Knight, Claudette. “Black Parents Speak: Education in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Canada West.” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 225-237.

The author of this article convincingly examines the struggles faced by black parents in Canada West in the late 19th century. The law stated that their children were entitled to public education, but public opinion and racism, in many cases, prohibited black parents from sending their children to school. The article outlines the letters many parents sent to Egerton Ryerson asking for help in getting their children into public schools. This adds to what we learned about Ryerson earlier in the course, in articles such as “Egerton Ryerson and the Origins of the Ontario Secondary School” by R.D. Gidney and D.A. Lawr. Knight’s article touches on some of same topics as Gidney and Lawr’s article, such as the idea that public school could be used to “inculcate the attitudes and values that would respect their power and authority to rule” (227).

Like many other articles we have read this semester, this article features a number of primary sources; specifically, letters sent to and from Egerton Ryerson. These letters provide an authentic look into Ryerson’s interactions with black parents, and I am glad that, at the very least, he seems to support their right to educate their children, and be treated as any other British citizen. It is, however, very unfortunate that he did not do much to help these parents fight back against racism. I would be curious to see other correspondence between Ryerson and others to see if he truly did believe what he was telling black parents.

Stanley, Timothy J. “White Supremacy, Chinese Schooling, and School Segregation in Victoria: The Case of the Chinese Students’ Strike, 1922-1923.” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 237-252.

Similar to Knight’s article, this article focuses school segregation; however, this article is about Chinese students who were forced to attend school separate from white students in the early 20th century. The fact that this occurred in the lifetime of my grandparents hits close to home. It makes one realize that this blatant racism happened in Canada not very long ago, in the scheme of things. The article discusses the idea that forcing Chinese students into segregated schooling was a form of white supremacy, and I would agree with this. I believe it was also a form of white supremacy during the mid-19th century discussed in the previous article.

One difference between the segregation of black students compared to Chinese students, is the language difference. Chinese-Canadians believed that school segregation was a way of prohibiting their children from learning English, and therefore being able to escape the cheap labour force pool. While I do believe this to be most likely true, I recognize the challenge faced by school teachers of teaching children who did not already speak English. I’m curious about how teachers managed to do this, and if it was common for older students to be enrolled in younger grades. To play devil’s advocate, perhaps this played into the decision to segregate the students; maybe they found it was holding classrooms back to cater to the needs of non-English speaking students.

Moreau, Bernice. “Black Nova Scotian Women’s Experience of Educational Violence in the Early 1900s: A Case of Colour Contusion.” Dalhousie Review 77, no.2 (1997): 179-206.

This fascinating article outlines the struggles of ten “coloured” women as they attempted to attend “white” public school in Nova Scotia. The author argues that these women suffered from “colour contusion” and emotional injuries because of one, their race, and two, their gender. One striking point made by the author is that these women, even though they were permitted to attend school, were expected to be poor domestic servants, and they were educated as such. This very much relates to my own research topic, the gendered curriculum in Canada from the 19th century to today. Much of my research shows that girls were taught many things with the intention of them becoming wives and mothers. These black women were subjected to the gendered curriculum as well, but with the intention of them helping in someone else’s household, rather than their own.

Overall, all three of these articles really paint a picture of how poorly non-white people were treated in regards to education. It was not an easy task for any of them to gain access to public education. It seems that the white Canadians had a very ‘us versus them’ attitude – they did not want anyone non-white in a classroom with the children. What were they so afraid of? It’s not a black and white answer but it is something worth discussing. We haven’t even touched on residential schools yet, which is another prime example of this attitude.