Ontario Teachers' Manuals: History Part 11

4. In arithmetic: The pupils may discover how many people there are to the square mile in these countries; they may be asked to work out the population Canada would have if she were as densely populated as England, as the United States, as Germany, etc.; how fast did the population of the United States increase in the first century after the Revolution; what will the population of Canada be in fifty years, if it increases as rapidly as the population of the United States in the last fifty, etc.; at the present rate of increase, when will Canada catch up to Great Britain? When surpa.s.s her? Indicate thus the possible position and power of Canada in the not distant future, in order to deepen the sense of responsibility for the use made of our opportunities. (Let the pupils search for as much of the material needed for these calculations as they can find in their text-books.)

5. In composition: Subjects may be given for either oral or written composition; they may be reproductions of some of the exercises mentioned above, or may be on topics connected with them.

6. In drawing: Pupils may draw the flag, or any map needed above.

TYPE LESSONS

FORM IV

INTRODUCTORY

As described in the details of method for Form IV (see p. 28), the ideal method of teaching in this Form is the oral method, which means not only the narration of the story, but the presentation to the pupils of problems connected with the lesson that the experiences of the cla.s.s may help to solve. The full narration here of the lessons selected would be like doing over again the work of the text-book; accordingly, in the majority of the lessons, a topical a.n.a.lysis is all that is given. The value of a topical a.n.a.lysis is that it emphasizes the princ.i.p.al points that should be described or developed and, more important still, that it a.s.sists the pupils to _understand_ the lesson better, that is, to see more clearly the relation of cause and effect. The topical a.n.a.lysis will also suggest to the teacher how to prepare a lesson. There is no better evidence that a period of history is understood by the teacher than the ability to make a clear, concise a.n.a.lysis of it. This a.n.a.lysis should then be used instead of the text-book in teaching the lesson, and the use of it will, after a little practice has made the teacher more expert, contribute, to a surprising degree, to increased interest in the cla.s.s.

EGERTON RYERSON

One of the objects of instruction in civics is to create in the pupils ideals of citizens.h.i.+p that may influence their conduct in after life.

The most powerful agency to use for this object is the life of some useful and patriotic citizen who gave his talents and energy to the bettering of his country. In using biography for this purpose the pupils should be given only such facts as they can comprehend, and these facts should be made as real, vivid, and interesting as possible by appropriate personal details and concrete description. The following sketch may serve as an example:

Dr. Ryerson, in speaking of his birth and parentage, said:

I was born on March 24th, 1803, in the towns.h.i.+p of Charlotteville, near the village of Vittoria, in the then London district, now the County of Norfolk. My father had been an officer in the British army during the American Revolution, being a volunteer in the Prince of Wales' Regiment of New Jersey, of which place he was a native. His forefathers were from Holland, and his more remote ancestors were from Denmark. At the close of the American revolutionary war, he, with many others of the same cla.s.s, went to New Brunswick, where he married my mother, whose maiden name was Stickney, a descendant of one of the early Ma.s.sachusetts Puritan settlers. Near the close of the last century, my father with his family followed an elder brother to Canada, where he drew some 2,500 acres of land from the Government for his services in the army, besides his pension.

Ryerson's mother had a very strong influence over him. She was a very religious woman with a great love for her children, and from her Egerton learned lessons that never ceased to influence him. After telling how she treated him when he had done something naughty, he says that "though thoughtless and full of playful mischief, I never afterwards knowingly grieved my mother, or gave her other than respectful and kind words."

The whole family had to work hard at clearing the land and farming it.

Before he was twenty-one years of age he "had ploughed every acre of ground for the season, cradled every stalk of wheat, rye, and oats, and mowed every spear of gra.s.s, pitched the whole first on a wagon, and then from the wagon to the haymow or stack." This was the work that gave him strength and health to do the great things that were before him. His years in the district school were few, yet he made such good use of them that when he was only fifteen years old he was asked to take the place of one of his teachers during the latter's illness. Further instruction from teachers was not given him till he came of age. Then he went to Hamilton to study in the Gore district grammar school for one year. Here he studied so strenuously that he was seized with an attack of brain fever, which was followed by inflammation of the lungs. His life was despaired of, but his good const.i.tution and his mother's nursing restored him to health.

Shortly afterwards he began his work as a Methodist preacher. When twenty-three years old, he undertook a mission to the Indians at the Credit and resided among them as one of themselves, to show them better ways of living and working. This is part of his account: "Between daylight and sunrise, I called out four of the Indians in succession and, working with them, showed them how to clear and fence in, and plough and plant their first wheat and cornfields. In the afternoon I called out the schoolboys to go with me, and cut and pile and burn the brushwood in and around the village."

In 1829 _The Christian Guardian_ newspaper was organized as the organ of the Methodists, and the young preacher placed in the editorial chair; in 1841 he was chosen President of Victoria College.

In 1844 Dr. Ryerson was appointed Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada. He immediately set himself to awaken the country to a proper estimate of the importance of education, and to improve the qualifications of teachers. He urged the people to build better schools and to pay better salaries, so that well-qualified teachers could be engaged. He visited foreign countries to study their systems and methods that he might make the schools of Upper Canada more efficient. A Provincial Normal and Model School was established in 1847, better books were provided for the pupils, more and better apparatus and maps for all schools. All this was done in the face of many difficulties inevitable in a new country--popular ignorance, apathy, lack of means to build schools and support them, lack of time to attend them. The opposition of many who did not set the same value on education that he himself did had also to be faced. With unwearied zeal, steadfast courage, and unfailing patience, he met these difficulties. For over thirty years, he devoted his matured manhood and great endowments to the task of developing a public sentiment in favour of education, and of building on sure foundations a system of elementary and secondary schools that is the just pride of our Province and his own best monument.

In 1876 he resigned his position of Chief Superintendent, and was succeeded by a Minister of Education. He had n.o.bly fulfilled the promise he made on accepting office in 1844--"to provide for my native country a system of education, and facilities for intellectual improvement not second to those in any country in the world."

He died in 1882. To honour him in his death as he had served it in his life the whole country seemed a.s.sembled, in its representatives, at his funeral. Members of the Legislature, judges, University authorities, ecclesiastical dignitaries, thousands from the schools which he had founded, and above all, the common people, for whose cause he never failed to stand, followed to the grave the remains of the great Canadian who had lived so faithfully and well for his country.

NOTE.--If the pupils have been told about the Pilgrim Fathers, and the U.E. Loyalists, a review of those stories will add interest to this lesson; if not, it will serve as an introduction to them.

For a Form IV cla.s.s, the following should be included in the lesson:

With the close of the War of 1812 there opened a new era in the history of Canada. Its people had realized that their country was worth fighting for, and they had defended it successfully. A new interest in its political life was awakened, new movements inaugurated. These were along three lines--one, political with responsible government as its object; another, religious with equal rights and privileges for all churches as its aim; a third, educational with equal and efficient instruction for all without distinction of cla.s.s or creed as its purpose. The first movement is known as the struggle for Responsible Government--the struggle for equal political rights; the second, as the Secularization of the Clergy Reserves--the struggle for equal religious rights; the third as the University Question--the struggle for non-denominational control of education. In the second and third movements Dr. Ryerson played a very prominent part and, because these affected the politics of his day, he took a keen interest in the first.

NOTE.--For purposes of reference, consult _The Story of My Life_ by Dr. Ryerson; _The Ryerson Memorial Volume_ by Dr. J.G.

Hodgins; _Egerton Ryerson_ by Nathaniel Burwash in THE MAKERS OF CANADA; and _Egerton Ryerson_ by J.H. Putnam.

THE INTERCOLONIAL RAILWAY

The lesson may be begun best by referring to the provisions in the British North America Act for the building of the railway. (If the cla.s.s knows nothing yet of this Act, reference may be made to Dominion Day, and the Act a.s.sociated with it, by explaining the significance of the Day. The date of Confederation, 1867, may be written on the board for reference.) In the B.N.A. Act, it was provided that "the Canadian Government should build a railway connecting the St. Lawrence with Halifax, to be commenced within six months after the Union."

_Teacher._--Did you notice the two places that were to be connected by the road?

_Pupil._--They were Halifax and the St. Lawrence River.

_T._--Why do you think Halifax was chosen as one terminus?

_P._--Because it is near the sea.

_T._--Well, Quebec is not far from the sea either.

_P._--It is the nearest port for ocean-going steamers.

_T._--Do you know what happens to the St. Lawrence every winter?

_P._--It freezes up.

_T._--Yes. It is frozen over for about four months in the winter, and ocean-going vessels cannot use the river then, so Halifax was chosen as a good winter port on the Atlantic. Now, what place on the St. Lawrence would be chosen as the other terminus?

_P._--Most likely either Quebec or Montreal.

_T._--We can tell better a little later which one was actually chosen. Here is a thing that I want you to think about. Why should they build the railway just to the St. Lawrence? Were there many people living in Upper Canada fifty years ago?

_P._--Yes, as many people as there were in Quebec province.

_T._--Really there were about 250,000 more here than in Quebec. How would the people here s.h.i.+p their goods in the winter? How do we send our goods to Europe now in winter?

(Several suggestions were made. Finally it was stated that we could s.h.i.+p by water in summer, and by rail in winter.)

_T._--You know that there are some rapids on the St. Lawrence before we reach Montreal. How do we manage about them?

_P._--By using the ca.n.a.ls.

_T._--How can we s.h.i.+p by rail?

_P._--By using the Grand Trunk or the Canadian Pacific Railway.

_T._--Now, I shall have to tell you something about the ca.n.a.ls and the first railway from Upper Canada. There were several ca.n.a.ls already built on the St. Lawrence: the Lachine, Welland, and others. In fact, we had spent about $1,500,000 on ca.n.a.ls before Confederation. The Grand Trunk Railway was running from Sarnia to Quebec city by 1856, just eleven years before Confederation. (Have a pupil trace the line from Sarnia to Quebec, so that the cla.s.s may see how much of Upper Canada was served by the Grand Trunk.) Can you tell me now what place on the St. Lawrence would be taken as the western terminus of the new railway?

_P._--Yes, Quebec would be the one.

_T._--Why?