Reading Log Three
The beginning of public schools and the emergence of women in teaching benefitted women in many ways but they were also faced with very poor living, social, and geographical conditions. The majority of rural public schools were remote and one classroom with no to little females in the community to keep them company. Many women had moved away from home to teach, which proved to have detrimental affects on their mental health as shown in the article “‘ I Am Here to Help If You Need Me:’ British Columbia’s Rural Teachers’ Welfare Officer, 1928-1934” by J. Donald Wilson. On the contrary, the positive outcomes of feminization of teaching is highlighted in “Women Teachers in Canada, 1881-1901: Revisiting the ‘Feminization of an Occupation” an article written by Eric W. Sager.
Another prevalent form of schooling other than public education during this time was residential schooling. The poor conditions of these schools were rather exemplified as these children later testified that they were faced with “… hunger and malnutrition…”[1] while living at these schools. In the article “The abiding condition was hunger’: Assessing the long-term biological and health effects of malnutrition and hunger in Canada’s residential schools” by Ian Mosby and Tracey Galloway the effects of malnutrition on those who were placed in residential schools is analyzed.
The history of women in teaching, schooling, and education is plentiful. The main elements highlighted from the articles above are that women working as teachers began as an “intellectual calling…[and shifted into a] profession,”[2] that the focus on the importance of a teachers well being has dissipated over time, and that poor schooling conditions were worse in residential schools. Women used to label themselves “…adventurers…”[3] for taking on the job of teaching, but now it is simply the norm for women to teach. Teachers do have a union, but there is no one going around to each teacher “fill[ing] out a form…”[4] to ensure the teacher is doing well. The feminization of teaching did allow for women to climb up the social ladder, but it was not easy journey. We often hear about the horrible conditions of residential schools which were clearly just that, but the harshness of life of a female teacher in the early twentieth century clearly needs to be more discussed.
Bibliography
Eric W. Sager, “Women Teachers in Canada, 1881-1901: Revisiting the ‘Feminization’ of an Occupation,” Schooling in Transition, (2012) : 142-166
Ian Mosby, and Tracey Galloway, “The abiding condition was hunger’: Assessing the long-term biological and health effects of malnutrition an hunger in Canada’s residential schools,” British Journal of Canadian Studies 30, no. 2 (2017) : 147-162
- Donald Wilson, “‘ I am Here to Help If You Need Me’: British Columbia’s Rural Teachers’ Welfare Officer, 1928-1934,” Schooling in Transition, (2012), : 201-222
[1] Ian Mosby, and Tracey Galloway, “The abiding condition was hunger’: Assessing the long-term biological and health effects of malnutrition an hunger in Canada’s residential schools,” British Journal of Canadian Studies 30, no. 2 (2017) : 158
[2] Eric W. Sager, “Women Teachers in Canada, 1881-1901: Revisiting the ‘Feminization’ of an Occupation,” Schooling in Transition, (2012) : 158
[3] J. Donald Wilson, “‘ I am Here to Help If You Need Me’: British Columbia’s Rural Teachers’ Welfare Officer, 1928-1934,” Schooling in Transition, (2012), : 205
[4] J. Donald Wilson, “‘ I am Here to Help If You Need Me’: British Columbia’s Rural Teachers’ Welfare Officer, 1928-1934,” Schooling in Transition, (2012), : 207