Education to 1840 September

Education before 1840 Lecture Outline 1.Missionaries & education in New France Indigenous & French Children Gender 2. Education in Colonial BNA criticisms Types of schools Chapter discussion

New France

Missionaries & Education in New France Recollets – First missionaries – unsuccessful Jesuits – Powerful religious order – Petite Seminaire, Jesuit College – Taught sons of elite French colonists Ursuline Nuns – Marie de l’Incarnation – salvation through education – taught Indigenous and French girls

Education of Indigenous Girls salvation through education preparation for baptism and communion reading and writing was secondary Ursulines learned Indigenous languages How did they get their students?

Education of French Children Day or boarding schools ‘Payment in kind’ Gendered curriculum : – Curriculum based on ideas about women and men’s “natural” roles in society – Girls: Religious instruction and domestic arts were stressed; academic subjects were not – Boys: religious instruction, mathematics, Greek, Latin, carpentry

Battle of the Plains of Abraham

British North America 1791

Upper Canada Pre-industrial society – Resource based – Produce to survive, not profit – Whole family involved Education: gendered & informal – Boys: farming, barn building, driving horses, apprenticeships – Girls: cooking, baking, child care, planting

Types of Schools in Upper Canada 1. Common Schools – aided and non-aided 2.Apprenticeships and Evening Schools 3. Home Schooling 4. Sunday Schools

Conclusion – Education to the 1840s New France – education for Christianity Children learned at home or through apprenticeships Education was important to pre-industrial economies but life didn’t revolve around it Education was gendered