"Family Tree Education Snapshot"
A bit of background so you can understand some of the other influences in my education, and education choices. As you know, both my parents were born in England, where those of middle class and higher sent their children to a private school [actually called public school], partly as a symbol of status, and partly because, in general, it was thought that the teaching and so education was better. These schools, of course, were for either boys or girls, not mixed. |
| Charles and Norah Wayman, my parents |
Thus when it was time to educate their daughters in Toronto, my parents were quite agreed on private school education from KINDERGARTEN up ...prior to this we had attended the Mothercraft nursery school and the pre-kindergarten at Mrs Taylor’s home on the corner. Unusual as it was in those days, I had a working mother, and this allowed her to work while we were cared for.
What was important to teach at the time?
I am really not sure what you mean by this, but the three Rs were definitely the top of the heap. We did the ‘Dick and Jane’ books which would have been sight-reading, memorized times tables and poetry, had spelling and arithmetic ‘bees’.
School was started each morning by gathering in the gym for ‘Prayers’ ... which consisted of singing a hymn, a scripture reading, and reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Then there were announcements, and sometimes these might be in the form of a skit. Occasionally there would be someone playing a piano solo or singing.
What influenced school attendance?
As I was driven to school every day by my father until I was in Grade 7 or 8, shall I answer "my parents!" There really was no option or choice ... everyone went to school.
How accessible schooling was when you were younger?
Very ... all the kids in my city neighbourhood went to the local schools.
What were the goals of schooling?
To get an education, and so a good job.
How important was post-elementary and post secondary schooling?
Very ... There was no question of not going to High School, whether it was at the Collegiate or the Technical school, or the Commercial School. I had friends at all ... Collegiate, of course gave you entrance to university, while the Technical school was more likely to fit you for a trade, and the High School of Commerce taught bookkeeping, shorthand, etc. There were few schools like Sheridan and Seneca to go to after High School. If you wanted to be a nurse, you went to a hospital to train; if you wanted to be a teacher, you went to Normal School or Teachers’ College to train. To be an X-ray technician like Aunt Lois, you went to a hospital x-ray department [she was at Sick Kids’ Hospital in Toronto]. For office workers, there was a stream in the Collegiates where you could take commercial courses in addition to, or in lieu of the regular courses. I went to East York Collegiate after I completed my Grade 13 to take a one year Special Commercial Course as my parents deemed I was too young to go to Teachers’ College at 17.
What role did finances, class, gender and other determining factors play in terms of who attended school?
I would say that I came from an upper middle class family ... money was not a real worry until my father took sick and the business he owned and operated was sold to someone who bought it to run it to bankruptcy, and not fulfill the orders on the books ... and possibly not cover all the payments. This was about the time I was in Teachers’ College. Most of the girls I had gone to school with went on to university, nursing or teaching. By the 1960s it seemed that more and more young people were being told that University was the way to go. There was still an expectation that girls would marry young, but not as much that they would not be able to work after they were married, which was more the case 20 years before me. Your great-grandmother Susan [Pike] Burkholder was also a teacher and she had to stop teaching when she married gr-grpa Cliff Burkholder. She was 29 when she was married.
I was also just wondering what it was like growing up learning in a private school as well as the difference in getting your B.Ed?
Remember, I cannot tell you what it was like NOT to learn in a private school ... I spent only one year, at the end of my schooling, and then Teachers’ College in a school other than a private school. It was school ... we had friends, cliques, fights, fun like there is with any group of students. There, of course, was not sexual rivalry ... boys against girls, I mean. But, I also did not learn how to behave around, or interact with the opposite sex ... they were really outside my life until Youth Group at church when I was about 15.
You also asked about getting my B.Ed. I don’t have a Bachelor of Education ... I never did go to University. With Grade 13 and a one year course at Toronto Teachers’ College, I was let loose on those unsuspecting students of SS#12 Whitchurch ... all 45 of them, and I was 19 years old, the only teacher in the school. There was an inspector from the department of Education who came around occasionally, there was a minister who came in to teach Religion and me to teach EVERYTHING else, as well as supervise recesses and lunch hours, organize a Christmas Concert and so on. This was 1962. When school started again in January1963, we had two teachers ... I had the upper grades and was the principal. The school board for this school had determined that it was too much work for a single person and hired an experienced teacher for the lower grades. I was only there one year, and then I taught in Scarborough for a year and married your grandfather.
With three children and a new house in the Caledon East area, I started volunteering in the Special Education class, and also did lunch supervision/hall/schoolyard duty at the school where your father, aunt and uncle attended. I later started to do supply teaching there and continued that for about 7 years until we moved to Stouffville.
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