During World War Two there was an increased desire to make sure that all schools, as well as households in Canada, promoted a Canadian identity, even immigrants/refugees. World War Two brought many changes to the way people think, it also brought changes such as science and how that can play into understanding children and youth.

In Patricia Roy’s article, “The Education of Japanese Children in the British Columbia Interior Housing Settlements during World War Two,” the Japanese were evacuated and pushed “east of the Rocky Mountains” and separated from the rest of the country. Their culture was still trying to be assimilated by making them attend school that had the same curriculum as the schools for “white” children. This article is important in showing the history of this culture and even though they were relocated, it was still required of them to be more Canadian and to only learn and participate in the Canadian identity. This school was underfunded and it was short of teachers, but they wanted to try to keep the youth out of trouble, much like the schools in Montreal. By adding to the historiography of this topic, this article really shows the effort put into making sure these children were educated under Canadian standards.

Myers and Poutanen in their article, “Cadets, Curfews, and Compulsory Schooling: Mobilizing Anglophone Children in WWII Montreal,” suggest that in Montreal schools, the children were subject to more male teachers in authority, as the thought was that women were not able to be disciplinary. This article was interesting because it really placed a strong sense of disappointment over women, it was not only suggest that they wreck the household by working, but it suggested they could not teacher higher grades or be in a position of authority in schools because they could not discipline effectively. The adolescents in this article were suggested to be out of hand and they were constantly in the papers. This article is important in helping historians understand how the development of adolescents came about, and how it changed as more was learned and experimented with, when it came to parenting and disciplining. To have this all happening during World War Two is important because not only was adolescents a new idea, but the Canadian identity was also needing to be strongly formed, so having adolescents that were delinquent, didn’t promote a positive picture.

Gleason’s article, “Disciplining Children, Disciplining Parents: The Nature and Meaning of Advice to Canadian Parents, 1945-1955,” suggests that the way parenting has been, seems to be questioned and seriously considered in this article. Parenting is an interesting part of Canadian history, as it always seemed to be a generational hand down. The science that is now being brought up in this article was a new idea and it made society question many of their pervious ideas. This article does a good job at looking at the changes in parental roles and the way parenting was looked at. Mothers and fathers have roles but also needed to make sure they were providing for their children in a way that would make them successful in society. Parenting, nurture, and discipline were all being wrapped around psychology as child psychologist and the Canadian Psychological Association arise. Advice is given to parents and they are told it is the best way. Through history, this topic of parenting advice continuously changes, so this article is a great source for increasing the understanding, in the greater historiography, as well as the individual advancements in parenting and the emerging science of psychology. The emergence of psychology is interesting as it plays a major role in this article as it is directed towards parenting but also the development of the child and how that also plays into parenting.

The change in parenting, and teaching children to be good humans and citizens is wrapped around the greater concept of citizenship.

Bibliography

Myers, Tamara and Mary Anne Poutanen. “Cadets, Curfews, and Compulsory Schooling:  Mobilizing Anglophone Children in WWII Montreal.” Histoire Sociale 38, no.76 (2005):      367-398.

Roy, Patricia E. “The Education of Japanese Children in the British Columbia Interior Housing       Settlements during World War Two,” Historical Studies in Education, 4, 2 (1992): 211            231.

Gleason, Mona. “Disciplining Children, Disciplining Parents: The Nature and Meaning of  Advice to Canadian Parents, 1945-1955,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.),   Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto:  University of Toronto Press, 2012: 357-375.