In Christopher Clubine’s article, “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto,” he suggested that women were in charge of ensuring that their children have proper behavior and attend school. It is stated that, “a child’s behavior traveling between home and school actually reflected his or her mother’s ability to follow the standards of motherhood and instill Victorian values of self-discipline, ‘order and goodness’ into her children.’”[1] This article sheds light on the tasks and responsibilities that were placed on women when it came to the nurturing for their children. This also adds to the wider historiography of the topic of mothers and the role they played in education, because it sheds light on the importance their job to ensure their children arrived at school on time and behaved properly. There was further emphasis placed on mandatory attendance and being on time, for the children during this period. It was stated that “children from seven to twelve years of age to attend school…only for four months each school year.”[2] This author really suggests the placement of responsibility on the mothers, at one point in the article it talks about an example of a mother that seems quite overwhelmed with the responsibilities places on her.

A few things surprised me in this article by Robert McIntosh, “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines,” and caused further thinking as to the life of these children in this time period, was the fact the boys “less than 10 years old”[3] were working in the dangerous coal mines. What else was surprising was that children who weren’t at school for the required about of time, “every child aged between 6 and 16…to attend school at least 120 days per year,”[4] could be arrested. The author made enforcement of school seem pretty extreme, but also continued to suggest the importance the small boys staying at the coal mine to ensure future jobs for the survival of the household. This article gives a perspective of a workplace and how kids were working, it suggests “child labour was not only needed, it was expected.”[5] This article can be linked to other articles we have been reading on the topic of education and children working, because it gives us a specific example of what children would be doing instead of going to school and why people thought it was so important for children to work. It adds to our knowledge because having an example gives us a better idea of why parents were so hesitant to send their children to school.

This article by Magdalena Jenus, Jessica Lefort, Ruth Cameron and Lauren Kopechanski “Starting Kindergarten: Transition Issues for Children with Special Needs,” is one I found as a possibility for my research paper. The topic of inclusive education and how it works, and how its changing and adapting, is an important part of the development of education. This article does a good job suggesting what else needs to be done and what is lacking in the process of transitioning children with special needs into schools, specifically kindergarten. The process discussed highlights the importance of parent advocates and the idea that the services and people providing the individual program for the child, might not fully understand what the child needs to succeed. As suggested, this article repeatedly acknowledges what is lacking in the process right now, and it is understandable to have some struggles, as every child with special needs is different. This topic and article does help shed light on the recent inclusion of children and how to properly set them up for success, depending on their needs. This sheds light on Canadian past, as it can be seen as a progressive movement in education to allow all children at school and to be educated and for teachers to go out of their ways to follow “individual education plans,”[6] to help those children succeed. This article can extend are knowledge on the topic because it discusses what is and isn’t working right now and some suggestions for further research. This topic is still being researched and every bit of research helps develop understanding.

 

Bibliography

Clubine, Christopher, “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 115-126.

Magdalena Janus, Jessica Lefort, Ruth Cameron and Lauren Kopechanski. “Starting Kindergarten: Transition Issues for Children with Special Needs,” Canadian Journal of Education, Ottawa: Canadian Society for the Study of Education, 2007: 628-648.

McIntosh, Robert. “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines: 1873-1923,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of  Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 126-139.

Footnotes

[1] Christopher Clubine, “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto.” In Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012, 123.

[2] Clubine , “Motherhood and Public Schooling,” 116.

[3] McIntosh, Robert. “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines: 1873-1923,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), In Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012, 128.

[4] Robert McIntosh, “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines,” 133

[5] Robert McIntosh, “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines,” 130

[6] Janus Magdalena, Jessica Lefort, Ruth Cameron and Lauren Kopechanski. “Starting Kindgergarten: Transition Issues for Children with Special Needs,” Canadian Journal of Education, Ottawa: Canadian Society for the Study of Education, 2007, 638.