada. Furthemore, Fitzpatrick believed that labourer-teachea should be moral role models for their CO-worken.In the xenophobic climate of his day (see above), Fitzpatrick believed that immigrants needed instruction to develop "good" - Le., mainstrearn Canadian, or Anglo-

Saxon, Protestant - characteristics. These values, supposedly including chivdry, honesty and hygiene, were taught both implicidy, by example, and explicitly, through informal "blackboard talks" given by labourer-teaches on subjects such as naturalization or thnft. Moral messages were also conveyed through the orgmization's 19 19 textbook The Handbook for New

Cunadians, which sprinkled its language texts with sententious didactic messages. For example, among other requirements, the "good citizen":

Loves God; Loves the Empire; Loves Canada; Loves his own family; Protects women and children; Works hard; Does his work well; Helps his neighbor [sic]; 1s truthful; 1s just; 1s honest; 1s brave; Keeps his promise: His body is clean; [He] is every inch a Man. (56)

Fitzpatrick's mord agenda included an overt imperialist cornponent: he believed immigrants should be made to develop a sense of admiration for the British ~mpire". For exarnple, in an early Annual Report, he quoted the Duke of Connaught: "the greatest duty that devolves upon Canadians is to make Canadians of those who are corning to Canada's shores

Fitzpatnck played up the Canadianizing aspect of the College's work dunng the "Bolshevist" scare of the 1920s. Like other prominent thinkers and social activists of his day, he claimed that uneducated foreigners, if not taught the "nght" ideals by the "right" people, might fdl prey to those with revolutionary or socialist intentions. "Staunch" Canadians, on the oiher hand (for example, labourer-teachers), would, in theory, rid frontier workers of their radical politics. Fitzpatnck could have prornoted such beliefs out of genuine pauiotic concern; it is also possible that he employed such scare tactics as a way to raise much needed huids for his organization (Zavitz 1974). from other lands, and to see that they are loyal to the British crown" ( 19 14: 2). The Handbook for New Canadians also contained instructional texts extolling sirnilar views:

The Union Jack means freedom and justice to aii. It stands for liberty, not only in Canada but throughout the great British Empire. Men of al1 colors [sic], and races, and creeds And protection under its folds. Its influence extends to dl pats of the world. Thmk of the many thousands of brave men who have willingly died for it. The three crosses which compose the flag tell the story of sacrifice and devotion. The flag is honoured and loved by the people of Canada. Let us al1 be tme to the flag of our country. (179)

Although these imperid and assirnilationist views are now seen as both colonialist and patronising, it is important to note that Fitzpatrick was following (and reinforcing) the prevailing convictions of his tirne".

Although there were Catholic. atheist and Jewish labourer-teachen, dl of these were heavily outnumbered in the early days by Protestants. Initially, labourer-teachers were expected to conduct religious services; however, the religious aspect of the work was gradually muted.

As Fitzpatrick wrote:

The work of the camp instructor is . . . religious but not ecclesiastical. The Association has no axe to grind, no church for which to make proselytes. It always places its building, tents and cars at the disposal of visiting clergymen,

In comparing his contemporary pedagogicd environment (of 198 1) with that of 19 18, Wardhaugh notes : 'ive have not really changed a great deal the ways in which we go about teachhg [immigrants] the languages of the country to which they have corne and, one must suspect, too, many of our purposes for doing that teaching" (154). irrespective of denomination, and tries to make week-days, as well as Sundays, a blessing to the frontiersman (19 1 1 Annual Report: 3 1)

Eventudly, the religious nature became visible only indirectly through a Social Gospel agenda of education, counselling and recreational events: "ail education work is more or less religious

. . . many of Our students preach the Gospel in the regular way. Al1 live it before the men. In min and sunshine, in mud and rnuskeg, it is the aim of the instructor to help the men to a better life" (ibid.: 30).

Labourer-teachers' abilities to fül their multiple roles were cornplicated by severd factors. First, it was difficult to gain the inist of the workers. who often feared authonty and who associated Fitzpauick's organization with Canadian institutional power7'. Second, the long hours of work (see above) often precluded workers from having either the time or the energy to study formally with labourer-teachers7'. Third, workers' discontentment with difficult conditions was often expressed through a demoralized "weariness of heart" (Robinson 1960: 8) which suppressed their interest in learning. Fourth, workers on frontier gangs regularly

"jumped" from gang to gang, often as frequentiy as every few weeks, looking for better living

74 Their assumption was, in part, me: as demonstrated in this thesis, the Association did, in certain ways, suppoa ideas and power structures of the Canadian establishment. That the organization was given the patronage of the Govemor General in 19 10 (His Excellency Earl Grey) testifies to its position within the Canadian elite; the support of that office continues to this day. " Of course, frontier workers - Iike dl adults - were continuaiiy learning new skills, some of which may have been seen as less politically or sociaily desirable by established powers. or working condition^'^. Finally, foremen on the frontiers (some of whom were resentfui of

labourer-teachers*social and educational pnvileges) did not always support workers' leaming with the sarne enttiusiasrn that their executive bosses did.

When employed by the company, the instnictor is altopther under the thumb of the boss, who very ofien has no sympathy with the educationd work in any form, and thinks his men will be injured by the attention paid them by the instnictor. In consequence, the educational duties of the instnictor are bound to be relegated to a secondary place. If he does not please his boss in every particular he may [ose his position, and must then of necessity quit his reading tent work. ( 1906-07 Annual Report: 28)

To assuage this concem, Fitzpatrick argued that govemments (nther than companies) should pay labourer-teachers. This is another facet of his belief that the state - nther than the employer - was responsible for the education of workers on the frontien.

The People

Fitzpatrick required labourer-teachers to possess several diverse characteristics. First, to

be able to withstand the houn of ngorous work and to have the stamina for volunteer work in

the rvenings, labourer-teachen had to be physically fit and energetic. Second, they had to be

76 Workers tended to stay in a given camp for an average of about three weeks before moving on (Bradwin, in Zavitz 1974: 79). in a gang of two hundred men, perhaps only twenty wouid stay long enough to be considered "permanent" (Cook 1976: 19). Fitzpatrick blamed much of the movernent on inadequate accommodations. He recognised that if the camp owners would spend the same amount on bunkhouses as they did on the transportation they were forced to provide frequently for new workers (to replace those who had left), jumping would be greatly reduced ( 1920, reprinted 1999: 47). charismatic and personable: "they should possess . . . the common man qualities which will

Wear with the rank and file" (Bradwin 1924, in Zavitz 1974: 49).

Third, they had to be altruistic: "ready to give of their best unselfishly, with the desire to help the men, to share with them the finer and Mer things of life" because "the work of the labourer-teacher is no sinecure and the financial remuneration is very srnail" (Lucas 1934). Of course, not ail labourer-teachers lived up to this benevolent ideal. Sorne understood their work with the Association less as a philanthropie project and more as an adventure. Others saw it just as a summer job. Most, however, would have had dificulty maintaining their cornmitment to a challenging situation without a desire to promote change for their fellow workers.

Finally, they had to be "upstanding" citizens from "good homes" - i.e., English- speaking and Protestant - who could serve as role models for their CO-worke~.Because labourer-teachers were primarily univenity students (or graduates), they were virtually guarmteed to be middle- or upper-class, predominantly Anglo-saxon and male". Fitzpatrick recognized the level of privilege among labourer-teachers; he wrote: "it is because the university graduate is in the position to obtain the interest and aid of the capitalist thai he above al1 others must reach out and take the hand of the toile?' (1920, repnnted 1999: 109). However, by framing the labourer-teacher experience as a kind of "noblesse oblige", he did not acknowledge the ways in which the relationship between labourer-teachen and other workeo often reproduced and reinforced existïng power structures.

Because of precipitous increases in tuition beginning in the 1990s, many university students now cannot afford to eam ody a labourer-teacher's salary (minimum wage) during their summer study breaks. The danger looms of the program becoming, once again, a characttr-building experience available only to the elite. By placing pnvileged young men in low-status manual-labourer positions, the Reading

Camp Association allowed the students to enter a world with which they would otherwise have had no contact; many developed a deep empathy with their CO-workers.Thus, as a byproduct of

its educational work among camp-men, the Association aiso sensitized future members of the elite to the conditions and challenges of the working class. Because of this, it was - and still is

- common for labourer-teachers to daim at the end of their stint that, despite their hard work,

they learned more than they had taught7!

Both because of their pnvileged positions, and because of their experiences with the

Reading Camp Association (and elsewhere), many labourer-teachen later assumed leadership

roles in legai, political, educational and social spheres in canada''. For example, one famous

alumnus from the early years is Norman Bethune. Duhg the winter of 191 1. the young

medical student worked as a labourer-teacher at a lumber camp at Pinage Lake, near Whitefish,

78 This leaming could also derive from the organization's practice of "put[tingJ talented people in impossible situations with minimal resources and let[tingJ them devise prograrns cespansive to local needs" (Pearpoint 1987: 279). Over its history, Frontier College has lived with the tension between its overt goal (bringing education to worken on the frontiers) and the byproduct of that goal (providing developmental expenences for young members of the elite). Robinson (1960: 4) daims the latter as an expiicit aim of the organization; this view is similar to oiher development organizations such as CUSO and Canada World Youth. In its current incamation, the labourer-teacher prognm gives a lower priority to youth development than to the work done by those people on the frontiers.

l9 The number of labourer-teachers who subsequently assumed leading political and artistic roles in Canada is impressive. The list includes: Members of Parliament Svend Robinson and David Kilgour (also Secretary of State for Latin America and Afiica); David Peterson (former Premier of Ontario), Roy McMurtry (Chief Justice of Ontario), Escott Reid (international diplomat), Dr. Wendell McLeod (lifelong humanitarian and "Red Dean" of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan), Dave Godfiey and poet Dennis Lee (CO-founders of Anansi Press) and Jack Rabinovitch (philanthropist and founder of the GUer Literary prize). ontarioso. His physicai duties included working as an axeman and working with engines used to pull logs up a hill. Initiaily, Bethune complained in his lettea of "blisters and fully developed symptorns of a kink in my vertebral column" (in Cook 1976: 28). Conversely, he noted "1 enjoy [the work] now and am sure 1 shall like it immensely later on" (in Zavitz 1982:

35). For his teaching, Bethune opened a reading room, which was quite successhl. He had

Fitzpatrick send him a dicûonary, paper, envelopes, a Bible and magazines. including a subscription to the Saturday Evening Post. He aiso requested books wntten in simple English,

Polish and French for his CO-workers,who were originally from Quebec, Gemany. Poland and

Hungary. Bethune dso used the phonograph which Fitzpatrick had provided. In addition, he provided basic medical services for his CO-workea(Wilson, 1999: 28). Bethune enjoyed his expenence enough to want to retum the following sumer; unfortunately, he was told there were no positions available8'. Bethune Iater became an international hero for his medical and humanitarian service during the Spanish Civil War and the Comrnunist Revolution in China.

Another Labourer-teacher who became well known for his social service was James R.

Mutchmor, who served as the Moderator of the United Church of Canada. Mutchrnor worked on rail gangs in central and western Canada in the summers of 19 1 1 to 19 14. He later recounted that his experience with the Reading Camp Association was as formative as his

Since the organization's early days, Fitzpatrick had recruited fifth-year medical students, who could both teach and provide basic medical services to the worken in the camps.

Bradwin, who was at that time responsible for hiring labourer-teachers, did not like Bethune because of the young doctor's Communist sympathies. Thus, the statement that there were "no positions available" may have been merely a convenient fiction on Bradwin's part (Cook, personal communication). oveneas service during the First World War. "My years on the gangs] helped me to know and

love my fellow man. They provided for involvement and identification" (in Cook 1976: 28).

Of course, not al1 later-farnous labourer-teachers had such positive and formative experiences. For example, Benjamin Spock, the well-known pacifist and pediatncian, was a

self-declared failure as a labourer-teacher. He later wrote that students "came to my class in

fair, but npidly dwindling numbers for a few nights, apparently out of cunosity and politeness,

and then stopped" (Frontier College collection). Due to the nature of historiography and to the

mythogenesis of the organization. only a few less-than-successful stones are recorded,

remernbered and retold.

Although most labourer-teachen were men. Fitzpatrick also employed women. This

challenged existing moraiity, which argued that "women engaged in public life would eventually destroy society" (MacDonald 1986: 12) and which thus constricted women's

mobility. On the contrary, Fitzpatrick maintained that women were capable of both physical

work and teaching in remote locations". Fitzpatrick supported this claim despite opposition

from those who believed that conditions on the frontiers were too difficult for women. In reply,

he countered that camps or "any place on land or sea that is unfit for women is equally unfit for

men, either from a moral or sanitary point of view" (1920, reprinted 1999: 49).

" In addition to non-traditionai roles, women aiso played an important role in the administration of the organization. One woman, Jessie Lucas, had a particularly strong impact as the secretary of the organization from 1920 to 1964. During her tenue, she "held the fort" during Fitzpatrick's (and two subsequent principals') long absences. She also served as registrar during the univenity-period, and aiso set the French examination. As early as 1900, Fitzpatrick placed wornen as librarian-instmctors. For example, a woman recorded only as "Mrs. Alex Scott" served in J.J. McFadden's camp, outside Whitefish

Station, Ontario. At this camp, where her husband was a foreman, Mrs. Scott taught reading and writing to the men in the camp. Another woman, recorded as "B.M. Laverie", was sent to

Murdoch Brothers' Camp on the Temiskaming Railroad Construction gang outside North Bay,

Ontario.

Fitzpatnck also believed that, like maie sstudents, female university students had not just the abiliv, but aiso the dury to serve as labourer-teachers on the frontiers:

with her rnind enriched partly at public expense, and with her broader vision, she has an obligation to go for a time . . . as an actual worker and teacher in the shirt factories, the Cotton rnills . . . where, amid machinery and clatter of activity, wornen worken, too often lacking her acquirements, are herded together. ( 1920, reprinted 1999: 133)

Female university students were placed as labourer-teachers in industriai settings with other female worken. For example, Miriam Chisholm and Majorie Wickshire were placed as labourer-teachea with French-Canadian women workers at Clarke Brothers' clothes-pin factory in Bear River, Nova Scotia. As Fitzpatrick wrote to Chisholrn:

you will work with the girls in the factory during the day and spend the evenings in giving instruction, and in general welfare work . . . of course we think that your influence during the day will count for as much as it will in the evening. (in Wigmore 199 1a: 263) Unfortunately, Chisholm was not able to accompiish her educationd and recreational aims, as factory equipment broke down, employees were laid off, and she was transferred to the company's office.

Another woman, Isobel Mary Mackey, was sent to work fmt in Saskatchewan, where she set up reading clubs and a circulating library (Wigmore 199 la). Later, Mackey, an

"energetic and assertive" woman (Lucas, [n.d.]: 1 l), was sent as a labourer-teacher to Connon

Brothers' fish cannery in Black's Harbour, New Brunswick, where she tried to develop educational and recreationd prognms for the women and girls at her workplace.

Unfortunately, her employen did not support her attempts at comrnunity development. As

Wigmore notes, "on the archival evidence, the conditions she met . . . in Black's Harbour actively discouraged her from achieving such a role. The communities were not ready for the kind of service by women which Fitzpatrick espoused ( 199 la: 264)83.

83 After 19 L 8, other women also served with Frontier College. For example, in 1929-3 1, Fitzpatnck placed E. Margaret Strang on a homesteadhg project in Edlund, Ontario. Smg served as a teacher for local English- and French-speaking children; in the evenings, she taught English and French to older boys and some adults. At the same time, she homesteaded a substantial property, doing al1 of the physical work with the aid of Fitzpatrick's brother. As well, Strang (the fitwoman to graduate fiom the University of Western Ontario's medical school) worked as a frontier doctor for local settiements. Historians suggest that she travelled on horseback to serve those who could not othenvise afford medical care. Strang's work as a labourer-teacher fomed the basis for her life's work: she becarne a well-known humanitarian medical missionary in the Peace River district of northern Alberta. Growth in the Promun

Evduating the success of early reading camps is extremely difficult? Records of attendance at reading tents give only a vague estimate:

in the more stable lumber camps, 60 percent of the men would attend classes more or Iess frequentiy. but on the volatile railway gangs. attendance of from 2 percent to 10 percent [was] far more common. Almost invariably, the reading roorns would be used by 90 percent of the literate men (about 50 percent of the camp). (Cook 1976: 28)

In addition. looking at a single season, for exarnple. 1923, the organization served approximately 20,000 of the estimated 300,000 workers in camps (Zavitz 1974: 88).

Obviously, both these synchronie and diachronie perspectives are flawed not just by lack of rigour but also by the variable exarnined: attendance does not equd leaming. in addition, these analyses do not convey who it was who participated; new Canadians, for example. motivated by a need to learn the language, attended classes in greater proportion than others on the gangs

(Morrison 1960: 46). Finally, much of the quantitative information about the success of the organization's early attempts at frontier education corne from the Annual Reports. Because these documents were wntten by Fiizpauick, and because they were used for promotion and fundraising, it is possible that they contain inflated figures.

M As Thomas notes, evaluation has always been ''a problem for aduit education programs fmanced outside of the formulas for official agencies" (personai communication). In historical research, these problems are magnifieci by incomplete records. A qualitative analysis of the effectiveness of reading tents is even more difficult.

Testimonials are few and brief: learners (who were infrequently named in the Association reports) wrote, for example, that they "would like to learn moore [sic]" or that they "hope[d] we wii1 have sckool [sic] again soon" (in Wigmore 199 1b: 270). Early labourer-teachers were as vague in thek information: one noted that "some workes giadly took advantages of the

'evening classes', others. mostly of inferior outlook, ignored hem" (Rokeby-Thomas 1993).

Qualitative analyses in early reports also do not address the "intangible" benefits - understanding of Canadian culture, mediation between workers and foremen. "moral" leadership, access to recreational opponunities, fnendship - of having a labourer-teacher in a camp. As E.H.Clarke wrote (with perhaps some degree of self-congratulation) of his experience as a labourer-teacher:

The instructor's work cannot be reported. It is limitless. He iives not for himself. but for others. Life, not words, counts in his battle. The results of the past few yean in Our railroad camp work shows a great change in the camp life. Our camps are not little heavens yet, but old-timers will tell you that the life is changing, and changing for the better, and they are not slow in praising the Reading Camp Association for that change. (Reprinted in 1909 Annual Report: 23)

Despite these obstacles to evaluation, it is clear that the organization continued to grow.

By 1904, there were forty-two reading tents in operation, and labourer-teachers - Anglophone and Francophone - working both inside and outside Ontario. Within the organization's first decade, requests were coming from as far away as Burrard Inlet, British Columbia (Momson

1999: 15). By 19 13, there were more than seventy labourer-teachers (and four supervisors of instructon) in eight provinces, working in mines, lumber camps, hydro-electric power plants, on road construction gangs and on al1 three transcontinental railways. In 19 18, almost half the work occurred outside Ontario; by that year, nearly six hundred instnictors had served with the organization.

As the Association expanded, so did its staff: A.O. Patterson, the fmt librarian- instructor in 190 1, becarne Fitzpauick's assistant and the first supervisor of labourer-teachers.

Edmund Bndwin, who joined in 1904, later becarne supervisor of instructon. He succeeded

Fitzpatrick as principal in 1933, serving until just before his death in 1954. C.G.D. Longmore, who joined in 19 10, devoted his life to the organization and its work; when he died in 1952, he willed his estate to what was, by then, known as the Frontier College. And R.W. Collins worked as the Association's business agent (or fundraiser) from 19 16 until he retired in 1960.

Sirnilarly, as the Association grew, so did its expenses. Fitzpatrick began the project with almost no money - the euLiest financial statement recorded receipts of only forty-nine dollars - so the Reading Camp Association was bom in debt. As the organization became better known, contributions from individuals, corporations and churches (in particular the

Presbyterian church) increased substantially. The fundraising process was accelerated since

1906 by the Association's creation of the position of "business agent". Significantiy, some provincial governments also provided financial support in various arnounts, leading Fitzpatrick to exclaim that they had "given to Canada the distinction of being the first country in the world where the [g]ovemrnent has made any effort to give an education to the fiontiersmen at their work" ( 19 14 Annual Report: 7). RealisticaUy, however, given Fitzpatrick's beiief that the Association's work should be taken over completely by the govemment, these contributions - while useful - must have been far below his expectations.

Despite overall increases in hinding, financial problems perpetually constrained the organization's activities. One reason was the continuous expansion of the Association's programs. As well, "the policy in the very early years was to make the experiment a success in order to prove worthy of financial support" (Morrison 1960: 54); unfortunately, success did not necessarily lead to money, as had been planned. Finally, Fitzpairick's considerable difficulties with fiscal management were a primary contributor to the financial problerns which continued to haunt the Association throughout his tenures5.

Operations dunng World War 1

During the fint World War, the Association's overail operations were temporarily curtailed, but not entirely cancelled. Fitzpatnck explained that:

at the outbreak of the war. some fnends of the Association thought that such a work as ours rnight be suspended for the tirne being. To their representations our officen gave most careful consideration, but decided that it would be a shon- sighted and dangerous policy even temporariiy to relinquish a work that rneans so much to the future of our country. (19 14 Annual Report: 4)

One of Bradwin's greatest accomplishments was developing and maintainhg the Reading Camp Association's fianciai stability. While he has been criticized for the narrowness of his organizational vision, Bradwin guaranteed that the organization would survive financially; this bad been highly uncenain before he assumed its leadership. This reduction was influenced by several factors. First, because of their cornmitment to wartime expenditures, corporaie and government financial support diminished. Second, since the Association would not have as labourer-teachers "any young men who cannot show good reasons for remaining here [in Canada] instead of serving in Europe" (19 15 Annual Report: 2), the number of university students serving with the organization temporarily diminished.

However. men stiil laboured in camps across Canada, although they were working for patriotic as well as stnctly cûpitalistic ends, for example. in munitions factories. The Reading Camp

Association placed limited numben of labourer-teachers in these camps; for example. in 19 18. there were thirty-four young men working in camps across Canada. These men played "a special role by keeping [workers] informed about the progress of the war and by encouraging enlistment" (Momson 1960: 48).

At the same tirne. the organization developed a creative and corresponding role: it engaged instmciors to serve as "soldier-teachen" with the Forestry Battalions overseas. In cooperation with the YMCA, these men organized libraries and provided basic education classes for their fellow soldien. However, once Canadian univenities began to organize the

Khaki College (an educational extension program for soldiers), the Reading Camp Association withdrew from its overseas role (Cook 1976: 34). This withdrawal supports the idea that

Fitzpatrick had no desire to found a permanent education agency (see above). It shows, on the contrary, that the organization was an experimental demonstrator both of educational needs and of ways for othen, notably governments, to meet those needs. Over the next ten years, Fitzpatrick's visions and experimental practices would be tested by challenging timess6. Dunng the "red scare" of the late teens and early 1920s, he would, in cooperation with the Department of National Defence, place labourer-teachers in relief camps, in part to report on and conuol "undesirable" socialist organizing. He would also attempt to set up homesteading projects. sending labourer-teachers to newly developed or remote settlements to live, farm. teach and act as community resources. And Fitzpatrick would develop his degree-granting prograrn, to allow frontier workers access to pst-secondary studies: this innovative idea would, unfortunately, be thwarted by established univenities and their govemment supporters.

Fitzpatrick's idea grew from smdl beginnings into a large and diverse educational organization. The Reading Camp Association was founded to demonstrate educational needs and possibilities for filling those needs. However, because the government did not take over its work, as planned. Fitzpatrick continued to provide services to workers on the frontiers.

Although he began by merely sending reading matenals, he supplemented these materials by

placing librhan-instructon in the camps. These positions were quickly supplanted by

labourer-teachea, who did physical work during the day with their CO-workers.In the evenings,

86 Fitzpatrick never considered the labourer-teacher the exclusive means by which he could give educational oppominities to those on the frontiers (Cook 1976: 26). It was Bradwin, his successor, who consolidated the labourer-teacher model, "making what was a radical experiment in education into a new educational convention" ("Frontier College History" In.d.1: 5, Frontier Coiiege Archives). they taught, counselled and organized recreational activities for these same CO-worken.

Labourer-teachen were required to be physicdly fit, personable and "upstanding citizens".

Increasingly, the role was filled by university students. whorn Fitzpauick believed filled the latter requirement. Fitzpatrick also hired wornen as labourer-teachers, which was unusuaf for that time. By the time the first World War broke out. the Association had become an established (if not entirely stable) force. On its reputation for doing vaiuable and dificult work, it was beginning to be recognized and supponed by the elite.

Over dl, through the organization he founded, Fitzpatrick developed innovative ways of providing education to workers on the frontiers. Indeed, some of Fitzpatrick's practices and beiiefs were extraordinarily progressive. For example, he chailenged mainstrearn ideas about equd opportunity for work and education. Some of his other choices - who would teach and what would be taught - reflected and reinforced the restrictive climate of his en. The following chapter examines the philosophies underlying his work, to draw conclusions about

Fitzpauick's subversion and support for established ideologies and to examine the contemporary implications of his views.. CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION

Cumulative Summarv

This thesis hsexamincd the climatc of imigntioii in early iwsntietli-céniury Clmada.

Dunng this period of rapid social and demographic change, immigrants to this country were recruited for their desire to engage in physicd work rather than merely for their ability to assimilate into mainstream Anglo-Saxon culture. These immigrants, predominantly from southem and eastem Europe, worked in frontier industries, which were characterized by appailing living and working conditions. Despite the obvious national economic and political requirements for these workers, and despite the fact that they were among those in greatest educationai need, there was little provision of social or educational services for them. This deficiency could be attributed to distance, xenophobia and to the novelty of the problem in

Canada. While there was a proliferation during this period of initiatives directed towards education - paiticularly adult education - few organizations provided reading materials or opportunities for formal studies outside of cities or well-established rural areas.

It was within this social climate that Alfred Fitzpatrick was bom and raised. The son of rural Presbyterian Loyalists, FitzpatrickTsScottish influences extended from his family to his schooling. Attending Pictou Academy and Queen's University, his mentors developed in him a belief in the Social Gospel, in lifelong leaming and in accessible education. Fitzpatrick became an itinerant minister and, in his travels, witnessed the appalling social and economic conditions on the frontien of the country. Because of his experiences, he left the minisay to devote

90 hirnseif to secular service for the worken who toiled there. Based on hiç own principles and on contemporary social and mord beliefs, Fitzpatrick believed the solution to such problems lay in education. He began sending books and magazines to camps of workers on the frontien.

Maintaining that the state was responsible both for providing education and for forcing frontier business owners to do so for their ernployees, Fitzpatrick also lobbied the govemment for changes in educational policy. He founded the Reading Camp Association as a temporary agency to demonstrate educational needs and ways to meet those needs, expecting that the state would recognize both and take over the project. When this did not occur. he continued his work of sending "reading tents" - staffed predorninantly by university students. called "librarian- instructon" - to frontier camps. One such man decided to try working alongside his students dunng the day, and the concept of the "labourer-teacher" was bom.

The principle of working and Iearning together has been followed by labourer-teachers

- both men and women - since that time. The work was physicaily taxing for univenity students, unused to long days of labour. Teaching focussed primarily on English (or French) as a second language or basic literacy skills. Labourer-teachers also served as counsellors and recreation organizers for their CO-workers.Given the nature of existing records, it is difficult to evaluate the program quantitatively. Overall, although labourer-teachers dealt with a number of stnicturai and personal obstacles, the program grew exponentially in size and suppon.

Fitzpatrick required labourer-teachen to be physically fit, personable, altruistic and b'upstanding"citizens - Le., members of the Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite. Thus latter quality was required because they were also supposed to serve as role models for their CO-workers, helping immigrants to develop a sense of respect for the Empire and its supposed values. Placing univenity students among disadvantaged labourers had distinct advantages for both

groups: it allowed the former to broaden their experiences and provided the latter with formal education and solidarity.

Fi tz~atrick'sPrinciples

As demonstrated in the body of this thesis, many of Fitzpatrick's beliefs challenged established ideas about learning and opportunity. Notably, he lobbied for a policy of education

for al1 and a national minimum standard for education which would apply to al1 workers, including those on the frontie~.The idea that everyone in Canada had the right to education

was especially revolutionary in a time in which even univenal schooling for children was new and not commonly enforced. Given the entrenched class structure of that time, proposing equal educational opportunities for workers was a strong challenge to the status quo.

Fitzpatrick realized these beliefs to some extent by bringing educational opportunities

to an extremely rnarginalized group of Canadians on the frontiers. The teaching provided by

labourer-teachers was helpful in giving workers more linguistic tools and more choices and thus ailowing them to survive better on a day-to-day level. At the same time, it seems doubtful

that such lirnited basic education (without the possibility of getting professional qualifications or credentials) would allow workers much social or economic mobility, especially outside frontier workp1aces8? As Zavitz noted, "looking realistically at the Reading Camp

87 In the 1920s, Fitzpauick's organization received degree-granting status, so that frontier workers would be able to snidy for university degrees. Unfortunately, this innovative venture's success was short lived, although Thomas cla.its failure also had beneficid effects, freeing Association's mode of operation and the minimum of academic education it provided (basically no skills were taught), it could not hope ta provide an education necessary to facilitate the workers' rise to a better job" ( 1974: 10).

Fitzpatrick's view on the relationship between teacher and student was also a radical departure from established ideas. Rather than following a traditional hierarchicai pedagogy, he supported a reciprocal relationship in which labourer-teachers and worken shared their skills and knowledge with each other. However, in his views on the subject matter to be taught,

Fitzpatrick was solidly in support of the (non-reciprocd) status quo. For exarnple, he explicitly instructed (university-educated) labourer-teachers that one of their goals was the transmission of "good" - i.e., Anglo-saxon, Protestant and imperidist - values to the working class, specifically to immigrant workers. In this aspect of its work, the organization followed and reinforced the strong belief by mainstream society that workers needed to "delivered" from their bbdefective"culture by the missionary-like transmission of "a particular set of morals and lifestyle" (Kidd 1975: 134). It is difficult to judge this aspect of Fitzpatnck's beliefs without falling prey to presentism; while his intentions do not appear malevolent, his ideals supported established practices and understandings of class which seem, in retrospect, patronizing and non-liberatory.

Fitzpatrick's ideas about women's abilities and responsibilities aiso contravened established ideas about acceptable gender roles. By giving a few women the chance to work in a non-traditional field, he encouraged the long, slow process of allowing women more power to

Frontier Coliege of the "inherent conservatism of the fonnd educational agency" (personai communication). For a detailed examination of the degree-granhg period, see Cook, 1990. determine their own choices. It would be easy to dismiss Fitzpatrick's views on women's work as a disguised form of matemal feminism. After dl, he engaged women in community service work, predorninantly among other women and girls; this was merely a continuation of the philanthropie roles in which women and women's groups had served since the mid-nineteenth century. However, under Fitzpatrick's leadership, female labourer-teachers worked in extremely rough and remote conditions, (not an especially "dainty" environment). Ln this way,

Fitzpatrick's beliefs superseded materna1 feminism and foretold of the trend towards more equality for women.

It is important to remember that Fitlpati-ick developed his views within a time of rapidly-changing ideas about women's roles in Canadian society (the so-called "first wave" of

Canadian feminism). In the late nineteenth century, women's activism had been restricted to philûnthropic groups involved with "domestic" issues, Le, temperance and care for the physical and spiritual welfare of the poor. However, during the early decades of the twentieth century, women became invoived more directly in social change. Kay Thompson Dejardins, for example, served as the fist staff member of the Antigonish Movement (Buttenvick 1998: 107).

As well, women in organizations such as the National Council of Women of Canada, the

WCA, the Women's Institutes and the Women's Christian Temperance Union (followed by many other groups) slowly began to change the attitudes and practices which constrained women's nghts. Activists such as NelIie McClung championed female suffrage and the right for women to attend universities. Thus, Fitzpauick's views, while progressive for their time, emerged in a wave of similady evolving ideas. Advocacv and Co-optation

Fitzpatrick had a strong commitment to improving conditions for frontier labourers.

Throughout his life, he wrote and spoke extensively and explicitly about the need to improve the inhumane conditions in which these worken toiled. He rnaintained that "twenty years in the frontier places of Canada have taught me that those in settlements and camps are not receiving their share" (1920. reprinted 1999: 94), adding that "mak[ing] men [sic], not money, is the me object of Life" (ibid: 109). Fitzpatrick believed that everyone in Canada - including immigrant workers - had the right to social justice. He charged Canadian society with

the crime of the desertion and demoralization of the frontiersman, the cnme not only of robbing him of. . . the right of education but the equaily damnable cnme of licensing men and institutions to degrade him. (19 10 Annud Report, cited in Cook 1976: 15)

Because of his beliefs about equaiity md opportunity, Fitzpatrick described the goals of the

Reading Camp Association as: ''The Education and Social Emancipation of the Semi-Nomadic

Labourers in the Frontier Lumbenng, Mining and Railway Construction Camps of Canada"

(emphasis added). He also chose an Emerson quotation as the organization's maxim: "1 would not have the labourer sacrificed to the result. Let there be worse Cotton and better men".

Despite such loS> rhetoric throughout his li fe, Fitzpatnck continually allied hirnself not with the worken but with the powemil industiialists who rnaintained inhumane conditions in their workplaces. He insisted ihat the owner class was not responsible for providing education, medical services or reasonable living conditions for frontier labourers in their employ, nor were they responsible for the exploitation of these workers. Instead, Fitzpatrick blarned govemments for not forcing the owners to change. He lobbied governments on this issue for more than a decade and succeeded. in limited ways, in bringing these issues to their attention. However. the federai and provincial govemments were unwilling to t&e over the work of supplying reading tents (or other educational oppominities) to frontier worken. Throughout his life, Fitzpatrick would be frustrated by the lack of government support for education on the frontien.

Fitzpatnck's choice to ally himself with the elite, nther than the workers. could be interpreted pragmatically. as a "necessary evil": he needed the CO-opentionof business ownes if he wished to continue placing labourer-teachen in their camps (Morrison 1989: 10). On the other hand, this allegiance could also be interpreted as a way to uplift some mernbers of the working class while maintaining existing social and political structures (Welton 1987).

Teaching individuals to read and write in English or French - advocating for local changes nther than trying to change the structures and policies which prevent them from doing so - is a quintessential example of a liberal model of development. Fitzpatrick's view thar "it is better to try hard to win the cooperation of capital and insist on [its adherents] giving more money to help the poof' (1934) illustrates the "charitable" model of philanthropy, which was common in his day. This belief also exemplifies Progressivism. a philosophy which was popular in

Fitzpatrick's time, particularly among Social Gospellers. Progressivists believed that societal stability could be maintained if capitalists were willing to make srnd, gradua1 concessions to their workers. These compromises would protect the interests of the owner class and would, by definition, not alter existing political or social relationships (Titiey 1990: 8 1).

Rather than following either of these opposing interpretations of Fitzpatrick's effectiveness, 1 believe his collaboration with those in power both permitted and constrained his ability to effect changess. in other words, while allying himself with the elite allowed him access to neglected workers, it also affected his ability to advocate for thern. As well, attempting to bnng about change from within the system meant that he could not push too quicldy for social reform. Furthemore, by placing labourer-teaches in frontier camps.

Fitzpatrick also implicitly encouraged a degree of social control by the elite over the worken.

Fint, labourer-teachers acted as moderate spokes-people through whom workers could channel their grievances, in place of the workers striking or resoning to other more antagonistic measures. Second, as a part of their moral agenda, labourer-teachers taught worken "to go through established channels rather than pursue opportunities for change [by themselves]"

(Zavitz 1974: 39).

Contern~orarvImplications

Over the almost seventy years since Fitzpatrick's resignation in 1933, significant changes have occurred in the field of education. Fit, there has been a broad recognition of the

Other Canadian adult education initiatives, for exarnpie, the Women's Institutes and the Worker's Educational Association, aiso allied themselves with the elite, and were similarly assisted and restricted in their efforts towards social change. importance and value of formal adult education. After the World Conference on Adult

Education in Cambridge, England, 1929, the field of adult education expanded greatly in this country: developments included the first survey of adult education in Canada (1935) and the founding of the Banff School of Fine Arts (1934), the Canadian Association of Adult

Education (1935). the People's Library (1935) and the National Film Board (19391. Many of these movements and institutions combined education with collective action, including individual and community advocacy.

Since the 1950s, however, the field of adult education has becorne "professionalized", which often (but not dways) tempers advocacy work. More recently, adult education has suffered from the triumph of conservative economic rhetonc and policies. During the past decade, educational policy has been driven by govemments' desires to cut spending drastically:

Federal and provincial funding for adult education has declined steadily since 1990 . . . In most junsdictions, provincial transfer payments to colleges and universities have declined by 20 percent or more. Voluntary agencies which have long been leaders in adult education work have seen their hnding plurnmet since 1990. As a result. education institutions are trying to increase enrollments, class sizes and tuition fees while lowering delivery hours and total number of faculty. (Selman et al. 1998: 390)

Because of severe reductions in govemrnent funding, the provision of adult basic education is again falling to volunteers, just when voluntary agencies have been drastically afTected by funding cuts. Economic criteria are increasingly guiding decisions; when money is provided at dl, it is channelled into narrowly focussed vocational training prograrns (Greason 1998: 102).

Agencies are also spending increasing portions of their time on fundraising. Ofien, organizations have reduced or elirninated community-based elements of their educational programrning, leaving adults with fewer appropriate options for learning.

As well, because of several trends over the past twenty years, Frontier College has

reinvented itself and its purpose. First. developing technologies have both pushed back geopphic frontiers and increased the skills necessary to work in resource-based industries.

This meant that placing labourer-teachers on railways and in other frontier locations was

neither as necessary nor as easy as it had been for many decades. The labourer-teacher mode1

shifted to agriculturai settings. where labour conditions and access to education pdlel early

lumber and mining camps in many ways. As well, in the early 1980s, Frontier College began

examining "social" frontiers within urban communities and saw that some children. teenagers

and adults in cities and towns were extremely marginalized in relation to their environments.

The redefinition of the location and meaning of the "frontiei' has been a positive impetus for

Frontier College, causing the organization to broaden the scope of where and how it functions.

Another signifiant change involves the role of women in Frontier College's work.

After Fitzpatrick retired, neither of his immediate successon promoted an increased role for

women in the organization. In fact, it would take another four decades for women to assume

this role; in the 1960s and 1970s, women were placed by themselves or as parts of couples in

comrnunity development projects in northem and remote hadets. Women now work as

volunteer tutors and staff membea across Canada, and, since the rnid- 1990s, at least fifty

percent of labourer-teachen have ken fernale.

Funding has remained an important issue within Frontier College. By the end of the

1990s, the organization had incrementally but deliberately chosen to work even more strongly within a liberal development model, accepting corporate sponsoahips and refrainhg from speaking publicly against govemments' neo-conservative agendas (which attack services for the marginalized people whom Frontier Collep serves). However, the funding issue may have finally been resolved, as the federd govemment recently honoured Frontier College for its hundred yeas of service by granting the organization a fifieen million dollar endowment fund.

The awarding of this grant signais that basic education has finally come to the attention of (at lest the federal) government, as Fitzpavick had wished. The endowment also poses signifiant challenges for Frontier College. For exarnple, given the pnvileged position which

Frontier College enjoys - because of its history, its status and its newiy stable funding - the organization has the ability to speak out on issues affecting its rnembers. It must decide whether it will engage in advocacy work against the social and educational policies and practices of (other) members of the establishment, including both industry and govemment. In other words, echoing Fitzpatrick's choices, it must detennine whether it will subven or support existing socio-econornic and political structures. The organization has begun exarnining these questions through its strategic planning process.

It is rny contention that advocacy is a necessary consequence of working with marginaiized people. Just as Fitzpatrick chalienged his era's status quo in several important ways, Frontier College now has a duty and a responsibility to speak out in support of education, opportunity and social justice within the contçmporary socid and economic climate.

This kind of advocacy can - and should - be done at both macro and micro levels. The organization must convince the federal govenunent to expand funding for literacy through the

National Literacy Secretariat. It must also lobby provincial govemments to increase spending on basic education, to provide free literacy and second-language classes and to recognize that individuaiized leaming goals should take precedence over arbitrary (and often absurd) govermnent-mandated "learning outcornes". As well, the organization should join the fight against increasing univenity tuition, to ensure that ail academicdly-qualified students are able to attend a post-secondary institution. Overall, 1believe Frontier College cm and should become a recognized public voice for accessible education towards personai goals.

At the sme time, the organization should continue its work with marginalized children and adults on the social and geographical frontiers of the country. The College must continue to seek ways to work with those who are the most marginalized. As Fitzpatrick undentood, the fact that teaching on the fronties takes time, effort and money does not mean that such a goal is unredistic; rather, it means that such service is al1 the more necessary. These initiatives should be undertaken in partnership with other local and national literacy and sociai agencies, as appropriate. This carries on Fitzpatrick's tradition of establishing projects to demonstrate social and educational needs (and how to meet diose needs) with the goal of turning the projects over to other agencies once they were successhil. As well, in its desire for growth,

Frontier College must not focus, McDonald's-like, on "numbers served" but rather on the qudity of the learning relationships established.

Finally, Frontier CoLlege should work towards a "culture of learning" by creating and supporting structures and events which bring reading and education into the lives of Canadians.

This includes chailenging the sociai and economic barriers which deter children and adults from achieving their learning goals. Oniy when this stniggle is accomplished wili Fitzpatrick's dream of "education for ail" be realized, BIB LIOGRAPHY

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