@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix dc: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Education, Faculty of"@en, "Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "Stephenson, Penelope S."@en ; dcterms:issued "2008-10-11T21:09:57Z"@en, "1993"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Master of Arts - MA"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description """This study is a micro-analysis of a particular educational milieu: a history of the development of rural schools and community in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia from 1874 until 1930, focussing mainly on the period from 1920 to 1930. The teacher, or more specifically the female teacher, is the main subject. A series of oral interviews conducted with surviving rural teachers and pupils from the 1920s comprise the primary data. Personal narratives form the core of the text. Also used were the pertinent printed and manuscript records of the Department of Education, penned by teachers, school inspectors and other officials, local histories, the 1931 Census of Canada and photographs. The purpose of the study is two fold. First, it is to delineate what the job of teaching in a rural school in the 1920s entailed. The physical and pedagogical conditions of that work are described. The role and status of the teacher in the local community are also highlighted. Teaching in an isolated community, especially for the novice, was an arduous assignment and one that demanded the acceptance of considerable physical, professional, mental and emotional hardships. The underlying relationship that existed between the individual teacher and the local world of education in rural districts and how the nature of that relationship influenced the quality of teacher experience is a central theme of the study. Social background and up bringing, as well as personal disposition, were found to be key variables determining the extent to which teachers were able successfully to adapt to living and working in a remote rural district. Second, the study examines the social context and meaning of the experience of teaching as work for women. By focussing on how involvement in the profession fitted into the larger structure of the female life course, a more complex, yet clearer, vision emerges of what teaching actually did for women in terms of how they used the profession to accommodate their own personal agendas. For many women their experience as a teacher, albeit brief, played an important, and for some a profound, role in their lives. Despite the strenuous and often frustrating nature of their working and living circumstances many teachers enjoyed their jobs. Motivated by a determination to succeed many regarded their experiences in rural schools as a challenge. They had their sense of self-worth and confidence enhanced by their ability to prove to themselves that they could survive under such adverse conditions. Teaching also afforded women economic independence and relative autonomy and thus expanded their personal and career horizons beyond the traditional domestic roles. Moreover for a substantial number of women teaching was by no means just a prologue to anticipated marriage but rather a life-time commitment. At the same time women's career pathways, unlike that of the majority of their male collegues, were not organised to enhance career aspirations. Women negotiated their work interests with traditional sex role and family expectations. Decisions concerning work were deeply entrenched within, and contingent upon, their changing personal and family circumstances. Home and family obligations, both real and perceived, defined their lives and played a key role in their life planning. Pursuing a "career" as a teacher in the traditional sense was not necessarily always the main priority in women's lives and certainly had little to do with what they viewed as commitment to the job. The study contributes to a fuller understanding of the phenomena of rural schooling and teaching in British Columbia and provides some insights into rural life itself. It also raises important questions as to the meaning of teaching as work to women and the nature of their participation in the workforce. It demonstrates that any evaluation of women's work must be derived from women workers' own perceptions and definitions of work and career."""@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/2588?expand=metadata"@en ; dcterms:extent "19563208 bytes"@en ; dc:format "application/pdf"@en ; skos:note "PORTRAITS IN THE FIRST PERSON: AN HISTORICALETHNOGRAPHY OF RURAL TEACHERS AND TEACHING IN BRITISHCOLUMBIA'S OKANAGAN VALLEY IN THE 1920sbyPENELOPE SIAN STEPHENSONB.A. (Hons.), University College of Aberystwyth, 1981P.G.C.E., The University of Birmingham, 1982A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OFTHE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFMASTER OF ARTSinTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIESDepartment of Social and Educational StudiesWe accept this thesis as conformingto the required standardTHE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIAApril 1993©Penelope Sian StephensonIn presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanceddegree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make itfreely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensivecopying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of mydepartment or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying orpublication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my writtenpermission.(Signature) Department of 5oc i pii... klb Ehoc A -1- ( 01‘.01L -robkesThe University of British ColumbiaVancouver, CanadaDateDE-6 (2/88)ABSTRACTThis study is a micro-analysis of a particular educational milieu: a history of thedevelopment of rural schools and community in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbiafrom 1874 until 1930, focussing mainly on the period from 1920 to 1930. The teacher, ormore specifically the female teacher, is the main subject. A series of oral interviewsconducted with surviving rural teachers and pupils from the 1920s comprise the primarydata. Personal narratives form the core of the text. Also used were the pertinent printed andmanuscript records of the Department of Education, penned by teachers, school inspectorsand other officials, local histories, the 1931 Census of Canada and photographs.The purpose of the study is twofold. First, it is to delineate what the job of teachingin a rural school in the 1920s entailed. The physical and pedagogical conditions of thatwork are described. The role and status of the teacher in the local community are alsohighlighted. Teaching in an isolated community, especially for the novice, was an arduousassignment and one that demanded the acceptance of considerable physical, professional,mental and emotional hardships. The underlying relationship that existed between theindividual teacher and the local world of education in rural districts and how the nature ofthat relationship influenced the quality of teacher experience is a central theme of the study.Social background and upbringing, as well as personal disposition, were found to be keyvariables determining the extent to which teachers were able successfully to adapt to livingand working in a remote rural district.Second, the study examines the social context and meaning of the experience ofteaching as work for women. By focussing on how involvement in the profession fittedinto the larger structure of the female life course, a more complex, yet clearer, visionemerges of what teaching actually did for women in terms of how they used the professionto accommodate their own personal agendas. For many women their experience as aiiteacher, albeit brief, played an important, and for some a profound, role in their lives.Despite the strenuous and often frustrating nature of their working and living circumstancesmany teachers enjoyed their jobs. Motivated by a determination to succeed many regardedtheir experiences in rural schools as a challenge. They had their sense of self-worth andconfidence enhanced by their ability to prove to themselves that they could survive undersuch adverse conditions. Teaching also afforded women economic independence andrelative autonomy and thus expanded their personal and career horizons beyond thetraditional domestic roles. Moreover for a substantial number of women teaching was byno means just a prologue to anticipated marriage but rather a life-time commitment. At thesame time women's career pathways, unlike that of the majority of their male collegues,were not organised to enhance career aspirations. Women negotiated their work interestswith traditional sex role and family expectations. Decisions concerning work were deeplyentrenched within, and contingent upon, their changing personal and family circumstances.Home and family obligations, both real and perceived, defined their lives and played a keyrole in their life planning. Pursuing a \"career\" as a teacher in the traditional sense was notnecessarily always the main priority in women's lives and certainly had little to do withwhat they viewed as commitment to the job.The study contributes to a fuller understanding of the phenomena of rural schoolingand teaching in British Columbia and provides some insights into rural life itself. It alsoraises important questions as to the meaning of teaching as work to women and the natureof their participation in the workforce. It demonstrates that any evaluation of women'swork must be derived from women workers' own perceptions and definitions of work andcareer.iiiCONTENTSABSTRACT^ IITABLES^ V IFIGURES^ VIIVMAPS^ IIIPHOTOGRAPHS^ IXACKNOWLEDGEMENTS^ XINTRODUCTION^ 1CHAPTER ONE:^LITERATURE REVIEW^ 4CHAPTER TWO:^METHODOLOGY^ 43CHAPTER THREE: A CONCISE HISTORY OF THE OKANAGAN VALLEY1811-1930^ 87CHAPTER FOUR:^THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS 1874-1930^ 121CHAPTER FIVE:^TEACHER CAREER TRAJECTORIES 1920-1930^ 158CHAPTER SIX:^WORKING CONDITIONS: SCHOOL FACILITIES^ 192CHAPTER SEVEN: WORKING CONDITIONS: TEACHER RESPONSIBILITIES^207CHAPTER EIGHT:^LIVING AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS^ 254CHAPTER NINE:^TEACHING As PART OF THE LIFE COURSE^293i vCONCLUSION^ 337BIBLIOGRAPHY^ 345APPENDIX 1: NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT^ 381APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW GUIDE^ 382APPENDIX 3: TAPE RELEASE FORM^ 387VTABLESTABLE 1: DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS IN THE OKANAGAN VALLEY1874-1930^ 125viFIGURESFIGURE 1: NUMBER OF ONE-ROOM AND MULTI-ROOM SCHOOLS1920-1930^ 142FIGURE 2: ANNUAL TOTALS AND NUMBERS OF ASSISTED, RURAL,RURAL MUNICIPALITY, SUPERIOR AND HIGH SCHOOLS1920-1930^ 143FIGURE 3: ANNUAL TOTALS AND ENROLMENTS IN ASSISTED, RURAL,RURAL MUNICIPALITY, SUPERIOR AND HIGH SCHOOLS1920-1930^ 144FIGURE 4: ENROLMENT IN ONE-ROOM AND MULTI-ROOM SCHOOLS1920-1930^ 145FIGURE 5: NUMBERS OF MALE, MARRIED FEMALE AND SINGLEFEMALE TEACHERS 1920-1930^ 160FIGURE 6: PERCENTAGES OF MALE, MARRIED FEMALE ANDSINGLE FEMALE TEACHERS^ 161FIGURE 7:^FREQUENCY OF TEACHER CERTIFICATION^ 162FIGURE 8: RELATIVE FREQUENCY OF TEACHER CERTIFICATIONBY SEX^ 163FLGuRE 9: TEACHER TRANSIENCY 1921-1930^ 175FIGURE 10: FREQUENCY OF TEACHER TENURE^ 176FIGURE 11: FREQUENCY OF TEACHER TENURE BY SEX^ 177vi iMAPSMAP 1: STUDY AREA^ 89MAP 2: SCHOOLS IN THE OKANAGAN VALLEY 1874-1930^ 124PHOTOGRAPH CREDITSSUGAR LAKE SCHOOL, 1926.COURTESY ALICE GIBSON^ 248INTERIOR VIEW OF SUGAR LAKE SCHOOL, 1926.COURTESY AMANDA SINGER^ 248EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR VIEWS OF ELLISON SCHOOL, 1927.COURTESY BERNARD C. GILLIE^ 249PUPILS OUTSIDE THEIR SCHOOL AT MEDORA CREEK, 1928.COURTESY ANNE VARDON^ 250VERA EVANS, TEACHER AT WINFIELD SCHOOL, WITH HER PUPILS, 1929.COURTESY VERA TOWGOOD NEE EVANS^ 250TEACHERAGE AT MABEL LAKE SCHOOL, 1929.COURTESY LUCY MCCORMICK^ 251PUPILS AT MABEL LAKE PLAYING IN SCHOOL GROUNDS.COURTESY LUCY MCCORMICK^ 251LUCY HARGREAVES, TEACHER,WITH PUPILS AT GLENROSA SCHOOL, 1923.COURTESY KELOWNA MUSEUM, #3135^ 252FANCY DRESS PARTY AT SUGAR LAKE SCHOOL, 1926.COURTESY ALICE LAVIOLLETTE^ 252PUPILS OUTSIDE KEDLESTON SCHOOL, 1920.COURTESY ILA EMBREE^ 253THE CONSTRUCTION OF SPRINGBEND SCHOOL, 1924.COURTESY MILLIE BONNEY^ 253ixACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to thank Don Wilson and Jean Barman for their advice andencouragement. Jean's good humour lightened many dark moments over the last threeyears. I also wish to thank Nancy Sheehan, John Calam and Charles Brauner for theircareful reading of the thesis.Special thanks and appreciation are extended to the women and men who sowillingly talked to me about their rural school experiences. Without their help this studywould never have materialised. I particularly wish to thank Lucy McCormick and BernardC. Gillie for reading the penultimate manuscript of the thesis and for their kind words aboutits content.Finally, I owe more than I can possibly express to Richard. His endless patiencewith an extremely distracted, and often ill-tempered wife, has been heroic. It is to him that Idedicate this thesis. Thank-you Richard.xINTRODUCTIONTwo specific areas of inquiry frame the text of this study. First and foremost theaim is to present an empathetic appreciation of the professional and social experiences ofthe teachers who lived and worked in rural areas. The central question posed is a simpleone: What did it mean to be a teacher in a small rural school in the Okanagan in the 1920's?In this context a plethora of further questions arise. Who were these teachers? Why didthey decide to teach in small schools in remote areas? How long did they stay in any onerural community? What prompted them to move on? What were the physical andpedagogical conditions of the schools in which they worked? How well prepared were theyto teach in these out-of-the-way schools? Did they experience any difficulties in \"fittinginto\" the community? Were they able to make friends easily or did such socialising dependon factors such as the size or economic base of the community, or their own backgroundand upbringing? To what extent were they considered as \"outsiders\" and/or therepresentatives of Victoria? How did they perceive their status as members of thecommunity in general, and as teachers in particular? To what extent was their experience insuch remote schools a positive one? To what extent did they find such challenging, andoften frustrating, work enjoyable? How much autonomy were they able, or did they want,to exercise? Did teaching provide them with an opportunity for relative independence andself-development, or did the burden of their work outweigh this potential? How was theirexperience as a rural school teacher affected by their gender? Did their aspirations andexpectations for themselves differ from that which was socially prescribed? To what extent,if at all, did the teaching experiences of those who taught in rural schools have any longterm impact on their life courses as a whole?Secondly, albeit indirectly, the purpose is to uncover the influence of thecommunity on the character and the operation of the schools as well as the reciprocal12influence of the schools on the community. In this respect the following questions areaddressed: What did the community perceive the function of education to be? What werethe attitudes and responses of the parents to schooling? Was pupil attendance at schooldependent upon the \"rhythm of work\" in the local community? What was the nature of therelationship between the teacher and the pupils both in the classroom and in the largercontext of the local community? To what extent were the particular characteristics of thesocial and learning environment in these rural schools determined by the community inwhich they were located? What was the role and place of the teacher in the localcommunity? What was the nature of the relationship between the teachers and the parentsand/or the school trustees?The study is divided into nine chapters. Chapters One to Four essentially providethe contextual background. Chapter One reviews the literature on the history of womenteachers and teaching in North America and thus locates the research within the relevanthistoriographical tradition. Chapter Two describes the methodological approach adopted aswell as the specific research procedures that were followed in the sample selection, datacollection, analysis and representation. Chapters Three and Four provide an overview ofthe local physical and historical (economic and social) settings from which the participants'recollections emerged. Chapter Three considers the geography, climate and topography ofthe Okanagan Valley. It also includes a general outline history of the area in terms of thesettlement patterns, economic activity, and transportation and communication networks thatevolved in the period up to 1930. Chapter Four focuses on educational developments in thestudy area over the same period. The original research is presented in Chapters Five toNine. The aim of these chapters is to convey in intimate detail a portraiture of the multiplerealities of the experience of rural teaching as it was perceived by the teachers themselves.Chapter Five takes a close look at the demographics of the participants and analyses theircareer trajectories between 1920 and 1930. Chapters Six and Seven appraise the physicaland pedagogical working conditions that teachers confronted on a daily basis in their rural3classrooms. Chapter Eight explores beyond the strictly professional responsibilities andactivities of the rural teacher to consider the nature of their living and social circumstancesin remote communities. Chapter Nine approaches the rural teaching experience from alonger historical perspective by integrating the participants' experiences in the 1920s withinthe wider context of their life courses as a whole. The Conclusion then reviews the findingsof the research and offers suggestions as to the overall significance of the study.4CHAPTER ONELITERATURE REVIEWThe original research in this thesis deals with the lives of those who taught in onetype of educational institution, in a specified location and within a given decade, namely therural schools of the Okanagan Valley in the 1920's. However, this story cannot be fullyunderstood without an appreciation of the wider historiographical tradition from which ithas emerged. This literature review addresses the principal themes and questions that haveemerged in recent historical research on teachers and teaching in the public school systemsof North America. The teacher, or more specifically the female teacher, is the primary focusof the discussion.Early studies in the history of teachers and teaching in North America werecharacterized by a narrowly institutional approach that focussed mainly on the strugglesinvolved in the \"rise\" of the professional and, more often than not, on the male teacher.Willard S. Elsbree's encyclopaedic work The American Teacher: Evolution of a Professionin a Democracy, published over fifty years ago, is a classic example of this approach. 1Extremely comprehensive, it includes discussions of professional preparation, teachercertification and teachers' working conditions. It is an optimistic account of educationaldevelopment that was directed towards a specific audience. Although Elsbree was resentfulof the low regard for teachers that had existed in the past, the future for him held hope andas such the intention of the book was inspirational: to encourage teachers, teacher educatorsand their students in their quest for professional improvement. Canadian studies thatl(New York: American Book Company, 1939).5address the same theme of teacher professionalism include those of J.G. Althouse, CharlesE. Phillips and Andre Labarrere-Paule. 2By the early 1970's this celebratory approach had come under attack. Revisionisthistorians argued for the need to incorporate the social and political context into theirdiscussions of educational developments and to adopt a more critical perspective. As far asteachers were concerned the call was to explore their history in the context of the localcommunities and school systems in which they lived and worked. One American study ofpre-Civil War Massachusetts teachers revealed startling conclusions about the numericalpreponderancy of females in the teaching force and the effect that this might have had onAmerican society. 3 It became increasing clear that there was a need to consider the historyof teachers and teaching in terms of gender. 42 J.G. Althouse, The Ontario Teacher: A Historical Account of Progress 1800-1910 (Toronto:Ontario Teachers Federation, 1967), originally published as the author's D. Paed thesis, University ofToronto, 1929; Charles E. Phillips, The Development of Education in Canada (Toronto: W.J. Gage andCompany Limited, 1957); Andre Labarrere-Paule, Les instituteurs laiques au canada francais, 1836-1900(Quebec: Les Presses de l'universite Laval, 1965).3Richard M. Bernard and Mans A. Vinovskis, \"The Female Teacher in Ante-Bellum Massachusetts,\"Journal of Social History 10, 3(March 1977): 332-345. They argue for the importance of teaching in shapingwomen's lives because of the large number of women who taught at some point in their lives. From theirfindings they conclude that \"approximately one out of five white women in pre-Civil War Massachusetts wasa school teacher at some time in her life! Moreover, since almost all of the teachers were native-born,probably one out of four Massachusetts females born in this country once taught school,\" 333.4John Rury has argued that gender has been, until recently, \"a shamefully neglected issue in thehistory of education.\" See \"Education in the New Women's History,\" Educational Studies 17, 1(Spring1986): 1. It is generally acknowledged now, however, that gender must be central to any discussion of thehistory of teachers and teaching. David B. Tyack and Myra H. Strober argue the gender is \"one of thefundamental organizing principles in society, as important a category for analysis as class or race or age.\" See\"Jobs and Gender: A History of the Structuring of Educational Employment by Sex,\" in Educational Policyand Management: Sex Differentials. eds. Patricia A. Schmuck, W.W. Charters, Jr., and Richard 0. Carlson(New York: Academic Press, 1981), 131. It is described as \"the absent presence\" by Michael W. Apple. See\"Work, Gender and Teaching,\" Teachers College Record 84, 3(Spring 1983): 625. Nancy Hoffman regardsgender as \"that roar on the other side of silence.\" See \"Feminist Scholarship and Women's Studies,\" HarvardEducational Review 54, 4(November 1986): 511. The all-encompassing importance of gender in historicalresearch is made clear in Ruth Roach Pierson's definition: \"When I speak of gender as a fundamental categoryof social historical analysis, I understand gender to encompass all discourses, practices and structures shaping(and shaped by) the prescribed and prevailing actualized social relations between the sexes.\" See \"Gender andthe Unemployment Insurance Debates in Canada, 1934-1940,\" Labour/Le Travail 25(Spring 1990): 78,footnote 8. For a more theoretical, feminist discussion of the meaning of gender see Joan W. Scott, \"Gender:A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,\" American Historical Review 91, 5(December 1986): 1053-1075.6Alison Prentice and Marjorie R. Theobald argue that both feminism and marxismwere influential in determining the direction that revisionist historical work on teacherswould take. As they point out:Feminism taught us to explore the history of teachers from the point of view of thewomen who taught school and to look for the structures that subordinated andexploited women in education. From Marxism, we learned to look for the materialconditions of teachers' lives: their class backgrounds and economic status, the waysin which their work was structured, and how it changed over time. Some of us(especially in North America) began with a concern to understand what we called,for want of a better term, the 'feminization' of teaching - that is, the gradualincrease in the numbers and proportions of women teaching in most state schoolsystems, along with their low status and pay within those systems. Most of usgradually moved to broader concerns. Our goal was, increasingly, to understandthe history of all kinds of women teachers in whatever social and political settingsthey were to be found. This meant comparing women teachers' lives and work withthose of the men who taught in the past. It also meant looking at the history ofwomen teachers in two broad contexts: the history of women more generally, andof the changing family and community structures in which their lives wereembedded; and the history of work, and of the shifting economic and socialstructures that encompassed, in particular, women's work in educationalinstitutions. What we were increasingly engaged in, whether we were fullyconscious of it or not, was the study of gender in the history of a profession whichhad been implicated in the articulation and perpetuation of gender inequality inWestern society. 5As noted above, the \"feminization\" of teaching became one of the major questions in theresearch on the history of teachers and teaching in Canada and the United States. AlisonPrentice identified the importance of this topic in a pathbreaking article which drewattention to the image and reality of gender as a determining variable in the historicalprocess. 65 Alison Prentice and Marjorie R. Theobald, \"The Historiography of Women Teachers: ARetrospect,\" chapter in Women Who Taught: Perspectives on the History of Women and Teaching, eds.Prentice and Theobald (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991), 4-5. The material in this chapter isbased, in part, on an earlier article co-authored by the late Marta Danylewycz and Alison Prentice. See\"Revising the History of Teachers: A Canadian Perspective \" Interchange 17, 2(Summer 1986): 135-146. Thetwo reviews differ, however, in that the Danylewycz and Prentice article focusses mainly on the NorthAmerican context, whereas Prentice and Theobald have widened their scope to deal in more detail with theliterature on the history of women teachers in Britian and Australia, as well as North America.6Alison Prentice, \"The Feminization of Teaching in British North America and Canada 1845-1875,\"Histoire sociale/Social History 8, 15(May 1975): 5-20, reprinted in The Neglected Majority: Essays inCanadian Women's History, eds. Susan Mann Trofimenkoff and Alison Prentice (Toronto: McClelland andStewart, 1977), 49-65. Prentice summarizes well how and why there was a shift toward female teachersduring the mid nineteenth century.7Various suggestions have been put forward to explain how and why the occupationof teaching became feminized. One approach has focussed on ideology. Studies dealingwith the ideology which promoted the employment of women teachers reveal the rhetoricused for advocating the hiring of females. 7 Teaching was seen as \"woman's trueprofession.\" Women's maternal and nurturing qualities, natural affinity for young childrenand their superior powers of sympathy and communication made them ideal teachers. Theschool was seen merely as an extension of the family with the parent in the home beingreplaced by the teacher in the school. However, this did not mean that women should beteachers instead of being mothers. Rather, it was argued that teaching prepared women tobe better mothers and that it was but a step from the parental home to the schoolhouse andthen back again to the home as mother and wife. As Myra H. Strober and David Tyackexplain: \"The conviction that teaching was appropriate to woman's sphere and compatiblewith marriage was one of the powerful preconditions that led to the increasing employmentof women as teachers.\" 87Thomas Woody, A History of Women's Education in the United States Volumes I and 2 (NewYork: The Science Press, 1929); Glenda Riley, \"Origins of the Argument for Improved Female Education,\"History of Education Quarterly 9, 4(Winter 1969): 455-470; Keith Melder, \"Woman's High Calling: TheTeaching Profession in America, 1830-1860,\" American Studies 13, 2(Fall 1972): 19-32; Kathryn KishSklar, Catherine Beecher: A Study in American Domesticity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973); JoanN. Burstyn, \"Catherine Beecher and the Education of American Women,\" New England Ouarterly 47,3(September 1974): 386-403; Nancy Hoffman, Woman's \"True\" Profession: Voices From the History ofTeaching (New York: The Feminist Press, 1981).8Myra H. Strober and David Tyack, \"Why Do Women Teach and Men Manage?: A Report onResearch on Schools,\" Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 5, 3(Spring 1980): 497. For anaccount of the feminization of teaching in which women are portrayed as the unwitting participants in themaintenance of patriarchy see Madeleine Grumet, \"Pedagogy For Patriarchy: The Feminization of Teaching,\"Interchange 12, 2-3(1981): 165-184. See also Madeleine R. Grumet, Bitter Milk: Women and Teaching(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988). In contrast, Redding S. Sugg's, Motherteacher: TheFeminization of American Education (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978) provides anextremely derogatory and condemnatory view of the effect of women's growing dominance of the teachingprofession. See also Deborah Fitts, \"Una and the Lion: The Feminization of District School Teaching and ItsEffects on the Roles of Students and Teachers in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts,\" in RegulatedChildren/Liberated Children: Education in Psychohistorical Perspective, ed. Barbara Finkelstein (New York:Psychohistory Press, 1979), 140-157, for an interesting discussion of the ideology surrounding thefeminization of teaching influenced by psychoanalytical thought.8While ideology no doubt played a role in the shift to teaching being regarded aswomen's work, the issue cannot totally be explained in this way. In fact much of therhetoric involved in the ideological arguments resemble little more than a rationalization formore objective economic and organizational changes that were occuring at the same time asteaching was being feminized. Janet Guildford has argued in her work on the feminizationof the teaching force in Nova Scotia that \"ideology and economics...were in fact intimatelyrelated and mutually reinforcing.\" 9A number of historians have attempted to explore these changes by examining therelationship between the growth of \"formalized\" school systems, increases in thepercentages of women teachers and decreases in female/male salary ratios. 10 Strober andLanford argue that \"where the percentage of women teachers was high, schooling waslikely to have been \"formalized\" - that is, schools had become formal organizations -relatively early and the ratio of the average female teaching salary to the male teachingsalary was likely to be relatively low.\" 119Janet Guildford, —Separate Spheres\": The Feminization of Public School Teaching in Nova Scotia,1838-1880,\" Acadiensis 22, 1(Autumn 1992): 47.10See Alison Prentice, \"The Feminization of Teaching,\"; Myra H. Strober and Laura Best, \"TheFemale/Male Salary Differential in Public Schools: Some Lessons From San Francisco, 1879,\" EconomicInquiry 17, 2(April 1979): 218-236; Strober and Tyack, \"Why Do Women Teach and Men Manage?\"; Tyackand. Strober, \"Jobs and Gender,\" 131-152; Myra H. Strober and Audri Gordon Lanford, \"The Feminization ofPublic School Teaching: Cross Sectional Analysis, 1850-1880,\" Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 11, 2(Winter 1986): 212-235. For a study of the relationship between compulsory school attendanceand increased percentages of women teachers see John G. Richardson and Brenda Wooden Hatcher, \"TheFeminization of Public School Teaching 1870-1920,\" Work and Occupations 10, 1(February 1983): 81-99.For a study that correlates high rates of female school attendance and percentages of women teachers seeSusan B. Carter, \"Occupational Segregation, Teachers' Wages, and American Economic Growth,\" Journal ofEconomic History 46, 2(June 1986): 373-383.11 Strober and Lanford,\"The Feminization of Public School Teaching,\" 215. The authors are criticalof studies that stress causal connections between urbanization and the rising percentages of women inteaching. They argue that the proportion of women in teaching increased not because of urbanization per se,but because of the \"formalization\" of school systems and the decrease in the female/male salary ratio, whichtended to occur in urban settings. Examples of studies that stress the importance of urbanization includeMichael Katz, The Irony of Early School Reform: Educational Innovation in Mid-Nineteenth Century Massachusetts (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1968); Michael B. Katz, \"TheEmergence of Bureaucracy in Urban Education: The Boston Case, 1850-1884,\" History of Education Ouarterly 8, 2(Summer 1968): 155-188 and 8, 3(Fall 1968): 319-357; David Tyack, The One Best System: A 9The striking differences between urban and rural areas in this respect have been thesubject of much of the research. 12 Focusing largely on the nineteenth century, studies ofschool systems have shown that schools in the large cities were first formalized. In theseurban centres \"public school teaching not only became feminized\" but also \"stratified bysex.\" 13 In other words, in urban schools women became numerically superior but in termsof the positions they occupied in the profession and the salaries they received they wereinferior. The concept of a segmented labour market is central to these arguments. Womenwere segregated into lower paying positions in the bottom rungs of the occupation, mainlyas teachers of younger pupils, whereas men were employed in the well-paid and moreadministrative positions as senior teachers, principals, inspectors and superintendents.Strober and Lanford have summed up the basic arguments nicely:Formalization of schooling precipitated occupational segregation in teaching byunleashing both demand- and supply-side pressures. On the demand side, thegraded school brought with it a specific demand for women teachers in part becausewomen were cheaper to hire than men and in part because of the stereotypesconcerning women's superiority in dealing with children and women's docility intaking orders. On the supply side, longer school terms and increased credentialingrequirements meant the opportunity cost of staying in teaching was raised for men.Because they could neither continue to treat teaching as supplementary employmentnor afford to be full-time teachers (the average salary in teaching, a publicoccupation funded by tight-fisted tax payers, was inadequate for supporting afamily), most men dropped out. Men left teaching because they had more lucrativealternative occupations open to them. Women stayed in teaching, at lower wagesthan those paid to men, because they did not have other options.\"History of American Urban Education (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1974); DavidTyack, \"Bureaucracy and the Common School: The Example of Portland, Oregan, 1851-1913,\" AmericanQuarterly 19, 3(Fall 1967): 475-498.12See Strober and Tyack, \"Why Do Women Teach and Men Manage?\"; Tyack and Strober, \"Jobsand Gender,\" and Strober and Lanford, \"The Feminization of Public School Teaching.\"13Strober and Best, \"The Female/Male Salary Differential,\" 220.14S trober and Lanford, \"The Feminization of Public School Teaching,\" 234. For a detaileddiscussion of the \"push\" and \"pull\" factors that led women into teaching in the United States see GeraldineJoncich Clifford, \"'Daughters into Teachers': Educational and Demographic Influences on the Transformationof Teaching into 'Women's Work' in America,\" History of Education Review 12, 1(1983): 15-28, reprinted inPrentice and Theobald, eds. Women Who Taught, 115-135.10John Rury has suggested that the reason why women earned less than men was because\"the inability - and, in some cases perhaps, the unwillingness - of women to work beyondmarriage resulted in distinctive male and female career paths in education.\" In short, hecontinues \"most women simply did not remain in the teaching force long enough tocompete for administrative posts. Sexist assumptions about their true careers blocked themovement of women into the emerging education hierarchy.\" 15In contrast to the urban model outlined above some historians have noted that ruralareas were slower to develop a segmented labour market in teaching. Rural schools -usually one-room - were more informal and less rigid in organization, had less discrepancybetween male and female salaries and tended to employ more equal numbers of men andwomen, although women tended to be employed in the summer term (when the older boysand male teachers were engaged in agricultural work) and men in the winter time. The wayin which rural schools were organized meant that both males and females had similar jobs.Both taught ungraded classes in one-room schoolhouses and therefore were able to exercise\"considerable independence, discretion and autonomy and operated without benefit of anyformal on-site supervisors.\" 16 However, this situation was not to last. American studieshave shown that as state regulation and standardization increased, feminization became thenorm in rural as well as urban areas. 17Urban models of schooling transferred to rural environments were thus seen to beappropriate in accounting for the feminization of teaching. However, it became clear fromwork done on Canadian teachers that this explanation was too simple a generalization andthat more complex alternative models were needed. As Danylewycz and Prentice point out:15John L. Rury, \"Gender, Salaries and Career: American Teachers, 1900-1910,\" Issues in Education4, 3(Winter 1986): 230. Italics in original.16Strober and Best, \"The Female/Male Salary Differential,\" 221.17Strober and Tyack, \"Why Do Women Teach and Men Manage?\" 498.11From an early appreciation of the fact that what we needed to document was notonly the shift in public schools from a largely male to a predominantly femaleteaching force but also women's prior educational work in domestic surroundings,there gradually emerged a perception of the importance of regional differences inunderstanding both of these phenomena. 18In their study of the evolution of the sexual division of labour in nine counties in ruralOntario and Quebec Danylewycz, Light and Prentice propose two new models to add to thealready existing early urban and late rural patterns of feminization. First of all, they suggesta modified \"early\" rural model that was \"characteristic of troubled agricultural regions andthe resource frontier.\" Poverty and the presence of resource industries such as lumberingand fishing provided alternative employment to teaching for young men. They thereforesuggest that male unavailability was in part responsible for the feminization of teaching incertain regions of rural Quebec and Eastern Ontario where women were the predominantsex from the very beginning of public school systems. Secondly, they propose analternative model for the sexual division of labour that developed in Quebec that takes intoaccount the importance of the tradition of women in teaching prior to the emergence ofgovernment supported schools - a tradition that can be traced back to the nuns in educationsince the founding of New France. 19 In another article Danylewycz and Prentice haverevealed that Montreal, Quebec's largest metropolitan centre, did not conform to the classicNorth American pattern of a public school system governed by a male hierarchy in whichwomen proliferated in the teaching posts in the lower ranks. Montreal developed a dualeducational system in which the French Catholic system was divided along gender lineswhich favoured boys' schools run by male teachers. As such, the entire French Catholic18Danylewycz and Prentice, \"Revising the History of Teachers,\" 137. Italics in original. Guildfordalso emphasises the importance of regional differences in her study of Nova Scotia teachers. See her\"\"Separate Spheres\".\"19Marta Danylewycz, Beth Light and Alison Prentice, \"The Evolution of the Sexual Division ofLabour in Teaching: A Nineteenth-Century Ontario and Quebec Case Study,\" Histoire sociale/Social History 16, 31(Spring 1983): 81-109.12system was dominated by males until the end of the nineteenth century. 20 The necessity ofexamining regional differences and local settings rather than making sweepinggeneralizations concerning the nature and extent of the feminization of teaching in NorthAmerica is made abundantly clear by these studies. 21As more research is conducted into the topic of the feminization of teaching it isbecoming increasingly obvious that it is a very complex phenomenon. Jean Barman looksat feminization and teacher (both male and female) retention rates in schools in latenineteenth century British Columbia. 22 She argues that feminization may have beenoveremphasized as an explanatory device and that \"in British Columbia, feminization ofitself did not necessarily alter the character of teaching as an occupation, both female andmale retention rates gradually increasing within the very city schools where women firstassumed numerical preponderance.\" 23 She found that there were markedly differingpatterns of retention between city and non-city schools and that these differences werefirmly in place prior to and, as she speculates, very possibly largely unrelated to the parallelprocess of feminization. She offers the suggestion that the more satisfactory \"material20Marta Danylewycz and Alison Prentice, \"Teachers, Gender, and Bureaucratizing School Systemsin Nineteenth Century Montreal and Toronto,\" History of Education Quarterly 24, 1(Spring 1984): 75-100. Afurther paper by Danylewycz and Prentice, which includes details from the two articles cited above, is usefulin this context. See \"Lessons From the Past: The Experience of Women Teachers in Quebec and Ontario\", inWorld Yearbook of Education 1984: Women and Education, eds. Sandra Acker, Jacquetta Megarry, StanleyNisbet and Eric Hoyle (London, England: Kogan Page, Limited, 1984), 163-172.21 Chad Gaffield recently emphasised the importance of studying \"regions\" as compared to \"provincesand nations.\" He argued that focus exclusively on the latter \"can rarely do justice to the complexity andvariety of human thought and behaviour....[C]onclusions drawn at such high levels of aggregation either donot apply to many residents or reflect a particular perspective (often that of elites in metropolitan centres).\"Consequently he applauded the fact that \"the study of regions has become a mainstream focus of scholarlyattention.\" See \"The New Regional History: Rethinking the History of the Outaouais,\" Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'etudes canadiennes 26, 1(Spring 1991): 64. As early as 1969 J.M.S. Careless observed thatregionalism had been, and continued to be, the predominant feature of Canadian life and so urged historians tostudy smaller communities and to examine rural patterns. See \"'Limited Identities' in Canada,\" CanadianHistorical Review 50, l(March 1969):1-10.22Jean Barman, \"Birds of Passage or Early Professionals? Teachers in Late Nineteenth-CenturyBritish Columbia,\" Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'education 2, l(Spring 1990): 17-36.23 Ibid., 1813conditions\" of city as compared with non-city schools may have been a more importantfactor in teacher retention. Barman contends:When research is limited to a single sex, as have been recent analyses of teacherfeminization, the impression is left, whether or not it be deliberate, that all humanbehaviour somehow derives from sex and gender. To understand the role ofwomen in the past with all its inherent complexity, a broader context is essentia1. 24Work in Canada and elswhere has also begun to look beyond the basic question ofgender to examine the social structure of the teaching profession and how that may havechanged over time. By exploring the average age of teachers, their household and maritalstatus, ethnicity, and class origins historians have been able to build up a more precisepicture of the composition of the teaching forces in various localities as well as speculate,albeit tentatively, on the circumstances of the lives and the meaning of teaching to people ofdifferent backgrounds who chose to join the occupation.Researchers have begun to investigate the backgrounds of teachers through the useof records of local school boards and provincial departments of education and manuscriptcensus data. In their study of rural teachers in nineteenth century Ontario and Quebec in theperiod from 1851 to 1881, Danylewycz, Light and Prentice discovered that \"women (andto some extent men) living at home with their parents were replacing both male householdheads and male boarders among rural Ontario teachers.\" In addition they found that\"Women were increasing in all categories but the women teachers who were under 30 yearsof age grew from 12.8 to 38.1 percent of all teachers.\" 25 Their findings for the city ofToronto reveal that \"the bureaucratizing public school system in this city not only favouredthe unmarried and youthful among its women teachers, it also showed a clear preferencefor hiring large numbers of such women to staff its growing schools. 26 Shifts in the age24Ibid., 23.25Danylewycz, Light and Prentice, \"The Evolution of the Sexual Division of Labour,\" 101.26Danylewycz and Prentice, \"Teachers, Gender and Bureaucratizing School Systems, \" 84.14structure and the marital and household status of teachers therefore paralleled the change inelementary school teaching from a male to an increasingly female occupation.Findings on the ethnic and class origins of teachers have also proved suggestive.By pointing to the larger proportion of non-Canadian born individuals among the maleteachers of Ontario, Danylewycz and Prentice proposed a possible correlation betweenethnicity and the sexual division of labour in teaching. They found that in certain areas ofrural Ontario male teachers continued to be numerically dominant for several decades longerin comparison to rural Quebec and certain Eastern Ontario counties. They argue that thisresistance to the trend towards predominantly female teaching forces may have been linkedto the existence of a pool of cash-hungry immigrant men who, because of feweropportunities or skills for employment in other fields, were willing and able to teach whentheir Ontario-born counterparts were not. 27 Information gleaned from the manuscriptcensuses for Montreal and Toronto concerning the occupations of parents with whom cityteachers lived enabled them to identify the class origins of these teachers and to speculateon their significance. In Montreal about half of the female teachers who lived in theirfather's households were the daughters of skilled and unskilled workers. Toronto revealeda slightly smaller proportion and in both cities relatively few female teachers were from theentrepreneurial and professional classes. They also point to the high proportion of womenteachers in both cities who were living with a widowed relative or parent and suggest thatthey were the major breadwinner in the household. 28 Therefore, if the reason foremploying women as teachers was because they were a cheap means of labour necessary tofill the growing needs of expanding school systems, then it was equally true that \"womenincreasingly welcomed (and were in need of) paid employment outside of the home.\" As27Danylewycz, Light and Prentice, \"The Evolution of the Sexual Division of Labour in Teaching,\"98.28Danylewycz and Prentice, \"Teachers, Gender and Bureaucratizing School Systems,\" 91-92.15such \"for many Montreal and Toronto schoolmistresses, something more than a responseto \"women's high calling\" was involved in the decision to teach school.\"29 Thus the detailsrevealed in these studies of teachers' backgrounds both support and refine the findings ofearlier studies on the economic and organizational explanations for the feminization ofteaching in the nineteenth century.30Despite this wealth of information on who taught in schools, and how and why thischanged from a mainly male to a predominantly female occupation in the nineteenthcentury, little of the research has approached the topic from the perspective of the teacher asworker. This is rather surprising given that teaching has been regarded as \"women's work\"since the middle of the nineteenth century. As alluded to earlier, educational historians havetended to focus on the professionalism aspect of teachers work rather than on the actualtasks they performed. 31 In the same way teachers as workers have not been placed at thecentre of enquiry in either labour or women's histories. The question of occupationalcategories when dealing with teachers' history appears to have been problematic because:[Teachers] have not fitted very well into the classic model of workers perceived tobe men doing manual, as opposed to intellectual or managerial, work. Teachers, onthe contrary, have been seen and portrayed as \"brain workers,\" and as actually orideally the managers, at the very least, of children if not of other adults. In addition,they were very clearly not working men, since so many, as time went on, were infact women (italics in original). 3229Danylewycz and Prentice, \"Revising the History of Teachers,\" 139.\"For an interesting account of the social composition of American teachers at five points inhistory, ranging from the late colonial period to the late 1980's, see John L. Rury, \"Who Became Teachers:The Social Characteristics of Teachers in American History,\" in American Teachers: Histories of a Professionat Work, ed. Donald Warren (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989), 9-48.31For example, Althouse, The Ontario Teacher and Labarrere-Paule, Les instituteurs laiques aucanada francais. 32Marta Danylewycz and Alison Prentice, \"Teachers' Work: Changing Patterns and Perceptions inthe Emerging School Systems of Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Central Canada,\" Labour/LeTravail 17(Spring 1986): 61. Reprinted in Schoolwork: Approaches to the Labour Process of Teaching, ed.Jenny Ozga (Milton Keynes, England: Open University Press, 1988), 61-80, and in Women Who Taught,eds. Prentice and Theobald, 136-159.16The need to understand teachers' work as work, to look at the labour process of teaching,to understand the nature and meaning of changes in teachers' work and workingconditions, to develop teacher history and to inform all these with a gender consciousperspective has been the focus of recent work by Michael W. Apple and others onAmerican and British teachers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Theyargue that teaching as an occupation has been subject to a process of \"proletarianization\"which entailed an increasing rationalization and restructuring of the job and that this processis linked with gender. 33 As Apple contends: \"Historically women's jobs have been muchmore apt to be \"proletarianized\" than men's.\" He goes on to argue that \"once a set ofpositions becomes \"women's work,\" it is subject to greater pressure for rationalization.Administrative control of teaching, curricula, and so on increases. The job itself becomesdifferent.\" 34Drawing on the work of Apple and others Danylewycz and Prentice have incisivelyexplored the actual tasks teachers performed in their work in the schoolrooms of nineteenthand early twentieth century Ontario and Quebec. 35 In doing so they attempt to determine33Michael W. Apple, \"Teaching and \"Women's Work\": A Comparative Historical and IdeologicalAnalysis,\" Teachers College Record 86, 3(Spring 1985): 455-473. This article is essentially reproduced in theauthor's Teachers & Texts: A Political Economy of Class & Gender Relations in Education (New York:Routledge, 1988), 54-78. See also Apple, \"Work, Gender, and Teaching,\" 611-628; Michael W. Apple,\"Work, Class and Teaching,\" in Gender. Class and Education, eds. Stephen Walker and Len Barton (NewYork: The Falmer Press, 1983), 53-67; Barry H. Bergen, \"Only a Schoolmaster: Gender, Class, and theEffort to Professionalize Elementary Teaching in England, 1870-1910,\" History of Education Quarterly 22,1(Spring 1982): 1-21, reprinted in Schoolwork, ed. Ozga, 39-60; Jennifer Ozga and Martin Lawn eds.,Teachers. Professionalism and Class: A Study of Organized Teachers (London, England: The Falmer Press,1981). For a discussion of the \"proletarianization\" thesis as applied to the transformation of the clericallabour market and office working conditions in Canada between 1900 and 1930 see Graham S. Lowe, \"Class,Job and Gender in the Canadian Office,\" Labour/Le Travailleur 10(Autumn 1982): 11-37, and Graham S.Lowe, \"Mechanization, Feminization, and Managerial Control in the Early Twentieth-Century CanadianOffice,\" in On the Job: Confronting the Labour Process in Canada, eds. Craig Heron and Robert Storey(Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1986), 177-209.34Apple, \"Teaching and \"Women's Work\",\" 457, 462. Italics in original.35 Danylewycz and Prentice,\" Teachers' Work,\" 59-80. See also Alison Prentice, \"From Householdto School House: The Emergence of the Teacher as Servant of the State \" Material History Bulletin 20(1983):19-29.17how the nature of that work, and the working conditions under which those tasks werecarried out, changed during a period when state school systems were in the process ofbeing established and the occupation was becoming increasingly feminized. The centraltheme of their study of teacher's work is the increasing formalization of, and control over,school procedures and administration which led to a phenomenal growth in the workload -academic, supervisory, administrative and manual - of teachers. In short they reveal acritical restructuring of the form and content of the tasks of teachers themselves in subtlebut important ways. 36Danylewycz and Prentice also draw attention to the perceptions held by teachersabout their social and ecomomic position in the workforce, and about what work wascompatible with that position. The restructuring of the work of the teacher in the school didnot improve their lot and the evidence of growing workloads encouraged school teachers toorganize protective associations. However, as Danylewycz and Prentice point out, womenteachers' associations often pursued contradictory policies as they tried to improve theirmembers' conditions of work and define their position in the labour force. 37 They drawagain on the work of Apple concerning his ideas on the contradictory class location ofteachers. He argues that twentieth century teachers are \"located simultaneously in twoclasses\" in that \"they share the interests of both the petty bourgeousie and the workingclass.\"38 Canadian teachers, as Danylewycz and Prentice note, were like their Americancounterparts in that they formed their associations to fight for better wages and workingconditions but, unlike the most radical Americans, they found it difficult to see themselves36For a discussion of the restructuring of the work of teachers in relation to the changing role of theschool in early twentieth century British Columbia, see Timothy A. Dunn, \"The Rise of Mass PublicSchooling in British Columbia, 1900-1929,\" in Schooling and Society in Twentieth Century BritishColumbia, eds. J. Donald Wilson and David C. Jones (Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Limited, 1980), 23-51.37Danylewycz and Prentice, \"Teachers' Work,\" 62.38Apple, \"Work, Class and Teaching,\" 53.18as \"workers\" or to form alliances with trade unions and other working class organizationsthat had similar problems. 39 There was a definite contradiction between the actual socialand economic position of teachers in the workforce and their perceptions of what thatposition was. Classroom teachers were poorly paid, experienced difficult and demandingworking conditions and had little control over the workplace. In this way they were nodifferent from industrial workers. However, teachers, for the most part, continued toidentify themselves as mental rather than manual workers despite the fact that most of themwere not accepted by their communities as fully professional. Teachers therefore occupied avery contradictory position in the labour force. \"It was,\" Danylewycz and Prenticecontinue, \"the uncertainty of their position in the labour force that helps to explain howwomen teachers could flirt with the mystique of professionalism while at the same timetheir members referred to themselves as the exploited or as toilers and hirelings.\" 4°Perhaps, as has been suggested, the main problem for women teachers was the fact thatthey were working in school systems that were, for the most part, managed by, and formen.41 This fact draws attention to the literature on the history of teachers and teaching thatapproaches the subject from the perspective of those who trained, organized and controlledthe schools and school systems in which those teachers worked, and which underlines theimportance of examining the interplay between the lives of those who taught and those who39Studies of women teachers' associational work in Canada include: Wendy E. Bryans, \"VirtuousWomen at Half the Price: The Feminization of the Teaching Force and Early Women Teacher Organizationsin Ontario,\" (M.A. thesis, University of Toronto, 1974); Alison Prentice, \"Themes in the Early History ofthe Women Teachers' Association of Toronto, 1892-1914,\" in Women's Paid and Unpaid Work: Historicaland Contempory Perspectives, ed. Paula Bourne (Toronto: New Hogtown Press, 1985), 97-121. See alsoHarry Smaller, \"Ontario Teacher Federations and the State - An Historical Overview,\" History of Education Review 14, 2(1985): 4-14, for a discussion of the nature of the involvement of the state in the developmentof the early stages of teachers' protective associations in Ontario. An essential American source on the topicis Wayne J. Urban, Why Teachers Organized (Detroit: Wayne State Univerity Press, 1982). Urban focuses onwomen teachers' associations in Chicago, New York and Atlanta. See also Urban, \"New Directions in theHistorical Study of Teacher Unionism,\" Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'education 2,1(Spring 1990): 1-15.Danylewycz and Prentice, \"Teachers' Work,\" 79.41 Ibid., 80.19managed. Recent work on the history of normal schools and teacher training 42 and also onthe role of superintendents, inspectors and principals43 has begun to address such issues.It is clear from this survey of the literature on the history of teachers and teaching inNorth America that, to a large extent, historians have concentrated on ideological concernsas expressed in the prescriptive literature and the rhetoric of educational promoters, haveemployed broadly quantitative methodologies and/or have provided accounts of teachers'lives in urban public school systems. These approaches have generated importantinformation that has improved our knowledge of the composition of the teaching force inthe nineteenth century and raised searching questions about how and why the structure andorganization of teaching as an occupation changed over time. However, these studies alsotend to portray male and female teachers in stereotypical roles and leave one with aninterpretation of teaching as a \"hierarchically structured and gendered school system\" whichentailed male control of women's work, the reproduction of subordinate roles for femaleteachers, and a situation in which \"women teachers were seen both as its victims andunwitting perpetuators. \"44The essence of this vision of teaching lies in the increasing bureaucratization ofschool systems at various levels which led to ever tightening controls over the occupation42John Calam, \"Teaching the Teachers: Establishment and Early Years of the B.C. ProvincialNormal Schools,\" BC Studies 61(Spring 1984): 30-63; Alison Prentice, \"Like Friendly Atoms inChemistry\"?: Women and Men at Normal School in Mid-Nineteenth Century Toronto,\" in Old Ontario: Essays in Honour of J.M.S. Careless. eds. David R. Keane and Colin Read (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1990).For a good source of information on teacher education in the United States, see Jurgen Herbst, And SadlyTeach: Teacher Education and Professionalization in American Culture (Madison, Wisconsin: The Universityof Wisconsin Press, 1989), and Herbst, \"Nineteenth-Century Normal Schools in the United States: A FreshLook,\" History of Education 9, 3(September 1980): 219-227.43Philip Corrigan and Bruce Curtis, \"Education, Inspection and State Formation: A PreliminaryStatement,\" Canadian Historical Association, Historical Papers (1985): 156-171; John Abbott,\"Accomplishing \"a Man's Task\": Rural Women Teachers, Male Culture, and the School Inspectorate in Turn-of-the-Century Ontario,\" Ontario History 78, 4(December 1986): 313-330; Thomas Fleming, \"\"Our Boys inthe Field\": School Inspectors, Superintendents, and the Changing Character of School Leadership in BritishColumbia,\" in Schools in the West: Essays in Canadian Educational History, eds. Nancy M. Sheehan, J.Donald Wilson, and David C. Jones (Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Limited, 1986), 285-303.44Prentice and Theobald,\"The Historiography of Women Teachers,\" 6-7.20in terms of normal school training and certification requirements, control of the curriculum,and the many levels of inspection beginning with school principals and ending with districtand provincial inspectors and superintendents. The purpose of this organization and controlis made clear by Strober and Tyack: \"Given this purpose of tight control, women wereideal employees. With few alternative occupations and accustomed to patriarchal authority,they mostly did what their male superiors ordered. Difference of gender provided animportant form of social control.\" 45 As Danylewycz and Prentice explain: \"Indeed,educational administrators developed bureaucratic modes of organization chiefly with maleaspirations for power and social mobility in mind.\"46 Hoffman argues that the structure ofthe school \"reinforced the notion that women were capable of teaching the ABC's and thevirtues of cleanliness, obedience, and respect, while men taught about ideas, and organizedthe profession.\" 47 Melder contends that women teachers were central to the purposes ofeducational reformers and administrators in that women were \"a resource, a labour force,that could be manipulated for their advantage.\" He goes on to explain:Women entered the schools, enthusiastically supported by male educators, only tofind that they occupied the lowest rung of a long bureaucratic ladder with virtuallyno hope for advancement into positions of power. A tiny minority of womenbecame principals of secondary schools, system superintendents, or officers ofteachers' organizations, but men monopolized administrative and policy makingpositions. One of the great advantages seen by the educators in employing themwas the very docility and lack of worldly ambition which appeared to give womenan advantage in teaching young children. Woman's natural submissiveness wouldprevent her from becoming a threat to the system of education, the policy-makingand power structure erected by men. In attracting women into teaching thereformers not only obtained a competent labor force that they could not secureotherwise, but a class of workers which would accept masculine domination.\"45Strober and Tyack, \"Why Do Women Teach and Men Manage?\" 500.46Danylewycz and Prentice, \"Teachers, Gender, and Bureaucratizing School Systems,\" 78.47Hoffman, Woman's \"True\" Profession, xxii.\"Melder, \"Woman's High Calling,\" 27-28.21At the same time, as Strober and Best argue, men's higher status in teaching made itpossible to \"more securely link the schools to the (male) power bases in the surroundingcommunity [because] men not only had obvious overt status characteristics which served toraise the status of schools in local eyes, but also, through all-male clubs and sports, had fareasier access than women to key members of the areas' business and political powerstructures.\" 49 Therefore, the bureaucratization of school systems both promoted andinstitutionalized unequal relations between the sexes and resulted in a situation in whichwomen's position was in general inferior to that of men's. Prentice has drawn attention tothe wider repercussions of such a situation:To the extent that this pattern persisted and spread, and to the extent that schoolchildren absorbed messages from the organization of the institutions in which theywere educated, Canadian children were exposed to a powerful image of woman'sinferior position in society. One must not discount, moreover, the impact on thewomen themselves. The experience of public school teaching, the experience of itsdiscipline and of its hierarchical organization, became the experience of largenumbers of Canadian women by the end of the nineteenth century 50A number of problems arise from these studies that portray men and women instereotypical roles in school systems. Women appear as all too accepting of their inferiorposition in the teaching force. But to what extent did women enter the teaching professionbecause they regarded themselves as the ideal and natural educators of the young? How farwere they controlled and dominated by their male employers? How did women teachersthemselves perceive their position and experience as teachers in the workforce?Quantitative studies provide a macro-portrait of the occupation of teaching in termsof age, sex, marital and household status, class, ethnicity and so on, and offer explanationsfor the increase in female involvement as teachers in public educational systems in thenineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, they reveal little about individualexperience, or the personal meaning of teaching as work, or allow us to discern how49Strober and Best, \"The Female/Male Salary Differential,\" 223.50Prentice, \"The Feminization of Teaching,\" 20.22teachers themselves made sense of their lives both in the classroom and in the communitiesin which they lived and worked. As well, studies focussing on ideology tend to equaterhetoric with actual experience, what was intended with what actually happened. Evenwhen teachers have been the centre of attention, as is the case with much of the literaturediscussed so far, the story has been more in terms of what was done to them, or thought ofand about them, by others, rather than in terms of their own experience as teachers. 51 Inother words:[H]istorians have tended to treat teachers as nonpersons. Female teachers especiallyhave been portrayed as objects rather than subjects, as either the unknowing toolsof the social elite or as the exploited minority whose labor is bought cheaply. Rarelyhave they been treated as subjects in control of their own activities. Seldom has theworld of schooling been presented through their eyes. 52Therefore these approaches only go part of the way towards a full understanding of thecomplex picture of the history of teachers and teaching.American educational historian Geraldine Joncich Clifford has highlighted some ofthe problems associated with quantitative approaches to the history of teachers. She drawsattention to \"their inability to reveal how teachers actually perceived and reacted to theirprofessional status, the demands of their tasks, to their students and patrons, and topedagogical-reform 'movements' that are presumed to have existed.\" To continue herargument she contends that \"accumulated data of these sorts and the hunches they generate,no more constitute a record of the experience of schooling than all the possible statisticalfindings about age of marriage, illigitimacy rate, household size, infant mortality, number51As early as 1975 John Calam noted that the teacher in history had, for the most part, been placed\"at the periphery rather than at the centre of research attention.\" There was a need, therefore, to fill this gap inCanadian educational historiography and so ensure that \"the teacher in history lives and breathes once more.\"See \"A Letter from Quesnel: The Teacher in History, and Other Fables.\" History of Education Ouarterly 15,2(Summer 1975): 136, 142.52Richard A. Quantz, \"The Complex Visions of Female Teachers and the Failure of Unionization inthe 1930s: An Oral History,\" History of Education Quarterly 25, 4(Winter 1985): 439.23of wage-earning members, together will produce the experience of the family.\" 53 As far asshe is concerned: \"The meanings people attatch to their experiences; their sense of whatdrives or limits their actions; the victories and defeats of their lives; what build them up andwhat tears or wears them down; the struggle within as well as the struggle without - theseare also the data of history.\"54In the light of such concerns the efficacy of studying the subjective side ofeducational history in general, and the history of teachers in particular, has, and is, beingincreasingly advocated. The central questions that some historians began to ask are simple,illustrated by Barbara J. Finkelstein in the preface to her bibliography of educationalreminiscences: \"What...was the character of pedagogy as understood by participants?\" 55Clifford has also called for \"a people-centred institutional history that deals, in significantand sensitive ways, with students, parents, school board members, as well as teachers -warts and all.\" 56 Her main conviction is that educational history should probe for \"theintentions of the givers and receivers of education\" by focussing on \"personal conceptionsand misconceptions\" and on the \"consequences of formal education as perceived by theparticipants...in contrast to the ideals or functions of education as articulated byphilosophers and recognizable \"spokesmen\" for education.\" In short she argues for a53Geraldine Joncich Clifford, \"History as Experience: The Uses of Personal-History Documents inthe History of Education,\" History of Education 7, 3(October 1978): 192. Italics in original.54Geraldine Joncich Clifford, \"\"Marry, Stitch, Die, or Do Worse\": Educating Women for Work,\" inWork Youth and Schooling: Historical Perspectives on Vocationalism in American Education, eds. HarveyKantor and David B. Tyack (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982), 225.55Barbara J. Finkelstein, \"Schooling and Schoolteachers: Selected Bibliography of Autobiographiesin the Nineteenth Century,\" History of Education Quarterly 14, 2(Summer 1974): 293. See also BarbaraFinkelstein, ed. Regulated Children/Liberated Children and Barbara Finkelstein, Governing the Young: Teacher Behavior in Popular Primary Schools in Nineteenth-Century United States (New York: The FalmerPress, 1989).56Geraldine Joncich Clifford, \"Saints, Sinners, and People: A Position Paper on the Historiographyof American Education,\" History of Education Quarterly 15, 3(Fa11 1975): 268.24\"personalized history.\" 57 Canadian historian Chad M. Gaffield has reiterated theseconcerns and urged educational historians to focus on the \"experiential meaning ofeducation\" from the point of view of \"all those who have been involved in the process.\" 58In his recent work on the French language problem in Ontario in the nineteenth century heemphasized the importance of documenting the experiences of \"the boys and girls, men andwomen whose lives gave meaning to the questions of schooling.\" 59 Likewise RichardQuantz, an American educational historian, has suggested:To understand teachers, we need to do more than treat schools as little black boxeswith interhangeable parts which take inputs and create outputs and which aremanipulated by those from outside them....Attention to the larger forces of historyprovide a framework of understanding, but without a depiction of the finer detail ofthe participants' subjective realities, we fail to understand the dynamics of history.By following only microhistory we are in danger of reversing the common maximand \"failing to see the trees for the forest.\" In our eagerness to map out the greatmovements of \"man,\" we sometimes forget that historical events often involved realwomen living in their own subjective, but equally real, worlds. 60Recent feminist historiography has also influenced the move towards a moresubjective approach to the history of teachers and teaching with its emphasis on thenecessity of viewing women in the past as historical characters in their own right. In her1975 article on the problems of various approaches to women's history Gerder Lernerstated that the true history of women is \"the history of their ongoing functioning in that57Geraldine Joncich Clifford, \"Home and School in 19th Century America: Some Personal-HistoryReports from the United States,\" History of Education Quarterly 18, 1(Spring 1978): 4-5. Italics in original.58Chad M. Gaffield, \"Back to School: Towards a New Agenda for the History of Education,\"Acadiensis 15, 2(Spring 1986): 182. Paper was originally presented at the Canadian Historical AssociationMeeting, Montreal, 1985. See also Chad Gaffield, \"Coherence and Chaos in Educational Historiography,\"Interchange 17, 2(Summer 1986): 112-121.59Chad Gaffield, Language, Schooling and Cultural Conflict: The Origins of the French LanguageControversy in Ontario (Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1987), 30. Alison Prentice hasexpressed similar concerns in her \"Introduction\" to a special issue on educational history of Ontario History78, 4(December 1986): 281-284.60Quantz, \"The Complex Visions of Female Teachersd,\" 440-441.25male-defined world, on their own terms.\" 61 Ruth Pierson and Alison Prentice contend thatthe tasks of the feminist historian are \"the simple retrieval of women from obscurity\" and to\"ferret out the ways in which women have participated but which traditional histories haveoverlooked.\" As such they argue for a history of women that gets at \"the actual experienceof women in the past.\" 62 But, as they also acknowledge, this is not an easy task for thehistorian. This is the case partly because much of the female experience has goneunrecorded. However, even when women in the past have been described and analysed ithas either focussed on what Natalie Zemon Davis has termed \"women worthies\" 63 or fromthe angle of vision of the men - fathers, husbands, brothers, employers - who have soughtto define, explain and influence women's lives. In this situation \"the activities of men andwomen are evaluated asymmetrically, women's activities being ignored, subsumed, ormeasured by the standards of male experience.\" 64 Carroll Smith-Rosenberg contends thatwe need to \"hear women's own words directly, not filtered through a male record. Malevoices have so often drowned out or denied women's words and perceptions that therediscovery of women's unique language must be our first priority - and our first defense,61 Gerder Lerner, \"Placing Women in History: Definitions and Challenges,\" Feminist Studies 3, 1-2(Fall 1975): 6. Italics in original. A revised version of this article is published in Liberating Women'sHistory: Theoretical and Critical Essays, ed. Berenice A. Carroll (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976),357-367. See also Gerder Lerner, \"New Approaches to the Study of Women in American History,\" Journal ofSocial History 3, 1(Fall 1969): 53-62, reprinted in Liberating Women's History, ed. Carroll, 349-356; andGerder Lerner, The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History (New York: Oxford University Press,1979).62Ruth Pierson and Alison Prentice, \"Feminism and the Writing and Teaching of History,\" inFeminism: From Pressure to Politics. eds. Angela R. Miles and Geraldine Finn (Montreal: Black RoseBooks, 1989), 168-169. Also published in Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal 7, 2(Spring 1982).63Natalie Zemon Davis, \"\"Women's History\" in Transition: The European Case,\" Feminist Studies3, 3-4(Spring-Summer 1976): 83.\"Geraldine Joncich Clifford, \"Man/Woman/Teacher: Gender, Family, and Career in AmericanEducational History,\" in American Teachers, ed. Warren, 294. See also Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo,\"Women, Culture and Society: A Theoretical Overview,\" in Women. Culture and Society eds. MichelleZimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 17-42, particularlypages 18-23.26as women scholars, against the undue influence of theories formed in ignorance ofwomen's experiences.\" 65Pierson and Prentice argue that, although much valuable work has been done inexamining and analyzing the prescriptive literature directed to women and also the variousmedical, legal, educational and religious documents which reflect prevailing attitudestowards women and their roles in the past, \"it must always be recognized that women'sactual behaviour did not necessarily coincide with such projected images andpronouncements.\" In their view the task of historians of women is \"to go beyond theprescription of and debate over roles wherever possible, in order to examine women'sactual behaviour and their lives through whatever sources are available.\" 66 In this way, awoman-centred history, as Eliane Leslau Silverman argues, \"makes women the subjects ofa new body of literature. They do not exist in it as the 'other' - subsidiary, auxiliary,objectified - but come to the centre stage of the historical experience.\" 67 But as VeronicaStrong-Boag and Anita Clair Fellman have pointed out:65Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, \"Hearing Women's Words: A Feminist Reconstruction of History,\"chapter in Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,Incorporated, 1985), 29. A strong feminist perspective is adopted in Canadian Women: A History, eds.Alison Prentice, Paula Bourne, Gail Cuthbert Brandt, Beth Light, Wendy Mitchinson and Naomi Black(Toronto: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Canada Incorporated, 1988). These six feminist writers are committedto \"increasing women's autonomy in a world where it has generally been less than men's.\" Their startingpoint is that it is essential to recognize that \"women's situation and experience are distinctive\" and as such\"should not be judged inferior by male standards or in comparison to men\" (14). See also No Easy Road: Women in Canada 1920s to 1960s, eds. Beth Light and Ruth Roach Pierson (Toronto: New Hogtown Press,1990). In the introduction to this documentary history of Canadian women Alison Prentice states in anutshell the sentiments held by many Canadian feminist historians: \"The ultimate goal is the creation of aCanadian women's history, one that speaks both to women about the sources of their present lives and toeveryone about history seen from women's point of view\" (11). In the same vein a comprehensive account ofthe lives of women in the past from the European perspective can be found in Bonnie S. Anderson and JudithP. Zinsser, A History of Their Own: Women in Europe From Prehistory to the Present, Volumes 1 and 2(New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1988).66Pierson and Prentice, \"Feminism,\" 169. See also Linda Gordon, \"What's New in Women'sHistory,\" in Feminist Studies: Critical Studies, ed. Teresa de Lauretis (Bloomington: Indiana UniversityPress, 1986), 20-30.67Eliane Leslau Silverman, \"Writing Canadian Women's History, 1970-1982: An HistoriographicalAnalysis,\" Canadian Historical Review 63, 4(December 1982): 533. Silverman adopts this perspective in herpowerful \"collective autobiography\" of the experiences of Western Canadian frontier women entitled The Last27[Much of female experience has gone unrecorded in easily recognizable oraccessible form. Of necessity historians of women have had to tap some previouslyunused, even uncollected, sources. A new sensitivity, often feminist in inspiration,to the frequency with which women's lives and beliefs have been interpreted forthem by men has led to a search for documents in which the historical subjectsthemselves describe their own experiences. 68Margaret Conrad contends that if we are to study what she describes as \"women'sculture\" then new approaches must be adopted. As she persuasively argues:In taking up the issue of women's culture we are addressing fundamental questionsof sources and methodology. We are shifting the focus of analysis from the worldof men to that of women. If public and published documents are few and macrostudies difficult, then we must investigate personal and private sources with greaterseriousness. If women's participation in politics is peripheral and labour forceactivity is muffled then we turn to local and family histories where women havefigured prominantly both as participants and as chroniclers. When approachinghistory from a woman's angle of vision the question becomes not \"Why did womennot protest their deliberate disenfranchisement in the era of responsiblegovernment,\" but \"What characterized the lives of middle-class British NorthAmerican women in the nineteenth century?\" Not \"Why are women marginalized inthe early trade union movement?\" but \"What are the essential features of working-class women's lives?\" Not \"Why have women been relegated to the private spherein industrial societies?\" but \"How has women's sphere been transformed by theemergence of industrial society?\" The answers to questions such as these will allowus to transcend the less ambitious queries and lay the foundation for a genuinehuman history. 69Best West: Women on the Alberta Frontier 1880-1930 (Montreal: Eden Press, 1984). See also AlisonPrentice, \"Writing Women into History: The History of Women's Work in Canada,\" Atlantis: A Women'sStudies Journal 3, 2(Spring 1978): 72-83.68Veronica Strong-Boag and Anita Clair Fellman, eds., Rethinking Canada: The Promise ofWomen's History (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Limited, 1986), 5. This point has also been made in theintroduction to an excellent new collection of articles on British Columbian women. See Gillian Creese andVeronica Strong-Boag, \"Introduction: Taking Gender into Account in British Columbia,\" in British Columbia Reconsidered: Essays on Women, eds. Creese and Strong-Boag (Vancouver: Press GangPublishers, 1992), 11.69Margaret Conrad, — Sundays Always Make Me Think of Home\": Time & Place in CanadianWomen's History,\" in Not Just Pin Money: Selected Essays on the History of Women's Work in British Columbia, eds. Barbara K. Latham and Roberta J. Pazdro (Victoria, British Columbia: Camosun College,1984), 4-5. Reprinted in Rethinking Canada, eds. Strong-Boag and Fellman, 67-81, particularly pages 69-70.See also Margaret Conrad, Recording Angels: The Private Chronicles of Women from the MaritimeProvinces of Canada. 1759-1950 (Ottawa: Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Women, 1982), revisedand reprinted in The Neglected Majority: Essays in Canadian Women's History Volume 2, eds. AlisonPrentice and Susan Mann Trofimenkoff (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1985), 41-60, and MargaretConrad, Toni Laidlaw and Donna Smith, No Place Like Home: Diaries and Letters of Nova Scotia Women 1771-1938 (Halifax, Nova Scotia: Formac Publishing Company Limited, 1988).28A number of historians have taken an alternative approach to questions concerningthe history of teachers and teaching and have employed more qualitative methodologies. Byexploring and analysing first-person accounts of teachers' lives in letters, diaries, personaljournals, memoirs and autobiographies, and also by way of oral testimony, historians havebeen able to examine the social context and the meaning of the information established bythe quantitative studies of teacher's lives. Clifford states that such documents \"providesubjective commentary on events, interpret experiences, perserve (sic) facts and expressfeelings according to some personal sense of what is meaningful, and they communicate anintense understanding of what one's own life is and has been.\" In this way such material\"presupposes reflection on an inner world of experience made conscious; it relatesexperienced reality\" (italics in original).\" Sociologist Arlene Tigar McLaren has arguedthat the \"discovery\" and \"acceptance within the discipline\" of these \"new\" historical sourceshas given women's history a \"vitality.\" 71Historians utilizing such sources have revealed the immense variety in women'sexperience in teaching. They have highlighted the fact that teaching was an extremelypersonal affair for those who chose to work in the occupation. A number of studies of bothAmerican and Canadian teachers have challenged many of the taken-for-granted notionsand assumptions concerning the stereotype of the female teacher as the victim of oppressionand have examined the ways in which some women, individually and collectively, usedteaching to further their own aspirations despite the oppressive conditions with which theyhad to contend. Indeed some historians have been able to document that teaching was, infact, a liberating experience for many women. Although published eighteen years ago thecomments of Carroll Smith-Rosenberg are particularly pertinent:70 Clifford, \"History as Experience,\" 186, 192.71 Arlene Tigar McLaren, \"Introduction,\" in Gender and Society: Creating a Canadian Women'sSociology, ed. McLaren (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Limited, 1988), 14.29The view of woman as victim presupposes a simplistic view of role determinism -the assumption that cultural norms expressed in the cult of domesticity produced asingle modal female personality....Women, as well as men, come in assortedpsychological shapes and sizes....Any study of women's personal papers willreveal that women responded to normative definitions of their role in a variety ofways. Indeed a spectrum of female behavior and personality ranging frombelligerent deviance to uncritical acceptance far more accurately reflects reality thanany hypothesis of one or a few modal personalities. 72Clifford has extracted from a large body of nineteenth and twentieth century writingon education those that deal with the experiences and consciousness of teachers and hasargued, in a number of important papers, that although there are ample examples of theblacker side of teaching there was also \"recompense for the arduous and often unfulfillingduties of the teacher.\" A teaching career, however brief, provided many young men andwomen with \"an opportunity for respectable paid employment, greater personal freedom, amodicum of independence and authority, and a larger world view.\"73 However, she alsoargues that women derived rewards from teaching that were unique to their gender. Manywomen became teachers because of the economic independence it gave them. The teachers'diaries and letters she read make it clear that \"women teachers wished to be neither afinancial burden nor otherwise indebted to anyone. They wished to pay their own way, togain initiative and advantage not likely to be experienced in their parents' home or as theunmarried 'auntie' in the homes of their brothers.\" 74 Their abilty to gain independencethrough self-support was deemed critical to the development of some sense of self in manywomen teachers and also enabled them to contribute to the finanancial well-being of theirfamilies. As Clifford explains:72Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, \"The New Woman and the New History,\" Feminist Studies 3, 1-2(Fall1975): 194.73 Clifford, \"History as Experience,\" 195-196. For a very brief discussion of some of these pointsas they relate to Canadian rural teachers, see J. Donald Wilson, \"\"I Am Here to Help You If You Need Me':British Columbia's Rural Teachers' Welfare Officer, 1928-1934,\" Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'etudescanadiennes 25, 2(Summer 1990): 97-98.74Geraldine J. Clifford, \"Lady Teachers' and Politics in the United States, 1850-1930,\" in Teachers: The Culture and Politics of Work, eds. Martin Lawn and Gerald Grace (London, England: The Falmer Press,1987), 10.30Teaching wages were low, but the ability to earn even a small wage, especially incash-poor rural and small town America where most of the population still lived,made young women, many girls in their teens, economically important to theirfamilies. The wages of teachers...might make the difference between keeping orlosing the farm in a bad year, between renting or buying a house, between sendinga brother to learn telegraphy in a proprietary school or to study natural philosophyin a college (italics in original). 75Teaching came to be regarded as a desirable transition stage for women between their ownschooling and the beginning of married life. 76 In fact, teaching permitted women to put offtemporarily, or even reject permanently, the act of losing their \"precious independence\" bymarriage which appeared to many women teachers to signify domestic servitude or socialuselessness. 77 By being able to choose when, and whether to marry, some womenteachers \"very likely retained a degree of power, egotism, and individualism within themarital relationship that was inconsistent with conventional expectations of marriage.\" 78Equally important to women was the fact that teaching enabled them to lead arespectable public life. To quote Clifford once again:To organize a school, deal with the community's leaders, put on ceremonies, andtravel about collecting the wages owed from cash-poor patrons was to take onmajor responsibility in a time when the public world was not yet considered theappropriate place for women. As teachers women exercised control over nonfamilymen and provided for themselves in the process, gaining self-confidence and higherexpectations of what they were owed in economic and professional terms. 7975 Ibid., 10-11.76David Mlmendinger, Jr., \"Mount Holyoke Students Encounter the Need for Life-Planning, 1837-1850,\" History of Education Ouarterly 19, 1(Spring 1979): 27-46. Veronica Strong-Boag has argued thatalthough marriage was both desired and expected by most Canadian women in the inter-war period, somewomen were able to postpone this inevitability by taking a teaching job. As she states: \"For many youngwomen who wished respectable employment and enjoyed children, teaching offered a prized opportunity forsome independence and challenge.\" See The New Day Recalled: Lives of Girls and Women in EnglishCanada. 1919-1939 (Markham, Ontario: Penguin Books, 1988), 63 and passim.77Clifford, \"'Lady Teachers',\" 12. See also Hoffman, Woman's \"True\" Profession, xviii.78Clifford, \"'Lady Teachers',\" 13. See also Polly Welts Kaufman, Women Teachers on the Frontier(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), 43.79Geraldine Joncich Clifford, \"Women's Liberation and Women's Professions: Reconsidering thePast, Present, and Future,\" in Women and Higher Education in American History: Essays from the MountHolyoke College Sesquicentennial Symposia, eds. John Mack Faragher and Florence Howe (New York:W.W. Norton and Company, 1988): 177.31Clifford further argues that through teaching women forged bonds with other women -students, mothers of students and women with whom they boarded, as well as other femaleteachers. This broadened their perspectives and created sentiments of sisterhood. Networksof support, grounded in the realities of the work of teaching, and shown in their closefriendships, their yearly meetings at institutes and summer courses, their help to each otherin finding schools in terms of job information and references, were the commonplaceexperience of many female teachers.\" The effect of such a situation was that these\"unremarkable and historically unremembered women teachers, most of whom eventuallymarried and settled into relatively conventional domestic lives, were a large, receptive andinfluential constituency for feminism.\" 81 Hence as Clifford makes patently clear in herwork, teaching provided some women with a measure of autonomy and control over theirlives and allowed them to develop a sense of independence and personal growth. 82Nancy Hoffman has also used autobiographical materials to study the lives offemale teachers who taught in schools on America's East Coast in the nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries, and her findings concur with much of Clifford's work as regards theliberating effect of teaching on women's lives. She reveals how the woman teacher's owndescriptions of her motivations for taking up teaching as an occupation diverged sharplyfrom the picture of the ideal woman teacher as the natural educator of the young whoregarded teaching as merely a stepping stone to marriage. She found that \"neither their love80 Clifford, \"History as Experience,\" 196; \"'Lady Teachers',\" 14-15. Wilson, on the other hand, inhis work on rural teachers in British Columbia in the 1920's, \"found little evidence of the existance of femalenetworks between the teacher and the women in the community\" and in fact \"friendship with married womenmay have been problematic.\" See Wilson, \"\"I Am Here to Help You If You Need Me, — 113.81 Clifford, \"'Lady Teachers',\" 22. Anne Firor Scott has argued for the importance of female teachertraining institutions in the development of feminist values of self-respect and self-support in the women whoattended them. See \"The Ever Widening Circle: The Diffusion of Feminist Values from the Troy FemaleSeminary 1822-1872,\" History of Education Quarterly 19, 1(Spring 1979): 3-25. Reprinted as a chapter inthe author's Making the Invisible Woman Visible (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984), 64-88.82See also Geraldine Joncich Clifford, Those Good Gertrudes: Women Teachers in America(forthcoming).32of children nor their attitude toward marriage\" dominated the comments of women teachersin their writings. Rather, women entered teaching \"because they needed work.\" Womenhad only a few choices of occupation and, compared with most, teaching offered manyattractions. She concludes that, from the teacher's perspective, \"the continuity betweenmothering and teaching was far less significant than a paycheck and the challenge andsatisfaction of work.\" 83Polly Welts Kaufman has painstakingly retraced the lives of single antebellumEastern pioneer women teachers who were sent to the American West by the NationalBoard of Popular Education from 1846 on two-year teaching contracts. Basing her accounton a diary, letters and a reminiscence of nine teachers, she emphasizes that these womenwere \"distinct individuals\" and notes the \"tremendous diversity among them and thedifferences in their perceptions and conditions.\" Kaufman draws attention to the variedmotivations that drew these women into teaching: \"As teachers the women felt a strong pullto bring education and Protestant evangelical religion to the West, and some possessed asense of adventure as well; as women they were pushed by a strong sense of personaleconomic need. \"84 But whatever reasons inspired each individual teacher to travel West theexperience proved to be a liberating one. As Kaufman contends:By using the teaching profession as their route to new lives, they achieved asignificant degree of autonomy. Because teaching was an acceptable profession forwomen, they were able to attain a higher level of self-sufficiency than practicallyany other group of women in their time, almost unnoticed. By acting to take controlof their lives, they exhibited an independence of spirit. 8583Hoffman, Woman's \"True\" Profession, xvii-xviii. See also Jo Anne Preston, \"Female Aspirationand Male Ideology: School-Teaching in Nineteenth-Century New England,\" in Current Issues in Women'sHistory, eds. Arina Angerman, Geerte Binnema, Annemieke Keunen, Vefie Poels and Jacqueline Zirkzee(London, England: Routledge, 1989), 171-182.84 Kaufman, Women Teachers on the Frontier, 13.85Ibid., 48. See also an earlier article by the author, \"A Wider Field of Usefulness: Pioneer WomenTeachers in the West, 1848-1854,\" Journal of the West 21, 2(April 1982): 16-25.33Historians have been able to document not only the liberating impact of teaching on womenteachers but also the ways in which some women, both American and Canadian, have beenable to transcend the structures and roles that were intended to maintain and promote theirinferior position in the workforce in particular, and society in general, by using teaching asa stepping stone to more powerful roles in politics and the professions. Indeed womenwere empowered by the competencies they gained in public school teaching. Theorganisational and managerial skills they acquired in running a nineteenth centuryschoolroom, more often than not entirely alone, inspired women with self confidence and astrong belief in their capabilities that encouraged many to move on and apply their talentselsewhere. Many women began their public lives in the schoolroom and later enlarged theiraudiences in other, more challenging areas. 86Clifford has argued for the importance of teaching in the lives of American womenwho chose to go into the political arena. By examining the role of women teachers inelectoral politics in twentieth century America she has demonstrated the possibilitiesavailable to women teachers to form a political agenda and play a role in matters of publicpolicy and government. She also speculates as to the role that former teachers might haveplayed in the political movement of organized feminism that helped to persuade publicopinion of the necessity of expanding women's rights and opportunities. 87 She argues thatsome women \"discovered themselves in the classroom\" and inspired by the \"injustice andmale arrogance\" they saw in teaching they became \"the readied soil to catch the seeds offeminism.\" 88 Why this was so is clearly explained by Clifford:86For a fascinating account of the teaching lives of two women who chose the \"scholarly life\" andcarved out careers in \"institutions of higher learning\" see Alison Prentice, \"Scholarly Passsion: Two PersonsWho Caught It,\" Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'education 1, 1(Spring 1989): 7-27.87Clifford, \"'Lady Teachers',\" passim.88Ibid., 16. Italics in original.34[I]n the process of pursuing the independent life of an unmarried school mistress,often far from home influences, a significant number of women teachers came todifferent conclusions than their mentors intended about woman's God-given natureand her proper place in society. It turns out that her personal odyssey also greatlyenlarged the pool of political activists who would agitate the 'woman question' untilfemale suffrage and the other goals of the 19th-century women's rights movementwere achieved. 89Similar examples of the impact of teaching on the course of women's careers can befound in the literature on the history of Canadian women. Veronica Strong-Boag hasexamined the diaries of nineteenth century Canadian doctor Elizabeth Smith and hasrevealed the important role that teaching played in the development of her career. Elizabethchose teaching because it provided her with economic independence, the means to pay forfurther study and her route into a more challenging profession in medicine. Success withschool teaching and the approval of trustees provided her with the self assurance that wouldbe essential in her medical career.\" The autobiography of Nellie L. McClung - prairiereformer, suffragette, parliamentarian, author, newspaperwoman and one of Canada'sleading feminists - makes clear the relevance of her teaching experience in the small ruralschools in Manitoba to her later career in more public arenas. 91 Likewise Agnes Macphail,the first woman to be elected to the house of Commons in Canada, also began her career asa teacher. In fact, until age eighteen the height of her ambition was to enter the profession.Her experience in the rural schools of Ontario and Alberta allowed her to fulfil her resolveof \"doing some work as a person.\" 92 It also brought her to the realization that perhaps there89Ibid., 4. See also Sarah King, \"Feminists in Teaching: The National Union of Women Teachers,1920-1945,\" in Teachers, eds. Lawn and Grace, 31-49. Reprinted in Women Who Taught, eds. Prentice andTheobald, 182-201.90Veronica Strong-Boag, ed., 'A Woman With a Purpose': The Diaries of Elizabeth Smith 1872-1884 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980).91 Nellie L. McClung, Clearing in the West: My Own Story (Toronto: Thomas Allen & SonLimited, 1965) and Nellie L. McClung The Stream Runs Fast: My Own Story (Toronto: Thomas Allen &Son Limited, 1965).92Margaret Stewart and Doris French, Ask No Quarter: A Biography of Agnes Macphail (Toronto:Longmans, Green and Company, 1959), 30, and passim. See also Doris French, \"Agnes Macphail 1890-1954,\" in The Clear Spirit: Twenty Canadian Women and Their Times, ed. Mary Quayle Innis (Toronto:35was more to life than country school teaching. Although she was proud and happy to be ateacher, when the time came she was ready for the next step. She was elected as M.P. forSouth-East Grey, Ontario, in 1921, a seat she held until 1940, first for the United Farmersof Ontario and the C.C.F. but mainly as an Independent. As the first woman M.P. inCanada she acted as an inspiration to other women.It is clear from the studies cited above that many women did not conform to thestereotype of the female who entered the occupation as described in much of theprescriptive literature of the nineteenth century. However two important points need to bemade here. First of all, it has been recognized that the powerful images projected by suchstereotypes \"possess power in their own right.\" 93 As cultural constructions stereotypes aregrounded in what is perceived to be reality and as such they influence the self-concept ofthe teachers themselves. Secondly, any evaluation of the work commitment of women mustconsider women's own perceptions of the place of work, and in this case teaching, in theirlives. Following on from this the necessity of acknowledging the importance of familialcommitments is deemed critical to any understanding of the meaning of teaching as work towomen within the wider context of the rest of their lives. Indeed such concerns must beplaced at the centre of any inquiry into the nature of women's participation in theworkforce.\" A number of studies, drawn mainly from historical research on Americanteachers, have begun to address some of these issues.Richard Quantz has used oral testimony \"to discover the cultural definitions ofparticipants in an historical situation.\" Specifically, he examines the failure of unions toorganize female teachers in Hamilton, Ohio in the 1930's. Four metaphors of theUniversity of Toronto Press for the Canadian Federation of University Women, 1966), 179-197. For a morerecent biography see Terry Crowley, Agnes Macphail and the Politics of Equality (Toronto: James Lorimer &Company, Publishers, 1990).93 Clifford, \"Man/Woman/Teacher,\" 311. The dual themes of \"domesticity and familism\" emerge inthis analysis of gender and schoolteaching. Clifford examines the gender-laden stereotypes of teachers andattempts to uncover the meaning of teaching as stages in the lives of men as well as women.94Ibid., 329.36subordinate authority figure, the school as family, the natural female avocation and the dualself emerged from the stories of the teachers as they were asked to define the world inwhich they worked and lived. The failure of unions to organize women teachers wasinevitable, Quantz argues, given the commonly accepted reality the women had concerningtheir place in the workforce and in the larger context of society as a whole. He argues thatin using the four metaphors as \"guidelines for their lives and their jobs\" the womenteachers in Hamilton \"may have participated in their own powerlessness and been part ofbroader social movements, while merely acting within their own subjective worlds.\" 95Kathleen Weiler has suggested that the position of women in teaching was a\"contradictory\" one. From her work based on first person accounts of the women whotaught in the rural schools of Tulare County, California in the period 1860-1900, shecontends:Rather than viewing teaching as either a means of social control and thereproduction of the ideology of women's subordinate place in an expandeddomestic sphere ar viewing teaching as a path to personal autonomy and resistanceto the dominant ideology, I suggest that it contained both possibilities. 96By examining the individual lives of women teachers Weiler has revealed the manypossibilities that existed for women in teaching within the material constraints andideological constructs of what it meant to be a female teacher in the nineteenth century. Sheargues that women used teaching primarily to meet their own personal needs and desires.Teaching enabled women to find a way of being in the world that not only met societalexpectations of what it meant to be a woman, but also allowed for more subversivechallenges to that defmition.95Quantz, \"The Complex Visions of Female Teachers,\" 457.96Kathleen Weiler, \"Rural, Liberty, and Hope: Women Teachers in Country Schools in California1860-1900,\" paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference, San Francisco,27 March, 1989, ms. 23. Emphasis in original.37Utilizing a life-course approach, Kathleen Underwood has examined the lives of theyoung women who graduated from the Colorado State Normal School in the first decadefollowing its founding in 1890. Her findings are mainly based on an analysis of thecorrespondence between these women and the editor of the \"Alumni News\" column in thestudent newspaper, the Crucible. Underwood argues that the advantages teaching providedfor young women in terms of economic independence and social status outweighed thedisadvantages of low pay and sexual segregation in the occupation and allowed the youngwoman teacher in the West the chance to \"direct the pace of her life.\" She concludes,however, that teaching did not \"revolutionize\" women's lives but rather \"the decisions theymade frequently were shaped by the social and familial context within which they lived.\"Thus, she argues, the study of teachers \"provides a view of women who tried to integratenew opportunities for education and career within the traditional and more familiar lifepattern of the nineteenth century.\" 97Courtney Ann Vaughn-Roberson has used the writings and oral statements ofOklahoma women educators who taught between 1900 and 1950 to try and determine theattitudes of these women to their place in the profession and found their statements to besomewhat paradoxical. As she explains:For many of the state's females...the teaching profession provided an opportunityto influence the world outside their immediate family environments. Although theyworked within the confines of the domestic image, they still won victories(sometimes unconsciously) for female social equality. Some remained single tokeep their jobs, nearly all struggled independently and collectively for fair treatmenton the job, and most promoted female leadership in the schools....At the same time,however, most retained their prejudices against women entering the workforce in acapacity other than teaching....Thus the Oklahoma women educators' struggle forindependence and individuality was accompanied by continual adherence to theideology of domesticity. They sought to preserve the female domestic sphere whilealso struggling for equal opportunity for the professional woman educator. 9897Kathleen Underwood, \"The Pace of Their Own Lives: Teacher Training and the Life Course ofWestern Women,\" Pacific Historical Review 55, 4(November 1986): 530.98Courtney Ann Vaughn-Roberson, \"Sometimes Independent But Never Equal--Women Teachers,1900-1950: The Oklahoma Example,\" Pacific Historical Review 53, 1(February 1984): 57-58. See also the38In a similar vein, Margaret K. Nelson contends that whilst teaching \"enhanced women'sroles, it did not fundamentally alter them.\" 99 Her research on nineteenth century Vermontteachers (both male and female) lead her to conclude:Most women did not gain autonomy by teaching. The employment did not freethem from the immeadiate context of a family's authority, nor did it free them fromthe broader context of a patriarchal society....Common schoolteachers joined thelabor force without ever leaving home.\" 1 °°As more studies are published on the nature and meaning of women's participationin the teaching profession, especially those that focus on the personal lives of womenteachers in different localities, as expressed in their diaries, letters, autobiographies and oralstatements, the immense variety in the experience of the female teacher in the past isbecoming increasingly apparent. Indeed, as more studies of teachers are conducted a farmore complex picture is revealed which demonstrates the importance of questioning manyof the assumptions that have been generated about the experience of teachers that rely ongeneralizations rather than specific cases of the actual lived experiences of individuals.In addition to the aforementioned need to study the lives of teachers from a personaland local perspective, it is equally relevant to examine teachers in rural settings. Such afocus is in keeping with the increasing recognition that rural society needs to be examinedin its own right and not just as the passive recipient of changes that were initiated in urbancentres. Rural society was neither \"passive\" nor \"homogenous.\" Rather, historians havebeen able to document \"dynamic historical processes\" at work independent of anymetropolitan forces. Indeed, rural life was the main feature of social formation for themajority of the Canadian population until the early decades of the twentieth century and asauthors \"Having a Purpose in Life: Western Women Teachers in the Twentieth Century,\" Great PlainsOuarterly 5, 2(Spring 1985): 107-124.99Margaret K. Nelson, \"Vermont Female Schoolteachers in the Nineteenth Century,\" VermontHistory 49, 1(Winter 1981): 28.'°°Ibid., 27-28.39such must be accorded equal importance with urban society. 101 The study of the teacherswho taught in rural areas is obviously central to such an agenda. During this period theone-room school operated as the predominant educational structure across rural Canada.Rural schools were an integral part of the rural landscape. Small rural schools stoodeverywhere. This thesis offers a look at the dynamics of rural schooling, and indirectlyrural society, in the form of a case study that explores the complexities of teaching as workas determined by the self-perceptions and expectations of teachers in the small rural schoolsof the Okanagan Valley in the Southern Interior of British Columbia in the 1920's.I will now turn to the literature that relates directly to the specific research topic ofthis thesis. The educational history of rural British Columbia has been, until recently, amuch neglected area of academic investigation. This is especially true of the period from1920 to 1930. However, rural society was the experience of a large percentage of BritishColumbians in this decade. In 1921, the majority of the residents of British Columbia livedin rural areas, 102 and 806 (85.2%) of the total number of 946 schools in the province were101 Chad Gaffield and Gerard Bouchard, \"Literacy, Schooling, and Family Reproduction in RuralOntario and Quebec,\" Historical Studies in Education/Revue d'histoire de l'education 1, 2(Fall 1989): 201-202. See also Robert P. Swierenga, \"The New Rural History: Defining the Parameters,\" Great PlainsQuarterly 1, 4(Fall 1981): 211-223 and articles in Canadian Papers in Rural History, Volumes 1-8, ed.Donald H. Akenson (Gananoque, Ontario: Langdale Press, 1978-1992). Examples of in-depth Canadian ruralhistories include W.H. Graham, Greenbank: Country Matters in 19th Century Ontario (Peterborough,Ontario: Broadview Press, 1988); Paul Voisey, Vulcan: The Making of a Prairie Community (Toronto:University of Toronto Press, 1988); Gaffield, Language, Schooling, and Cultural Conflict ., David C. Jones,Empire of Dust: Settling and Abandoning the Prairie Dry Belt (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press,1987); David C. Jones ed., We'll All Be Buried Down Here: The Prairie Dryland Disaster, 1917-1926(Calgary: Alberta Records Publications Board, Historical Society of Alberta, 1986); David C. Jones and IanMcPherson, eds., Building Beyond the Homestead: Rural History on the Prairies (Calgary: University ofCalgary Press, 1985); Allan Greer, Peasant. Lord. and Merchant: Rural Society in Three Ouebec Parishes1740-1840 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985); Donald Harman Akenson, The Irish in Ontario: AStudy in Rural History (Kingston, Ontario: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1984) and David Gagan,Hopeful Travellers: Families, Land, and Social Change in Mid-Victorian Peel County, Canada West(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981). For a review essay which discusses \"some of the mostsophisticated Canadian books in rural history of the last five years,\" see Catharine Anne Wilson,\"\"Outstanding in the Field\": Recent Rural History in Canada,\" Acadiensis 20, 2(Spring 1991): 177-190.102Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Seventh Census of Canada, 1931, I (Ottawa: 1936), 364-369.40situated in the hinterland far away from the urban centres. 103 In 1925, 47 291 (48.3%) ofthe total enrolment of 97 954 pupils in British Columbia attended rural schools, and of the3 115 teachers employed in the province 1812 (58.2%) were employed in rural districts. 104Thus, a study of the rural schools of British Columbia in the 1920's is appropriate. Muchof the literature approaches the subject from the general perspective of the development,implementation and impact of educational policy for rural British Columbia. 105 Materialdocumenting the rural school from the perspective of how these rural institutionsfunctioned at the local level is sparse and restricted mainly to anecdotal works. 106However, the recent work of J. Donald Wilson and Paul J. Stortz has begun to fill this gapin rural educational historiography. Of central concern to their work are those whoparticipated in rural schooling: the pupils, the local community, the school inspectors andparticularly the teachers. In their joint article, \"May the Lord Have Mercy on You\": TheRural School Problem in British Columbia in the 1920's,\" they provide a general overviewof the one-room school in British Columbia emphasizing how such factors as local103 British Columbia, Annual Report of the Public Schools thereafter AR), 1921, F9. Thoseschools in \"Rural Municipalities\" as well as those designated as \"Rural\" and \"Assisted\" schools are includedin the calculations.104AR, 1925, M9.105 See John Calam, \"Teaching the Teachers,\"; David C. Jones, \"\"We Cannot Allow it to be Runby Those Who do not Understand Education\" - Agricultural Schooling in the Twenties,\" BC Studies39(Autumn 1978): 30-60; David C. Jones, \"\"The Little Mound of Earth\" - The Fate of School Agriculture,\"The Curriculum in Canada in Historical Perspective, Canadian Society for the Study of Education Yearbook(1979): 85-94; David C. Jones, \"Creating Rural-Minded Teachers: The British Columbian Experience, 1914-1924,\" in Shaping the Schools of the Canadian West, eds. David C. Jones, Nancy M. Sheehan, and RobertM. Stamp (Calgary: Detselig, 1979), 155-176; David C. Jones, \"The Strategy of Rural Enlightenment:Consolidation in Chilliwack, B.C., 1919-1920,\" in Shaping the Schools eds. Jones, Sheehan, and Stamp,136-151; David C. Jones, \"The Zeitgeist of Western Settlement: Education and the Myth of the Land,\" inSchooling and Society, eds. Wilson and Jones, 71-89 Most of Jones' work is based on his doctoraldissertation. See David Charles Jones, \"Agriculture, The Land, and Education: British Columbia, 1914-1929,\" (Ed.D. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1978).106 See Jean Cochrane, The One-Room School in Canada ([Toronto]: Fitzhenry and WhitesideLimited, 1981), passim, and Joan Adams and Becky Thomas Floating Schools and Frozen Inkwells: TheOne-Room Schools of British Columbia ([Madeira Park, British Columbia]: Harbour Publishing CompanyLimited, 1985).41economic activity, community settlement patterns and local politics affected the pedagogicaland physical conditions of the schools and in turn determined the conditions in which theteacher lived and worked. 107 The theme of examining the interplay between intentions andconsequences, the gap between what was intended and what actually happened, runsthroughout their work especially in their discussion of the various solutions proposed bythe Department of Education to the problems of the financially and pedagogically inefficientone-room schools. They reveal how the administrators in Victoria had little idea of thehardship and frustrations experienced by teachers in isolated areas. They also speculate asto why these harsh conditions continued and why the Education Department, convincedthat rural schooling was improving year by year and that they were actually creating \"rural-minded\" teachers, failed to understand the roots of the rural school problem. Wilson hasalso examined two other aspects, again from the perspective of the teacher, of rural schoolsin British Columbia in the 1920's: the ethnic diversity with which teachers in rural schoolshad to contend, 108 and an in-depth study of Lottie Bowron, the Rural Teachers' WelfareOfficer who was appointed in 1929 to provide pastoral care for the female teacher in BritishColumbia's isolated one-room schools.\"Stortz's M.A. thesis, \"The Rural School Problem in British Columbia in the 1920s\"deals with the one-room schools in two broad sections. Part One discusses conditions inschools before and after the major provincial survey for educational reform, the Putman-Weir Report of 1925, and covers much of the ground discussed in the aforementioned107Wilson and Stortz, BC Studies 79(Autumn 1988): 24-58.108J. Donald Wilson, \"The Visions of Ordinary Participants: Teachers' Views of Rural Schooling inBritish Columbia in the 1920s,\" in A History of British Columbia: Selected Readings, ed. Patricia E. Roy(Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman, 1989), 239-255.109Wilson, \"\"I Am Here to Help You If You Need Me\",\" 94-118. Two other, abridged, versions ofthis article have also been published. See Wilson, \"\"I Am Ready To Be of Assistance When I Can\": LottieBowron and Rural Women Teachers in British Columbia,\" in Women Who Taught, eds. Prentice andTheobald, 202-229, and Wilson, \"Lottie Bowron and Rural Women Teachers in British Columbia, 1928-1934,\" in British Columbia Reconsidered, eds. Creese and Strong-Boag, 340-363.42work co-written with Wilson concerning the effect of educational reform on the actualconduct of classrooms. Part Two offers a closer look at the one-room school by way of acase study of a specific region in the Northern Interior of British Columbia. Stortz studiedthe schools which existed in the years from 1915-1930 between Terrace and Vanderhoofalong the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and concluded that, from the establishment of thefirst school in 1906 to the proliferation of the one-room schools throughout the district inthe 1920's, \"school conditions were similar to those found in the province as a whole.\" 110However, the question must be asked as to whether it was the geographical, climatic andeconomic circumstances of the North Central Interior region of the province that caused thesevere problems he documents as regards education, or whether similar problems occurredin other regions where one-room schools proliferated in the 1920's. The co-authored workof Wilson and Stortz would suggest that is the case. But did they overemphasize suchenvironmental and economic factors as the independent variables in their study? Did theygive fair consideration to the role of individual motivation in teachers' lives as opposed toportraying the female teacher merely as the victim of a particular situation? Was their rathernegative interpretation of teacher experience in rural schools the result of the kinds ofsources they employed? Questions such as these indicate the need for further case studies,such as the one presented here, to compare local conditions and rural schooling in differentregions of the province in order to uncover the effect of rural circumstances on schools andteacher experience.110Paul James Stortz, \"The Rural School Problem in British Columbia in the 1920s (M.A. thesis,University of British Columbia, 1988), 121. See also Paul J. Stortz and J. Donald Wilson, \"Education on theFrontier: Schools, Teachers and Community Influence in North-Central British Columbia,\" Histoiresociale/Social History (forthcoming, 1993). This article is based in large part on Stortz's case study of theBulkley and Nechako Valleys that comprises Part Two of his M.A. thesis.43CHAPTER TWOMETHODOLOGYThis study is an attempt to understand a particular educational setting in the pastthrough the experience of a number of participants within that setting. Specifically, it isconcerned with the identification and examination of the nature and meaning of teaching aswork, and the role that teaching played in the lives of some of those who taught in the ruralschools of the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia in the 1920's. The study thereforerequires a research methodology that will elicit the attitudes, perceptions and feelings heldby individual teachers about their life and work experiences in the past, and that will alsoprovide a sense of how this group of people constructed meaning in their lives. Aqualitative research approach, orientated towards people's subjective experience andcommitted to the quest for meaning rather than objective truth, was deemed the mostappropriate methodological perspective. The purposes of this chapter are three-fold: toprovide an overview of the qualitative research paradigm and a brief discussion of thespecific methodology adopted; to describe in detail the precise procedures used in thesample selection, data collection, analysis and representation; and to offer suggestions as tothe benefits and limitations generated by these choices.Prior to detailing specific research procedures it is important to consider the generalmethodological framework within which these strategies are located, in order to acquaintthe reader with the rationale for particular methodological decisions. Two major theoreticalperspectives have dominated the study of social phemomena. The first, positivism,examines relationships among phenomena with little regard for the subjective states ofindividuals. Most history has traditionally been written from this perspective. The secondperspective, often referred to as the phenomenological or naturalistic approach, is44concerned with understanding human behaviour from the subject's own point of view.'Phenomenology or naturalistic inquiry is most commonly carried out using qualitativeresearch techniques. Fundamental to this approach is the belief that meanings of actions aresocially constructed and that to fully comprehend human behaviour it is essential toconsider it at the level of abstraction and complexity experienced by the subjectsthemselves. In short, the essence of naturalistic inquiry is to understand how the subjectsof the research make sense out of their worlds through their own frame of reference: \"theirmeanings, perspectives, and definitions; how they view, categorize, and experience theworld\" 2Consistent with the aim of understanding social phenomena from the subjects'perspective, methods of data collection and analysis in naturalistic inquiry are humanistic,holistic, inductive and eclectic. The human encounter lies at the heart of the method. Theresearcher attempts to immerse her/himself in the subjects' ways of seeing and knowing inorder to view the experience of the subjects through their eyes. The researcher looks atsettings and people holistically by attempting to maintain a focus on the entire context ofpeoples' past and present lives. Subjects are encouraged to reveal the totality of their lifeexperiences. This approach enables the researcher to gain a more complete understandingand appreciation of the individual subjects' experiences, and their perceptions of thepsychological, social, economic, political and physical realities which impinge, orimpinged, upon their lives. It also helps to avoid the distortion of selecting aspects of thesubjects' experiences which appear to be relatively important to the researcher but may notbe the most important to the subjects. In this way researchers are, for the most part, not as1 These include ethnography, ethnomethodology, phenomenology, symbolic interactionism, fieldresearch, case study research, oral history etc. While these terms are not synonymous, the variousmethodological and theoretical frameworks share some common underlying assumptions, objectives, methodsof data collection and analysis. For a useful introduction to the theory and practice of qualitative research seeSteven J. Taylor and Robert Bogdan, Introduction to Oualitative Research Methods: The Search ForMeanings 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1984).2lbid., 88. Italics in original.45concerned with the literal truth of the statements that subjects use to describe their lives aswith their version of reality. Researchers seek to construct descriptions of peoples' liveswithin the varied contexts and to generate from these descriptions the complexinterrelationships that affect human behaviour toward the particular phenomena beingstudied.Within such a general and holistic framework naturalistic research does not usuallyproceed from well developed a priori hypotheses or strictly defined research questions.Rather the objective is to let a picture emerge from the data as the research progresses. Inthis way the research is inductive. Insights and theories are generated from the observationsof subjects' words and actions rather than from any preconceived structured operationaldefinitions. Subject constructs provide first-hand sensory accounts of the phenomena understudy as well as determining the direction in which the research proceeds. The researcherreconstructs the categories that subjects use to conceptualize their own experiences andworld view.Data collection and analysis procedures in naturalistic research are reciprocal andongoing, rather than separate and distinct, phases in the research process. The majorstrength of this type of approach lies in the depth of understanding which is permitted ofsubjects' experiences and perceptions. However, the approach also allows for a good dealof flexibility. Data analysis is a dynamic and creative process in which the researcher iscontinually modifying and refining interpretations as data collection progresses. It is theresearcher's task to use the words and actions of subjects to describe, as accurately aspossible, key facets of the subjects' experiences, illustrate how they interpret thoseexperiences and show how they structure the social world in which they live. However,researchers are compelled to go beyond what subjects have said to search out a frameworkwhich facilitates a meaningful interpretation of their words. The researcher endeavours tounderstand the meanings inherent in subjects' words and then to state as explicitly as46possible what that understanding demonstrates about the society in which the subjects'lives are, or were, embedded.Analysis usually begins with a systematic sorting of the material according tospecific content-related categories which appear to be dominant in the data. Once the dataare sorted into groups they are examined for themes or patterns which are then used to forma framework for understanding the phenomena under study. When analysis is complete thestudy is written up. Subjects' quotations are used extensively to illustrate key points and topermit the reader to substantiate the inferences drawn by the researcher in the developmentof a theoretical framework. The emphasis throughout the process is on grounding allassertions in empirical data in order to ensure that the reconstruction of the subjects' livesrepresented in the text, and the theories used to describe those lives, are congruent with themeanings the subjects construct in their everyday realities. In short, a close fit between thegeneration of theory and the subjects' own words and actions is essential.It is clear that analysis of data is a highly interpretive process. The distinctivefeature of naturalistic methods, regardless of the means of data collection, is that theresearcher is the primary research instrument. Fieldwork involves a complex interactionbetween the researcher and her/his subjects and is constructed in a process of reciprocity.The development of a relationship with the subjects is essential to the collection of richdescriptive data. As such the researcher's own subjectivity will obviously influence theinterpretation of the data collected. Recognizing that there can be no positionless or value-free study of human beings, and that researchers cannot eliminate their effects on the peoplethey study, naturalistic researchers attempt to identify their individual assumptions, biasesand predispositions in their work. For this reason they often regard their influences on thedata not only as an integral part of the research process, but of the finished written productas well. Therefore a detailed discussion of the effects of the researcher on the data is oftenincorporated into qualitative studies.47A second concern that confronts naturalistic researchers is the generalizability andvalidity of their findings. As the collection and analysis of data are generally labourintensive and expensive, in terms of time as well as money, sample sizes are often small.This approach facilitates the study of selected issues in depth and detail. As well, samplesare rarely selected in such a way as to be considered representive of larger populations.Consequently findings cannot be directly generalized to individuals or groups outside theimmediate sample. This is not to say that researchers are unconcerned about the accuracy oftheir studies. The use of multiple sources of evidence helps to enhance the accuracy ofqualitative studies. In addition to in-depth interviewing and participant observation - themainstays of naturalistic research methods - researchers make use of archival records,personal documents such as diaries, newspaper reports, court transcripts, agency records,government reports and documents, photographs and other physical artefacts, andquestionnaires and surveys as sources of evidence in their work. Such eclectic datacollection procedures, along with systematic triangulation 3 allow for a clearer, deeper andmore accurate understanding of the settings and subjects being studied, thus helping toensure the construct validity of qualitative studies.4The specific approach adopted in this study is historical ethnography in which oralinterviews are used as the primary method of data collection. 5 The essence of ethnographicresearch is summed up in James P. Spradley's definition of the discipline:The essential core of ethnography is...concern with the meaning of actions andevents to the people we seek to understand. Some of these meanings are directly3Triangulation is qualitative cross-validation and entails comparison of information from differentdata sources and/or data collection methods to determine whether or not there is corroboration.4For an example of the ways in which a quantitative approach can be used to cross-check the validityof oral history interviews, see Rebecca Sharpless, \"The Numbers Game: Oral History Compared withQuantitative Methodology,\" International Journal of Oral History 7, 2(June 1986): 93-108.5For a discussion of some of the methodological issues involved in using historical ethnography asapplied to the history of childhood, see Jean Barman, \"Constructing the Historical Ethnography of ChildhoodThrough Oral History,\" paper presented to the American Educational Research Association Conference, SanFrancisco, March 27, 1989. Also available through ERIC on microfiche.48expressed in language; many are taken for granted and communicated onlyindirectly through word and action. But in every society people make constant useof these complex meaning systems to organize their behavior, to understandthemselves and others, and to make sense out of the world in which they live.These systems of meaning constitute their culture; ethnography always implies atheory of culture. 6This case study7 of the culture of rural school teachers takes into consideration thehistorical setting in which that culture was located, and therefore examines the culture in thecontext of its own time and place. Ethnographic oral history techniques incorporate theconcept of chronology, \"the basic methodological assumption which underlies the practiceof all historians,\" 8 into one of the primary research methods of ethnography, namely, oralinterviewing. 9 This approach was considered the most appropriate for the retrieval andrepresentation of the experience of rural school teachers in the 1920's. 10 The approach6James P. Spradley, Participant Observation (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980), 5.7For a convenient summary of the literature on case study research in educational settings, seeSharan Merriam, 'The Case study in Educational Research: A Review of Selected Literature,\" Journal ofEducational Thought 19, 3(December 1985): 204-217.8Bernard S. Cohn, \"Anthropology and History in the 1980s: Towards a Rapprochement,\" Journal ofInterdisciplinary History 12, 2(Autumn 1981): 228.9 For a brief discussion of the history of the relationship between history and ethnography, seeFrancois Furet, In the Workshop of History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 68-74. A specialissue of Oral History Review , 15, 1(Spring 1987) entitled \"Fieldwork in Oral History\" addressed the ways inwhich oral historians and ethnographers can profitably exchange ideas, concepts and methods in their work.See especially Micaela Di Leonardo, \"Oral History as Ethnographic Encounter,\" 1-20, and Fern Ingersoll andJasper Ingersoll, \"Both a Borrower and a Lender Be: Ethnography, Oral History, and Grounded Theory,\" 81-102.10The methodological literature on ethnography, oral history, case study research and qualitativemethods in educational research in general is vast. Most useful for this thesis are the research traditions asdiscussed in Robert C. Bogdan and Sari Knopp Biklen, Oualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods, 2nd. ed. (Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon, Incorporated, 1992); Robert K.Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, rev. ed. (Newbury Park, California: Sage PublicationsIncorporated, 1989); Danny L. Jorgensen, Participant Observation: A Methodology for Human Studies (Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications Incorpoprated, 1989); John Van Maanen Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988); Paul Thompson, The Voice of thePast: Oral History, 2nd ed. (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1988); Trevor Lummis, Listening to History: The Authenticity of Oral Evidence (London, England: Hutchinson Education, 1987); Ronald J.Grele, with Studs Terkel, Jan Vansina, Dennis Tedlock, Saul Benison and Alice Kessler-Harris, Envelopes ofSound: The Art of Oral History 2nd ed. rev. and enl. (Chicago: Precedent Publishing Incorporated, 1985);Judith Preissle Goetz and Margaret Diane LeCompte, Ethnography and Qualitative Design in EducationalResearch (Orlando, Florida: Academic Press, 1984); Martyn Hammersley and Paul Atkinson, Ethnography: 49integrates elements from both ethnography and history and blends the strengths of each toachieve a distinctive style that is strong on narrative, analysis and chronology but is alsosensitive to the importance of striving for impartiality and the need to provide nuancedaccounts of peoples' lives that reveal the variety of personal meanings and perceptions ofindividual experience. 11Evidence for the thesis was obtained from multiple data sources. I began myresearch by examining the relevant official printed and manuscript documents. The Annual Reports of the Department of Education, officially known as the \"Annual Report of thePublic Schools of the Province of British Columbia,\" were consulted for the fifty-six yearsfrom 1874, when the first school was established in the Okanagan Valley, up until 1930. 12In addition to the Superintendent of Education's general overview of the development ofpublic education in British Columbia, the reports contain brief summaries by individualinspectors of the state of affairs in each inspectorate throughout the province. Theirassessments are mainly positive and encouraging descriptions of what they considered wasPrinciples in Practice (London: Tavistock Publications, 1983); Spradley, Participant Observation; James P.Spradley, The Ethnographic Interview (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979). Two other classicworks on qualitative research have informed the approach taken in this thesis: Barney G. Glaser and Anse1mL. Strauss, The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research (Chicago: AldinePublishing Company, 1967), and Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology (Chicago:Aldine Publishing Company, 1965).11 John Van Maanen has drawn attention to the recent growth and popularity of what he terms\"adjectival ethnography,\" that is, ethnographic studies that are being conducted outside of its traditionaldiscipline in fields such as education, law, medicine and policy studies. See Tales of the Field, 23 and 41,footnote 15. See also Patricia Adler and Peter Adler, \"The Past and Future of Ethnography,\" Journal ofContemporary Ethnography 16, l(April 1987): 4-24. However, Harry F. Wolcott argues for the need todistinguish between \"anthropologically informed researchers who do ethnography and educational researcherswho frequently draw upon ethnographic approaches in doing descriptive studies\" (italics in original). See\"Ethnographic Research in Education,\" in Complementary Methods for Research in Education s ed. RichardM. Jaeger (Washington, D.C.: American Educational Research Association, 1988), 202. I place myself in thelatter category. Although I have drawn on ethnographic techniques in the course of my research, this thesis isprimarily a historical, not an ethnographic work. The intention, rather, is to bring an ethnographicperspective to historical study. For this reason most of the methodological issues raised in this chapter arediscussed with reference to the literature of oral history although material in other disciplines has also beencited when considered appropriate to illustrate a particular point.12Multiple copies of the AR are located at the Main Library, University of British Columbia, at thePublic Archives of British Columbia in Victoria (hereafter P.A.B.C.), and at Robarts Library, University ofToronto. Inspectors' reports for each district are not included in the AR after 1929.50good and/or bad, right and/or wrong in their respective domains. The Annual Reports alsocontain a wealth of statistical details which are useful for charting, year by year, the growthof schools in the study area. Included in the statistical tables are details on types of schoolsestablished; names of schools and teachers; teacher sex, teaching qualifications and salary;pupil enrolment and attendance; and the operating budget of each school.The inspectors' individual school reports were also consulted. 13 They allow acloser look at how each school functioned at the local level. For the majority of cases theschools were inspected twice a year and as a result approximately 1 000 of these reportswere consulted for the Okanagan Valley for the period 1920 to 1930. These documentscontain evaluations of the pedagogical and administrative competence of individual teachersand suggestions as to how their classroom practices could be improved; pupil enrolment,attendance and academic progress; and the availability and physical condition of schoolbuildings, grounds and equipment. Other, more personal, aspects of rural teaching arerarely mentioned. John Calam's comments on the style of such inspectors' reports areparticularly pertinent for the schools of the Okanagan Valley. In the context of the Putnamand Weir survey of 1925 14 he refers to the \"bland, colourless prose\" of the inspectors'reports that gave the impression of a situation that was \"perpetually 'satisfactory.\" 115 Takentogether, the Annual Reports and the inspectors' individual school reports provide the13 Copies of the inspectors' individual reports had to be made available to the teacher, the localschool board for whom s/he worked, and the Department of Education in Victoria. See British Columbia,Office of the Provincial Secretary, Revised Statutes of British Columbia, 1924, 3, Chapter 226, Section 7.These reports are available on reels of microfilm in the P.A.B.C. (GR 122). They are filed chronologicallyunder various categories: \"Elementary Schools,\" \"High Schools,\" \"Superior Schools,\" etc. Within thesecategories the reports are arranged alphabetically by name of school. Consult the Department of EducationFinding Aid at the P.A.B.C. The inspectors for the Okanagan Valley between 1920 and 1930 were A.R.Lord, J.R. Hall, A.E. Miller, A.F. Mattheson and J.B. Delong.14This was the major provincial administrative critique of British Columbia's educational system inthe 1920's which laid down details for administrative reform. See J.H. Putnam and G.M. Weir, Survey of theSchool System (Victoria, British Columbia: King's Printer, 1925).15John Calam, ed., Alex Lord's British Columbia: Recollections of a Rural School Inspector.1915-1936 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1991), 17-18.51official view of teacher experience and professional development in the rural schools ofBritish Columbia.The reports of Lottie Bowron, the Rural Teachers' Welfare Officer, offer a moreintimate account of teaching conditions and teacher impressions of rural schools andcommunity. 16 Bowron commenced her job in 1929, the mandate of which was \"to visitthe rural districts of the Province where the living and social conditions under which youngfemale teachers are working are not found to be satisfactory.\" 17 In contrast to the strictlyadministrative and pedagogical concerns of the inspectors, Bowron's responsibility layexpressly with the social and personal aspects of female rural teachers' lives. She dealt withissues such as living arrangements, social life, and teacher-community relations, andattempted to find solutions to any problems that arose in these areas. In short, her functionwas to act as a \"good friend and counsellor\" to female rural school teachers, andspecifically those who were experiencing difficulties. 18 Bowron wrote approximately 250reports each year, some of which reveal in graphic details the trying conditions facingyoung female teachers in the isolated schools of British Columbia. However she does notappear to have visited many of the the rural schools in the Okanagan Valley. In fact onlyeighteen reports were available to be consulted for the years 1929 and 1930. In addition herremarks in these reports are brief and often the perfunctory \"satisfactory.\" Her lack ofcomments on the schools in the Okanagan Valley provides indirect evidence that theseschools were perhaps not \"problem schools.\"16Miss Bowron's reports are included in the inspectors' individual school reports in the P.A.B.C.(GR 122). Her reports cover the period 1929 to 1933. The reports for the years 1931 to 1933 were notconsulted as they were outside the time-frame of this thesis.17AR, 1930, RIO.18Ibid.52The Teacher Bureau Records are another potentially a rich source of information asto how teachers perceived their work in small rural schools. 19 The purpose of theTeachers' Bureau was made clear in the Department of Education Annual Report of 1922:A Teachers' Bureau has been organized with this Department for the purpose ofaiding School Boards in securing suitable teachers and assisting unemployedteachers in obtaining positions. The service is free to both teachers and Boards ofTrustees. 20The Bureau Records are single sheet administrative forms that were filled out by individualteachers in rural schools and contain details on the location of the school; the availabilityand type of transportation to and from the school; the general living conditions of thedistrict in which the school was situated in terms of climate, geography, local industry etc.;pupil enrolment and attendance; and the physical condition of the school buildings andgrounds. Sometimes the teacher provided a photograph of the school to be included withthe form. Unfortunately, the records pertaining to the schools of the Okanagan Valley haveproven to be particularly disappointing in that many of the responses are brief and non-commital. Space was provided at the end of each form for \"additional remarks\" whereteachers were given the opportunity to express in more detail their opinions and feelingsabout their life and work in rural schools and communities. However, in over a third of theBureau Records from the schools in the Okanagan Valley (33 of 91) this section was leftblank.As my research progressed I became more and more frustrated by my inability touncover evidence that revealed the personal experience of the rural school teacher in theOkanagan Valley. My sense of what it had been like to be a teacher in this region of British19The Teacher Bureau Records (hereafter TBR) are officially known as \"School District InformationForms for the Teachers' Bureau, Department of Education, Victoria, B.C.\" They are located in the P.A.B.C.(GR 461). They are filed alphabetically by name of school according to each year. Unfortunately only therecords for the years 1923 and 1928 have survived the passage of time. Of the total number of 1 380responses from these two years ninety-one were written by teachers who taught in the rural schools of theOkanagan Valley. The TBR provide a good complement to the reports of Lottie Bowron.20AR, 1922, C 1 1.53Columbia in the 1920's was vague indeed. It became increasingly clear that most of theavailable material was statistical or based on official documentary sources such as thosedescribed above.21 They did not reveal in any tangible way the motivations for becoming ateacher in a small rural school, or the actual day-to-day demands of the job, or what theimpact of teaching was on the individual, or on teacher-community relations. Thus, whilethe available statistical and official records provided me with an adequate impression of thenumber of teachers and general trends in educational developments in the study area,reliance on such sources made it virtually impossible to recontruct the experience of theteachers. I did not begin my research intending to use oral techniques, but rather turned tothe method when it became obvious that if I wished to pursue this particular research topican alternative research strategy would have to be adopted in order to bring the project to asuccessful conclusion. The necessity of talking face to face with former teachers became aninevitability. Although referring to personal history documents rather than oral testimony asa means of getting at \"insiders' perspectives\" the words of Donald Warren are particularlyapt here in summing up my predicament: \"Without such sources,\" Warren suggests,\"historians have trouble getting past the schoolhouse door.\" 22 Or as Richard J. Altenbaughhas contended in the introduction to a recently published collection of essays on the historyof American teachers: \"Oral history enables educational historians to open the classroomdoor and investigate schooling from the perspective of one of its principal participants - theteacher.\"2321 See Susan Laskin, Beth Light, and Alison Prentice, \"Studying the History of Occupation:Quantitative Sources on Canadian Teachers in the Nineteenth Century,\" Archivaria 14(Summer 1982): 75-91,for a discussion of the use of similar quantitative souces in studying the history of teachers in Ontario.22Warren, ed., American Teachers, 4, 7.23 See The Teacher's Voice: A Social History of Teaching in Twentieth Century America, ed.Altenbaugh (Washington, D.C.: The Falmer Press, 1992). For an early article that stresses the important rolethat oral historical techniques can play in research on the history of education, see William W. Cutler, III,\"Oral History - Its Nature and Uses for Educational History,\" History of Education Ouarterly 11, 2(Summer1971): 184-194.54While there are limitations to an oral approach, to which I have already referred andwill return to in more detail later in this discussion, the method also has distinct advantagesas a research tool in the collection of the necessary experiential evidence for this case studyof rural school teachers. E.H. Can has argued: \"History cannot be written unless thehistorian can achieve some kind of contact with the mind of those about whom he iswriting. \"24 Historians of the written word can attempt to achieve this \"contact\" by way ofletters, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies and other personal history documents. Use ofthese materials, however, is limiting in two important ways. 25 First of all, they restrict thehistorian to those documents which already exist. Secondly, the sources used are by theirvery nature \"mute\" and \"frozen\" in time 26 and therefore any relationship between thehistorian and document can never be more than a \"one-way communication\" 27 with thepast. In other words, from written historical sources \"we can only infer what individualsmean by the language they use.\" 28Historians of oral testimony, however, have the ability to generate their ownprimary source material from people's memories. \"The important thing about oral history,\"Edvard Bull writes, \"is that we as historians are no longer necessarily the captives of the24E.H. Carr, What is History? (Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, Limited, 1964), 24.25This is not to suggest that such sources are of no value to the historian. I merely wish to drawattention to the shortcomings of relying solely on written documents when attempting to reconstruct theexperience of people in the past.26 Michael Frisch and Dorothy L. Watts, \"Oral History and the Presentation of ClassConsciousness: The New York Times versus the Buffalo Unemployed,\" International Journal of Oral History 1, 2(June 1980): 90. Also published as a chapter in A Shared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning ofOral and Public History by Michael Frisch (Albany, New York: State University of New York, 1990), 59-80.27Thompson, The Voice of the Past, 104.28Kathryn Anderson, Susan Armitage, Dana Jack and Judith Wittner, \"Beginning Where We Are:Feminist Methodology In Oral History,\" Oral History Review 15, 1(Spring 1987): 112. Reprinted inFeminist Research Methods: Exemplary Readings in the Social Sciences, ed. Joyce McCarl Neilson (Boulder,San Francisco: Westview Press, 1990), 94-112. This article provides an excellent example of aninterdisciplinary approach - history, sociology, psychology - to the study of women's lives from a feministperspective.55pre-existing sources. For the period still within reach of the memory of living people, wecan contribute to the creation of new sources for our own purposes.\" 29 In being able to doso the historian is in a position to \"imagine what evidence is needed, seek it out and captureit.\"3 °One advantage of oral evidence is that it is \"interactive and one is not left alone, aswith documentary evidence, to divine its significance.\"31 Gary Okihiro sums up well thedifference between the use of written versus oral sources for the historian:[T]he archival historian is limited to the written word and cannot go beyond whatthe author of a given document thought, what s/he thought happened or ought tohappen, what s/he wanted others to think happened; in other words, the distinctionbetween the behavioral and the ideational is blurred; and the historian is uncertain ofthe historicity of the evidence. On the other hand, the oral historian who employs adocument which s/he has created with an interviewee is able to observe humanbehavior at firsthand in all its complexity and under varying circumstances; and s/heis able to engage in dialogue with the historical actor. 32The historical account based on such \"face-to-face interaction\" necessarily becomes \"morethan the sound of one voice.\" 33 Orally communicated history therefore provides the key toa recreation of historical events based on \"narrator's\" perceptions of the past and thus the29Edvard Bull, \"Industrial Boy Labour in Norway,\" in Our Common History: The Transformationof Europe, eds. Paul Thompson with Natasha Burchardt (New Jersey: Pluto Press, 1982), 224.\"Thompson, The Voice of the Past, 5.31 Lummis, Listening to History, 43.32Gary Okihiro, \"Oral History and the Writing of Ethnic History,\" in Or 1 Histor yInterdisciplinary Anthology, eds. David K. Dunaway and Willa K. Baum (Nashville, Tennessee: AmericanAssociation for State and Local History in Cooperation With the Oral History Association, 1984), 200.Originally published with the subtitle \"A Reconnaissance into Method and Theory,\" in Oral History Review 9(1981): 27-46.33 Sherna Gluck, \"What's So Special About Women? Women's Oral History,\" in Oral History, eds.Dunaway and Baum, 225. In this paper Gluck discusses the implications of a feminist perspective for oralhistory interviewing as well as providing advice concerning the practicalities of adopting such an approach.An expanded version of this article was first published in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 2,2(Summer 1977): 3-13.56means by which researchers can view the past directly from the angle of vision ofparticipants. 34The primary significance of oral historical sources lies in the fact that they reveal\"less about events as such than about their meaning.\" 35 In his discussion of the currenttrends in ethnography Van Maanen argues that \"it is no longer adequate for a fieldworker totell us what the native does day in and day out. We must now know what the native makesof all this as well.\" In other words, in studying a culture an ethnographer must offer\"perpective as well as practices.\"36 Similar concerns have been voiced by historians. Forexample George Ewart Evans has argued: \"[I]t is vital to the historian to know, as far as hecan, not only what the people he is writing about did but what they thought about what theydid.\" 37 Indeed, Ronald J. Grele has suggested that \"how people see the world is asimportant in understanding how they act as the action itself.\" 38 The way in which oraltestimony can give the historian access to \"feelings, attitudes, values, and meaning\" hasbeen explored by Kathryn Anderson:Traditional historical sources tell us more about what happened and how ithappened than how people felt about it and what it meant to them. As historians, weare trained to interpret meaning from facts. But oral history gives us the uniqueopportunity to ask people directly, How did it feel? What did it mean?Activity is, undeniably important to document; but a story restricted toaction and things is incomplete. Oral history can tell us not only how peoplepreserved meat but whether the process was fun or drudgery, whether it was34See Barbara Allen, \"Re-creating the Past: The Narrator's Perspective in Oral History,\" OralHistory Review 12(1984): 1-12. See also Barbara Allen, \"In the Thick of Things: Texture in OrallyCommunicated History \" International Journal of Oral History 6, 2(June 1985): 92-103.35 Alessandro Portelli, \"The Peculiarities of Oral History,\" History Workshop 12(Autumn 1981):99.36Van Maanen, Tales of the Field, 50.37George Ewart Evans, Where Beards Wag All: The Relevance of the Oral Tradition (London,England: Faber and Faber Limited, 1970, 1977), 23.38Ronald J. Grele, \"Louise A. Tilly's Response to Thompson, Passerini, Bertaux-Wiame, andPortelli, with a Concluding Comment by Ronald J. Grele,\" International Journal of Oral History 6,l(February 1985): 44.57accompanied by a sense of pride or failure. The unadorned story of what people didtells us more about the limitations under which they operated than the choices theymight have made. With oral history we can go further; we can ask what the personwould rather have been doing. 39Orally communicated history offers the means of humanizing official records and statisticaldata by \"add[ing] flesh and blood to the dry bones of statistical evidence and rais[ing]questions about the quality of women's lives...that cannot be answered by punching thekeys of of a computer terminal. \" 40 The personal contact that interviewing entails can alsoprovide the researcher with a sense of being there and participation. As George EwartEvans suggests: \"[I]t is [the] direct contact which I believe works through a kind ofosmosis, through your skin so to speak, to give the feel of history, a sense of the pastwhich is such an essential ingredient to the best historical writing.u 41In general terms the oral interviews used in this study complement the informationin the official sources and provide insider perspectives of the events referred to in thewritten documents. More importantly, they generate primary source material about theundocumented areas of teacher experience or where the written documents are inadequate.Specifically, oral techniques are used in this study to uncover the details of the lives offemale teachers. In the 1920's women predominated in the profession. In 1925, forexample, 2 447 (74.3%) of the total number of 3 294 teachers in British Columbia werefemale. 42 The oral approach is widely acknowledged as an appropriate method fordocumenting womens' experience, 43 and has proven to be particularly successful in39Anderson et al., \"Beginning Where We Are,\" 109. Italics in original.40Conrad, Laidlaw and Smyth, No Place Like Home, 23.41George Ewart Evans, \"Approaches to Interviewing,\" Oral History 1, 4(1975): 71.42For rural teachers the ratio was even higher. In the same year 1 376 (78.9%) of the total numberof 1 743 teachers who taught in rural areas in British Columbia were female. For references to these figures,see AR, 1925, M12.43 See Sue Scott, \"Feminist Research and Qualitative Methods: A Discussion of Some of theIssues,\" in Issues in Educational Research: Qualitative Methods, ed. Robert G. Burgess (London, England:58obtaining hitherto unavailable information about the participation and contribution ofwomen in the past.44 As such it is a legitimate and important source for revising history soas to include women in the record. 45Eliane Leslau Silverman has drawn attention to the need to examine the lives ofwomen in the past \"on their own terms.\" In collecting oral data for her study of Albertafrontier women it became clear that \"women's lives were simply different from those ofmen.\" In her conversations with interviewees she found that: \"Women defined themselvesself-consciously as women, and therefore we must take from the informants themselves theclue to look for evidence of a separate women's culture.\" 46 Katherine Jensen has arguedthat the concepts used by researchers in women's studies must be derived from the subjectsthemselves. She categorically states: \"Only when researchers use concepts that womenthemselves recognize do researchers finally allow women to participate in the creation ofknowledge.\"47 Similarly Kathryn Anderson and Dana C. Jack have asked the questions:Is the narrator asked what meanings she makes of her experiences? Is theresearcher's attitude one of receptivity to learn rather than to prove preexisting ideasThe Falmer Press, 1985), 67-85. See also Ann Oakley, \"Interviewing Women: A Contradiction in Terms,\" inDoing Feminist Research, ed. Helen Roberts (London, England: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981), 30-61.44For example, two special issues of Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies have been devotedentirely to articles on the oral history of women. See \"Women's Oral History,\" 2, 2(Summer 1977), and\"Women's Oral History Two,\" 7, 1(1983). See also Alice Duffy Rinehart, Mortals in the ImmortalProfession: An Oral History of Teaching (New York: Irvington Publishers, Incorporated, 1983). Rinehart'sstudy deals with teachers from the eastern states of America.45 For an excellent and up -to -date collection of historical essays based on the oral testimony ofwomen, see Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai, eds., Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of OralHistory (New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Incorporated, 1991).46Eliane Leslau Silverman, \"Preliminaries to a Study of Women in Alberta, 1890-1929,\" CanadianOral History Association, Journal 3, 1(1978): 25, and Silverman, The Last Best West, passim. For furtherdiscussion of this point see Chapter One of this thesis, especially pages 21-24.47Katherine Jensen, \"Oral Histories of Rural Western American Women: Can They Contribute toQuantitative Studies?\" International Journal of Oral History 5, 3(November 1984): 166.59that are brought into the interview? In order to listen, we need to attend more to thenarrator than to our own agendas. 48The oral interview allows women the unique opportunity to take an active part in thecreation of their own history, and hence make them the subjects rather than the objects of awomen's history. 49 It allows them to describe, in their own words, aspects of their lifeexperiences and to reflect on the significance and meaning they attribute to their ownbehaviour and experiences. It allows them to choose for themselves which experiences torelate and how they will relate them. It allows them to articulate what is of value in theirlives and why. The relevance of using oral methods to include women's experiences andperspectives in the historical record is made clear by Nancy Grey Osterud and Lu AnnJones in their recent review of the oral histories of American rural women: \"The respect forthe subject and the validation of her viewpoint that oral history entails, coupled with thecollaborative character of the relationship between informant and interviewer, fulfil feministcriteria for a non-objectifying, non-exploitive research methodology.\" 50 Historians whomake use of oral evidence in their research to retrieve the experience of women in the pastmust therefore be sensitive to the meanings that women attach to the words they use todescribe their lives. Dana Jack has highlighted the importance of language in women's oraltestimony:Oral interviews allow us to hear, if we will, the particular meanings of a languagethat both men and women use but which each translates differently....Looking48Kathryn Anderson and Dana C. Jack, \"Learning to Listen: Interview Techniques and Analyses,\" inGluck and Patai, Women's Words, 11-12.49 See Katherine Jensen, \"Woman as Subject, Oral History as Method,\" Frontiers: A Journal ofWomen Studies 7, 1(1983): 86. Canadian sociologist Dorothy E. Smith has made the same point, only froma sociological rather than a historical perspective. See \"Some Implications of a Sociology for Women,\" inWoman in a Man-Made World: A Socioeconomic Handbook. 2nd. ed., eds. Nona Glazer and HelenYoungelson Waehrer (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977), 15-29. See also Marcia Westkott,\"Feminist Criticism of the Social Sciences,\" Harvard Educational Review 49, 4(November 1979): 422-430.Reprinted in Feminist Research Methods: Exemplary Readings in the Social Sciences, ed. Joyce McCarlNeilson (Boulder, San Francisco: Westview Press, 1990), 58-68.\"Nancy Grey Osterud and Lu Ann Jones, \"\"If I Must Say So Myself': Oral Histories of RuralWomen,\" Oral History Review 17, 2(Fall 1989): 2.60closely at the language and the particular meanings of important words women useto describe their experience allows us to understand how women are adapting to theculture within which they live....For the researcher using oral interviews, the firststep is to ask the meaning of words in order to understand them in the subject'sown terms. 51Oral testimony is used in this study to offer a detailed look at one aspect of the subjects' lifeexperiences. By placing the subjects within the context of the typical conditions underwhich they lived and worked as teachers in the rural communities of the Okanagan Valleyin the 1920's, the primary emphasis is placed on understanding the nature and meaning ofteaching as work as understood by the subjects, and how their involvement in theoccupation fitted into the larger structure of their lives. It was decided to interview formerpupils in order to provide additional information on school conditions to supplement thatobtained from the teachers. However, interviews with pupils have proven most useful inoffering insights into the nature of teacher-pupil relations both in, and out, of theclassroom. 52So far I have concentrated on illuminating the relevance of oral methods to thewider framework of analysis. I would now like to focus on the interview process itself.Contact with former teachers and pupils was achieved by way of letters to the editor placedin twenty five newspapers, including the Vancouver Sun, the Province, the Victoria Times Colonist and a number of community newspapers circulated in the Lower Mainland,Victoria and the Okanagan Valley (see Appendix 1). In addition an interview wasconducted for C.B.C. radio on a province-wide local history programme. The response to51Anderson, et al., \"Beginning Where We Are,\" 114 and 118.52As William W. Cutler, III, has argued: \"It is important to save knowledge about the relationshipbetween teachers and children in [the] past. It is important to save knowledge about the interactions amongstudents as well as their memories of their teachers, their schools, and their reasons for being there.\" See\"Asking for Answers: Oral History,\" in Historical Inquiry in Education: A Research Agenda, ed. John HardinBest (Washington, D.C.: American Educational Research Association, 1983), 94-108, especially page 96.The recent book by Bruce Curtis has been particularly instructive in this respect. See Building theEducational State: Canada West. 1836-1871 (London, Ontario: Althouse Press, 1988). See also Finkelstein,Governing the Young, and Larry Cuban, How Teachers Taught: Constancy and Change in American Classrooms. 1890-1980 (New York: Longman, 1984).61the request for information was good, although interestingly no replies came as a result ofthe radio broadcast. A number of people responded who had taught outside thegeographical and time-frame boundaries of the study. Although their accounts were notused directly in the analysis these outside accounts were useful in understanding the overallpicture of rural schooling in British Columbia in the 1920's. All respondents - twenty-six -who fulfiled the appropriate criteria for the study were sent letters informing them in moredetail of the research I was undertaking, and inviting them to participate in the project.Choices were offered as to the method of participation. They could either relate theirexperiences to me by way of an interview, in person or on the telephone, or, if theypreferred, in the form of a written communication. For this reason an interview guide wasincluded with the letter sent to respondents (see Appendix 2). This guide was developed onthe basis of the secondary literature and my own ideas of the kind of information I wishedto uncover. It was not intended to be used as a questionnaire. Rather it was to act as a guideto the areas of teacher or pupil experience in which I was particularly interested, and also togive people time to think back over the years and consider what they did, and did not, wantto speak about. Twenty-three of the respondents (fourteen teachers and nine pupils) agreedto a personal interview. The remaining three respondents (two teachers and one pupil)chose to relate their experiences in written form. 53 Interviews were then arranged bysubsequent letters and telephone calls.The selection of the sample for this study was largely contingent upon the nature ofthe population available to be studied. A number of factors limited the possibility ofobtaining a statistically valid sample, or what Thompson has termed \"retrospective530ne woman wrote to me on behalf of her mother who, although recently deceased, had taught formany years in the rural schools of the Okanagan Valley and been a prominent and well respected member ofthe profession in the area. I decided that it would be fruitful to conduct an interview with this woman abouther mother's teaching experiences, especially as I also had access to this teacher's memoirs. This was the onlyoral interview conducted with a subject that was neither a former teacher, nor pupil.62representiveness.\"54 Obviously I was only able to interview survivors and I had no meansof determining whether they were a representative sample of the whole population understudy. However, not only was I restricted to interviewing survivors, but more importantlyI had to rely on those subjects that were locatable and willing to participate. The problemsof sample selection for the oral historian are made plain by Katherine Jensen when shestates that we can only interview \"those that are still alive, those who did not leave, thosewho are willing to talk.\" 55 Such limitations clearly affect my historical account of theexperience of rural school teachers based on that evidence.From the interviews I have conducted I am left with the impression that theexperience of the teachers in the rural schools of the Okanagan Valley in the 1920's was,for the most part, a positive one. 56 In addition, the sources appear to favour the mostsuccessful teachers. A number of those interviewed either made teaching a life career orreturned to teaching at different stages throughout their lives. A different picture may haveemerged from interviewing those who had tried the occupation but left it because they couldnot tolerate the conditions of employment. However, these people are difficult to locateand/or are reluctant to talk about their lives. One such person was brought to my attentionduring an interview with another former school teacher, but when contacted by me later sherefused to share her experiences, either by letter or by personal interview. I can onlyspeculate that it was the result of a distressful experience. For reasons such as these, I haveno way of knowing the differences between those who participated and those who did not.54Thompson, The Voice of the Past, 130.55Jensen, \"Oral Histories of Rural Western American Women,\" 164.56This is in contrast to the findings of other studies of rural school teachers, in the same time periodbut in other regions of British Columbia, which tend to stress the more negative side of rural schoolteaching. See the work of Wilson and Stortz cited in the bibliography and discussed in Chapter One of thisthesis, especially pages 40-42.63I am also aware of the gender bias of my study. Although I initially anticipatedusing a balanced sample of equal numbers of male and female subjects, I soon discoveredthat this was not a realistic goal. Factors relating to the nature of the occupation itself, aswell as the sample available to be studied, placed a limitation in terms of gender on thestudy. Of the sixteen personal accounts of teacher experience used in this study only one isfrom the male perspective. Of the ten accounts of pupil experience, only two are male. Thisis perhaps to be expected since, in the 1920's, four fifths of the teachers in rural schoolswere female, and women have longer life spans than men. Therefore the primary focus ofthe research became the female perspective although attempts were made wherever possibleto include the male perspective and to make comparisons between male and femaleexperience. Issues and questions that arose in the course of my interviewing mainlywomen, and how I interpreted their experiences as rural school teachers, are raised later inthe discussion of the actual interviews. It is sufficient at this stage to point out that studieswhere the oral statements come from predominantly female subjects have their own specialproblems as regards which aspects of experience are revealed, and how that experience willbe related. 57 I regard it as imperative, therefore, that these potential sources of bias evidentin the characteristics of my sample are made explicit from the outset, so that the reader isaware of the sort of experience that is represented in the text and which sort of experience isleft untapped.Insights from the ethnographic tradition have proven useful here. Instead of tryingto justify the lack of a representive sample it appears more profitable to build on thestrengths derived from naturalistic research and the advantages to be gained from57 An analysis of how and why women communicate in very different ways to men, as well aspractical suggestions regarding appropriate methods for interviewing women, can be found in KristinaMinister, \"A Feminist Frame for the Oral History Interview,\" in Gluck and Patai, Women's Words, 27-41.64interacting with the subjects.58 In their work on the bakers' trade in Paris, Daniel Bertauxand Isabelle Bertaux-Wiame confronted the problems of sampling for the oral historian andargued the need for a wider conception of representativeness. In carrying out theirinterviews they concluded that no set number of participants were needed in order to have arepresentive sample. Instead when collecting information from a contingent number ofindividuals from a specific milieu they simply went through a process of \"saturation\" AsDaniel Bertaux explained:We gathered life stories following what is pompously called 'a snowball strategy'.For instance we gathered about thirty life stories from bakery workers. The first lifestory taught us a great deal; so did the second and the third. By the fifthteenth wehad begun to understand the pattern of sociostructural relations which makes up thelife of a bakery worker. By the twenty-fifth, adding the knowledge we had fromlife stories of bakers, we knew we had it: a clear picture of this structural patternand of its recent transformations. New life stories only confirmed what we hadunderstood, adding slight individual variations. We stopped at thirty: there was nopoint going further. We knew already what we wanted to know. Thus we wentthrough a process of saturation of knowledge .59In the interviews I have conducted for this study this process was at work in that eachsubject - or case - was confirming, and in many cases replicating, what the previous oneshad related to me. For this reason, and given the fact that this thesis examines a specific58For a discussion of this point within a more general comparison of the ways in which theproblems of reliability and validity are approached in ethnographic and experimental research, see Margaret D.LeCompte and Judith Preissle Goetz, \"Problems of Reliability and Validity in Ethnographic Research,\"Review of Educational Research 52, l(Spring 1982): 31-60.59Daniel Bertaux, \"From the Life-History Approach to the Transformation of SociologicalPractice,\" chapter in Biography and Society: The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences, ed DanielBertaux (Beverley Hills, California: Sage Publications, 1981), 37. Italics in original. See also his jointlyauthored chapter with Isabelle Bertaux-Wiame, \"Life Stories in the Bakers' Trade,\" in Biography and Society,ed. Bertaux, 169-189, especially page 187. Robert K. Yin has expressed similar solutions to samplerepresentivity in his text on case study research methods. He argues that the external validity of case studyresearch derives from what he terms \"replication logic\" rather than \"sampling logic.\" As he contends: \"A fatalflaw in doing case studies is to conceive of statistical generalization as the method of generalizing the resultsof the case. This is because cases are not \"sampling units\" and should not be chosen for this reason.\" Instead,he argues that the purpose of case study research is to provide new knowledge that can be generalized to atheory, or a framework for understanding real life events, rather than a population. \"Under thesecircumstances,\" he continues, \"the method of generalization is \"analytic generalization,\" in which apreviously developed theory is used as a template with which to compare the empirical results of the casestudy. If two or more cases are shown to support the same theory, replication may be claimed.\" See Yin,Case Study Research, 27-60, especially page 38.65occupation within a single community, it is reasonable to assume that I can generalize withsome confidence about the experiences of this group. As a case study, however, I lay noclaims that its findings can be directly generalized to the experience of other rural schoolteachers in British Columbia in the 1920's. Instead the significance of this study derivesexpressly from the contribution it makes to a fuller understanding of the phenomena ofrural schooling both in the British Columbian and Canadian contexts. In this way it is to beregarded as just one more part in a complex mosaic.The materials that comprise the observational data, the main source of evidence forthe study, are derived from a six month period of fieldwork from December 1988 to May1989. This fieldwork was divided into three phases according to the geographical locationof the subjects. The first phase involved interviews with former teachers and pupils whowere residing in the lower mainland of British Columbia; the second phase took place invarious locations throughout the Okanagan Valley60 and the third on Vancouver Island.The subjects were all personally interviewed by me so that I could maintain maximumcontrol over the generation of data. In the pre-interview phone calls, in which the date,place and time of the interview were arranged, some of the subjects expressed someapprehension concerning where our meeting would take place. For this reason all theinterviews were conducted in the homes of the subjects, usually over coffee and cookies,where they felt \"in command of the social situation and relaxed in the comfort of familiarsurroundings.\" 61 In this context our relationship assumed more one of hostess/host andguest rather than that of researcher and subject.601 spent two weeks in March 1989 travelling around the Okanagan Valley interviewing formerteachers and pupils; hunting out information in local libraries, museums and archives; and takingphotographs of the small rural schools that still stand today. Gathering data at the \"natural\" location of thephenomena was invaluable in enabling me to gain a more intimate appreciation of what it may have beenlike to experience life in the schools and communities in the study area.61 Lummis, Listening to History, 66.66All the interviews were recorded on audio tape cassettes with the subjects'knowledge and consent. I chose to tape the interviews rather than take notes for a numberof reasons. First of all, recording interviews and preserving them on tape provides anaccurate and objective account of the conversation which is essential to establish theprovenance and authenticity of the evidence. 62 Secondly, the taped interview records notonly what was said but the way in which it was said. As Trevor Lummis argues,\"[R]ecording establishes beyond doubt what was said by whom and with whatexpression.\" 63 Thirdly, by preserving recollections intact as the original source theirpotential as primary source material for future historians is greatly enhanced. 64 Finally, theinductive nature of naturalistic research methods means that researchers, especially in theearly stages of data collection, are not always in a position to judge at the time what is ofimportance. By failing to record their interviews on tape, they may leave out informationthat may later seem relevant and significant. Taping allows the researcher to acquire averbatim record of the conversation(s) with the subject(s).In order to break the ice I began the interviews by asking the subjects for formalbiographical details about themselves. This appeared to ease the tension for many subjectsas it was straightforward and gave them something to focus on that was non-threatening.Throughout the interview I was direct and frank about my intentions. From the outset Iexplained that there were no right or wrong replies to questions asked, and that I was notlooking for any set or specific answers. Rather I was interested in, and wanted to learn62For a useful discussion of some of the practical and theoretical issues arising from tape recordingoral history, see David King Dunaway, \"Field Recording Oral History,\" Oral History Review 15, 1(Spring1987): 21-42.63Lummis, Listening to History, 24.64The obligation of the oral historian to preserve interview data on tape and make them accessible toother scholars is discussed at length in David Henige, \"\"In the Possession of the Author\": The Problem ofSource Monopoly in Oral Historiography,\" International Journal of Oral History 1, 3(November 1980): 181-194. See also Susan Emily Allen, \"Resisting the Editorial Ego: Editing Oral History,\" Oral History Reveiw 10(1982): 33-45, for similar arguments as applied to the transcriptions of oral interviews.67about, their own perceptions, attitudes and feelings concerning their experience as a ruralschool teacher or pupil. They were made aware that they could end the interview wheneverthey chose, and that they were under no obligation to answer any questions that includedinformation they did not feel comfortable in relating. In such circumstances they were toldthat they could reply that they did not know, or that they could not remember. For thisreason the questions were structured in such a way that if they wished to avoid revealingcertain information it was possible to do so by giving brief or perfunctory answers. At alltimes I tried to display a sensitivity to the particular circumstances of each interview.I used both interview questionnaire and interview schedule techniques. Thequestionnaire was used when planning the research, deciding what information may berelevant and the areas of discussion which might throw light on the subject matter, and theinterview schedule was used in the actual interview itself. Although I had a schedule Irarely referred to it in the interview. It was merely a short list of questions to use as amemory prompt for myself to ensure that all the subjects related the same areas ofexperience. Therefore although I asked some specific and focussed questions about certaindetails of individuals' experiences in rural schools, the direction of the interviews waslargely determined by the subjects and those aspects of experience they chose to discuss.The questions I asked fell into three categories. First of all, probing questions wereused to encourage the subjects to talk about their experiences; secondly, summarystatements ensured that I had correctly understood the subjects' comments; and thirdly,questions that clarified unclear statements. As much as possible questions on specific topicareas were incorporated into the flow of the conversation and those that did not arisenaturally from the subjects' reflections were raised after considerable discussion hadalready occurred. I attempted to corroborate the information already established in oneinterview with that of others. As all the interviews were concerned with documenting acommon experience in a precise locality they provided numerous cross-checks betweeneach other. In this situation the questions asked were carefully worded to encourage the68subject to provide fresh commentary about the topic. Therefore the interviews provided themeans by which the information conceptualized in the questionnaire was conveyed, and towhich the subjects added their own perspectives.The interviews ranged from one to three hours in duration. The cue to end theinterview usually came from the subjects who either appeared tired or restless or directlyindicated that they had nothing more to contribute to the interview. After the interview thesubjects were asked to read and sign the consent form which released the informationgenerated in the interview to me (see Appendix 3). They were informed that they couldimpose conditions on my use of the material, or withhold their consent altogether if theywished. All subjects agreed to release their recollections to me immediately and withoutreservations.The use of an ethnographic oral history approach in this study, with its emphasis oninterpersonal dynamics, necessarily means that the information I gained from the interviewswith former teachers and pupils was dependent upon the relationship established betweenmyself and the subjects -- how we both perceived and reacted to each another. In this waythe interviews were a two-way process, a dialogue dependent upon the thoughts, feelingsand perspectives that each party brought to the interview situation. The nature of this\"social relationship\" 65 and how it influences the material collected through it is obviously aconcern for researchers who employ naturalistic methods such as participant observationand interviewing. It is necessary, therefore, as historian Gary Okihiro points out, \"toanalyze carefully that relationship between interviewer and interviewee to understand whatkind of communication is taking place, what meaning is being conveyed, and what mutualinfluences are at work in the shaping of the conversation.\"6665Thompson, TheVoice of the Past, 117.6601cihiro, \"Oral History and the Writing of Ethnic History,\" 204.69This study thus begins with the general understanding that knowledge cannot existindependently of the perceiver. Researchers bring their own subjectivity to the task andhence the representation of knowledge is inevitably influenced by the assumptions andbiases which have shaped the researchers' perception of the phenomena under study. 67 It isessential, therefore, that the researchers' subjectivities are identified and described at theoutset. 68 For this reason, in writing up this study I have tried to convey how my ownperspectives influenced the way in which I conceived the research topic, designed theresearch questions and the methods I used to answer those questions. Also important ishow I influenced the people I interviewed, and therefore the kind of information thesubjects related, or chose not to relate, as a result of their perception of me.Richard Quantz is of the opinion that \"history is created by the ordinary participantacting within structural constraints.\" 69 Following from this statement I see each individualas the product of a combination of ideological, structural and individual influences.Ideological and structural constraints define the boundaries within which individualsconstruct their lives. However, within these boundaries people can, and do, make choicesthat affect the course of their lives. In this thesis I have tried to document the interplaybetween constraint and choice in women's lives. I have endeavoured to identify how thesubjects of this research were able to forge personal meanings within an imposed structure.Teaching provided many possibilities for those who chose to take up the profession. Thewords of the teachers I interviewed make it clear how teaching enabled women to meet67For a discussion of the role of the historian in the interpretation of events, see Henry W. Hodyshannd R. Gordon McIntosh, \"Problems of Objectivity in Oral History,\" Historical Studies in Education/Revued'histoire de l'education 1, 1(Spring 1989): 137-147.68In ethnography, both the researcher's experience in the field as well as their influence on the dataare regarded as an integral part of the research process and the finished written product. Van Maanen'sdefinition of the discipline makes this point explicitly clear. In his view ethnography entails \"representing thesocial reality of others through the analysis of one's own experience in the world of these others.\" See Talesof the Field, ix.69Quantz, \"The Complex Visions of Female Teachers\", 457.70societal expectations of what it meant to be a young woman in the 1920's, and the kind ofwork that was appropriate for such a person, by choosing \"the natural female avocation\" 70as employment. However, teaching also enabled them to fulfil many of their own needsand desires, and so challenge such expectations. As Osterud and Jones argue: \"Beyondsimply documenting oppression, [oral history] illuminates the strategies women haveadopted to cope with their situation, and the ways they have come to terms with,compensated for, and even challenged the limitations they faced.\" 71In documenting the experience of those in the past, historians must always be awareof the extent to which their interpretation of the subject matter is informed by contemporaryattitudes. In the light of this concern I regarded it as an essential part of the process ofmonitoring my influence on the data to recognize, to quote Thompson, \"the disjuncturebetween the questions which concern a young feminist women's historian and an olderwoman informant, and to judge how far the past may be analyzed in terms of present-daythinking.\" 72 For this reason I tried at all times to maintain a balance between an openness tothe subjects' words and to the meanings they ascribed to their teaching experiences, and myown analytical framework.Although I had spoken to each subject a number of times on the telephone theinterview was the first occasion on which we met. Establishing rapport with the subjectswas, for the most part, not a problem. Initially, however, two problems arose. First of all,when subjects met me at the front door their reaction to me was interesting. They seemedsurprised by my appearance. I was greeted with such exclamations as \"But you're soyoung...\" or \"You're much younger than I expected.\" Secondly, at first I just introduced70Ibid., 447.71 Osterud and Jones, \"\"If I Must Say So Myself,\"\" 3.72Paul Thompson, \"Between Social Scientists: Responses to Louise Tilly,\" International Journal ofOral History 6, 1(February 1985): 21. See also Gluck, \"What's so Special About Women?\" 225-226.71myself as a research student from the University of British Columbia doing a study on ruralschool teachers for my masters thesis. Such an introduction made a number of subjects feeluneasy about our meeting. Some expressed anxiety about whether they would \"perform\"adequately. I soon realized that my approach was too formal. By revealing that I too was aformer rural school teacher, and that I wished to learn about their experiences in theoccupation, the interview relationship changed considerably. The subjects relaxed andbegan to talk enthusiastically about their teaching days, interjecting their recollections ofparticular incidents with pupils, community members, inspectors etc. with \"Well, youknow what it's like...\" In this way they expected me to understand what they meant simplybecause I had been one of them. On the other hand they were also concerned that I shouldunderstand the differences between their experience and mine and how \"It was verydifferent then you understand...not like nowadays.\" Hence the knowledge that I had taughtin a rural school helped the subjects to \"place\" me as a person with whom they couldidentify and share experiences. 7373A number of scholars have considered the relationship of the gender of the interviewer to both theresearch process and the finished written product. Robert Dingwall contends that \"certain sorts of data aremore readily obtained by personable young women.\" See \"Ethics and Ethnography,\" Sociological Review 28,4(November 1980): 881. Janet Finch has suggested reasons why women find it easy to establish rapport in aninterview situation, especially with other women. As she argues: \"However effective a male interviewermight be at getting women interviewees to talk, there is still necessarily an additional dimension when theinterviewer is also a woman, because both parties share a subordinate structural position because of theirgender. This creates the possibility that a particular kind of identification will develop....One's identity as awoman therefore provides the entree into the interview situation.\" See \"'It's Great to Have Someone to TalkTo': The Ethics and Politics of Interviewing Women,\" in Social Researching: Politics Problems, Practice,eds. Colin Bell and Helen Roberts (London, England: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984), 76 and 79. This is incontrast to the experience of Jean Barman who has interviewed adults about their childhood experiences inelite private schools in British Columbia. She found it difficult to establish rapport with female subjects but\"had no difficulty interviewing men of similar upper-middle or upper-class background.\" See \"Accounting forGender and Class in Retrieving the History of Canadian Childhood,\" Canadian History of EducationAssociation, Bulletin/d'association canadienne d'histoire de l'education 5, 2(May 1988): 5. Sue Scott hasstudied the power relationships inherent in qualitative research and raised the point that although women maybe useful as interviewers they also face problems when interviewing males, and in her case, male peers. See\"The Personable and the Powerful: Gender and Status in Sociological Research,\" in Social Researching, eds.Bell and Roberts, 165-178.The extent to which the fact that I am a woman may have affected my relationship with the subjectsof my research is difficult to assess. I found that variations in the degree of openness or reticence displayed bysubjects in relating their stories to me was due more to differences between individual personalities rather thantheir gender. For this reason I prefer not to speculate about my gender as an influencing factor in theinterview process.72There is considerable debate over whether an interviewer should be an \"outsider\" oran \"insider.\" My experience as a rural school teacher would, on the face of it, designate meas an insider. However the fact of my identification with the subjects as a former ruralteacher should not be overstated in this context. Teaching single-age, single-ability classesin a 1 000 pupil school in rural Warwickshire, England, in the 1980's was a dramaticallydifferent experience to teaching in the small isolated rural schools of the Okanagan Valley inthe 1920's. It is more appropriate therefore to define my relationship with the subjects asone in which I was at the same time involved in, but detatched from, their experiences. Itried to strike a balance between being involved enough to be in a position to learn about,understand and interpret the culture the subjects related to me, while being detached enoughto make the \"known\" unknown. As Thompson points out, the insider \"knows the wayaround, can be less easily fooled, understands the nuances.\" 74 However, he also arguesthat being an outsider has its advantages too:[T]he outsider can ask for the obvious to be explained; while the insider, who mayin fact be misinformed in assuming the answer, does not ask for fear of seemingfoolish. The outsider also keeps an advantage in being outside the local socialnetwork, more easily maintaining a position of neutrality, and so may be spoken toin true confidentiality, with less subsequent anxiety. 75As an outsider and observer I was of, but not in, the world of the subjects.The attitude of the subjects towards their role in my research was revealing. Manyof the women were surprised that I wanted to interview them because, in their view, theyhad nothing useful to tell me. This lack of awareness of the historical value of their lifeexperiences was expressed to me time and time again in a \"Why me?\" response. Otherwomen's historians, who have used oral methods in their research, have reported similarexperiences. Sherry Thomas, for example, found that every single farm woman she74Thompson, The Voice of the Past, 120.75 Ibid.73interviewed said \"You don't want to talk to me, I'm not important.\" 76 This kind ofresponse did not feature in the interviews I conducted with male subjects. Once Iestablished that they and their stories were both a relevant, and necessary, element to beincluded in the historical record, the women's reactions to the interview became morepositive. In fact by the time our conversations came to a close the self-esteem of many ofthe female subjects seemed to have increased. When I expressed my thanks at the end ofthe interview, they thanked me for not only enabling them to look back over the years, butalso for making them feel important. I believe that for some of the women I spoke to theinterview was a significant experience.77Differences between male and female subjects were also revealed in the ways inwhich they related their stories to me in the interviews. A group of feminist researchershave stated that one of the basic assumptions on which their work is based is that \"there areprofound differences in the ways that men and women view the world and their places init.\"78 Bertaux-Wiame has expanded at length on this issue:Men seldom talk spontaneously about their family life - as if it was not really part oftheir life. Their life: men consider the life they have lived as their own; this isperhaps the key difference from women. Men present their life as a series of self-conscious acts, a rational pursuit of well-defined goals - be it success, or simply 'latranquilite, quietness and security. Their whole story revolves around the sequenceof occupations they have had, as if they insisted on jobs because work is the areawhere they are active. They present themselves as the subjects of their own lives -as the actors.Women do not insist on this. Instead, they will talk at length about theirrelationship to such or such a person. Their own life-stories will include parts of thelife-stories of others. They bring into view the people around them, and theirrelations with these people. In contrast with men's accounts, women will not insist76Sherry Thomas, \"Digging Beneath the Surface: Oral History Techniques,\" Frontiers: A Journal ofWomen Studies 7, 1(1983): 54. See also Sara Diamond, \"Women in the B.C. Labour Movement,\" section inan article entitled \"Oral History Perspectives on Women's Studies,\" Canadian Oral History Association,Journal 6(1984): 10, and Silverman, The Last Best West, iii.77Other scholars have found this to be the case. See, for example, Anna Bravo, \"Italian PeasantWomen and the First World War,\" in Our Common History, eds. Thompson with Burchardt, 157-170,especially page 169, footnote 1. See also Gluck, \"What's So Special About Women?\" 223.78Anderson et al., \"Beginning Where We Are,\" 125.74on 'what they have done', but rather on 'what relationships existed' betweenthemselves and persons close to them...their 'significant others.'79Bertaux-Wiame has also explored the ways in which these differences are illustratedin the actual language that men and women use to articulate their life experiences. Shecontinues:Men will use the 'I' much more often than women. The masculine 'I' definitelypoints to the subject of an action. The feminine 'I' often takes a different meaning.It does not designate the narrator as subject, but as one pole of a relationship; it isthe 'I' in relation to another person. And very often, women preferred to use 'we'or 'one' (on in French), thus denoting the particular relationship which underliedthis part of their life: 'we' as 'my parents and us', or as 'my husband and me', orstill as 'me and my children'. 80Originally I intended to question the subjects explicitly as to whether they considered thattheir gender had influenced their experiences as a rural school teacher. After a number of\"I'm not sure,\" and \"I don't know,\" replies I refrained from using such a direct approach.By questioning indirectly I obtained greater insight into the nature of the influence ofgender on oral testimony. 81 Differences in the manner in which female and male subjectsrelated their stories to me became implicitly clear. In the interviews I conducted withwomen, they talked more about matters of a private rather than a public nature. 82 Oftenthere was more warmth and enthusiasm in the details they shared with me about their lifeoutside of the classroom. In contrast, quite frequently, their recollections of teaching79Bertaux-Wiame, \"The Life History Approach to the Study of Internal Migration,\" Oral History 7,l(Spring 1979): 29. Reprinted in Biography and Society, ed. Bertaux, 249-265. Italics in original. Alsopublished with the subtitle \"How Women and Men Came to Paris Between the Wars,\" in Our CommonHistory, eds. Thompson with Burchardt, 186-200, especially page 193. See also Kathryn Anderson,\"Washington Women's Heritage Project,\" section in article entitled \"Oral History Perspectives on Women'sStudies,\" Canadian Oral History Association, Journal 6(1984): 12, and Osterud and Jones, \"\"If I Must Say SoMyself,\"\" 4. Dana Jack has used the term \"self-in-relation\" theory to conceptualize these differences. SeeAnderson et al., \"Beginning Where We Are,\" 118.8°Bertaux-Wiame, \"The Life History Approach,\" 2981 See Marjan Schwegman, \"Women in Resistance Organizations in the Netherlands,\" in OurCommon History, eds. Thompson with Burchardt , 297-310, especially page 298.82Silverman found this to be the case with the women she interviewed. As she states: \"Theyperceived their lives within the private realm, rarely fitting even their paid labour into a public context.\" SeeThe Last Best West, iv.75practices were vague, formal and even inhibited. They seemed to remember little aboutprecise lessons, methods of classroom management, even less about the wider issuesconcerning the development of educational policy in the 1920's, and far more about thepersonal relationships they had with the pupils they taught, the members of thecommunities in which they lived and worked, and the other teachers with whom theyshared a social life. Decisions concerning their work in the teaching profession were,almost without exception, made not only on the basis of what they wanted or needed, butalso in terms of the needs and desires of others in their families -- parents, siblings,husbands, children. Often the needs of these \"significant others\" came first. 83 It is forreasons such as these that some scholars refer to women's lives as being embedded in bothfamily and work in that the private and public concerns of their lives are alwaysintertwined. 84 In contrast, the male subject that I interviewed talked more in terms of thedevelopment of his career in the teaching profession, rarely mentioning personal or familymatters in his accounts.It would be naive to believe that oral history gave me direct access to the past. AsThompson has pointed out: \"Recalling is an active process.\" 85 In asking people to recallfeelings and attitudes, as well as facts, from the past the oral historian is faced with the dual83 Sara Diamond has made this point in her work. She argues that one of the \"special qualities\" thatwomen possess is \"a sense of connection between workplace practice and personal needs.\" See \"Women in theB.C. Labour Movement,\" 10.84See Joan Kelly, \"The Doubled Vision of Feminist Theory,\" in Sex and Class in Women'sHistory, eds. Judith L. Newton, Mary P. Ryan and Judith R. Walkowitz (London, England: Routledge &Kegan Paul, 1983), 259-270. See also Anderson et al., \"Beginning Where We Are,\" 126. The theme of theinterplay between the domestic and working lives of women has also been drawn out in a number of papersthat were presented at the International Conference on Oral History and Women's History, ColumbiaUniversity, New York, November 18-20, 1983. See especially the papers by Anna Bravo, Adele Pesce,Isabelle Bertaux and Diana Gittins. For a summary of these papers and others presented at the conference, see\"News From Abroad,\" Oral History 12. 1(Spring 1984): 8-12.85 Thompson, The Voice of the Past, 114.76problems of selectivity of memory and the possible distortion of that memory over time. 86It has been suggested, however, that these limitations may decline with age as individualsundergo a \"life review\" later in life. 87 To quote Thompson once again:The final stage in the development of memory commonly follows retirement, orsome other traumatic process, such as widowhood. This is the phenomenonrecognized by psychologists as 'life review': a sudden emergence of memories andof desire to remember, and a special candour which goes with a feeling that activelife is over, achievement is completed. Thus in this final stage there is a majorcompensation for the longer interval and the selectivity of the memory process, inan increased willingness to remember, and commonly, too, diminished concernwith fitting the story to the social norms of the audience. Thus bias from bothrepression and distortion becomes a less inhibiting difficulty, for both teller andhistorian.Interviewing the old, in short, raises no fundamental methodological issueswhich do not also apply to interviewing in general. 88However, it is also imperative to note that \"Even where memory is intact, privacy andpersonal discretion have limited the disclosures which have been made public.\" 89 At thesame time it must also be recognized that in interviewing former teachers about theirexperiences in the past that I was only getting at their current perceptions of thoseexperiences because, as Jean Barman suggests, \"each individual's perception of pastexperience is filtered through a contemporary lens.\" 90 Isabelle Bertaux-Wiame has made asimilar point:It should not be forgotten that every biographical account takes place in the presenttime, and in relation to the present. For the person who tells his or her life-story,86In ethnography it is widely accepted that \"Ethnographic truths are...inherently partial - committedand incomplete\" (italics in original). See James Clifford, \"Introduction: Partial Truths,\" chapter in WritingCulture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography eds. James Clifford and George E. Marcus (Berkeley:University of California Press, 1986), 7.87For interesting discussions of this point see Harriet Wrye and Jacqueline Churilla, \"LookingInward, Looking Backward: Reminiscence and the Life Review \" Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 2,2(Summer 1977): 79-84, and Peter Coleman, \"The Past in the Present: - A Study of Elderly People'sAttitudes to Reminiscence \" Oral History 14, l(Spring 1986): 50-59.88Thompson, The Voice of the Past, 116.89Patterson, \"Voices From the Past,\" in Schools in the West, eds. Sheehan, Wilson and Jones, 100.90Barman, \"Accounting for Gender and Class,\" 10.77the first purpose is not to describe the past 'as it was' or even as it was experienced('vecu'), but to confer to the past experience a certain meaning; a meaning whichwill contribute to the meaning of the present....To tell one's life story is not only totalk or to remember; it is an act, an encounter with reality. If this encounter seems tolimit itself to an account of the past, it is oriented in fact by the present in two ways:first it reconstructs the meaning of the past from the present point of view; second,and more deeply, it gives meaning to the past in order to give meaning to thepresent, to the present life of the person. 91In summary, although there are inherent limitations to using oral techniques to documentthe history of rural schooling in the Okanagan Valley in the 1920's, they should not detractfrom the validity of the interviews as an historical source. The recollections may besimplified, compressed and abstracted, but this does not make them any less an authenticimage of the past. All evidence, whether oral or written, is fallible and subject to bias. Soperhaps when assessing the relative reliability of oral and written sources \"it is less a matterof testing one source against the other than of being aware of the shortcomings of both andusing them as complementary sources to illuminate one another.\" 92Consistent with naturalistic inquiry, data collection and analysis were not separatestages in this study but rather ran concurrently throughout the research process. Theongoing nature of data analysis allowed for the construction of \"a chain of evidence\" inwhich there were \"explicit links between the questions asked, the data collected, and theconclusions drawn.\" 93 The analysis was directed towards developing an in-depthunderstanding of the settings and participants studied.Memo writing accompanied data collection. The memos involved three types ofnotations: observational, theoretical and methodological. Immediately on returning homefrom an interview I listened to the tape(s) and as I listened I noted down my impressionsand observations from the interview. I constructed a running log of my ideas about themes91 Bertaux-Wiame, \"The Life History Approach,\" 29. Italics in original. See also Daniel Bertaux,\"Stories as Clues to Sociological Understanding: the Bakers of Paris,\" in Our Common History, eds.Thompson with Burchardt, 92-107, especially page 98.92Lummis, Listening to History, 75.93Yin, Case Study Research, 84.78emerging from the data, relationships among themes and possible interpretations of thedata. I also documented decisions concerning the direction to be taken in future interviews.As data collection progressed the questions asked during the interviews often emerged fromthe information gathered in previous interviews. As I collected more information I tried torecord my changing awareness of the nature and meaning of rural schoolteaching asexperienced by the participants. Initially I was interested in documenting the subjects'teaching experiences only in terms of the actual years in the 1920's in which they taught.Gradually, however, as more interviews were conducted and I began to make sense of thedata, it became apparent that adopting such a \"snapshot\" approach and isolating theirteaching years from the rest of their lives, prevented a full understanding of both. It becamenecessary to take a longer historical perspective by incorporating the details of theirexperiences in the 1920's within the wider context of their whole life course. The PersonalNarratives Group at the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota,have suggested that such an approach is essential to \"illuminate the course of a life overtime and allow for its interpretation in its historical and cultural context.\" They continue:The very act of giving form to a whole life - or a considerable portion of it -requires, at least implicitly, considering the meaning of the individual and socialdynamics which seem to have been most significant in shaping the life. The act ofconstructing a life narrative forces the author to move from accounts of discreteexperiences to an account of why and how the life took the shape it did. This whyand how - the interpretive acts that shape a life, and a life narrative - need to take ashigh a place on the feminist agenda as the recording of women's experiences. 94Memos were also used to record any conversations, in person, on the phone, or inthe form of a letter, that I may have had with a subject apart from the formal tape recorded94Personal Narratives Group, ed., Interpreting Women's Lives: Feminist Theory and PersonalNarratives (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1989), 4. For an intelligent discussion of theuses of the biographical approach as a methodological tool in women's history, see Susan MannTrofimenkoff, \"Feminist Biography,\" Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal 10, 2(Spring 1985): 1-9. For amore general account of the importance of biography in educational research, see Geraldine Joncich Clifford,\"The Life Story: Biographic Study,\" in Historical Inquiry in Education, ed. Best, 56-74. A strictlyquantitative, macro-sociological study of the female life-course can be found in Ellen M. Gee, \"The LifeCourse of Canadian Women: An Historical and Demographic Analysis,\" Social Indicators Research (1986):263-283. Also published in McLaren, ed. Gender and Society, 187-204.79interview. Memos regarding the interview process itself were also noted - how I hadconducted the interview and how the subjects had reacted to me. As a result myinterviewing techniques improved throughout the period of fieldwork. For example, Ibecame aware in my initial interviews that I talked too much. In my eagerness to documentevery aspect of the experience of teaching in a rural school in the 1920's, I tended to askthe subjects too many questions that required recall of dates and the precise details of theirlives and work, rather than allowing them to reflect and expand upon their feelings andattitudes about their work in rural communities. I soon realized that the information that Iwished to uncover about teacher experience would not be gained in such a way, and so Ilearned to sit quietly and just listen to what the subjects wanted to tell me. 95Faced with such a large quantity of rich and varied data, collected in the interviewsand recorded in the memos, the ongoing review, classification and clarification of the datawas essential. This constant assessment constituted a preliminary analysis of the data. Byreviewing each interview as it took place I was able to confirm and explore the findings insubsequent interviews and so continually expand and refine my tentative interpretations. Imoved back and forth between observations from the interviews, and analysis andunderstanding.Once the period of fieldwork was complete the tapes were partially transcribed. 96Letters were then sent to a number of the subjects asking for further information to clarifyand explain certain points, and also additional and/or new information where necessary.Some replied promptly and with enthusiasm. Those who did not reply I did not pursuefurther. It was at this stage that a more systematic and intensive analysis of the data began.95 Neil Sutherland has made this point in his work on the history of childhood in which heinterviews adults about their childhood experiences. See —Listening to the Winds of Childhood\": The Role ofMemory in the History of Childhood,\" Canadian History of Education Association, Bulletin/d'associationcanadienne d'histoire de l'education 5, 1(February 1988): 27-28.96I transcribed all the tapes myself for the same reasons as I personally conducted the interviews: tomaintain control over the data and to ensure the same researcher bias for all the data.80On listening and re-listening to the taped interviews, and reading and re-reading thetranscripts and memos, I became aware of the tremendous diversity in the stories related tome and the fact that teaching in a small rural school was indeed a unique and personalaffair. However it was also possible to identify patterns of common experiences among therecollections. Data was grouped under general headings and supporting sub-headings. Theemerging interpretations were incorporated into content-related themes or categories whichI considered to be important in recreating the subjects' perspectives of rural schooling. Thestrategy throughout this process was to develop a logical framework within which tointerpret the subjects' perceptions and attitudes towards their experiences as teachers insuch a way that all the cases could be accounted for including the exceptions.Information from the observational data was then reviewed along with the officialprinted and manuscript sources discussed earlier. Issues that emerged in my findings werecompared with those raised in the secondary literature. Three other sources of evidencewere then incorporated into the study. Various histories that refer to schools andcommunity settlement in the Okanagan Valley were consulted. Although many of these arewritten by local historians and therefore needed to be checked for reliability and factualaccuracy, they did provide a local historical context for the teachers' recollections. The1931 Canadian Census97 was referred to but only for background details on populationgrowth and composition, economic development, and employment in the study area. Itsutility as a source of evidence was limited by the fact that the geographical boundaries ofthe study area only encompassed a census sub-district. The inclusion of photographs - ofschool buildings and grounds, classroom interiors, and teachers and pupils - in the thesiswas considered important. The single image of a teacher standing with her pupils lined upbeside her in front of a schoolhouse can provide valuable insights into the cultural context97Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Seventh Census of Canada, 1931 (Ottawa: J.O. Patenaude, King'sPrinter, dates according to volume).81of rural education by \"revealing the details usually omitted by the narrative: body and facialexpressions, small artifacts, and spatial relationships. It puts things in perspective.\" 98 Thevalue of photographs in historical research has been summed up splendidly by J. RobertDavison:[T]he real potential of historical photographs for researchers and historians [is] theirability to amplify our knowledge of the past - amplification, which is more thanillustration and less than proof. Photographs are powerfully evocative. At the verballevel we learn much, but photographs can penetrate directly into that ineffableregion beyond the uttered word where we feel and experience as much as think.Captured within the \"mirror with a memory\" is frequently a faithful reflection of theindividual and interpersonal dynamics of an entire society, focussed intensely intoone visual image no bigger than a postcard. Photographs are also extremelyseductive. Arousing our curiosity about worlds at a cultural and temporal remove,and fascinating us with the incongruities between Actual and Arranged,photographs encourage us to read closely and re-examine facts outside the image inorder to find an explanation. 99Following what Yin has termed a \"corroboratory mode\" the multiple sources ofevidence were reviewed and analyzed together. 100 In this way the findings of the studyemerge out of \"the development of converging lines of inquiry, a process oftriangulation.\" 101 Such a strategy provided a solid basis for interpretation of the data andhelped ensure the construct validity of the study. 102 Data analysis therefore comprised threestages. Preliminary analysis entailed the identification and classification of data intopotential themes or categories throughout the course of data collection. Systematictriangulation of the data after all the material had been collected allowed for furtherdevelopment and clarification of themes, and resulted in a refinement of my understanding98Madelyn Moeller, \"Photography and History: Using Photographs in Interpreting Our CulturalPast,\" Journal of American Culture 6, 1(1983): 3.99J. Robert Davison, \"Turning a Blind Eye: The Historian's Use of Photographs,\" BC Studies52(Winter 1981-82): 34-35.10°Yin, Case Study Research, 97.1 ° 1 Ibid.102See Trevor Lummis, \"Structure and Validity in Oral Evidence,\" International Journal of OralHistory 2, 2(June 1981): 109-120, especially page 110.82of the subject matter. The final stage involved the development of a framework toincorporate and interpret the themes identified in earlier stages of analysis and the placing ofthe data within a broader historical context.I would now like to turn to the representation of the data, which are presented inChapters Five to Nine, and the issues that arose in this connection. Van Maanen has arguedthat a culture is neither \"tangible\" nor \"visible\" until it has been represented. As he states:A culture is expressed (or constituted) only by the actions and words of itsmembers and must be interpreted by, not given to, a fieldworker. To portray culturerequires the fieldworker to hear, to see, and, most important for our purposes, towrite of what was presumably witnessed and understood during a stay in the field.Culture is not itself visible, but is made visible only through its representation. 103Van Maanen's words draw attention to the responsibility, indeed obligation, of theresearcher, in documenting a culture, to represent the subjects' words and actions asaccurately and honestly as possible. All research situations involving human beings raiseproblems of ethics. 104 While researchers have an obligation to contribute to knowledge,they also have a duty to protect the subjects of their research. The cooperative nature of oralhistory raises direct questions about the moral responsibility of the historian to the peoplethey write about. Confidentiality is the most familiar ethical question facing researchers ofsocial phenomena. I explored the issue of anonymity and confidentiality with each of thesubjects I interviewed. All of them were comfortable to be referred to in the thesis by theirown name. My views on this issue concur with those of Sherry Thomas who hasconducted extenstive oral interviews in the course of her work on the history of olderAmerican farm women.I think using real names is part of doing oral history. I mean I changed names whenI had to, but I felt like I lost a small piece that matters to me a lot...that absolutelyordinary people matter and count and their stories are important and we need all of103Van Maanen, Tales of the Field, 3.104See Janet Finch, \"'It's Great to Have Someone to Talk To',\" 70-87, for a useful discussion of theethical issues that arise in interviewing women, and which includes a look at the development of trust in theinterview situation and the exploitive potential of this.83their stories, and that when you start changing the names you take away some ofthat basic belief system. 105Inseparable from the issue of confidentiality is the equally important issue of trust.The subjects I interviewed were made aware that the details of their lives that they sharedwith me could be widely read, or even eventually published. For this reason some of thesubjects were keen to be kept informed of the progress of the study. The issue of trust iscentral to a major concern that I hold about the way in which I, as a researcher, can take thematerial from the interview and use it for my own purposes. Jolly Bruce Christman hassummed up this dilemma well with reference to her interviews with returning womengraduate students:For me, the greatest source of conflict revolved around using a woman's wordsabout her life to construct my argument. A woman gave her story to me in an act offriendship over tea at the kitchen table. While she set boundaries around what shewas prepared to tell in that story, I still took it away from the kitchen table and set itin a context that served my research purposes. 106Daphne Patai has expressed similar concerns when she states that she continues to be\"uncomfortable with the appearance of friendship and intimacy that the personal interviewsituation generates and even temporarily creates, in view of the extraordinary distance that,thereafter, is inevitable.\" 107 As my work progressed, and especially as I began the processof writing up the findings of the study, I became increasingly concerned about the potentialproblem of the misinterpretation, or misrepresentation, of the subjects' words. 108 AsJudith Stacey has clearly stated:105Thomas, \"Digging Beneath the Surface,\" 55.106Jolley Bruce Christman, \"Working in the Field as the Female Friend,\" Anthropology andEducation Quarterly 19, 2(1988): 78 Italics in original.107Daphne Patai, \"Ethical Problems of Personal Narratives, or, Who Should Eat the Last Piece ofCake?\" International Journal of Oral History 8, 1(February 1987): 9. See also Patai, \"U.S. Academics andThird World Women: Is Ethical Research Possible?\" in Gluck and Patai, eds. Women's Words, 137-153.Patai work is based upon her extensive interviewing of Brazilian women.108 For a detailed account of how one particular researcher was confronted with, and solved thisproblem, see Katherine Borland, —That's Not What I Said\": Interpretive Conflict in Oral Narrative Research,\"in Gluck and Patai, eds. Women's Words, 63-75.84With very rare exceptions it is the researcher who narrates, who \"authors\" theethnography. In the last instance, an ethnography is a written document structuredprimarily by a researcher's purposes, offering a researcher's interpretations,registered in a researcher's voice.\"The questions of accountability that I faced, and the way in which I resolved them, at leastin part, have been clearly articulated by Sherry Thomas who experienced similar problemsin her own research:The big issue for me...was that I felt a tremendous question about accountability tothe material. Given what I was doing with the transcription, given that I wasseverely editing the pieces, that I was taking myself out of all the pieces so that itlooked like a first person statement instead of a question-and-answer form, was Ibeing faithful -- to the voice, to the content of the material? Could I really take foursentences from here and put them at the end of another whole section and be faithfulto the flow and the content and the mood and the tone of the piece? I felt atremendous seriousness about that, and ended up having to say I had to trustmyself, my sense of that person, my sense of the connection out of those longtalks, and my sense of the shape of what they were trying to convey about theirlives. 110I decided that an extensive display of data, as it was recorded, was essential so thatreaders could make their own sense of what rural teaching entailed. In this sense I saw it asmy responsibility to build a bridge between the participants and the reader. By revealing theexperience of rural school teachers as described by the participants themselves this study is,by its very nature, written largely by the people whose work it records. The quotationsused in the body of the thesis were selected as they illustrated the themes generated fromdata analysis. When contrasting views were expressed, quotations which showed suchdisagreements were used.In presenting the data I decided to use two different approaches. The analysis inChapters Five through Eight deals with teachers' accounts of their experiences in rural109Judith Stacey, \"Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography?\" in Gluck and Patai, eds. Women'sWords, 114. The complex issues involved in the creation and interpretation of womens' lives are alsodiscussed at length in a collection of essays entitled \"Narrator and Interpreter.\" See section in InterpretingWomen's Lives, eds. Personal Narratives Group, 199-258.110Thomas, \"Digging Beneath the Surface,\" 52-53. Italics in original. I also returned the sections ofthis study which are based on the interview data to two of the subjects - one female and one male - for theircomments on the accuracy of my interpretation of the experience of rural teachers.85schools specifically in the 1920s. Whilst attempting to remain true to the highly personaland unique nature of each individual teacher's experience, the information at my disposalwas so rich and varied that I chose to thread together their accounts in order to convey thecharacter of their collective experience. In this way the resulting narrative is the compositestory of rural school teaching in the Okanagan Valley as told by the subjects and as suchconsists of a cross-case analysis, at once both descriptive and explanatory. 111 In contrast,in Chapter Nine, I wished to illustrate what teaching meant to individual teachers in thelonger term, and thus how their experiences in rural schools fitted into the larger structureof their entire life courses. I decided that the most satisfactory way to convey this extremelyintimate information was to adopt a biographical approach and present the data in the formof a number of discreet life stories, each one chosen because it represented a differentresponse to the experience of teaching as work.Jean Barman has drawn attention to the importance for historical ethnographers tomove beyond the individual account in their work to a social interpretation. As she states:Adoption of an historical ethnographic approach in no way diminishes ourresponsibility to search out broader contexts in which to place the texts that emergeout of our research. The retrieval and representation of individualexperiences...cannot be allowed to remain an end in itself, but rather become themeans toward better general explanation than would otherwise be the case. 112In short, it is important that the goal of \"illuminating a broader social context through theprism of individual experience\" be central to the agenda of researchers who use oralevidence. 113 As historian Ruth Pierson has argued:111 Yin, Case Study Research, 134-136.112Barman,- \"Constructing the Historical Ethnography of Childhood,\" 28.113Frisch and Watts, \"Oral History and the Presentation of Class Consciousness,\" 90. Similarconcerns have been expressed by other historians. See for example, Thompson, TheVoice of the Past, 262,and debate between Louise A. Tilly, Paul Thompson, Luisa Passerini, Isabelle Bertaux-Wiame, AlessandroPortelli and Ronald Grele in International Journal of Oral History 6, 1(February 1985): 5-46, especiallycomments on pages 17 and 28.86As collectors and recorders of the stories of others...we cannot accept a woman'srecollection uncritically, that is, as unmediated by cultural/historical context....Ithas, after all, never been the job of the historian only to reclaim voices. That wouldresult in naive empiricism. No, the task has been equally, and just as importantly,to contextualize the individual voices, to reconstitute the 'discursive' world whichthe 'subjects' inhabited and were shaped by. 114The individual experiences of those who taught in the rural schools of the Okanagan Valleyin the 1920's are thus located not only within the contexts of the educational and ruralhistory of British Columbia in particular, and Canada in general, but also within the historyof women and work, and specifically the history of teachers and teaching.I would like to conclude this chapter with a quotation from Silverman. Her wordsaccurately reflect my own feelings about this study of rural school teachers:The analysis which threads together this collective autobiography is mine; it is thatof a historian and a woman, and is based on reading and thinking and certainlysome identifying. I tried to listen both as a scholar and as a participant. I hope thatmy interpretations are true to the experiences of these...women. 115114Ruth Roach Pierson, \"Experience, Difference, Dominance and Voice in the Writing of CanadianWomen's History,\" in Writing Women's History: International Perspectives, eds. Karen Offer et. al.(Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1991), 91, 94.115 See The Last Best West, v.CHAPTER THREEA CONCISE HISTORY OF THE OKANAGAN VALLEY 1811-1930Understanding the culture of rural school teachers in the Okanagan Valley of BritishColumbia in the 1920's requires an understanding of the physical and historical (economicand social) settings in which the lives of the teachers, and the work they carried out, wereembedded. Chapters Three and Four provide this contexual background. This chapterbegins with a description of the geographical location of the study area within the provinceof British Columbia. This is followed by a brief account of the area's topography andclimate, both of which were important influences on the subsequent development of theOkanagan Valley, and on the educational structures that evolved. A general outline historyof the study area is then provided, drawing attention to such factors as settlement patterns,local economic activity, and the growth of transportation and communication networks,before 1930. Chapter Four has a narrower focus in that it deals with the nature and extentof educational developments in the area between 1874 and 1930, focussing particularly onthe decade from 1920 to 1930. The chronology of the establishment of schools isdocumented. Reasons for the existence and changing circumstances of the schools, asregards openings and closures, enrolment patterns, and so forth, and how these related tothe settlement patterns and local economic activity outlined in Chapter Three, are suggested.The overall purpose of the two chapters is to provide a sense of the local context fromwhich the teachers' recollections emerged.The Okanagan Valley is situated in the southern interior of the province of BritishColumbia. The Okanagan Valley, following Okanagan River, extends southward throughSkaha (Dog), Vaseux and Osoyoos Lakes to approximately seventy-two miles (115kilometres) south of the International Boundary where it joins with the Columbia River in87Washington State. 1 The Canadian portion of the Okanagan Valley extends from theInternational Boundary at latitude 49°North to Sicamous at latitude 50° 45'North, a distanceof approximately 120 miles (192 kilometres). The average longitude is 119° 30'West.However for the purposes of this thesis the term Okanagan Valley refers to that areaenclosed by the North Okanagan and South Okanagan Electoral Districts as they existed in1920 (see Map 1) 2 Thus defined the study area is approximately 150 miles (240 kilometres)in length and covers 2 172 square miles (3 475 square kilometres).The topography of the area has been described as \"maturely dissected.\" 3 TheOkanagan Valley, sometimes referred to as the Okanagan Depression or Okanagan Trench,forms a broad irregular depression in the Interior Plateau and is bounded by the CascadeMountains to the west and the Monashee Mountains to the east. The Okanagan Valley isintersected by a series of smaller long trough-like valleys, which, especially in the case ofthe main ones, are carved as deep as 3 000 to 4 000 feet (915 to 1 220 metres) into theplateau. The northern part of the Okanagan Valley, from Kelowna to Seymour Arm, ischaracterized by valleys that branch east and west and also by more or less parallel valleysin the main depression. To the south of Kelowna the valley becomes a single trough withsmaller and less significant tributaries.'Units of measurement used in this thesis are those that were in use in the 1920s. The equivalentS.I. units are noted in parentheses.2Beginning with the year 1877-78 the Annual Reports of the British Columbia Department ofEducation lists schools by Electoral Districts. This information is included in the statistical tables towardsthe end of the Reports. The availability of this information made it possible to track down all the publicschools in a given area. Without such information many of the small, isolated rural schools whose names didnot correspond to the districts in which they were located, and whose period of operation may have onlyspanned one or two years, may have failed to be included in the study simply because I would have beenunaware of their existence.It is important to note here that Electoral Districts in British Columbia were redistributed in 1923.This resulted in a number of the schools in the pre-1923 North Okanagan Electoral District being transferredto the Salmon Arm Electoral District. These schools were, however, retained in the case study.3British Columbia, Lands Service, Department of Lands, Forests, and Water Resources, Victoria,British Columbia, The Okanagan Bulletin Area: Bulletin Area No. 2. Text by R.G. Williston, Minister ofLands, Forests, and Water Resources (Victoria: K.M. MacDonald, Queen's Printer, 119671), 12-14, especiallypage 12.8889135°^ 130'^125°^12014060.60 -iBRITISH••• ••••..o47. COLUMBIA550-QUEENCHARLOTTEISLANDS '\"N•V' SO.0OVANCOUVERISLAND CANADA'UNITFirSTATiVg• •50'0^100^200STUDY AREA MILES130° 120°125° 115°Map 1The glacial drift, occurring approximately ten thousand years ago, was extremelyimportant to the evolution of the Okanagan Valley giving rise to a number of specifictopographical zones, each with its own special features. The first zone comprises the valleybottom which is at elevations of approximately 1 000 to 1 200 feet (305 to 366 metres)above sea level. As a result of glacial action the valley bottom is U-shaped with post-glaciallakes occupying over half of the depression. Okanagan Lake, the largest of the lakes in thestudy area, extends approximately sixty-nine miles (110 kilometres) from Penticton to thehead of the lake and dominates the valley floor. Other important lakes in the study areainclude Shuswap Lake and Mara Lake to the north, Mabel Lake and Sugar Lake to thenorth-east, and Kalamalka Lake (Long Lake) and Wood Lake which lie parallel and to theeast of Okanagan Lake.At a slightly higher elevation is the second topographical zone which consists ofgently sloping clay or silt terraces, often called \"benches.\" These benches fringe the lakesand the upland valleys leading into the main valley. The steep valley sides of the main andtributary valleys form the third topographical zone. They are comprised of silt terraces,although, unlike the benches described above, their banks are often hard enough to formvertical or near vertical faces. These \"bluffs,\" especially near Summerland and Naramata inthe south of the Okanagan Valley, are a prime feature of glacial-stream deposition. Thefourth and final zone consists of the Interior Plateau. This area is comprised mainly ofwooded hills and rounded mountains with rolling upper surfaces which rise to elevationsfrom 4 000 to 6 000 feet (1 220 to 1 830 metres). 4In general terms the Okanagan Valley has a very attractive climate, one that is4C.C. Kelley and R.H. Spilsbury, Soil Survey of the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys, British Columbia. Report No. 3 of British Columbia Survey ([Victoria]: British Columbia Department ofAgriculture in Cooperation with Experimental Farms Service, Dominion Department of Agriculture, 1949),8-10, especially page 8. For a comprehensive account of the topography and the history of the physiographicformations of the Okanagan Valley, see Adrian C. Kershaw, \"The Quaternary History of the Okanagan,\"Okanagan Historical Society Report (hereafter OHSR) 42(1978): 27-42.90characterized by short and relatively mild winters, warm to hot summers and low tomoderate precipitation. In fact it is often reputed to have one of the mildest climates inCanada. The basic climatic pattern in the main valleys has been classed as arid to semi-arid.5 However such a designation does not reveal the distinct features that characterize thevarious climatic zones that can be observed as one proceeds from north to south, from eastto west, and from lower to higher elevations throughout the valley. These factors, latitude,longitude and altitude, play important roles in influencing the weather patterns of theregion. The main features of the climate of the Okanagan Valley, from north to south andfrom higher to lower elevations, are a rise in mean temperatures, a lowering of precipitationand an extension of the frost-free period, and hence the growing season. 6 The east of thearea is moister than the west.By comparing the mean daily temperatures for the coldest (January) and thewarmest (July) months of the year, from three different weather stations (Seymour Arm inthe north, Vernon in the centre and Penticton in the south) some of the above climaticfeatures are illustrated.? Winter temperatures in the Okanagan Valley are amongst thehighest in Canada. From north to south the mean daily temperature for January ranges from21.9°F (-5.6°C) in Seymour Arm to 23.4°F (-4.8°C) in Vernon to 27.1°F (-2.7°C) inPenticton. Although extreme minimum temperatures for January have been recorded as lowas -14.1°F (-25.6°C) in Seymour Arm, and -16.1°F (-26.7°C) for both Vernon andPenticton, the Okanagan Valley is much less likely to undergo long periods of continuouscold than are centres in the northern interior of British Columbia such as Prince George. In5The Okangan Bulletin Area: Bulletin Area No. 2., 18.6 A useful figure illustrating this information can be found in Fritz Dalichow, AgriculturalGeography of British Columbia (Vancouver: Versatile Publishing Company, Limited, 1972), 88.?Environment Canada, Atmospheric Environment Service Canadian Climate Normals, 1951-1980. Temperature and Precipitation (British Columbia) (Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing Centre, Supplyand Services Canada, 1982), especially pages 174 (Penticton), 208 (Seymour Arm), and 247 (Vernon).91July, when surface heating has reached a maximum, mean daily temperatures range from65.8°F (18.8°C) in Seymour Arm, to 68.0°F (20.0°C) in Vernon, and 68.5°F (20.3°C) inPenticton. Although daytime temperatures have been recorded as exceeding 102.0°F(38.9°C) in Seymour Arm, 101.3°F (38.5°C) in Vernon, and 105.1°F (40.6°C) inPenticton, the surface cools quite rapidly at night in the valley and down-valley breezes andcooler temperatures are typical.The Okanagan Valley has an unusually dry climate as a result of the influences ofthe Pacific Ocean and the rainshadow effect imposed by the major mountain ranges to thewest. Annual precipitation decreases progressively from north to south along the OkanaganValley. Seymour Arm at the north end of the study area has an annual mean of 29.4 inches(74.7 centimetres) of precipitation. Further south there is an annual mean of 11.4 inches(29.0 centimetres) in Vernon and 9.3 inches (23.6 centimetres) in Penticton. Precipitationalso changes with altitude. As elevation is increased the air loses its ability to holdmoisture. The main valleys experience relative dryness, with slightly wetter conditions onthe plateau and moderate precipitation at high altitudes in the Cascade and MonasheeMountains. The plateau receives more than twice the precipitation of the valley floor.The range of climatic conditions throughout the study area are reflected in thevariety of natural vegetation, and the types of soils and hence crops produced. Much of theOkanagan Valley belongs to the Ponderosa Pine-Bunchgrass vegetation zone which occursmainly on the valley bottoms and on the benchland bordering the lakes. At slightly higherelevations, where precipitation increases and temperature decreases, vegetation is of adenser variety and Ponderosa Pine is replaced by, for example, Douglas Fir. At elevationsabove 4 000 feet (1 220 metres) the land is much more thickly forested with trees such asEngelmann Spruce and Lodgepole Pine. Changes in vegetation occur both with altitude andlatitude. The gradual decrease in precipitation southwards is a prime factor creatingsuccessively more arid soil and vegetation patterns. The Podsol soils north of Armstrongare replaced by the Black soils which predominate in the Vernon area and by Dark Brown92and Brown soils in Kelowna and Penticton respectively to the south. 8In evaluating the settlement process in the study area from the early nineteenthcentury, when the first white men entered the valley, until 1930, a number of distinctphases of development, each characterized by a particular mode of economic activity, canbe discerned. Fur trading, missionary activities, mining, extensive ranching and farming,and intensive horticulture have all played a part in the development of the Okanagan Valley,albeit at different times and in different ways. However, the changing nature of economicactivity and the settlement in the study area can only be fully understood in relation to theimprovements that took place in the system of transportation (road, rail, and water), both interms of routes and technology, within the time-frame of this study. In this context thesingle most important event was the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885with its branchline to the Okanagan Valley, the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway,completed in 1892. The effects of these events were far reaching and contributed to thetransformation of the landscape of the Okanagan Valley by 1914. It is therefore appropriateto divide the history of the study area into two sections: the period before about 1890, andthe decades from 1890 to 1930. 98For details on these topics see Kelley and Spilsbury, Soil Survey, especially the figure on page 21showing the distribution of the several zonal soil groups in the study area, and Vladimir J. Krajina,Bioclimatic Zones in British Columbia, Botanical Series Number 1 (Vancouver: [University of BritishColumbia], 1959). For a more detailed, and contemporary, description of specific districts within the studyarea in terms of topography, climate, natural vegetation, as well as some references to settlement patterns,land useage, and transportation and communication networks, see British Columbia, Department of Lands,Survey Branch, Extracts From Reports of British Columbia Land Surveyors on Surveys Within Yale District(Victoria: Charles F. Banfield, King's Printer, 1929), especially pages 5-18, 20-22, 42-46, 65, 76-78, 90-92,102-110, 118-119 and 165-166.9 lnformation on the history of the study area both before and after 1890 is included in the followingmaterial. Where titles do not indicate the specific geographical area of study, the information is noted inparentheses. Annie Dorothy Abercrombie, Sicamous, Mara to Three Valley: Gateway to the Okanagan. Landof Shimmering Sunset Water ([Sicamous]: A.D. Abercrombie, 1985); F.W. Andrew, The Summerland Story(Penticton: The Penticton Herald, 1945); Gwen Bauer, History of Seymour Arm ([Celista]: Gwen Bauer,1980); Caroline Bawtree, Reflections Along the Spallumcheen ([Enderby: Riverside Centennial Committee],1975) (Ashton Creek, Trinity Creek); F.M. Buckland, Ogopogo's Vigil: A History of Kelowna and theOkanagan (Kelowna: Okanagan Historical Society, 1979); Victor Casorso, The Casorso Story: A Century ofSocial History in the Okanagan Valley (Okanagan Falls: Rima Publications Limited, 1983) (OkanaganMission, Kelowna); R.W. CornerGlenmore: The Apple Valley ([Kelowna]: Glenmore Centennial93Committee, 1958); David Dendy, \"A Cent a Pound or on the Ground: Okanagan Fruit Growers andMarketing, 1920-1935,\" M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1981; Rosemary Deuling, BeyondShuswap Falls (N.p.: [Parkland Color Press], 1973) (Mabel Lake, Sugar Lake, Shuswap Falls); TheresaGabriel, Vernon, British Columbia: A Brief History ([Vernon]: Vernon Centennial Committee with theassistance of the Vernon Branch of the Okanagan Historical Society, 1958); [Brenda Gardner and HeatherStefanyk], Mara's Memories, (N.p., n.d.), Dorothy Hewlett Gellatly, A Bit of Okanagan History (Kelowna:Kelowna Printing Company, 1932) (Westbank, Peachland); Grassroots of Lumby 1877-1927 (Lumby:Lumby Historians, 1979); Art Gray, Kelowna: Tales of Bygone Days (Kelowna: Kelowna PrintingCompany, 1968); Greater Vernon Museum and Archives, Valley of Dreams: A Pictorial History of Vernonand District (Alton, Manitoba: D.W. Friesen and Sons, 1992), Grindrod 1910-1985 (N.p.: [Grindrod HistoryBook Committee], 1985); Nan Harris, Nan: A Childs (sic) Eye View of Early Okanagan Settlement ([N.p.,1981] (Kelowna: Regatta Press Limited)) (Kelowna); Historical Outline of Seymour Arm Area, 1860-1970 (Seymour Arm: The Bradleys, [1972]); C.W. Holliday, The Valley of Youth (Caldwell, Idaho: CaxtonPrinters Limited, 1948) (Sicamous, Enderby, Vernon, Okanagan Mission, Kelowna, Peachland, Summerland,Naramata); An Illustrated History of Vernon and District, text by Theresa Hurst (Vernon: Vernon Branch,Okanagan Historical Society, and the Board of Museum and Archives, Vernon, British Columbia, 1967);[David Jones and Ruby E. Lidstone], In the Shadow of the Cliff: A History of North Enderby (Enderby:North Enderby Historical Society, [1976]); Jon K. Laxdal, \"The Okanagan Valley,\" Canadian GeographicalJournal 75, 5(November 1967): 150-161; Ted Logie, Ted Tells (Okanagan) Tales: True Stories From OurOkanagan Pioneers (N.p., 1967) (text deals with no specific districts in the study area but refers in general tothe Okanagan Valley); J.A. MacKelvie, \"The Development of the Okanagan,\" in A History of British Columbia eds., E.O.S. Scholefield and R.E. Gosnell (Vancouver and Victoria: British Columbia HistoricalAssociation, 1913), 211-222; David Mitchell and Dennis Duffy, eds., Bright Sunshine and a Brand New Country: Recollections of the Okanagan Valley 1890-1917, British Columbia Sound Heritage Series 8,3(1979): 1-73 (Victoria: Provincial Archives of British Columbia, Aural History Program, 1979) (text dealswith no specific district in the study area but refers in general to the Okangan Valley); Naramata in Retrospect(N.p., n.d.), text originally published as an article in OHSR 29(1965): 172-190; Ninety Years of Vernon,Illustrated, text by Edna Oram and John Shephard (Vernon: Greater Vernon Board of Museum and Art Gallery,1982); Margaret A. Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia,\" M.A. thesis,University of British Columbia, 1931; Margaret A. Ormsby, ed. A Pioneer Gentlewoman in British Columbia: The Recollections of Susan Allison (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1976)(Sunnyside); Margaret A. Ormsby, Coldstream - Nulli Secundus (Vernon: Corporation of the District ofColdstream, 1990); Peachland Memories: A History of the Peachland and Trepanier Districts in the Beautiful Okangan Valley (Peachland: Peachland Historical Society, 1983); Gordon Peachey, The Okanagan (Kelowna:Gordon Peachey, 1984) (text does not deal with any specific district in the study area but refers in general tothe Okanagan Valley); Anne Pearson, An Early History of Coldstream and Lavington (Vernon: Wayside PressLimited, 1986); W.R. Powley, comp., Early Days of Winfield. B.C, ([Winfield: Winfield Women's Institute,1958]); Provincial Archives of British Columbia, Donald Graham, \"The Okanagan: Reminiscences of DonaldGraham,\" no date (Armstrong, Spallumcheen); Rutland Centennial Committee, comp., History of theDistrict of Rutland, British Columbia, 1858-1971 ([Rutland]: Rutland Centennial Committee, [1971]); DonSalting, Smile of Manitou: The History of Naramata ([Naramata]: Skookum Publications Limited, 1982);Marjorie Selody, Meeting of the Winds: A History of Falkland (Vernon: Wayside Press, 1990); Johnny Serra,The First Hundred Years: The History of Armstrong, British Columbia (N.p., [1968]); Springbend Community Recollections (N.p.: Springbend History Book Committee, 1987, 1988); Ursula Surtees,Sunshine and Butterflies: A Short History of Early Fruit Ranching in Kelowna ([N.p.], 1979) (Kelowna:Regatta City Press)); Duncan Duane Thomson, \"History of the Okanagan: Indians and Whites in theSettlement Era, 1860-1920,\" Ph.D. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985; D. Tutt, comp., TheHistory of the Ellison District, 1858-1958 ([Ellison]: Ellison Centennial Committee, 1959); University ofBritish Columbia, Main Library, Special Collections Division, Howay-Reid Collection, Donald Graham,\"Diary,\" 1876, and \"Reminiscences,\" no date (Armstrong, Spallumcheen); Primrose Upton, The History ofOkanagan Mission: A Centennial Retrospect (Okanagan Mission: Okanagan Mission Centennial Committee,1958), reprinted as an article in OHSR 30(1966): 176-247; Vernon Museum and Archives, KalmalkaWomen's Institute, comp., \"History of Oyama,\" [1951]; Larry Mike Yakimovitch, \"An Historical94Until the early nineteenth century the Okanagan Valley was largely a wilderness,unexplored by the white man. The original inhabitants of the region in the period prior towhite settlement were the Okanagan, and, further north in the area, the Shuswap, tribesbelonging to the ethnic group called the Interior Salish. 10 Three different but relatedactivities dominated the initial development of the Okanagan by white settlers: fur trading,the work of Christian missionaries and the search for gold.The first white men to enter the Okanagan Valley were probably American furtraders employed by the Pacific Fur Company. In 1811 David Stuart, a Scotsman, set outby canoe from Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River and continued up the riveruntil he reached the junction of the Okanagan River, and there established Fort Okanagan,near present day Brewster, Washington, United States of America. He then proceedednorth through the Okanagan Valley to the Thompson River to Shuswap country to tradewith the Indians. He returned the following year to build a post at Kamloops. By crossingthe height of land dividing the Columbia River system (Okanagan Lake and River) and theFraser River system (Shuswap Lake and North Thompson River) Stuart had discovered apotential route overland to connect the upper Fraser and the New Caledonia to the NorthInterpretation of the Land Utilization and Tenure Pattern in the Vernon Rural Area of the Okanagan Valley,British Columbia,\" M.A. thesis, University of Oregon, 1965; and articles in British Columbia HistoricalNews, Man-To-Man Magazine, Okanagan Historical Society Report and Westward Ho! Magazine cited in thebibliography. For an excellent bibliographical tool providing invaluable informaton on the existence andlocation of materials, mainly primary, pertinent to the history of the Okanagan Valley, see Kathleen Barlee,comp. and ed., with Duane Thomson and Maurice Williams, The Central Okanagan Records Survey(Kelowna: Okanagan College Press, 1988).10For an account of the population, social organization, economy and history of the OkanaganIndians, see Peter Carstens, The Queen's People: A Study of Hegemony. Coercion, and AccommodationAmong the Okanagan of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991) and Thomson, \"History of theOkanagan.\" Both of these studies focus mainly on how white settlement in the Okanagan Valley was to thedetriment of the native population, resulting in Indian dispossession and marginalization. In the Thomsonthesis the theme is developed within the context of a comprehensive local history. See also Mrs WilliamBrent, \"The Indians of the Okanagan Valley,\" OHSR 6(1935): 122-130. Two other recent publications arealso of interest: Jean Webber and the En'owkin Centre, Okanagan Sources (Penticton: Theytus Books, 1990),and J. Coffey, E. Goldstrom, G. Gottfreidson, R. Matthew and P. Walton, Shuswap History: The First 100 Years of Contact (Kamloops: Secwepemc Cultural Education Society, 1990). For a more general discussionof the Indian tribes in British Columbia see Wilson Duff, The Indian History of British Columbia. Volume1, \"The Impact of the White Man,\" Anthropology in British Columbia. Memoir Number. 5 (Victoria:Provincial Museum of Natural History and Anthropology, 1964).95with the lower Columbia Rivers. In 1813, John Stuart, nephew of David, working for theNorth West Company (to whom the Pacific Fur company had sold out in that year) provedthat such a land route was possible. In 1821 the North West and the Hudson's BayCompanies amalgamated, operating under the latter's name. With the establishment in 1826of the Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail which traversed the length of the Okanagan Valley fromFort Okanagan to Fort Alexandria, the Okanagan Valley became the supply route for thebulk of the fur trade for the New Caledonia and Shuswap regions. The settlement of theInternational Boundary dispute in 1846 severed the communication link between the Fraserand Columbia River systems. The Brigade Trail was abandoned and as a result theOkanagan was bypassed and probably saw few white men for the next ten years. 11As far as the settlement process in the Okanagan Valley is concerned the fur tradewas never of great significance. Being semi-arid there were relatively few beaver pelts, thestaple of the fur trade, in the Okanagan Valley. Their quality did not compare to the fursfurther north where the long harsh winters produced a superior pelt. In addition, no fortswere built in the Okanagan Valley itself. Although some campsites, such as the one atWestbank, were regularly used by their brigades, the fur trading companies did notencourage their employees to settle permanently in the area.The first permanent white settlement in the Okanagan Valley was by three priests ofthe Oblates of Mary Immaculate. 12 Father Charles Marie Pandosy, Father Pierre Richard11A detailed account of early discoverers and fur traders can be found in Buckland, Ogopogo's Vigil,chapters 1 and 2. This text contains important source material for the historian of the Okanagan Valley asBuckland obtained much of his information from old-timers in the area. See also F.M. Buckland, \"TheHudson's Bay Brigade Trail,\" OHSR 6(1935): 11-22, and Margaret A. Ormsby, \"The Significance of theHudson's Bay Brigade Trail,\" OHSR 13(1949): 29-37. With the abandonment of the Hudson's Bay BrigadeTrail new routes to the east and west became necessary. The Dewdney Trail became the means of access to thePacific and the route that many of the early settlers used. See Kathleen Stuart Dewdney, \"The DewdneyTrail,\" OHSR 22(1958): 73-91. Included in this article is a detailed map of the route of the Dewdney Trail.12Although both Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries had been active in the OkanaganValley since the late 1830's Pandosy and his associates were the first to establish a presence on a permanentbasis. See Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 21-22. See also D.A. Ross, \"St. Joseph's JesuitMission in the Okanagan,\" OHSR 24(1960): 59-61.96and Brother Richard Surel arrived in October 1859 at L'Anse au Sable, near present dayKelowna, where they established a temporary mission. The following year they moved toMission Creek and founded Okanagan Mission \"building themselves a Mission House, alittle Church, and a school of logs cut from the bush nearby.\" 13 In addition to theirreligious duties the priests also cultivated the soil in their \"desire to teach the nativeshusbandry as well as Christianity.', 14 -They successfully grew wheat, barley, potatoes andtobacco, planted fruit trees and vines, and also raised cattle. 15The role of Pandosy in the history of the Okanagan Valley is considered of greatimport by a number of historians. 16 Ormsby contends that the work of the priests wasmade possible by the contribution of the fur traders whose exploration of the regionimproved the accessibility of the area. As far as the subsequent settlement of the region isconcerned Ormsby cites numerous examples of settlers whom Pandosy persuaded to cometo the Okanagan to take up farming and ranching. Indeed, as she has pointed out, for overfifty years, until 1912 when it closed down, Okanagan Mission continued to be the nucleusfor white settlement in the area. She suggests that the beginning of agriculture can thus bedated from the time of the mission and that in this sense Pandosy is worthy of the title of\"father of settlement in the Okanagan Valley.\" 17Coincident with the activities at Okanagan Mission, the news of the discovery of13Buckland, Ogopogo's Vigil, 28.14Ibid., 27.15 Ibid.1 6See for example Primrose Upton, \"Father Pandosy, O.M.I.,\" OHSR 26(1962): 141-145, andF.M. Buckland, \"Setlement at L'Anse au Sable,\" OHSR 6(1935): 48-52.\"Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 23-27. Other sources also suggest that Pandosy wasresponsible for bringing new settlers into the Okanagan Valley, many of whom were connected, eitherdirectly or indirectly, with the mining industry. See Buckland, Ogopogo's Vigil, 33, 36, 38-39, andMacKelvie, \"The Development of the Okanagan, \" in A History of British Columbia eds., Scholefield andGosnell, 213-214. A copy of this text is available at the P.A.B.C. in Victoria.97gold on the Lower Fraser River in 1858 sparked off a new and large scale movement oftransient miners through the Okanagan Valley. Thousands of men flocked north across theAmerican border heading up the old Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail to reach the newdiggings. All the creeks flowing into Okanagan Lake were prospected in the early 1860's.In the study area the locations that attracted the greatest activity were at Mission Creek (eastof Kelowna) and Cherry Creek (a tributary of the Spallumcheen River which could beapproached via the Coldstream Valley to the east of Vernon), the latter being moreprofitable than the former. 18 Several mining companies and many individuals held highexpectations of the gold and other minerals to be found but no substantial, long-lastingmining activities ever materialized. The mining camps at Mission and Cherry Creeksoperated for only a few seasons before being deserted by men in search of betterdiggings. 19 As Carstens succinctly concludes: \"The new finds literally proved to be nomore than a flash in the pan, and the Okanagan 'gold rush' proved a complete flop.\" 20Although mining had little direct influence on the economy of the Okanagan Valley,indirectly its impact on the subsequent development of the region was significant. The largeinflux of miners travelling through the Okanagan Valley, who were unable to carry18 See H.J. Blurton, \"The Placer Mines on Cherry and Mission Creeks,\" OHSR 1(1926): 17,reprinted in OHSR 17(1953): 105-106, Mrs. Angus Wood, \"The Cherry Creek Mines,\" OHSR_ 3(1929): 12-13, Mrs Angus Wood, \"W.C. Young's Report on Mines on Cherry Creek,\" OHSR 6(1935): 57-60, CharlesD. Simms, \"Claudet's Report on Silver Mine at Cherry Creek,\" OHSR 6(1935): 61-62, G.C. Tassie, \"TheCherry Creek Silver Mining Company, Limited,\" OHSR 6(1935): 74-75, Margaret A. Ormsby, \"Francis G.Claudet's Journal: A Trip to Investigate the Cherry Creek Silver Mine, July 31 - August 23, 1867,\" OHSR12(1948): 29-40, and Margaret A. Ormsby, \"Wm. C. Young's Report on Cherry Creek,\" OHSR 16(1952):136-144. Michael Hagan, a reporter for the Victoria Colonist in the 1880's, wrote a series of articles on theOkanagan Valley, a number of which describe the various mining activities in the Cherry Creek area. Thesearticles, along with others that focus on early settlement and transportation in the district, have beenreproduced and edited with the title \"A Trip Through Okanagan Valley in 1888,\" OHSR 16(1952): 15-36. Seeespecially pages 25-36,19For a detailed analysis of the mining sector of the Okanagan economy in the early period, seeThomson, \"History of the Okangan,\" 211-244.20Carstens, The Queen's People, 42. Ormsby reached the same conclusions. She summed up thehistory of mining in the Okanagan Valley in the period before 1930 as \"a series of discoveries, soaring hopesand then disheartening failures.\" See \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 34.98adequate provisions for their long journeys, coupled with a deficiency of livestock in thevalley itself, put pressure on the food supply. This situation led Governor Douglas toencourage the importation of cattle, horses and sheep which in turn inspired someenterprising men to drive livestock north from Oregon to supply the miners' requirementsin various parts of the province. 21 Moreover, early land settlement in the area was the resultnot only of the search for gold but also of the failure to find wealth in the gold diggings.The decline in mining created a surplus of white people many of whom became the firstpre-emptors of land on a permanent basis in the study area. Indeed, Thomson has arguedthat mining was the \"mother of other industries.\" 22 As he explains:The initial gold rush introduced many potential settlers to the area and some of themremained as ranchers or as farmers engaged in a joint mode of production. Goldmining was responsible for the introduction of government services to the area, asthe colonial authorities quickly assumed control, built roads, and established apervasive presence. The mining sector complemented the agricultural sector nicely,providing a limited but important local market for agricultural produce and a sourceof income for subsistence farmers. The mining industry, limited as it was, providedan outlet without which agriculture, and therefore white settlement, may not havesurvived. 23The early settlers in the study area were mostly agriculturalists. In the northern partof the Valley the first people to settle were from the Overland Expedition of 1862, who hadtravelled east across the Prairies to take up land in the Spallumcheen Valley in 1866-67. 24The 1879 Okanagan Assessment Roll, which covered the region from the Misson toEnderby, reveals that sixty-one of the sixty-nine taxpayers in that area, that is, 88.4%,were claiming to be stockraisers or farmers. 25 By 1881 the total population stood at 817. 2621 Margaret A. Ormsby, \"The History of Agriculture in British Columbia,\" Scientific Agriculture20(September 1939): 63.22Thomson, \"History of the Okanagan,\" 212.23Ibid., 243-244.24Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 59-61. See also F.T. Marriage, \"The Overlanders,\"OHSR 20(1956): 100-146, and continued in OHSR 21(1957): 69-82.25This document gives details of settlers' occupations, landholdings and livestock for taxpaying99100For the same year Thomson estimates that the number of white and Chinese people in theOkanagan Valley numbered 413. 27 However, compared with the massive increases in therate of immigration into the area that occurred in the decades that followed, the 1881 figuresrepresent \"only a handful of settlers.\" 28 The period from the early 1860's untilapproximately 1890 was one during which white settlers in the Okanagan Valley acquiredhuge tracts of land which they devoted primarily to stockraising but also to farming orboth.Although stockraising was the dominant economic sector in the Okanagan Valley,and the sole source of income for many of the early settlers, it was not the only economicactivity pursued in the early stages of the development of the Okanagan Valley. In thenorthern part of the study area between Vernon and Sicamous, which was more heavilytimbered and where the bunchgrass was not so prolific, early emphasis was placed on graingrowing. 29 Settlers in the Okanagan Valley first began growing wheat during the late1860's in the Enderby area. The Spallumcheen Valley became dotted with large wheatranches with the grain being ground at the local grist mills. 30 As well as cattle and grain,purposes. It has been reproduced with a brief introduction in A.J. Hiebert, \"District of Okanagan AssessmentRoll, 1879,\" OHSR 41(1977): 97-99.26Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Seventh Cenus of Canada, 1931, I, 350. In the 1931Census the study area is designated as Divsion No. 3, Subdivision A - Okanagan and Shuswap, Upper. Forthe period 1881-1921, however, such detailed information was not included in the Census and thereforefigures cited in this thesis are based on those for the whole of Division No. 3. As Division No. 3 iscomprised of three subdivisions of which Subdivision A is the largest and most significant, no seriousdistortions arose. For a map of the census divisions in British Columbia see 1931 Census, Volume II,Appendix A. Population figures for individual census divisions are not available for British Columbia priorto 1881.27Thomson, \"A History of the Okanagan,\" 29. This figure included Indian wives or concubines ofwhite settlers. Significantly Thomson also points to the fact that at this time the white.population was stillonly about half that of the Indian population and that it was not until the mid-1880's that the whitepopulation surpassed the Indian community numerically.28Jean Barman, The West Beyond the West: A History of British Columbia (Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 1991), 9.29Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 59.30These were located at Enderby, Armstrong and Vernon. See Donald Graham, \"The Rise and Fall of101which were the basis of the early Okanagan Valley economy, a variety of other kinds oflivestock and crops provided for a subsistence economy. Many of the ranchers also raisedhorses, poultry, hogs, and sheep, and planted fruit trees and vegetables for their own useand for sale. Appreciable permanent settlement began with the arrival of the large-scaleranchers.Prevailing conditions of market demand, unlimited availability of land anddeterminate transportation, were ideal for the initiation and then rapid expansion of thesechanges to the landscape. Much of the country was well-watered with vast ranges coveredwith lush bunchgrass for grazing the stock. The land was left virtually unfenced so thatlivestock were able to roam at will over the hills and benchlands in search of sustenance.Moreover, land was cheap and plentiful. Settlers were able to acquire, mostly by pre-emption, large acreages of land on easy terms from the government, with grazing landbeing sold at one dollar an acre. 31 Some holdings extended over thousands of acres. In thisway much of the study area in the period until the early 1890's became monopolized by afew individuals including Cornelius O'Keefe, Thomas Greenhow, Thomas Wood, PriceEllison and A.L. Fortune. 32 According to Ormsby the ratio of cattle to settlers in theGrist Milling in the Okanagan Valley,\" OHSR 4(1930): 12-15, and Joseph Brent, \"The First Stone GristMill,\" OHSR 6(1935): 27.31 Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 40-41.32For descriptions, mainly contemporary, of the nature and extent of the landholdings of some ofthe early ranchers see Margaret A. Ormsby, \"A.L. Fortune's Autobiography,\" OHSR 15(1951): 25-40; ArtGray, \"Thomas Wood - Pioneer Rancher,\" OHSR 32(1968): 99-104, Myra K. DeBeck, \"Price Ellison: AMemorial By His Daughter,\" OHSR 12(1948): 48-58, Primrose Upton, \"The Story of the Postill Family andSome of Their Descendents,\" OHSR 30(1966): 77-85, F.T. Marriage, \"Reminiscences of A.L. Fortune,\"OHSR 20(1956): 97-146, and 21(1957): 69-82, Hagan, \"A Trip Through Okanagan Valley in 1888,\" 15-36,Mitchell and Duffy, eds., Bright Sunshine. 1-14, Buckland, Ogopogo's Vigil, chapters 4 and 5, and Graham,\"Diary,\" 1876, and \"Reminiscences.\" The Graham materials provide excellent first-hand detailed descriptionsof life in the northern Okanagan Valley in the pioneer era revealing how closely in touch he was with currentevents. It should be noted that two versions of Graham's \"Reminiscences\" are in existence. A manuscriptcopy is available at the location cited above in footnote 8. A typescript is also deposited at the P.A.B.C.Although the substance of the two accounts of Graham's experiences as a pioneer in the Okanagan Valley aresimilar, the exact details of particular events differ. Short biographical sketches of Graham's life and work canbe found in Jim Wardrop, \"Donald Graham: Pioneer, Politician and Co-operator,\" OHSR 44(1980): 19-22,and James E. Jamieson, \"Donald Graham...Early North Okangan Pioneer,\" OHSR 38(1974): 11-13.102Okanagan Valley in 1892 was probably five to one! 33The pattern of settlement and economic activities that developed in the study areaprior to the early 1890's evolved within the context of the existing transportation system.34Access to the Okanagan Valley was both arduous and time-consuming. Travel was onlypossible by horseback on pack trails such as the Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail and theDewdney Trail that were used by fur traders and miners. As settlement increased wagonroads were built. The first was constructed in 1873 from the head of Okanagan Lake toSpallumcheen.35 In 1875 the Okanagan and Mission Valley Wagon Road was completed.Construction on the road began in 1871 and it ran from Kamloops via the head ofOkanagan Lake to Vernon (then Priest's Valley) and then on to Okanagan Mission. 36 Asmore land was taken up further south on both sides of Okanagan Lake more roads had tobe built. 37The terrain of British Columbia is such that settlers often located in narrow rivervalleys or near lakes. Water transport consequently played an important role in thedevelopment of many areas. 38 Access to, and transportation throughout, the OkanaganValley was facilitated by steamboat navigation of its waterways. In 1866 a sternwheeler,33Ormsby, \"The History of Agriculture,\" 63.34For a comprehensive account of the transportation system that evolved in British Columbiabetween 1870 and 1930 which also draws attention to the relationships between that system and thedeveloping economy and society of the province, see Cole Harris, \"Moving Amid the Mountains, 1870-1930,\" B.C. Studies 58(Summer 1983): 3-39.35Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 153. See also pages 36-40 for a summary of theearly roads in the 1850's and 60's that connected the Okanagan Valley and surrounding area to other parts ofBritish Columbia.36Buckland, Ogopogo's Vigil, 53-54. See also J. Percy Clement, \"Early Days in Kelowna,\" OHSR23(1959): 116-117.37For an account of the development of road construction up to 1914, see George M. Watt,\"Transportation by Road and Trail in the Okanagan Valley ,\" OHSR 27(1963): 50-57. Better roads alsoimproved the mail service. See Ken Mather, \"Stagecoaches in the North Okanagan - 1872-1892,\" OHSR52(1988): 37-40.38Barman, The West Beyond the West, 113.103the Martin, was built by the Hudson's Bay Company to transport passengers and freightbetween Kamloops and Seymour Arm at the head of Shuswap Lake. 39 As theSpallumcheen River was navigable as far as Enderby (then Fortune's Landing) a routeexisted that connected the agricultural areas in the north Okanagan to Kamloops. In 1882the navigation of Okanagan Lake was inaugurated by Captain Thomas Dolman Shorts whobegan the first passenger and freight service in an open rowboat.40 In 1886 he launched thefirst of many steam-powered vessels to travel the length of Okanagan Lake. The MaryVictoria Greenhow operated between the head of the Lake and Penticton. 41 Access to thewest side of Okanagan Lake was made possible by ferry. 42In 1885 the mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was completed toBritish Columbia's coast. The railway passed through the sparsely populated southerninterior region of the province skirting the shores of Shuswap Lake in the northernOkanagan Valley. Sicamous, often referred to as the \"gateway to the Okanagan\" became animportant railway junction. 43 The completion of the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway in1892 had the greatest effect on the subsequent development of the area. One of the earlypioneers has referred to the building of the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway as \"a sort of39William Alison and Helenita Harvey, \"Steamboats on the Shuswap,\" OHSR 49(1985): 48-53.40Eric Sismey, \"Thomas Dolman Shorts,\" OHSR 29(1965): 145-146.41L. Norris, \"The First Steamboat on Okanagan Lake,\" OHSR 3(1929): 24-26, reprinted in OHSR18(1954): 39-41. and Joseph B. Weeks, \"Steamboating on Okanagan Lake,\" OHSR 6(1935): 220-229. Seealso Otto L. Estabrooks, \"Some Reasons for Stern Wheel Boats on Okanagan Lake,\" OHSR 32(1968): 27-30.42L.A. Hayman, \"The Kelowna-Westbank Ferry,\" OHSR 10(1943): 39-44, and C. Noel Higgin,\"The Summerland-Naramata Ferry,\" OHSR 15(1951): 90-95. For a recent article that brings together much ofthe above information, see Harley R. Hatfield, \"Commercial Boats of the Okanagan: A Summary Sketch,\"OHSR 56(1992): 20-33.43 \"Excerpts From \"Southern British Columbia\" (The Garden of Canada): Issued by the C.P.R.,1906, to Encourage Colonists to B.C. Kootenay, Boundary and Okanagan Districts and Vancouver Island. ABrief Description of Their Wonderful Resources and Scenic Beauties,\" OHSR 22(1958): 21.104turning point in our lives.\" 44On June 2 1886 the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway Company was incorporatedby a Dominion Act, its mandate to build and operate a railway line from Sicamous toOkanagan Landing near Vernon at the head of Okanagan Lake, a distance of 51.3 miles. 45The line was made possible by the initiative of local and provincial businessmen and thefinancial assistance of both the Provincial and Dominion Governments. The CPR leased therailroad and began operation on May 12, 1892. Shortly afterwards the CPR, in competitionwith privately-owned local enterprises, began sternwheeler operations on Okanagan Laketo provide ongoing transportation further south of Vernon thereby extending the Shuswapand Okangan Railway to the foot of the Lake. These steamers, beginning with theluxurious Aberdeen, and then later the Okanagan and Sicamous, travelled down the lake toPenticton stopping to pick up or deliver passengers and goods at the many landings alongthe way.46 A connecting stagecoach ran to the American border.47 The sternwheelersplayed an important role in the development of the Okanagan Valley, not the least becausethey served as a locus of social activity for the communities along the lakeshore. Until themid-1930's when improvements in road transportation between Penticton and Vernonmade the steamer service obsolete, the lakeboats were regarded as \"the lifeline of thecommunity.\"48 To many settlers they represented mail, supplies and perhaps a chance to44Holliday, The Valley of Youth, 256. Holliday came to the Okanagan Valley in 1889 to work asan engineer on the CPR line at Sicamous for one year. He stayed for fifty. Although rather anecdotalHolliday's account is fascinating. He vividly recreates the whole range of different types of people who madeup Okanagan society in the early decades of settlement.45George H. Morkill, \"The Shuswap and Okanagan Railway Company,\" OHSR 3(1929): 10-12,and 4(1930): 15-17. Reprinted in OHSR 6(1935): 114-118, and 18(1954). See also Robert Cowan, \"100thAnniversary of the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway,\" OHSR 56(1992): 7-11.46Joseph B. Weeks, \"The Swan Song of the Sternwheelers on Okanagan Lake,\" OHSR 13(1949):59-62.47Barnmn, The West Beyond the West, 114.48Ninety Years of Vernon, Illustrated 20-28 especially page 27. A number of fine photographs are105visit friends thus reducing the sense of isolation so typical in small rural areas. R.J. Sugar,who immigrated to Vernon from London, England in 1905, explains:A landing had a dock or wharf and served a few miles of settlers either way. Andthere would usually be a post office at this location, and probably a store....One ofthe strange things about it is that it didn't seem remote. We didn't feel cut off. Wecould go to one of the nearest landings and get on one of the boats. We could gosouth today and north tomorrow....We didn't feel that we were out in the sticks atal1.49Improvements in rail transportation also took place in the period after 1892. TheKettle Valley Railway, running through Penticton and Summerland and completed in 1915,was the first railway line to be built in the southern part of the study area. 5° In the 1920'sshort stretches of Canadian National Railway lines were also laid. Running from themainline at Kamloops via Armstrong to Vernon, the line then branched off into twospurlines, one to Lumby and the other to Kelowna. These lines were completed and inoperation by 1925. 51 A succinct summary of the long term ramifications of improvementsin transport, especially transport by rail, on the subsequent development of the OkanaganValley is provided by Thomson. He makes it clear that transportation played a decisive rolein that development:The railroad opened the Okanagan Valley to the outside world. Transportationdevelopment was closely related to the progress of white settlement becauseimproved transportation made new industries viable and increased the value of theland and mineral resources, thus attracting new immigrants. Dramatic changes inimmigration, economic activities and social development accompanied and followedrailway construction, altering the face of the Okanagan. 52Between 1890 and 1930 the economy of the Okanagan Valley also underwent aperiod of transition both in terms of land tenure and utilization. The period heralded a shiftincluded in this text.49Mitchell and Duffy, eds., Bright Sunshine, 27.50For details on the construction and route of the Kettle Valley Railway, see Ruth Macorquodale,\"Andrew McCulloch and the Kettle Valley Railway \" OHSR 13(1949): 71-82.51 Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 158-159.52Thomson, \"A History of the Okanagan,\" 27.106in agricultural orientation as new modes of economic activity and organization wereinaugurated. Large ranches based on cattle and grain were subdivided into smaller plotswhich were then devoted primarily to the production of fruit. Extensive ranching wasreplaced by intensive horticulture. Orchards had existed in the Okanagan well before the1890's. The Oblate Fathers had planted apple trees at Okanagan Mission in the 1860's, andmany of the early settlers grew fruit on a small scale for subsistence purposes. Howeverthese early attempts at fruit growing \"were not commercial orchards in the modern sense,but rather the fruit-gardens of cattlemen and grain farmers.\" 53The main impetus for the introduction of commercial fruit growing in the OkanaganValley came through the ambitious efforts of the Scottish aristocrat, Lord Aberdeen, whowas Governor General of Canada from 1893-1898. He and his wife, Lady Aberdeen,purchased two large ranches in the Okanagan, the Guisachan Ranch (480 acres) nearKelowna in 1890, and the Coldstream Ranch (13 000 acres) near Vernon in 1891. In 1892he planted 200 acres of each ranch to orchard, and the following year subdivided part of thelatter into smaller plots for sale to settlers who wished to become fruit farmers. 54 Inspiredby Aberdeen other farmers embarked on similar ventures in the early 1890's. 55This enthusiasm for fruit farming proved to be premature. The widespread53David Dendy, \" The Development of the Orchard Industry in the Okanagan Valley - 1890-1914,\"OHSR 38(1974): 68. A shorter version of this article is published in British Columbia Historical News 23,2(Spring 1990): 28-30.54It is generally accepted that Aberdeen be given the credit for this. See for example Margaret A.Ormsby, \"Fruit Marketing in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia,\" Agricultural History 9, 2(April1935): 81. This article is based on material in chapter six of the author's M.A. thesis cited in thebibliography. F.W. Andrew, however, contends that James Gartrell, who pre-empted land in the Trout Creekarea near Summerland and began planting apple trees in 1890, rather than Aberdeen, was the first to growfruit commercially in the Okanagan. See \"The First Commercial Orchard in Okanagan Valley,\" OHSR 18(1954): 53-58. Aberdeen also grew hops. Hop production continued to flourish in the Coldstream Valleyuntil about 1914. Due to the shortage of local labour the Nez Perce Indians from Washington, travelled up tothe Okanagan Valley every year to harvest the hops. See E.V. de Lautour, \"The Nez Perce Indians,\" OHSR 14(1950): 110-118, and Patrick Bennett, \"Nez Perce Indians Hop Picking at Vernon,\" OHSR 14(1950): 119-122.55 By 1893 approximately 75 000 trees, most of which were apple, had been planted in the Yale-Cariboo district, mainly at Kelowna and Vernon. See Dendy, \"The Development of the Orchard industry,\" 69.107conversion to intensive horticulture was achieved neither quickly nor easily. Hindered by avariety of problems the fruit industry remained experimental for almost another decade.Thus, important as the early plantings were as the forerunners of later developments, theydid little to alter the fundamental nature of the Okanagan's economic base. Orchardists wereinexperienced, lacking the necessary knowledge to successfully plant, nurture and harvesttheir crops. Marketing problems and a continent-wide depression that lasted from 1893-1898 also hepled account for the fruit industry's shaky start.56 More important, andperhaps the major setback, was the lack of available land for development. Practically allthe good farmng land was still owned by the original ranching oligopoly. The followingexcerpt from the Vernon News in 1905 explains:[A] great drawback to the development of the district and its expansion inpopulation and importance has been the fact that large areas of land, secured by theearly settlers, were held by the individual owners, who refused to sell, and thus, toa great extent, kept the small rancher from gaining a foothold in the valley. 57It was not until the profitability of cattle and wheat ranching had passed, the first generationof landowners had retired and/or were willing to sell their properties, and economicconditions in general had improved that commercial orcharding on a large scale becamepossible. These conditions were fulfilled by the turn of the century. 58The transition to an orcharding economy required large scale capital investmentnecessary for the purchase and development of the vast ranchlands:A number of individual entrepreneurs felt that the time was opportune for money tobe made both for the ranchers and themselves if they could convince the ranch56Ibid., 69-70.57Vernon News, Dominion Fair Number, September-October 1905, \"The Valley of the Okanagan,British Columbia,\" 17. This piece provides a good primary account of the economy of the Okanagan at atime of transition. It is, in essence, a guided tour of the region in 1905. It describes each district as onetravels from north to south through the valley emphasizing climatic and geographical features as well as theoptions available for land use. Attention is particularly paid to the advantages of fruit growing.58 The circumstances that resulted in the replacement of the old ranching economy in the post-railway era with that of intensive horticulture were complex and thus beyond the scope of this thesis. Fordetailed discussions of the issues involved see Thomson, \"A History of the Okanagan,\" 262-291 and 322-336.See also Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 57-58 and 68-74.108owners to sell off part of their land. In turn, the entrepreneurs believed that theycould then sell the land as orchard properties and promote the development ofsettlement and the fruit farming industry in the valley. 59The \"boosterism\" efforts of these entrepreneurs - men such as George G. MacKay, LordAberdeen, John Moore Robinson, Walter R. Pooley, Edward M. Carruthers and ThomasW. Stirling - played a crucial role in the development and settlement of the Okanagan.60They formed land development companies to administer the purchase of many of the largeestablished ranches.61 Realizing that \"water was the golden key to unlocking the hundredsof acres of potential development land\" 62 many companies also incorporated extensive andexpensive irrigation schemes into their overall plans. 63 Once irrigated the land was planted59Paul M. Koroscil, \"Boosterism and the Settlement Process in the Okanagan Valley, BritishColumbia, 1890-1914,\" in Canadian Papers in Rural History Volume 5, ed., Donald H. Akenson(Gananoque, Ontario: Langdale Press, 1984), 76.60Ibid., 73-103, especially pages 98 and 100. This article provides detailed information on thebiographical aspects of the individual boosters as well as discussing the nature and impact of their activitieson the development of the Okanagan. Additional sources on Aberdeen include Ormsby, Coldstream - NulliSecundus, 12-22 and passim, Pearson, An Early History of Coldstream and Lavington, 27-38 and passim,R.M. Middleton, ed., The Journal of Lady Aberdeen: The Okanagan in the Nineties (Victoria: MorrissPublishing Company Limited, 1986), Doris Shackleton, \"Lord and Lady Aberdeen: Their OkanaganRanches,\" The Beaver 312:2 (Autumn 1981): 10-18, and Mary Kitcher, \"Coldstream Ranch Goes Back OneHundred Years,\" OHSR 27(1963): 119-123. On Robinson see F.W. Andrew, \"Peachland, Summerland andNaramata,\" OHSR 19(1955): 62-72, Win Shilvock, \"John Moore Robinson,\" British Columbia Historical News 23, 2(Spring 1990): 26-27, Mitchell and Duffy, eds., Bright Sunshine, 56-65, and Provincial Archivesof British Columbia, J.M. Robinson, The Transition of the Okanagan: As Told by J.M. Robinson, [1926].On Carruthers and Stirling see W.R. Carruthers, \"Edward Maurice Carruthers, J.P.,\" OHSR 32(1968): 63-68,H.J. Hewetson, \"Commander Thomas Willing Stirling,\" OHSR 15(1951): 185-186, and Arthur W. Gray,\"Commander T.W. Stirling: Early Kelowna Pioneer,\" OHSR 35(1971): 98-100.61 The best source on the activities of the land development companies is David R.B. Dendy, \"OneHuge Orchard: Okanagan Land Development Companies Before the Great War,\" B.A. honours thesis,University of Victoria, 1976. Dendy deals mainly with the Kelowna area. See also William Quigley, \"BelgoCanadian Land Company,\" OHSR 25(1961): 140-144, Hilda Cochrane, \"Land & Agricultural Company ofCanada,\" OHSR 26(1962): 107-110, Hilda Cochrane, \"Belgian Orchard Syndicate,\" OHSR 26(1962): 111,Art Gray, \"Central Okanagan Land Company,\" OHSR 29(1965): 91-97, Jane Evans, \"The Rise and Fall ofthe L&A Ranch in the North Okanagan,\" OHSR 41(1977): 29-34, and Carol Scott, \"Land DevelopmentActivities in the Okanagan (1890's),\" OHSR 43(1979): 43-46.62Surtees, Sunshine and Butterflies, 20.63See Arthur W. Gray, \"The Story of Irrigation -- Lifeblood of the Okanagan Valley's Economy,\"OHSR 32(1968): 69-80, Lydia Baumbrough, \"Irrigation and Water Legislation in the Pioneer Years,\" OHSR 43(1979): 5-10, Brian Rude, \"History of Vernon Irrigation,\" OHSR 35(1971): 108-110, and A.W. Gray, \"TheWood Lake Water Company Limited,\" OHSR 29(1965): 133-137, Jay Ruzesky and Tom Carter, Paying ForRain: A History of the South East Kelowna Irrigation District (South East Kelowna Irrigation District,109with orchards and subdivided into smaller plots for sale to individual settlers. 64Subdivision greatly increased the amount of land available for purchase. Some of theboosters also built storage and packing houses, canneries and processing plants,established nurseries to supply the orchards, and were responsible for the construction ofprimary and secondary roads in the areas of their landholdings.The land companies not only developed the land but embarked upon aggressiveadvertising campaigns to sell their land and encourage further settlement in the Okanagan.Newspaper and magazine articles, brochures, pamphlets and even books extolling thevirtues of the fruitlands were published and distributed not only in British Columbia andother parts of Canada, especially on the Prairies, but also overseas in Britian and Europe. 65The CPR took part in the promotion of the Okanagan by offering a special low fare of fortydollars to potential settlers for transportation from England. 66Improved transportation, increased availability of land, and the promises of fameand fortune made by the real estate agents and in the promotional literature, lured settlers ingreat numbers to the Okanagan and precipitated a land boom. The optimism and rapid1990). Ormsby deals in detail with the history of irrigation in the period up to 1930. See \"A Study of theOkanagan Valley,\" 78-98.64For interesting details on the purchase dates and acreages of some of the original largelandholdings in the Okanagan Valley, as well as the prices at which they were re-sold in the early 1900's seeMargaret A. Ormsby, \"Pre-exemption (sic) Claims in Okanagan Valley,\" OHSR 6(1935): 177-184.65Examples of articles published in British Columbia during the land boom years 1900-1913include H.M. Walker, \"Enderby, the Gateway of the Okangan,\" Westward Ho! Magazine 2, 6(June 1908): 67-69, \"Armstrong, B.C.,\" Westward Ho! Magazine 2, 6(June 1908): 70-72, \"Vernon, the Hub of theOkanagan,\" Westward Ho! Magazine 3, 2(September 1908): 161-165, A.T. Robinson, \"Summerland,\"Westward Ho! Magazine 3, 4(November 1908): 359-365, Walter R. Pooley, \"Kelowna -- The CityDesirable,\" Westward Ho! Magazine 3, 5(December 1908): 446-451, \"Salmon Arm,\" Westward Ho! Magazine4, 4(April 1909): 262-265, \"Naramata: A Fruit Growing Community,\" Westward Ho! Magazine 5, 1(July1909): 448-452, W.J. Clement, \"Fruit Growing in the Okanagan: One of the Most Productive Fruit Belts inthe World; Its Development; Its Opportunities,\" Man-to-Man Magazine 6, 8(September 1910): 633-643, andW. Beaver Jones, \"Kelowna - The Orchard City of the Okanagan,\" British Columbia Magazine 9, 7(July1913): 391-396. See J.S. Redmayne, Fruit Farming on the \"Dry Belt\" of British Columbia: The Why and Wherefore 4th ed. (London, England: The Times Book Club [1909]) for an example of a piece of promotionalliterature published in Britain, and aimed at, the British.66Margaret A. Ormsby, British Columbia : A History (Vancouver: Macmillan of Canada, 1958),314 and 353. See also \"Excerpts From \"Southern British Columbia,\"\" 19-25.110growth that characterized this boom reached its peak in the years before the First WorldWar. Indeed by 1913 \"boosterism was at a \"feeverish (sic) pitch.\" 67 Between 1901 and1913 the number of fruit trees planted in the Okanagan had increased by 525%. 68 By 1913the Okanagan was the leading orchard region in the province with over twenty millionpounds of fruit being produced in that year, an amount worth more than 640 000 dollars tothe farmers and with 30 000 people dependent on the success or failure of the crop. 69 Landvalues rose to unprecedented rates. By 1912 irrigated land was selling for between $200-400 an acre, whereas a fully developed orchard in bearing could cost as much as $2 000 anacre.70 Dorothea Walker's comments on the nature of Okanagan society in the early yearsof the twentieth century are telling when she suggests that \"Everybody was fruit-mad inthose days.\" 71 Significantly, the news of the land boom in the Okanagan \"encouragedunbridled speculation\" in other parts of the province such as the West Kootenays and thesouth and central interior, as many settlers embarked on orcharding hoping for, althoughnot always achieving, the same measure of success as those farmers in the Okanagan. 72The collapse of the Okanagan land boom occurred as rapidly as its meteoric growth.Inflated claims as to the quality and fertility of the lands advertized as suitable for orchard,poor land management due to inexperience, rapid over-production of fruit and disorganizedmarketing of the fruit crops were all contributing factors in this collapse:Some of the promotional efforts in selling orchard land to overseas buyerswere highly questionable and the cause of great distress to many improperlyinformed, inexperienced purchasers encouraged by pie-in-the-sky prospectuses of67Koroscil, \"Boosterism and the Settlement Process,\" 97.68Ormsby, \"Fruit Marketing,\" 82.69Dendy, \"The Development of the Orchard Industry,\" 73.70Ibid., 71.71 Mitchell and Duffy, eds., Bright Sunshine, 54.72Barman, The West Beyond the West, 186-187.111land agents....Great hardships were endured by the pioneer orchardists because of totallyinadequate irrigation systems, recurrent winter freezes, the planting of numerousand unsuited varieties, minor element deficiences, the invasion of codlingmoth...and above all, by repeated failures to establish a sound marketing systembacked by unified grower support.73Disaster came in 1912. Dendy explains:By this time many of the new orchards were coming into bearing. A heavy crop inthe Okanagan coincided with similar heavy crops in Washington and Oregon, andthe result was that the usual markets on the Canadian prairies were glutted with theAmerican surplus at low prices, and Okanagan fruit, which came onto the marketlater than the American crop, was put at an enormous disadvantage, with resultantdisasterously low prices. 74A crash in the British Columbian real estate and investment market in early 1913marked the final end to the boom. The fruit industry almost ground to a standstill. Landsales dropped dramatically. New plantings ceased and many of the marginal or failedorchards were abandoned. After 1919, however, conditions began to stabilize as attemptswere made to consolidate the fruit industry by solving some of its problems. New orchardsof more suitable varieties of fruit were planted and most on a smaller scale and thus morerealistically related to market requirements. In addition farmers were forced to foundcooperative organizations to facilitate more extensive marketing of their fruit crops. 75 Thusby 1921 the acreage of fruit trees planted in the Okanagan, as compared to 1901, had risenby 674%.76Throughout the 1920's the production of fruit remained a dominant economicactivity in the study area. As a result of major subdivision activity between approximately1900 to 1910 the industry was typically characterized by small units of production, the73D.V. Fisher, \"History of Fruit Growing in the B.C. Interior,\" OHSR 42(1978): 72-73.74Dendy, \"The Development of the Orchard Industry,\" 72.75For details see Dendy, \"\"A Cent a Pound or on the Ground\".\" See also Ormsby, \"A Study of theOkanagan Valley,\" 99-119, Ormsby, \"Fruit Marketing,\" and F.M. Buckland, \"The Beginning of Co-operativeMarketing,\" OHSR 15(1951): 148-17976Ormsby, \"Fruit Marketing,\" 83.112average size being between six and twelve acres. Most of the farms were owner-occupiedand operated mainly on the basis of household production. At mid-decade approximately1 400 plots of land were being worked by individual fruit farmers and the members oftheir families.77 In 1930 the annual value of the fruit industry in the Okanagan was$5 000 000. 78Although orcharding accounted for the greatest proportion of agriculturalproduction in the 1920's, the Okanagan Valley was by no means a one-crop region. Earlyattempts at growing fruit in the Spallumcheen Valley proved to be unsuccessful, theextreme cold in the winter killing the majority of the trees. The experience of the Skeltonfamily was typical of many other disappointed settlers who, convinced by the persuasiveadvertising of land development companies, came to the Spallumcheen Valley with thepurpose of growing fruit. They arrived in 1907 and a short time later planted forty acres oftheir land to orchard. By the late 1930's only two or three dozen trees remained:Fruit growing was given up after World War I because Armstrong winters weresimply too harsh for the tender trees....Mixed farming proved a more practicalenterprise for the area. Workers and the owners of small holdings supplementedtheir incomes by logging during the winter as well as cutting firewood and railwayties.79Thus out of necessity the industry gradually became localized in the area between Vernonand Penticton where the climate was more conducive to growing fruit. In the northern partof the study area other types of land use, especially mixed farming and lumbering werepursued.\" Cultivated hay (alfalfa, timothy, clover, grasses) as well as cereal grains77Thomson, \"A History of the Okangan,\" 327. Thomson obtained some of these details from a fruitsurvey of the province conducted between 1921-1925 by F.M. Clement and W.J. Wilcox of the University ofBritish Columbia. See L. DeW. Mallory, \"A Short Summary of the Tree Fruits Survey,\" Victoria, 1929.Cited in Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 117.78Ormsby, \"Fruit Marketing,\" 97.79Moyreen McKechnie, \"The Skelton Family,\" OHSR 48(1984): 123.80For details on these industries see Ormsby, \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley,\" 120-141. See alsoRonald Rupert Heal, \"Farms and Enterprises in the North Okanagan,\" OHSR 16(1952): 121-127. The 1931113(wheat, barley, oats) were important field crops in the northern Okanagan. A variety ofvegetables were grown in large quantities in the many truck gardens. In the area aroundVernon, and also in the Kelowna area, the principal crop was tomatoes, although othervegetables such as potatoes, onions, cabbages, turnips, parsnips, carrots, beets, andcucumbers were also successfully grown. At Armstrong the major crops were celery andlettuce, and later asparagus. 81 Tobacco-growing, especially around the Kelowna area, hadbeen a significant industry since the 1890's, and by the late 1920's was one of the mostimportant intensive crops grown in the southern part of the study area. 82Dairying was a significant part of mixed farming in the northern part of the valley,especially during the 1920's when a good local market for a variety of dairy products haddeveloped. Cream was collected in cream gathering trucks from the small farms that raisedcattle in outlying districts and shipped to one of the creameries for processing. The mostimportant of these was the Okanagan Valley Cooperative Creamery Association which hadplants at Armstrong, Enderby and Vernon, although by the end of the 1920's all processingwas centralized at Vernon. Some farmers even raised bees and sold honey.Logging was a long established industry in the Okanagan. Early saw-mills werebuilt at Peachland, Summerland and Kelowna but the largest logging areas were furthernorth where the timber supply was greater. 83 The main source of lumber was located in theregion of Mabel and Sugar Lakes and throughout the huge watershed of the ShuswapRiver.\" Enderby, as a result of its central position in the district, became the main locationCensus provides detailed lists of the types and quantities of the various crops, livestock and forest products onwhich the economy of the Okanagan Valley was based. See Volume VIII, pages 744-757.81 Judy Reimche, \"Armstrong: From Celery to Cheese,\" British Columbia Historical News 23,2(Spring 1990): 19-20.82S ee Helen Payne, \"The Tobacco Industry in Kelowna 1894-1932,\" OHSR 46(1982): 29-37.83See, for example, Hamish C. MacNeill, \"Logging and Sawmills in Peachland,\" OHSR 44(1980):60-65.84Two local histories that deal with this area are Deuling, Beyond Shuswap Falls and Bawtree,114of the early lumber mills. 85 Mills were also established, and still in operation in the 1920's,at Armstrong. In addition to lumber manufacturing, and especially after 1914, pole-cuttingbecame important as a number of American companies began operations in the valley. Mostof the poles came from the Sugar Lake and Trinity Valley areas where lumber camps wereestablished. Pole yards existed at Enderby, Mara, Grindrod, and Lumby. The poles, alongwith fence posts and railway ties, were shipped to eastern Canada and to the eastern UnitedStates.In addition to the main economic activities already described some of the settlers inthe Okanagan found employment with the C.P.R., especially in communities such asOkanagan Landing and Sicamous, both of which were busy rail terminals. OkanaganLanding was also an important boat landing centre with a thriving shipyard. Work was alsoavailable on one of the many road building crews involved in improving the road systemthroughout the area.Between 1890-1930 significant changes occurred in the settlement pattern in thestudy area. The initial impetus came as a result of improved transportation routes whichopened up the Okanagan and thus facilitated easier access to the region. Settlers moved intothe area in rapidly increasing numbers from both east and west. The activities of the landdevelopment companies continued, and even accelerated, the changes already underway.From the 1880's onwards the population of the Okanagan increased tremendouslyfrom 817 in 1881 to 3 360 in 1891, 12 085 in 1901, and 28 066 in 1911. Thereafter therate of immigration slowed down so that by the end of the next decade, primarily as a resultof the crash in the land boom and the effects of the First World War, there was a markeddecline in growth. In 1921 the total population stood at 35 522. Between 1921 and 1931Reflections Along the Spallumcheen. See also Isobel Simard, \"Reminiscences of Mabel Lake 1907-1967,\"OHSR 34(1970): 145-155.85G.L. Ormsby, \"Saw-Milling at Enderby,\" OHSR 12(1948): 109-111.115the population of the Okanagan grew by only 5 001 to 40 523. 86The distribution of the population also changed in the decades after 1890. Prior tothat date the majority of settlers lived in the Head-of-the-Lake-Spallumcheen-Missionregions. As immigration increased the pattern changed to a more even distributionthroughout the area with settlers also taking up land to the east in the Coldstream Valley andout along the shores of the Shuswap River and its surrounding area to Mabel and SugarLakes. Communities also grew up on the west side of Okanagan Lake at locations such asPeachland and Summerland.The type of settler who came to the Okanagan was particularly important. In part thecomposition of the population was determined by the activities of land developmentcompanies whose success depended on a steady stream of settlers with money coming outto the Okanagan to buy up their land. The companies often directed their propagandamachines to the geographical areas with which they were the most familiar, usually fromwhere their finance originated. Many of the land companies were backed by capital fromforeign firms, and as the most prevalent were British, a sizeable proportion of theindividuals who took up land in the Okanagan in the period 1890-1914 were from Britain.The influence of Lord Aberdeen was important in this respect. When he subdivided hisland on the Coldstream Ranch he made no attempt to sell the plots to people in the localarea. Rather, he was more concerned to attract settlers from England and Scotland thatwere, as Lady Aberdeen described them, \"of a very good class.\" 87 Many such youngmiddle and upper class men of means were attracted to the Okanagan and played animportant role in its development:86 1931 Census, Volume 1, 350-358. For the period 1921-1931 details on the population ofSubdivision A are available. Over that decade the population rose by 2 680 from 21 982 in 1921 to 24 662 in1931, an increase of 12.2%. Thus illustrating that the increases in population in Subdivision A wererepresentative of the general population trends for the whole of Census Division No. 3.87Middleton, ed., The Journal of Lady Aberdeen, 55.116These men were to place an indelible stamp on the Okangan landscape. They hadthe financial capability to purchase expensive land, wait for it to become productiveand operate it as gentlemen farmers. Virtually hundreds of these immigrantsestablished themselves in the Okanagan on small acreages, nearly all of themhoping to gain their living through fruit production. 88Not all young Englishmen were so industrious, or had such a long-lasting influenceon Okanagan society. Many, referred to as \"remittance men,\" were individuals, usuallywell educated, who had been sent out to the colonies because, for a variety of reasons, theydid not conform to the norms of English society. Often regarded as \"a wastrel\" such a man\"got an allowance from the Old Country to keep him out of the way. He didn't have to earnhis living.\"89 An early pioneer of Peachland describes their lifestyle:Very few of them would hire out to work. They all had good horses, many of themowned a small cabin and a bit of ground to scratch around in, but they never tried toraise a crop. Many of them lived on credit, lived well, paid their store bill when themoney came from \"Home\" and would take a trip to Kelowna for a short spree andbrought back a bottle or two for their friends. This life died out after 1914. 90Many other British settlers were from \"simple working class backgrounds, men andwomen seeking a better life in a newer land.\" 91 Although British immigrants continued tochoose the Okanagan as their destination and some took up land under Soldier SettlementBoard schemes after 1918, the massive influx of settlers that had characterized the early1900's had practically dried up by 1914. Nevertheless, much of the Okanagan, particularlythe Coldstream and many of the communities around Kelowna, retained their distinctlyBritish character throughout the 1920's and beyond.88Thomson, \"A History of the Okanagan,\" 326.89Mitchell and Duffy, eds., Bright Sunshine, 31-38, especially page 36. For further discussion ofthe British influence in the Okanagan see pages 39-48.\"Olive B. Clarke, \"Peachland in the Pioneer Days \" OHSR 39(1975): 186. Excerpts from thisarticle are also published in Peachland Memories, 26-35.91 Barman, \"The World That British Settlers Made,\" 612. Barman's discussion of British emigrationto British Columbia, and particularly the Okangan Valley, focusses mainly on the reasons for, and impact of,immigrants from the middle and upper classes. See also her \"Ethnicity in the Pursuit of Status: BritishMiddle and Upper-Class Emigration to British Columbia in the Late Nineteenth and Early TwentiethCenturies,\" Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes ethniques au canada 18, 1(1986): 32-51, and \"British Columbia'sGentlemen Farmers,\" History Today 34(April 1984): 9-15.117Other areas of the Okanagan were settled by Canadians. J.M. Robinson, forexample, the Manitoban newspaper publisher and land booster, promoted the sale of hisfruit lots in Peachland, Summerland and Naramata in Manitoba. Like Aberdeen he was inno doubt as to the kind of people he wished to attract. A brochure published in 1912,advertising the sale of land in Naramata suggested that \"you would not wish to findyourself surrounded with garlic eating, foreign speaking neighbours, with whom youcould have nothing in common socially. The class of people coming to Naramata is not ofthat type. They are the very best Canadian stuff.\" 92The Okanagan Valley attracted immigrants from many other different sources.During the years up to 1930 there was a slow but steady movement of settlers into theOkanagan who were neither of British nor English Canadian origin. Many came during theearly depression years at the end of the 1920's in the hope of finding employment. Theinflux of newcomers of diverse cultural backgrounds resulted in the development ofpockets of settlement with distinct ethnic identities. 93 The Chinese at Armstrong, SwanLake and Kelowna, Finns at Mara, Swedes and Norwegians at Mabel Lake, Germans atMedora Creek, Italians and Japanese at Kelowna, Ukrainians at Seymour Arm and thenGrindrod,94 Bohemians and Czechoslovakians at Trinity Creek 95 and French Canadians atLumby96 are all examples of the many ethnic groups that were an integral part of Okanagansociety. By 1931 approximately 57% of the population of the study area was Canadian-92Okanagan Securities Brochure, 1912. Cited in Koroscil, \"Boosterism and the Settlement Process,\"95.93For a brief account of the many nationalities that have settled in the Okanagan since 1811 see J.L.Monk, \"The Okanagan Mix,\" OHSR 51(2987): 27-28.94Dolores Weber, \"A History of the Ukrainian People in Grindrod,\" OHSR 43(1979): 30-42.95Wejr, \"Memories of Trinity Creek Area,\" and Bawtree, Reflections Along the Spallumcheen,passim.96For a history of the Lumby area which emphasizes its French heritage see Grassroots of Lumby.118born, with 24% British-born and 19% foreign-born. 97As the population of the Okanagan increased a number of urban centres wereestablished as the focal points for trade and commerce. Vernon, the first to be incorporatedinto a city in 1892, was then followed by Enderby and Kelowna (1905) and finallyArmstrong (1913). 98 By 1931 the population of the two principal cities, Kelowna andVernon, had risen to 4 655 and 3 937 respectively. Armstrong and Enderby remained muchsmaller in size with populations of 989 and 555. 99Despite this relatively large concentration of people in urban areas, the study arearemained predominantly rural. The 1931 Census figures for Subdivision A - Okanagan andShuswap, Upper show that 55.7% of the total population lived outside of the main cities inthe surrounding countryside. Moreover 72.2% of those residing in these rural districtslived on farms. 100 While many of these holdings were well-established and made a goodliving, many others were too small to be economic and provided only a bare subsistence.Many families made only a marginal living farming, trapping or logging in the \"bush.\" Amassive gulf existed between the wealthy orchardists and the mass of impoverishedfarmers. Settlers coming to the Okanagan often arrived with more hope than money, andunable to afford the high prices asked for agricultural land in the vicinity of Vernon andKelowna, moved out to the surrounding areas with the purpose of finding suitable land topreempt: \"Folks were attracted to the land in outlying areas because they could homesteadwith little financial output, whereas land around Vernon was privately owned and selling97 1931 Census, Volume II, 246. These figures correspond to those for the whole of CensusDivision No. 3 which were 57%, 22% and 21% respectively.98Ibid., Volume I, 193-4.99Ibid.10019-, % Census, Volume VIII, 760-61. For Census Division No. 3 as a whole these figures arereversed with the rural population accounting for 71.4% of the total, 54.8% of which lived on farms.119for more princely sums.\" 101Typically, individual farms were geographically isolated indicating the scatterednature of settlement in the Okanagan Valley in this period. 102 While improved water andoverland transportation networks linked the larger, densely populated centres, travel andcommunication between the more remote districts was excessively slow, often unreliable,and sometimes impossible due to unyielding terrain and adverse climatic conditions duringthe winter months. In these out-of-the-way settlements in the Okanagan Valley, aselsewhere in North America:[L]ife was hard - a struggle against the vicissitudes of nature to scratch out asubsistence - and usually meant constant work, with few rewards or opportunitiesfor human contact beyond a restricted geographical area. Neighbourhoods becameself-sufficient cocoons, insular in attitudes and suspicious of any intrusions byoutsiders. 103For those living such \"sequestered\" and \"self-contained\" lives their immediate vicinitybecame their \"exclusive world\" out of which they rarely ventured. 104 The very nature ofrural life ensured that localism, by which I mean attatchment to, and identification withlocal communities, was the overriding influence in determining the framework withinwhich the pattern and pace of the everyday lived experience in the remote settlements of theOkanagan Valley was both defined and conducted. Ultimately each community was unique,representing in essence a separate and distinct self-contained society, whose individualism101 LaVonne Byron, \"The Better Halves: The Way of Life and Influence of Women in the VernonArea From Settlement to 1921,\" OHSR 45(1981): 68.102In 1931 the population density of Census Division No. 3 was 3.78 people per square mile.Comparable figures for the whole of the province, and the districts with the highest (Division No. 4 - LowerFraser Valley and Howe Sound) and lowest (Division No. 10 - Liard, Finlay-Parsnip, Beaton River andKiskatinaw River) population densities area , were 1.93, 38.90 and 0.08 people per square mile respectively.See 1931, Census, Volume II, 6. Figures for Subdivision A - Okanagan and Shuswap, Upper are notavailable.103Wiliam A. Link, A Hard Country and a Lonely Place: Schooling. Society. and Reform in RuralVirginia. 1870-1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 13. The influence of localismon the development of rural education is a central theme of this book.104Ibid., 16.120was determined by the precise physical, economic, social, political and personalcircumstances existant in the particular locality. It was in settlements such as these that theone-room schools discussed in the next chapter were located.121CHAPTER FOURTHE DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS 1874-1930As settlement increased in the Okanagan Valley the provision of educational servicesbecame a growing concern. Inspector John Martin of the Kamloops Inspectorate, whichincluded a small number of the schools in the study area, pointed out in his report for 1914:The increase in the number of schools has and must keep pace with the increase inpopulation. Provision must be made...for the establishment of many schools in theoutlying districts, as pre-emptors with families hesitate to locate where educationalfacilities are not provided.'From 1874, when the first officially recognized school district was created, until 1930,ninety schools were established within the geographical boundaries of the study area.Sixty-five of these schools were operating in rural districts between 1920 and 1930. 2 For'AR, 1914, A53. Interestingly, a government lands survey document published in 1929 noted thatone of the chief reasons for the lack of settlers in the Trinity Valley area in 1920 was \"the absence of aschool.\" See Extracts From Reports, 118.2Details on the history of individual public schools in the study area can be found in Edith M.Aitken, \"Early Records of Salmon Valley and Glenemma Schools, OHSR 29(1965): 49-53; Edith M. Aitken,\"Early Settlers of Salmon River Valley,\" OHSR 15(1952): 100-107; Dorothea Allison, \"Kelowna's FirstSchool Teacher,\" OHSR 18(1954): 98-101; James Bell, \"Knob Hill School,\" OHSR 36(1972): 149-150;Mrs. William Brent, \"The Priest's Valley School,\" OHSR 6(1935): 64-65; F.M. Buckland, \"OkanaganSchool,\" OHSR 6(1935): 53-55, reprinted in OHSR 17(1953): 95-97; O.B. Carlson, \"Consolidation ofSchool Districts in Armstrong and Enderby Area,\" OHSR 50(1986): 80-81; Joan Chamberlain, \"MissionCreek School,\" OHSR 48(1984): 162-168; Allan H. Davidson, \"Westbank Schools,\" OHSR 15(1951): 132-136; David Dendy, \"Schools at Okanagan Mission Before 1885,\" OHSR 40(1976): 38-43; Donald W.Ferguson, \"L.J. Botting - Falkland's First Teacher,\" OHSR 54(1990): 135-136; Jordie Fulton, \"ArmstrongElementary School,\" OHSR 52(1988): 164-68; Art Gray, \"The Rutland School's 50th Anniversary,\" OHSR29(1965): 83-87; Arthur W. Gray, \"First Okanagan School - Still Functioning,\" OHSR 33(1969): 82-86;Kathy Halksworth, \"Grindrod Schools 1900-1976,\" OHSR 40(1976): 51-52; Wilma (Clement) Hayes, \"MyFavourite Teachers at Ellison Public School,\" OHSR 53(1989): 132-137; Harry W. Hobbs, \"The First Half-Century of the Rutland Schools,\" OHSR 15(1951): 126-131; Marguerite Hodgson, \"Okanagan LandingSchool Days,\" OHSR 34(1970): 116-119; James E. Jamieson, \"Early Days' Schools in Armstrong andSpallumcheen,\" OHSR 36(1972): 161-163; Charles LeDuc, \"Early Settlement in the Municipality ofSpallumcheen,\" OHSR 15(1951): 67-72; Ruby E. Lidstone, ed., Schools of Enderby and District 1896-1965 N.p., 1965; Ruby E. Lidstone, \"A.L. Fortune School, Enderby, B.C.,\" OHSR 40(1976): 99-105; S.A.MacDonald, \"Summerland Schools,\" OHSR 30(1966): 26-30; Leanne MacKay, \"Grindrod Schools,\" OHSR 43(1979): 159-160; F.T. Marriage, \"School Expansion in Kelowna,\" OHSR 18(1954): 102-103; Minnie E.Mawhinney, \"Black Mountain School Days,\" OHSR 12(1948): 112-114; Lucy (Hill) McCormick, \"EarlyRural Schools of Vernon and White Valley,\" OHSR 46(1982): 38-44; Heather O'Brien, \"The VernonCommonage School,\" OHSR 36(1972): 61-64; H.D. Pritchard and Clarence Fulton, \"Story of the Vernon122the most part they were located in the small towns and rural settlements that were strungalong the valley bottom from Seymour Arm to Penticton, and to the east through theColdstream Valley following the course of the Shuswap River to Mabel and Sugar Lakes(see Map 2 and Table 1). 3A detailed examination of the chronological development of schools in the studyarea reveals a correlation between the increase in the number of schools established and thegeographical locations in which they appeared, and the settlement patterns, local economicactivity and changes in transportation outlined in the preceeding chapter. 4 Prior toSchools,\" OHSR 15(1951): 137-143; Provincial Archives of British Columbia, John Jessop, Correspondenceof the Superintendent of Education, and School Inspector's Diary, 1872-1876; Edith Raymer, \"The Story ofthe Three Watson Brothers,\" OHSR 14(1950): 57-63; Owen Romaine, \"Early School Buses and TheirDrivers,\" OHSR 50(1986): 102-106; School District #23, Kelowna, Ellison Public School, Minutes ofMeetings, 1920-1930; School District #23, Kelowna, South Okanagan Public School, Minutes of Meetings,1920-1922; School District #23, Kelowna, Westbank Public School, Minutes of Meetings, 1919-1922;School District #23, Kelowna, Westbank Townsite Public School, Minutes of Meetings, 1910-1930; SchoolDistrict #23, Kelowna, Wood's Lake Public School, Minutes of Meetings, 1909-1930; George F. Stirling,\"Dry Valley School,\" OHSR 19(1955): 85-86; University of British Columbia, Main Library, SpecialCollections Division, Howay-Reid Collection, Okanagan Mission Public School, Minutes of Meetings andAccount Book, 1875-1909; Vernon Museum and Archives, Pamela Hughes,\"The Keddleston Story,\" 1974;Vernon Museum and Archives, \"Vernon and District School Histories: 1971 Centennial Project,\" 1971,Vernon Museum and Archives, Oyama Public School, Minutes of Meetings, 1915-1923, Hester (Mrs R.B.)White, \"Governesses,\" OHSR 23(1959): 47, and Stan Wejr, \"Memories of the Trinity Creek Area in the1920's,\" OHSR 50(1986): 78-79. Information on school histories is also included in the relevant sections ofmost of the local histories listed in footnote 9 in Chapter 3.3A good source of information as to the locations of these small settlements as well as interestingdetails on the origins of their names can be found in \"An Historical Gazetteer of Okanagan-Similkameen,\"OHSR 22(1958): 123-169. See also A.G. Harvey, \"Okanagan Place Names,\" OHSR 12(1948): 193-223.4This thesis is concerned exclusively with the Public Schools that operated in rural districts in theOkanagan Valley. Thus only those officially recognized government supported schools enumerated in theAR's were examined. No attempt was made to include details on the private schools that existed in the studyarea for the same period. Material that focuses on the history of private education in the Okanagan Valleyincludes: Barman, \"The World That British Settlers Made,\" in British Columbia, comp. and eds., Ward andMcDonald, 600-626; Jean Barman, \"Growing up British in British Columbia: The Vernon PreparatorySchool 1914-1946,\" in Schooling and Society, eds., Wilson and Jones, 119-138; Jessica Frances Harding,\"Chesterfield School, Kelowna, B.C.,\" OHSR 39(1975): 115-118; Hugh F. Mackie, \"Private Schools in theOkanagan Valley,\" OHSR 12(1948): 160-165, Aileen Porteous, \"St. Michael's School,\" OHSR 35(1971):149-151, and Winston A. Shilvock, \"Private Schools in the Okanagan,\" British Columbia al News23, 2(Spring 1990): 25-26. For a more general look at the history of private education in British Columbia,see Jean Barman, Growing Up British in British Columbia: Boys in Private School (Vancouver: Universityof British Columbia Press, 1984).Privately run schools were also sometimes set up by motivated settlers, prior to the existence of agovernment supported school, in districts where the number of school-aged children was too few to warrantgovernment assistance. In the Lavington area, for example, local residents opened their own school in April1913. They built their own one-room schoolhouse, hired the services of a teacher and paid her salary for the123Confederation the choices available to the settlers living within the boundaries of the studyarea, in terms of educating their offspring, were limited. As early as 1863 the OblateFathers at Okanagan Mission established a school for local white and metis children in thelocal community. 5 Alternatives to the elementary education provided by the missionaries,however, were few. Most early settlers could either have their children educated at home byprivate tutors, 6 or send them to the coast or to eastern Canada for their schooling.The newly created Province of British Columbia passed the Public School Act in1872 which assumed responsibility for the \"establishment, maintenance, and managementof Public Schools throughout the Province.\"7 John Jessop, who was appointed as the firstSuperintendent of Education, 8 was \"particularly concerned with the problem of providingschooling for the little mining and ranching communities of the vast interior plateau.\" 9 Withthis goal in mind he travelled thousands of miles each year throughout the province - bysix months prior to the government taking over in September 1913, when enrolment numbers had risensufficiently. See Vernon Museum and Archives, \"Vernon and District School Histories: 1971 CentennialProject,\" 1971, 18, 23, and Pearson, An Early History of Coldstream and Lavington, 75-76. A similarsituation occured at Oyama School prior to the opening of a government supported school in the school yearfor 1909-1910. See Kalamalka Women's Institute, comp., \"History of Oyama,\" [19511, 20. Such schoolswere also not included in this study.5See Dendy, \"Schools at Okanagan Mission,\" 38-39, and Thomson, \"History of the Okanagan,\" 96-98.6These options were only really available to the more wealthy settlers. On the use of private tutorssee Hester White, \"Governesses,\" OHSR 23(1959): 47. The children of families who lived on smallsubsistence farms in isolated locations in the study area, whose parents could not afford to have them educatedprivately, often received no education at all until a public school was established within walking distance oftheir home. As George F. Stirling, a former teacher who taught at Dry Valley School when it opened in1908, recalls: \"As there was no school for miles around, some of the children had been brought up withoutany schooling whatever. One boy, aged 16, could neither read nor write nor count.\" See Stirling, \"Dry ValleySchool, 85.7AR, 1874, 35.8For an account of the life and work of Jessop see F. Henry Johnson, John Jessop: Goldseeker andEducator (Vancouver: Mitchell Press, 1971).9Dendy, \"Schools at Okanagan Mission,\" 43.124TABLE 1DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOLS IN OKANAGAN VALLEY 1874 - 1930 YEAR OPENED CLOSED OTHER DETAILS1874 Okanagan School District created July 311875 Okanagan1884 Priest's ValleySpallumcheen1885 Spallumcheen1886 Round Prairie Priest's ValleySpallumcheen1887 Priest's Valley1888 Priest's Valley renamed Vernon1889 Enderby Vernon1890 Vernon Spallumcheen1891 Lansdowne1892 Coldstream Vernon upgraded to two divisionsSpallumcheen1893 ArmstrongKelownaWhite Valley1894 Deep Creek Vernon upgraded to three divisionsOtter LakeOkanagan Mission1895 Mara (A) Assisted (A) designation introducedOkanagan Landing(A)South Okanagan1896 Short's Point (A)1897 Black Mountain (A) Coldstream Vernon upgraded to four divisionsWest Okanagan (A)125Coldstream^Peachland raised to rural school statusRound Prairie Armstrong upgraded to two divisionsOkanagan MissionBlack Mountain (A)Blue SpringsColdstreamEnderby upgraded to two divisionsVernon opens high schoolVernon raised to city school statusKelowna upgraded to two divisionsArmstrong upgraded to three divisionsSummerland raised to rural school statusVernon upgraded to five divisionsEnderby raised to city school statusKelowna raised to city school statusWest Okanagan renamed Westbank (A)Carr's Landing (A) Armstrong opens high schoolKelowna upgraded to three divisionsPeachland upgraded to two divisionsWestbank raised to rural school statusBerlin (A)Deeep Creek (A)Duck Lake (A)Round PraireArmstrong upgraded to four divisionsKelowna upgraded to four divisionsSpallumcheen Rural Municipality SchoolDistrict (hereafter RMSD) createdincorporating Armstrong, Hullcar, KnobHill, Lansdowne, Otter Lake andPleasant Valley SchoolsSummerland RMSD createdincorporating Summerland, PrairieValley and Garnet Valley SchoolsVernon upgraded to six divisions126TABLE 1 (continued)YEAR OPENED^CLOSED^OTHER DETAILS189 8 ColdstreamCommonage (A)LumbyPeachland (A)189 9 Okanagan Landing(A)190 0 Glenemma (A)1 901 ColdstreamRound Prairie1902 Okanagan Mission1903 Mabel Lake (A)Silver Creek (A)Summerland (A)1904 Black Mountain (A)Berlin (A)1905 Blue SpringsDuck Lake (A)Prairie Valley (A)Shuswap Falls (A)1906 Carr's Landing (A)Sunnyside (A)1907 Kedleston (A)NaramataNorth EnderbyOkanagan Landing White Valley renamed Blue springs(A)Short's Point (A)Mara raised to rural school status1908 Berlin (A)Dry Valley (A)Duck Lake (A)Mission CreekOkanagan Centre (A)Salmon River (A)Salmon Valley (A)Shuswap Falls (A)1909 Oyama (A)^Duck Lake (A)Reiswig (A) Dry Valley (A)Shuswap Falls (A) Mabel Lake (A)Sicamous (A)127TABLE 1 (continued)YEAR OPENED^CLOSED^OTHER DETAILSBennett School opened in SpallumcheenRMSDBlack Mountain raised to rural schoolstatusEnderby upgraded to three divisionsKelowna opens high schoolOkanagan Mission renamed EllisonSummerland upgraded to two divisionsArmstrong High School upgraded to twodivisionsColdstream RMSD createdEnderby opens high schoolPeachland RMSD createdSummerland upgraded to three divisionsTrout Creek School opened inSummerland RMSDVeron upgraded to eight divisionsArmstrong upgraded to five divisionsGlenemma raised to rural school statusKelowna upgraded to five divisionsPeachland opens high schoolArmstrong upgraded to six divisionsBlack Mountain upgraded to twodivisionsEnderby upgraded to four divisionsLarkin School opened in SpallumcheenRMSDOkanagan Landing raised to rural schoolstatusVernon High School upgraded to twodivisionsWestbank Townsite raised to ruralschool status1910 Hilton (A)^Berlin (A)Richlands (A)^Reiswig (A)Westbank Townsite(A)Wood's Lake1911 Ashton Creek (A)^Blue SpringsEast Kelowna (A)^Hidden Lake (A)Grindrod (A)^North EnderbyHidden Lake (A)^Shuswap Falls (A)Mabel Lake (A)^WestbankReiswig (A)Seymour Arm (A)128TABLE 1 (continued)YEAR OPENED CLOSED OTHER DETAILS1912 North Kelowna Commonage (A) Enderby upgraded to five divisionsSunnyside (A) Kelowna upgraded to seven divisionsKelowna High School upgraded to twodivisionsLavington School opened in ColdstreamRMSDSummerland RMSD consolidated intoone central school of five divisionsSummerland opens high schoolTrepanier School opened in PeachlandRMSDVernon upgraded to ten divisions1913 Falkland (A) Armstrong raised to city school statusNorth Enderby (no longer in Spallumcheen RMSD)Sunnyside (A) Enderby downgraded to four divisionsTrout Creek, Upper Grindrod raised to rural school status(A) Kelowna upgraded to eight divisionsOyama raised to rural school statusVernon upgraded to thirteen divisions1914 Bear Creek (A)Deep Creek (A)Sunnyside (A) Armstrong High School upgraded tothree divisionsGlenrosa (A) Enderby upgraded to five divisionsShuswap Falls (A) Garnet Valley School in SummerlandWoodville Road (A) RMSD re-opened.Kelowna upgraded to twelve divisionsLumby upgraded to two divisionsNaramata upgraded to two divisionsVernon upgraded to fifteen divisions1915 Hupel (A) Black Mountain re-named RutlandSunnyside (A) Kelowna downgraded to elevendivisionsOkanagan Landing upgraded to twodivisions1916 Meadow Valley (A) Sunnyside (A) Armstrong upgraded to seven divisionsWoodville Road (A) Armstrong High School downgraded totwo divisionsKelowna downgraded to ten divisionsMara upgraded to two divisionsNaramata raised to superior school statusRutland upgraded to three divisionsRutland raised to superior school statusSummerland High School upgraded totwo divisions129TABLE 1 (continued)YEAR OPENED^CLOSED^OTHER DETAILS1918 Grandview Bench(A)Salmon Bench (A)Armstrong downgraded to six divisionsEnderby downgraded to four divisionsNaramata downgraded to one divisionNaramata reduced to rural school statusOkanagan Landing downgraded to onedivisionOyama upgraded to two divisionsSilver Creek raised to rural school statusTrout Creek school re-opened inSummerland RMSDVernon downgraded to fourteendivisionsArmstrong upgraded to seven divisionsKelowna upgraded to eleven divisionsMountain View School opened inSpallumcheen RMSDGarnet Valley School in SummerlandRMSD closedNaramata upgraded to two divisionsPeachland upgraded to three divisionsSummerland upgraded to seven divisionsVernon upgraded to fifteen divisionsVernon High School upgraded to threedivisionsArmstrong City School District andSpallumcheen RMSD amalgamated tocreate Armstrong and SpallumcheenConsolidated School District consistingof one central school of fifteen divisionsEast Kelowna raised to rural schoolstatusEnderby upgraded to five divisionsKelowna upgraded to twelve divisionsKelowna High School upgraded to threedivisionsSummerland upgraded to eight divisionsSummerland High School upgraded tothree divisionsVernon upgraded to sixteen divisionsVernon High School upgraded to fourdivisionsWood's Lake upgraded to two divisions1917 Hendon (A)^Salmon River (A)Woodville Road (A)1919 Heywood's Corner(A)Westbank (A)Richlands (A)Shuswap Falls (A)Trout Creek, Upper(A)Woodville Road (A)1920 Fir Valley (A)^Bear Creek (A)Sunnyside (A)130TABLE 1 (continued)1923 Reiswig (A)^Hendon (A)Woodville Road (A)OTHER DETAILSArmstrong and SpallumcheenConsolidated School District upgraded tosixteen divisionsEast Kelowna upgraded to two divisionsKelowna upgraded to fourteen divisionsNaramata upgraded to three divisionsNaramata raised to superior school statusOyama upgraded to three divisionsOyama raised to superor school statusRutland upgraded to four divisionsSouth Okangan upgraded to twodivisionsSummerland High School downgradedto two divisionsVernon upgraded to seventeen divisionsWestbank Townsite upgraded to twodivisionsWestbank Townsite raised to superiorschool statusArmstrong and Spallumcheen SchoolDistrict downgraded to fifteen divisionsArmstrong High School upgraded tothree divisionsGlenmore RMSD createdSumerland upgraded to nine divisionsSummerland High School upgraded tothree divisionsVernon upgraded to twenty divisionsColdstream upgraded to two divisionsEnderby High School upgraded to twodivisionsGrindrod upgraded to two divisionsKelowna upgraded to fifteen divisionsMission Creek upgraded to two divisionsOkanagan Landing upgraded to twodivisionsOyama downgraded to two divisionsOyama reduced to rural school statusOyama opens high schoolTrout Creek School in SummerlandRMSD closedVernon upgraded to twenty-twodivisionsVernon High School upgraded to fivedivisionsYEAR OPENED1921 Bear Creek (A)Ewing's Landing(A)Hillcrest (A)Trinity Valley (A)Woodville Road (A)CLOSEDWood's Lake1922 Blue SpringsDespard (A)Joe Rich Valley (A)Shuswap Falls (A)South Kelowna (A)Trinity Creek (A)Winfield (twodivisions)North KelownaReiswig (A)Woodville Road (A)1925 Reiswig (A)Salmon River (A)Springbend (A)Blue SpringsDespard (A)Heywood's Corner(A)Okanagan Landing1926 Heywood's Corner Glenmore RMSD(A)^Hendon (A)Kedleston (A)Seymour Arm (A)Sunnyside (A)131TABLE 1 (continued)YEAR OPENED^CLOSED^OTHER DETAILSArmstrong and SpallumcheenConsolidated School Districtdowngraded to fourteen divisionsEnderby downgraded to four divisionsEnderby High School downgraded toone divisionGrindrod upgraded to three divisionsKelowna downgraded to fourteendivisionsKelowna High School upgraded to fourdivisionsMission Creek downgraded to onedivisionNaramata downgraded to two divisionsNaramata reduced to rural school statusOkanagan Landing downgraded to onedivisionPeachland downgraded to two divisionsVernon downgraded to twenty-onedivisionsWestbank Townsite reduced to ruralschool statusKelowna downgraded to thirteendivisionsKelowna High School downgraded tothree divisionsOkanagan Landing incorporated withinVernon City School DistrictArmstrong and SpallumcheenConsolidated School Districtdowngraded to thirteen divisionsDeep Creek raised to rural school statusEnderby downgraded to three divisionsFalkland raised to rural school statusGlenmore RMSD incorporated withinKelowna City School DistrictKelowna upgraded to fourteen divisionsLumby upgraded to three divisionsLumby raised to superior school statusMission Creek upgraded to two divisionsSummerland downgraded to eightdivisionsVernon downgraded to nineteendivisionsVernon High School upgraded to sixdivisions192 4 Hendon (A)^Bear Creek (A)Medora Creek (A)^Reiswig (A)Sugar Lake (A)^Woodville Road (A)132TABLE 1 (concluded)YEAR OPENED^CLOSED^OTHER DETAILS1927 Hendon (A)^Heywood's Corner Enderby High School upgraded to twoKingfisher (A)^(A)^divisionsSeymour Arm (A)^South Okanagan^Kelowna upgraded to sixteen divisionsKelowna High School upgraded to fourdivisionsLumby reduced to rural school statusVernon downgraded to eighteendivisionsWestbank Townsite raised to superiorschool status1928 Ecclestone (A)^Ecclestone (A)^Ellison upgraded to two divisionsOkanagan Mission^Fir Valley (A) Kelowna upgraded to eighteen divisions(two divisions)^Hupel (A)^Kelowna High School upgraded to fivedivisionsLumby raised to superior school statusOkanagan Centre raised to rural schoolstatusRutland upgraded to five divisionsSummerland upgraded to nine divisionsVernon upgraded to nineteen divisions1929 Heywood's Corner Salmon River (A)^Ellison downgraded to one division(A)^ Glenemma reduced to assisted schoolHupel (A) statusKelowna upgraded to twenty divisionsLumby reduced to rural school statusTrepanier School in Peachland RMSDclosedVernon upgraded to twenty-onedivisions1930 Hilton (A)Reiswig (A)Armstrong High School upgraded tofour divisionsEllison upgraded to two divisionsKelowna upgraded to twenty-onedivisionsKelowna High School upgraded to sixdivisionsOkanagan renamed BenvoulinRutland upgraded to six divisionsVernon High School upgraded to sevendivisionsSOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools,1874 - 1930.133steamer, canoe, stage, horseback and on foot - assessing where there was a need forschools to be established. He made a preliminary visit to the Okanagan Valley in 1872when he took an informal census of the number of school-aged children in the area. Hereturned for a second visit in 1874 and at that time he met with the local settlers in MissionValley on June 8 and \"gave full instructions for the formation of a school district - therebeing 24 children of school age in the radius of a circle 2 1/2 miles [from the Mission].\" 10Local residents acted quickly on the Superintendent's instructions. On theirapplication the Okanagan School District was created on July 31 1874, the boundaries ofwhich were:Commencing at a point at the mouth of Mission Creek; thence northerly along theshore of Okanagan Lake a distance of five miles; thence easterly a distance of fivemiles; thence southerly to Mission Creek; thence westerly to the point ofcommencement. 11They elected the required three School Trustees from amongst themselves. 12 One trustee,William Smithson, donated an acre of land to be used as the school site and also sold a logbuilding to the government which provided the schoolhouse. 13 From entries in the school'sAccount Book it would appear that local residents also gave of their time freely andprovided the necessary materials required to transform the Smithson loghouse into asatisfactory condition to function as a schoo1. 14 In his Annual Report for the year ending10Provincial Archives of British Columbia, John Jessop, School Inspector's Diary, June 8, 1874,43.11 AR 1874, 20. This area included what is now the city of Kelowna, Okanagan Mission, MissionCreek and Benvoulin Districts. When the Okanagan School District was created there were only twenty-sixpublic schools employing thirty-two teachers and with a total enrollment of 1 245 pupils in the entireprovince. See AR, 1876, 126.12It was stipulated in the Public Schools Act, 1872 that the number of Trustees for each schooldistrict should be three, who would hold office for three years. See AR 1874, 38.13AR, 1877, 43.14University of British Columbia, Main Library, Special Collections Division, Howay-ReidCollecton, Okanagan Mission Public School, Account Book, 1875-1909, especially entries for 1875.134July 31, 1875, Jessop referred to the \"very commodious school-room and teacher'sresidence at Mission Valley.\" 15 However, although he also stated: \"A teacher fromCalifornia is expected in a few days for this district, and I am yet in hopes that the schoolwill be in operation before the close of the present term\" 16 the services of a teacher tooklonger to acquire. It was not until December 20 1875 that Angus McKenzie, a Scot with afirst class teacher's certificate from the State of Kansas, was officially engaged as theteacher at Okanagan School. A physically impressive man \"standing well over six feet {he]wore his whiskers like Abraham Lincoln, and had one wall-eye which he always partlyclosed when looking at anything intently\", McKenzie \"came walking into the valley withhis blankets and a bundle of books on his back.\" 17 In addition to his sixty dollar a monthsalary from the government \"his meat, milk, butter and eggs, and his firewood weresupplied free by the settlers.\" 18 As it was the only school in the Okanagan Valley in themid-1870's the pupils who attended Okanagan School came not only from within theboundaries of the prescribed school district, but also from other locations throughout thevalley including Similkameen, Osoyoos, Okanagan Falls, White Valley and Head of theLake, boarding with families at the Mission during the school term and returning home forthe holidays. 19 Despite constant complaints from the school trustees regarding the lack ofmoney available to hire well-qualified teachers and to improve the facilities at the school, aswell as two further changes in teaching staff, 20 Okanagan School continued to function,15 AR, 1875, 27.16Ibid.17Buckland, \"Okanagan School,\" 55, 53.18Ibid., 53. See also chapter on Okanagan School in Buckland Ogopogo's Vigil, 51-60.19Buckland, Ogopogo's Vigil, 53. The practice of pupils boarding away from home in order toattend school slowly died out as more schools were established in other locations in the study area andchildren were able to attend a school within walking distance of their home.135with a steady enrolment21 and high average attendance,22 as the only school in the studyarea until 1884.23The increasing immigration associated with the completion of the Canadian PacificRailway in 1885 resulted in the expansion of educational facilities in the Okanagan Valley.More schools began to be established, mainly in the northern part of the valley, namelyPriest's Valley School (1884), Spallumcheen School (1884), Round Prairie School (1886),Enderby School (1889) and Lansdowne School (1891). 24 This expansion was predicted bySuperintendent of Education, S.D. Pope, in his Annual Report for 1885:It is apparent...that there has been a very marked increase in enrolment during thepast two years. This is chiefly attributable to the large increase of population, andthe prospects are that the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway will cause aninflux of immigrants greater than ever before experienced in the history of theProvince; and as a resultant, demands for educational facilities will be greatlyincreased. 25The majority of the schools in the study area were founded between 1892 and 1920. Thecompletion of the Shuswap and Okanagan Railway in 1892 further improved access to thevalley and this, coupled with the subdivision of land and development of large-scaleirrigation schemes in the first decade of the twentieth century, resulted in a massive influxof people into the Okanagan Valley. Many schools were opened, or experienced20University of British Columbia, Main Library, Special Collections Division, Howay-ReidCollection, Okanagan Mission Public School, Minutes of Meetings, 1875-1909, passim.21 Average enrolment at Okanagan School for the period 1875-1885 was 22.1 ranging from 15 in itsfirst year of operation to 26 in 1882-1883. See AR's, 1875-1885.22For example, in 1882 Okanagan School had a 92% average in regular attendance, being the secondhighest in the province for that year. See AR, 1882, 191, 224.230kanagan School continued to operate up to and past 1930. In 1929 it was renamed BenvoulinSchool. See Gray, \"First Okanagan School,\" 85.24Details on the history of some of these early schools can be found in Brent, \"The Priest's ValleySchool,\" Jamieson, \"Early Days' Schools in Armstrong and Spallumcheen, and Lidstone, ed., Schools ofEnderby and District.25 AR, 1885, 308. Pope was referring to British Columbia as a whole, but his remarks are alsopertinent, in this instance, to the situation in the Okanagan Valley.136considerable expansion, as a direct result of these two developments. Superintendent Poperemarked in his report on Vernon School in 1891 that \"Owing to the completion of theShuswap and Okanagan Railway as far as this thriving village, the attendance hasconsiderably increased during the present year, over forty pupils being already enrolled.\" 26Okanagan Landing, which was the terminus of the Shuswap and OkanaganRailway, became a thriving railroad depot and boat landing centre. A school was thereforeestablished in 1895 to cater to the children whose fathers worked on the railroad tracks andin the CPR shipyard, as well as to those living on the small mixed farms in the surroundingcountryside.27 The opening of the Mission Creek School in the Kelowna area was closelyassociated with the activities of the Kelowna Land and Orchard Company, which boughtup land in the district and divided it into small plots that then sold rapidly. With the manynew families moving into the area the existing school, Okanagan School, becameovercrowded, and hence Mission Creek School opened its doors in January 1908.28A brief history of the Rutland School, to the east of Kelowna, provides a fineexample of the effect of intensive land development schemes on the expansion ofeducational facilities in the Okanagan Valley. Originally named Black Mountain School, itopened as a one-room school in 1897. It remained a small assisted concern until 1908,when a new larger frame building was erected on land which had, interestingly, beendonated by the Central Okanagan Lands Company. The school was then raised to the statusof a regularly organized rural school district. The increasing prosperity of the district at thattime, due in the main to the efforts of the aforementioned land company, resulted in therapid expansion of the school. As one local historian of the Okanagan Valley explains:\"With the rapid growth of the community through the bringing in of irrigation and26AR, 1891, 258.27Hodgson, \"Okanagan Landing School Days,\" 117.28Chamberlain, \"Mission Creek School,\" 162.137subdivision of the large ranches into small 10 to 20 acre lots, this school soon became toosmall, and the half-acre grounds too confining.\"29 Rutland School was upgraded to twodivisions in 1911 and by 1930 had been raised to the status of a superior school consistingof six divisions. 30Further south in the predominantly fruit-growing districts of Peachland,Summerland and Naramata, the appearance and expansion of educational facilities againfollowed the influx of settlers, resulting from the acquisition and subdivision of the landinto small fruit lots by entrepreneurs, particularly J.M. Robinson, between 1898 and 1908.At Summerland, for example, the Summerland Development Company, organised byRobinson, began buying up property in the district in 1902. Early in 1903 an assistedschool was opened. At first there were children from only two families attending theschool, one of which was the Robinson family. 31 However new settlers began to moveinto the district in rapidly increasing numbers to buy up the new fruit lots and enrolmentrose considerably. At the end of the school year twenty-one pupils were in attendance. 32The following year enrolment more than doubled to fifty-four 33 and the small schoolhousewas now overcrowded. This situation prompted Inspector J.S. Gordon to comment in hisreport on the Summerland School District for that year: \"The school population is rapidly29Gray, \"The Rutland School's 50th Anniversary,\" 86. See also Hobbs, \"The First Half-Century ofthe Rutland Schools,\" Rutland Centennial Committee, comp., History of the District of Rutland. British Columbia, 57-65, and Mawhinney, \"Black Mountain School Days.\"30Superior schools in the study area were organized in Rural School Districts in which usually onedivision of a school was devoted to the provision of a high school education by offering courses at a seniorelementary and junior high school level. See F. Henry Johnson, A History of Public Education in BritishColumbia (Vancouver: University of British Columbia, Publications Centre, 1964), 62-63.31MacDonald, \"Summerland Schools,\" 26-27.32AR, 1903.33 Ibid., 1904.138increasing, making grading difficult.\" 34 Extra divisions were added to the existingschoolhouse, and new school buildings erected. By 1930 the Summerland School District,a Rural Municipality since 1907, boasted a nine division consolidated elementary school,and a high school of three divisions. 35Whereas the period from 1892 to 1920 was characterized by the proliferation ofschools throughout the countryside opening, the years from 1920 to 1930, moreparticularly after mid-decade, saw a limited growth in the number of schools established.Only fifteen new school districts were created over the decade, reflecting the slower rate ofimmigration into the area. Without exception the schools established started out as smallone-room entities with characteristically small enrolments. New divisions were addedwhere needed to existing schools in order to cater to the expanding school-aged populationin districts where settlers were arriving in large numbers. Schools which opened in whatdeveloped into the major communities of Armstrong, Enderby, Kelowna and Vernonevolved into large, multi-roomed and centrally organized City School Districts. By 1930the schools at Kelowna and Vernon had each grown to twenty-one divisions, whileArmstrong had thirteen divisions in operation and Enderby three divisions. Multi-roomelementary schools had also been established in the Rural Municipalities of Coldstream,Peachland and Summerland, and in the Rural Districts of East Kelowna, Ellison, Grindrod,Lumby, Mara, Mission Creek, Naramata, Okanagan Landing, Okanagan Mission, Oyama,Rutland, South Okanagan, Westbank Townsite, Winfield and Wood's Lake. However,with the exception of Summerland, which by 1930 had increased to nine divisions, andRutland (six divisions), Grindrod, Lumby, Naramata and Oyama (three divisons), none ofthese schools expanded beyond two divisions over the decade.34Ibid., A52.35 Details on the development of schools in the Summerland area are also included in Andrew, TheStory of Summerland, 14-15, 21-22, 28.139The provision of educational services beyond the elementary level occurred at arelatively early stage. Vernon opened a high school in 1902 - the second to open in BritishColumbia's interior, the first being at Nelson. High schools were then established atArmstrong (1906), Kelowna (1908), Enderby (1909), Peachland (1910) and Summerland(1912). As well, superior school facilities were made available at Naramata and Rutland(1916). In 1921 A.R. Lord, of the Kelowna Inspectorate, which included the Okanaganand Similkameen Valleys, commented on the increasing demand for high school privilegesin his inspectorate:The provision of high-school facilities in rural districts continues to receive a gooddeal of attention, both from parents who are directly concerned and from public-spirited ratepayers who are interested in the development of their local districts. 36As a consequence, between 1920 and 1930, superior schools were established at Oyamaand Westbank Townsite (1921), the former being raised to the status of a high school in1923, and at Lumby (1926).An important development in the history of the education system in the OkanaganValley prior to 1930 was the successful implementation of a number of schemes forconsolidating school districts. The erection of the Rural Municipalities of Spallumcheen andSummerland into school districts in 1907 was the first move towards the centralization ofeducational services in the study area, the main purpose of which was to improve theeconomic and administrative efficiency of the one-room schools that existed within theboundaries of each municipality. 37 Rural Municipality School Districts (RMSD) were alsocreated at Coldstream and Peachland (1909) and Glenmore (1922).36AR, 1921, F36.37Johnson, A History of Public Education, 94-95. Incorporated within the Spallumcheen RMSDwere the Armstrong, Hullcar, Knob Hill, Lansdowne, Otter Lake and Pleasant Valley Schools. SummerlandRMSD included Summerland, Prairie Valley and Garnet Valley Schools. The individual schools remainedopen and continued to function as individual units as far as the actual teaching of the pupils was concerned,but the overall administration of the schools came under the control of each respective municipality.140The success of the early attempts at centralization encouraged educationaladministrators in their belief that consolidation was the answer to the problem of theinefficient one-room rural schools. 38 In 1912 a proposal for amalgamating the one-roomschools in the Summerland RMSD and the erection of a single multi-roomed school wascarried out. In this regard, A.E. Miller of the Revelstoke Inspectorate, was able to report:In the Municipality of Summerland the Prairie Valley, Garnet Valley, and TroutCreek Schools were closed in order to carry out a scheme of consolidation, bywhich the children in the outlying sections are conveyed to a central graded school.The experiment (for this is the first trial of consolidation in British Columbia) may,on the whole, I think, be considered a success. 39The most ambitious plan for consolidation was inaugurated in the north of the study area.Inspector A.R. Lord was a keen advocate as a means of dealing with the \"rural-schoolproblem,\" which he regarded as \"the most serious question confronting educationaladministration in this Province.\" 40 He noted enthusiastically in his report for 1920:A real attempt to give to the country children the greatest possible educationalopportunity is being made at Armstrong, where the graded school of that city isbeing consolidated with the eight rural schools of the adjoining municipality ofSpallumcheen. The legal union has already taken place and the consolidated schoolwill be in actual operation as soon as the new building, now under construction,has been completed. The result will be watched with interest by the many districtsin this inspectorate, where a similar plan is entirely feasible.4138For a detailed discussion of the issues involved in the move towards school consolidation inBritish Columbia, see Jones, \"The Strategy of Rural Enlightenment,\" in Shaping the Schools, eds. Jones,Sheehan and Stamp, 136-151. The initial idea of applying the principle of consolidation to some of the ruralschool districts in the Okanagan Valley originated from Victoria. However the inauguration of any suchscheme depended on its acceptance by the members of the communities concerned. As Inspector ArthurAnstey, of the Vernon Inspectorate, explained in his report for 1915: \"In several rural districts a scheme ofconsolidating the schools appears perfectly feasible and eminently desirable; the responsibility of deciding thismatter rests upon the localities concerned, and in view of the success that has attended consolidation on thePrairie, as well as in this Province, there would appear to be no reason for hesitating to adopt it.\" See AR,1915, A38.39AR, 1912, A4040AR, 1920, C34.41 Ibid. For information, albeit brief, on the history of the Armstrong and SpallumcheenConsolidated School District, see Jordie Fulton, \"Armstrong Elementary School,\" OHSR 52(1988): 164-168,and O.B. Carlson, \"Consolidation of School Districts in Armstrong and Enderby Area,\" OHSR 50(1986): 80-81. For details on the operation of the new consolidated school between 1920 and 1930, as outlined in the141All the rural schools in Spallumcheen Municipality were closed and the pupils transportedin school \"trucks\" to the new Armstrong School which opened in September 1921.42 Thescheme was a success. The following year A.E. Miller of the Revelstoke Inspectorate,which as a result of a redefinition of inspectorate boundaries in 1922 included theOkanagan Valley as far south as Armstrong, summed up the pros and cons ofconsolidation:The Armstrong-Spallumcheen consolidation scheme appears to be working out verysatisfactorily. There has been a little grumbling with regard to the expense, andthere were a good many difficulties connected with the transportation problemduring the winter months, when conditions in this respect were just about asunfavourable as they could be; but when the benefits of better housing, improvedattendance, and more efficient teaching are fully realized there should not be muchinclination to return to a system that at its best deprived many children of theopportunity of securing anything like an adequate preparation for the business oflife.43Two further plans for consolidation were carried out in the study area prior to 1930. In1925 the school in the rural district of Okanagan Landing was closed and the pupilstransfeiTed to the Vernon School in the city of that name. In the following year the schoolin the rural municipality of Glenmore was incorporated within the Kelowna City SchoolDistrict.'\"Between 1920 and 1930 the number of one-room schools in operation in theOkanagan Valley far outweighed that of multi-room schools (see Figure 1). For example,in 1925, of the total number of fifty-seven schools in operation in rural districts, forty-three(75.4%) were one-room. Moreover, thirty-one (72.1%) of these one-room schools were ofminutes of the meetings of the Council of the City of Armstrong, see Johnny Serra, The First HundredYears: The History of Armstrong, British Columbia N.p., [1968], 73-107, 199-205.42For an interesting account of the first school buses see Romaine, \"Early School Buses.\"43AR, 1922, C36.44See comments by Inspector T.R. Hall of the Kelowna Inspectorate in AR 1925, M35.FIGURE 1142SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools. 1920-1930.143FIGURE 2SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools, 1920-1930.FIGURE 3144SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools, 1920-1930.145FIGURE 4SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools. 1920-1930.146assisted status45 (see Figure 2). Comparing Figure 1 with Figure 2 it is significant thatalthough the total number of schools fluctuated very little over the period from 1920 to1930, the number of multi-room schools nearly doubled from eight in 1920 to betweenfourteen and sixteen from 1923 to 1930, whereas the number of one-room schools declinedslightly over the same period. In 1920 thirty-nine one-room schools were in operation. By1925 the number had increased to forty-three, but then declined steadily to thirty-six by1930.The trends in the changing numbers of of one- and multi-room schools are reflectedin their enrolment patterns between 1920 and 1930 (see Figures 3 and 4). Total enrolmentincreased over the decade from 1 534 in 1920 rising sharply to 2 054 in 1923; enrolmentthen fluctuated for six years to the 1930 figure of 1 960 (see Figure 3). However,enrolment in multi-room schools almost doubled from 750 in 1920 to 1 392 in 1930,whereas the one-room schools experienced a decline in total enrolment figures, albeit lessmarked than the increase in enrolment in the multi-room schools, from 784 in 1920 to 568in 1930 (see Figure 4). Furthermore, the average size of the one-room schools in the studyarea actually decreased over the decade, as is indicated by the increase in the number ofassisted schools between 1920 and 1930 (see Figure 2). In 1920 the average number ofpupils in a one-room school in the Okanagan Valley was 20.1 (see Figures 1 and 4). By1927 this figure had fallen to 15.2, rising only slightly to 15.8 by 1930. In assisted schoolsaverage class size was even smaller. Throughout the decade of the 1920's the highest45 \"Assisted\" was used to denote the smallest classification of school by the British Columbia,Department of Education. All assisted schools in the study area were one-room. This designation of schoolwas introduced in the 1895-96 school year and described thus: \"By an assisted school is meant that the salaryof the teacher or monitor and a small grant for incidental expenses are paid from the Provincial Treasury,parents and others interested supplying a suitable school-room, furnishing the same and meeting all otherexpenses conected with the maintenance of the school.\" See AR, 1896, 185. Rural School Districts were notsubject to municipal control either financially or administratively.147average annual enrolment for such schools was 15.3 in 1922 and the lowest was 11.1 in1927 (see Figures 2 and 3). 46To summarize, one-room schools were much more numerous than multi-roomschools throughout the decade from 1920 to 1930. However, the slight decline in thenumber of one-room schools combined with the decreasing number of pupils enrolled ineach school, and the increasing numbers of, and enrolment in, multi-room schools,resulted in a marked decrease in the proportion of the total population of pupils who wereeducated in a one-room school environment as the decade progressed. In 1920, 81.3%(thirty-nine of forty-eight) of the schools in operation in rural districts in the study areawere one-room and 51.1% (784 of 1 534) of the total number of pupils were enrolled inone-room schools. By 1930, these figures had dropped to 70.6% (thirty-six of fifty-one)and 29.0% (568 of 1 960) respectively (see Figures 1 to 4).The provision of educational services in the Okanagan Valley was well advanced by1930. A large number of multi-roomed schools were situated for the most part in the maincentres of population at points throughout the study area. They provided both anelementary and advanced level of education, and based on an increasingly centralizedsystem of administration. However the majority of the schools established remained smallindividual concerns with each school district being locally organized as a singleadministrative unit. Moreover, although the move towards a more centralisedadministration of education was actively pursued in the Okanagan Valley in the 1920's,schools were also being established in the more isolated districts in the area. 47 It is with46As noted earlier the number of multi-room schools, and the total enrolment in multi-roomschools both approximately doubled between 1920 and 1930, implying that the average size of such schoolsremained relatively constant over the decade.47For example the tiny assisted schools of Despard, Ecclestone, Ewing's Landing, Fir Valley,Hillcrest, Joe Rich Valley, Kingfisher, Medora Creek, Springbend, Sugar Lake, Trinity Creek, and TrinityValley all opened their doors for the first time during that period. See Map 2 for the locations of theseschools.148those who taught, and those who were educated, in such schools that this thesis isprimarily concerned.The details from the Annual Reports of the British Columbia Department ofEducation provide excellent material from which to construct an outline of the generaltrends in the development of schools in the Okanagan Valley in the 1920's, but they dolittle to help elucidate the reasons for such developments. Local histories of schools, byvirtue of allowing a closer, more personal look at the changing circumstances of individualschools, provide the necessary context on which to base any inferences drawn from thestatistics.The impact of localism on the the character of the educational structures andpractices was profound. It determined how and why people in individual rural communitiesestablished, managed, and supported their schools, and how and when their childrenexperienced learning. Typically located in isolated settlements in outlying districts, theschools were intensely local institutions, rooted in the very fabric of rural society.Established only at the behest of the community, the survival of a school also depended oncontinuing local support and participation, which in turn indicated the degree of localenthusiasm for education. The necessity of adapting to local circumstances ultimately meantthat the schools developed as an integral part of their immediate environment and,accordingly, closely came to reflect not only the material conditions but also the attitudes,mores and values of the communities of which they were a creation. Localism promotedwidespread qualitative differences in educational conditions between districts only a fewmiles apart and ensured that each rural school was unique. An appreciation of this intimateconnection between school and community in remote country districts, which has beenaccurately described by one historian as a \"symbiotic relationship, \"48 lies at the heart of anyunderstanding of the rural schooling experience.48Link, A Hard Country and a Lonely Place, 24.149The existence of the one-room schools was generally dependent upon strugglingsubsistence economies and the degree of transiency of the population in the area. Theappearance and then continuing survival of these schools, which more often than notproved to be extremely precarious, were dependent upon the nature and extent of economicactivity and hence available employment in a district. This in turn determined the size of thecommunity, and whether the legal number of pupils to warrant opening a school could beacquired, and then maintained.49 In short, the changing nature of the specific economic andsocial conditions unique to each community decisively affected whether or not a school wasin operation in that community. Meadow Valley School, a small one-room assisted schoollocated approximately ten miles equidistant from Summerland and Peachland, opened in1916. The settlement in which the school was situated was a small lumbering town of thesame name, although later renamed Mineola, which grew up as a result of the founding ofthe Mineola Lumber Company in 1910. By 1920 the community was flourishing with asuccessful saw-mill and box factory. However, in 1923 the mill closed down and movedits operations to Myren. The same year the box factory relocated to Summerland. 50 Theeffect on the community and the school was devastating. As Lillian Blanche Roadhouse,teacher at the school in 1923, commented on the form she submitted to the Teachers'Bureau in that year: \"The saw-mill which was the chief industry of the district is closed andwill not re-open. Families are gradually leaving. The lady with whom I stay will not behere next year.\"51 Enrolment at the school dropped dramatically from sixteen in 1923 to sixin 1924. The situation did not improve. Four years later, the teacher Mrs. Ethelwyn B.49In 1896 it was stipulated that a minimum monthly enrolment of ten pupils, and an average dailyattendance of not less than eight had to be maintained in order to keep a school open. See AR, 1896, 185. In1917, an amendment to the Public Schools Act. 1872 was introduced whereby schools in rural districts wereto be closed \"where the average attendance falls below eight in regularly organized school districts, or belowsix in assisted schools.\" See AR, 1917, A109.50Don Emery, \"Mineola,\" OHSR 34(1970): 36-39.51 TBR, 1923.150Lee, referred to the district as \"sparsely settled and only three families have children ofschool age.\" 52 The school struggled to maintain the necessary number of pupils withenrolment fluctuating between eight and nine until 1930. 53The fate of Meadow Valley School was similar to many of the other small ruralschools that opened in the more remote locations. Lack of employment in a district and/orthe prospect of better opportunities in the larger, more prosperous communities oftenprompted families to move on. As the population in a district dwindled it became more andmore difficult to maintain the required level of enrolment and many schools had to close.As the community which formed the nucleus for the school dissipated, so too did theschool. Kedleston School, opened in 1907, was located on a steep hill approximately sevenmiles from Vernon, midway between the city and the summit of the Silver Star Mountain.The community in which the school was established was tiny, isolated, almost inaccessibleand impoverished, consisting mainly of struggling bush farmers who had preempted landabove the B.X. Ranch. 54 They are remembered as \"the people who lived on PovertyHill.\"55 Pamela Hughes has described the harsh lifestyle that continued to exist inKedleston throughout the 1920s:Water was still being carried from the creek, access was still exceedingly poor andthere was no economic growth. Silver mining rights on the mountain were obtained[but] met with no financial success. The settlers supported their families with home-grown food, everyone having chickens and a cow, baking their own bread,growing their own vegetables and earning money for basic necessities by cutting52Ibid., 1928.53For enrolment figures see the Statistical Tables in the AR for 1916-1930. Meadow Valley isincluded in the tables for Rural and Assisted Schools for the period 1916-1925, and for Assisted Schools for1926-1930.54For details on the history of this ranch, one of the oldest established in the Okanagan Valley, seeMabel Johnson, \"The B.X. Ranch,\" OHSR 20(1956): 86-89.55Hughes, \"The Kedleston Story\", 10.151and hauling wood down into Vernon. The effort involved was not compensatedfinancially.56Given such circumstances it is not surprising that from 1914 on the Kedleston communitywitnessed \"a steady decline.\" 57 By 1925 the effects on the school were beginning to be feltand the following year enrolment had fallen to seven 58 and the school had to close. It didnot open again until 1935. The example of the Commonage School, which opened in 1898in a small farming comunity near Vernon, is also a case in point. The school closed by1912 due to a lack of pupils. It did not reopen. A local historian recounted the story:The Commonage School was very much a part of the community in which itdeveloped....Being an integral part of the community, this one-room buildingshared the same fate as the Commonage settlement....The Commonage had not been kind to the settlers largely because of aninadequate annual rainfall. Existence, even on a subsistence level, requiredboundless energy. Greener grass could be seen on the other side of the mountainsso many homesteaders moved on to new pre-emptions. Vernon, now a growingtown offered the prospect of less demanding jobs for higher wages. The onceprospering community of the Commonage dwindled. One of the first effects feltwas the loss of the school. With the families moving on, the difficulty in findingeight school-age children became an impossibility. Without education availablemore people were forced to leave, until only a few households remained. 59Whether a school remained open often depended on seasonal factors. Allan H.Davidson, a pupil who atttended Westbank School, in the south of the study area and onthe west side of Okanagan Lake, in the early 1900s, explained:For the first two or three years, it was a struggle on the part of parents and teacherto keep the school roll up to the number required to keep the school open.Sometimes, during the summer months, families moved from the district to be nearseasonal work. In winter, barefoot children could not be expected to walk throughthe snow. 6056Ibid., 9.57Ib id.58Enrolment at the school from 1907-1925 fluctuated between eight and twenty-two with an averageof fifteen. See Statistical Tables in AR for the relevant years. Kedleston School is included in the tables forRural and Assisted schools for the entire period.590'Brien, \"The Vernon Commonage School,\" 61, 63.60Davidson, \"Westbank Schools,\" 134.152At certain times, particularly at harvest, the need to help on the family farm was morepressing than the need to attend school with the result that \"the attendance dropped off tothe point that it wasn't worth while keeping them open.\" 61The life span of schools that were established in very small communities consistingof perhaps only one or two families was uncertain in the extreme with many disappearinginto obscurity after only a very short time of operation. Ecclestone School, established in atiny wood-cutting and small-time ranching settlement aproximately ten miles north ofKelowna, opened in 1928 with an enrolment of six pupils, all of whom came from onelarge family named Schleppe.62 Reuben Nesbitt, hired to teach at the school described thecircumstances of the \"one foreign family\" as \"poor.\" 63 The school remained open for lessthan one year, 160 days to be exact. 64 Then \"the school closed for lack of pupils and thebuilding disappeared.\" 65 Lacking documented evidence, one can only assume that theSchleppe family moved away thus removing the entire school-aged population from thedistrict.It is clear that it often took a great deal of effort to gather and then maintain therequired minimum number of pupils for a school. To many of the settlers in theCommonage district outside Vernon \"it seems to have been very important that theiryoungsters receive schooling. Everything was done to keep their school open.\" 66 Likewisein isolated Sugar Lake Alice Gibson, teacher at the school from 1924 to 1928, stated thatthe people were \"so delighted\" to have the school that they \"worked hard to maintain the61 Mawhinney, \"Black Mountain School Days,\" 113.62Corner, Glenmore, 38.63 TBR, 1928.64AR, 1928. Ecclestone School is included in the lists of Assisted Schools in the Statistical Tables.65Corner, Glenmore, 38.660'Brien, \"The Vernon Commonage Schoole,\" 61.153necessary average attendance of six.\" 67 Lucy McCormick, who taught at a number of smallrural schools in the Okanagan Valley, has suggested some of the ways in which schoolboards tried to solve the problem of insufficient enrolment:[O]ften the required 8 pupils had to be rounded up by hook or by crook and I meanthat literally. In several instances we found that 4 year-olds were conscripted, andolder pupils, who might be working or married, were sometimes added to theregister so the school would have its quota. 68J.J. Conroy, whose older brother and sister already attended the Okanagan MissionSchool, remembers: \"At the ripe age of five years I was also drafted to attend, at least parttime, as the trustees needed another body to count, in order to keep the school open.\" 69Many examples exist of pupils who were borrowed by schools that were struggling tomaintain the required enrolment from districts with an excess of school-aged children. Theywould normally board in nearby homes until enrolment had risen sufficiently to enablethem to return home. Alice Laviollette, along with two of her sisters, were three suchpupils. As she recalled: \"Sugar Lake wanted to open up the school. There was plenty ofkids at Cherryville so they wanted to borrow three from us.\" 70 Outright misrepresentationof the number of pupils in a school may have also occurred although these instances are°Interview with Alice Gibson nee Brown, Shawnigan Lake, Vancouver Island, May 1989.68McCormick, \"Early Rural Schools,\" 38.69J.J. Conroy, \"Boyhood Recollections of the Okanagan in the Early Nineteen Hundreds,\" OHSR37(1973): 33. Other examples of schools where under- and over-age children attended in order to maintainenrolment, included Springbend, (Springbend Community Recollections, 50); Commonage, (O'Brien, TheVernon Commonage School,\" 61) and Grandview Bench, (Lidstone, Schools of Enderby and District, 107),Lavington, (Pearson, An Early History of Coldstream and Lavington, 76), and Ellison, (Tutt, The History ofEllison District, 63-64). Although beyond the time-frame of this study, it is interesting to note the exampleof Isobel Simard nee Moore, who in 1936 made it possible to keep open the Hupel School where attendancehad fallen to seven: \"In order to bring it up to the required eight, Mrs. Simard helped the situation by takingon the position of teacher with her four and a half year old son to complete the necessry enrolment.\" SeeLidstone, ed., Schools of Enderby and District, 103. This information was confirmed in an interview withIsobel Simard, Enderby, March 1 1989.70Interview with Alice Laviollette nee Werner, Vernon, March 3 1989. The Werner girls wereattending the Hilton School in Cherryville at the time of their transfer. Other schools where this occurredinclude Kelowna, (Minnie MacQueen, \"A First Person Account of Early Days,\" OHSR 27(1963): 165);Sugar Lake, (McCormick, \"Early Rural Schools,\" 42); Mara, ([Gardner and Stefanyk], Mara's Memories, 42)and Commonage, (O'Brien, \"Vernon Commonage School,\" 61).154difficult to verify. Donald Graham, a prominent pioneer in the north Okanagan in the latenineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has related the following anecdote of the measurestaken by the members of a community to keep their school open, and to prevent the teacherlosing his job:Most of the new School Districts starting, are driven to expedients of one kind oranother, to meet Govt. requirements, but one I heard of on 'Okanagan Lake,' Ithink takes the cake. Being deficient in numbers and no extra children readilyavailable, as two dogs were regular in their attendance, the teacher decided to enterthem on the role. So in due course, the names of Bowser Brown, and Jack Smithappeared. When the Superintendent came around unexpectedly, and enquired wherethe balance of the children were, he was told, that they were at home helping toplant potatoes.71The fact that schools did open in remote, sparsely settled and often very poordistricts is a clear indication that the schooling of their children was an importantconsideration to many new settlers. Indeed, as mentioned earlier, the provision ofeducational services was sometimes a prerequisite for settlement in a particular district. Asclose observers of educational developments in the study area, the school inspectorscertainly believed that the desire for education was strong among newcomers. They pointedto the flood of petitions for the establishment of schools that began to pour in soon after thearrival of settlers in an area. H.H. MacKenzie of the Kamloops Inspectorate was of theopinion that the development of railway networks throughout the interior of BritishColumbia, and thus the opening up of large areas of land for settlement were \"most potentfactors towards the in-bringing of new settlers.\" 72 He further remarked: \"One of thematters of first concern to these incoming settlers is naturally the education of theirchildren, and many petitions for the establishment of schools...may be looked for in thenear future.\" 73 The following year John Martin, who was now responsible for schools in71 Donald Graham, \"Reminiscences,\" no date, unpaginated.72AR, 1913, A44.73 Ibid.155the Kamloops Inspectorate, noted that whilst many problems were associated with theefficient operation of rural schools, they were not insurmountable. He also suggested thatsuch problems were perhaps inevitable given the nature of pioneer life in BritishColumbia's interior in the early part of the twentieth century:There is a general appreciation among the settlers of the value of education,and in most districts there is a determination, in spite of diffficulties, to maintain aschool....It must be remembered, however, that many of the settlers are strugglingwith the physical realities of life. That appreciation of education and a willingness toassume the burden of maintaining a school are so general, are hopeful andencouraging indications.74Localism affected the issue of where a new school was built. Although usuallyarrived at by way of a compromise between the various local interest groups, oftenagreement as to the location of a school could not be reached as local residents fought toensure that their children had a school to attend near to their home. Sometimes drasticmeasures had to be taken to placate the feuding factions. A pupil who attended the SalmonValley School, until one fateful morning in June 1919, has related one such incident:On arriving there one morning shortly before the start of the summerholidays we found a smouldering ruin. No doubt it was arson but no one was everconvicted. This, of course, posed a problem of a replacement. Dad and closeneighbours thought the new school should be built close to the store, but people atthe other end of the District were admant (sic) that it be built on the old site. Thedispute became so bitter that some thought it advisable to have a policeman sit in atthe school meeting to prevent a possible fist fight. The Board of Education atVictoria settled it by creating a new school district, and stated it would be named\"Heywood's Corner School\". A frame building was built a few hundred yardsnorth of the store by local labour. At Salmon Valley (south) they built another logbuilding on the old site. So ended the school controversy! 7574AR, 1914, A53-A54.75Doug Heywood, \"The Heywoods of Heywood's Corner (Salmon River Valley),\" OHSR 41(1977):168. The same incident is recorded in Aiken, \"Early Records of Salmon Valley and Glennema Schools,\" 52.Similar disagreements erupted over the boundaries of school districts. For example, in 1926 plans were madeto enlarge the Rutland (called Black Mountain until 1915) School District at the expense of the nearbyEllison (called Okanagan Mission until 1908) School District. Ellison residents were outraged. Only theintervention of T.R. Hall, school inspector for both districts brought the potentially explosive situation to amutually acceptable conclusion. See School district #23, Kelowna, Ellison Public School, Minutes ofMeetings, 1926, 90-93.156The degree of commitment that many new settlers were willing to devote towardsensuring that their children were educated is also demonstrated by the active participation,in a large number of cases, of local residents in the practicalities of opening a school.Schoolhouses were often built on land donated by local settlers. Particularly in the case ofassisted schools, of which those in the study area were a majority, the building itself wasconstructed, and sometimes paid for, by the people in the community if governmentassistance was either inadequate or not forthcoming at all. Collections were made to buybuilding materials, volunteer labour cleared the land and local carpenters gave freely of theirtime and expertise. Milley Bonney attended Springbend School in the late 1920s and early'30s and clearly remembered that the actual construction of the schoolhouse had been a\"volunteer project.\" She stated: \"It was built by the men of the district....I can recall mydad going to work on the school.\" 76 Furnishing the school often proved a problem assupplies from the government were minimal. Sometimes, as in the case of an early schoolin Glenmore Valley, less than legitimate means were used to procure the necessaryequipment.As equipment was needed in a hurry two of the interested men broke into [an olddisused school] and hauled away everything that could be used in the new school,desks, benches, clock, books, etc. The Departmental authorities were expected totake a dim view when advised of this direct method of setting up elementaryeducation, but no action was taken against the trustees and school was able to starton time.7776Interview with Milley Bonney nee Duckett, West Vancouver, 24 February 1989. See also Jim andAlice Emeny, \"The Emeny Family's 100 Years in Springbend,\" OHSR 52(1988): 25. Examples of suchschools abound in the local histories and include Heywood's Corner, (Doug Heywood, \"The Heywoods ofHeywood's Corner 168); Kedleston, (Hughes, \"The Kedleston Story,\" 2); West Okanagan (Westbank),(Davidson, \"Westbank schools,\" 132); Trinity Creek, (Wejr, \"Memories of the Trinity Creek Area,\" 78);Grindrod, (Halksworth, \"Grindrod Schools,\" 51, and MacKay, \"Grindrod Schools,\" 159); Glenemma, (Aitken,\"Early Records of Salmon Valley and Glenemma Schools,\" 49); Black Mountain (Rutland), (Hobbs, \"TheFirst Half-Century of the Rutland Schools,\" 126); Hilton, (\"Vernon and District School Histories,\" 5);Ashton Creek and Trinity Creek, (Bawtree, Reflections Along the Spallumcheen, 13-14); Joe Rich Valley,(Rutland Centennial Committee, comp., History of the District of Rutland, 54); Mabel Lake and GrandviewBench, (Lidstone, ed., Schools of Enderby and District, 99, 106) and Mara, ([Gardner and Stefanyk], Mara'sMemories, 42). See also TBR for 1923 on Despard School.77Corner, Glenmore, 39.157Evidence to support the contention that the education of their children was given ahigh priority is overwhelming. Furthermore, one can confidently suggest that the one-roomschool was the pivot around which the rest of rural society revolved. In many of thesmaller settlements the school was the primary, and often the only social institution thatexisted. For the residents in these communities, with little access to the outside world, theschool became the centre for the social and all other public activities in the district. IsobelSimard, former teacher at Kingfisher, Hupel and Ashton Creek Schools who has lived allher life in the Okanagan Valley, explains:These schools were not only places of learning but served as community centreswhere dances, concerts, wedding receptions, meetings, church services, politicalrallies, and card parties were enjoyed. 78Another long-time resident has summed up the place of the \"little one-roomed school\" inrural districts by commenting that it was \"really the center of our lives.\" 79This and the preceeding chapter provide a general overview of the physical andhistorical (economic and social) environment within which the small rural schools of theOkanagan Valley were established, and then continued to function, in the period 1874 to1930. They lay the foundation for a closer look at life within these schools from the moreintimate perspective of those who participated: the teachers and their pupils.78lsobel Simard, \"Reminiscenses of Mabel Lake,\" 151. Indeed it was a rare exception for a school tofunction only as a place of education.79Clarke, \"Peachland in the Pioneer Days,\" 182.158CHAPTER FIVETEACHER CAREER TRAJECTORIES 1920-1930Between 1920 and 1930 a total of 419 individuals taught in the schools located inrural districts in the Okanagan Valley. As the decade progressed the size of the teacherpopulation expanded significantly in response to the increased demand for, and provisionof, educational facilities in the area (see Figure 5). 1 Annual totals of the number of teachersemployed rose sharply at the beginning of the decade, from sixty-five in 1920 to eighty-five in 1923, then declined slightly to a total of eighty within the next three years, andfinally levelled out to eighty-three by 1930. But who were these teachers? What were thespecific demographic characteristics of this particular group of people? From an analysis ofdata relating to gender, marital status, education and professional qualifications, teachingexperience and age, a profile of the typical rural teacher was constructed. 2As Figure 5 makes clear, the composition of the teaching force, while fluctuatingslightly from year to year, remained fairly stable between 1920 and 1930, with womenteachers predominating throughout the period. Considering the decade as a whole, 76.8%of the teachers in the area were female (see Figure 6). Fully 91.3% of these women were1 The data concerning the characteristics of the teacher population in the Okanagan Valley, and fromwhich the figures used in this thesis are calculated, are compiled from the Statistical Tables in the annualprinted reports of the Department of Education for the years 1920 to 1930 inclusive. These data enumerateonly one teacher per school (or per classroom in schools comprised of more than one division) for eachschool year. However, qualitative evidence from interviews with former teachers and pupils, and detailsincluded in inspectors' individual school reports, indicate that in some instances several teachers wereemployed during a given year within a single school. This suggests that the data may underestimate actualnumbers. Replacement appointments made both prior to and following the point of data collection appear tohave been omitted. The magnitude of this potential error and its significance to the conclusions drawn fromthe calculations based on such statistics are unknown.2The teachers' specifications that emerged from the data on the Okanagan Valley roughly correspondto province-wide statistics on rural teachers for the same period. See Wilson and Stortz, \"\"May the Lord HaveMercy on You\",\" 38-40. For comparable figures on the Bulkley and Nechako Valleys see Stortz, \"The RuralSchool Problem,\" 91-94.159unmarried. Thus between 1920 and 1930 70.1% of all rural teachers in the OkanaganValley were single females.As far as their academic credentials were concerned 51.3% of the total number ofteachers held a second class teaching certificate, which meant that the individual possessedthree years of high school and one year of normal school (see Figure 7). The proportionwith an academic teaching degree or a first class certificate accounted for 12.2% and 22.0%respectively, denoting in the former case, university graduation and one year of normalschool, and in the latter case one year at university and one year of normal school. Only10.0% of all the teachers in the area were in possession of third class qualifications, aclassification that was abolished in June 1922, but until then entailed three years of highschool and one term (four months) of normal school. The remaining 4.5% held either atemporary or special certificate. 3 Statistics comparing the qualifications of male with femaleteachers were more suggestive, revealing that on average female rural teachers in the areawere less qualified than their male counterparts (see Figure 8). Of the male teachers 56.7%held either an academic or first class teaching certificate whereas only 27.3% of femaleswere equally qualified. Correspondingly 72.7% of female teachers compared to only43.3% of male teachers had second, third, temporary or special certificates. The fact thatthe male teachers who taught in the area were generally more highly qualified than theirfemale equivalents may explain why, over the decade, 59.5% of all male teachingpositions, as compared to 40.1% of the posts occupied by female teachers, were in thelarger multi-roomed schools of two or more divisions. Consequently the majority ofteaching assignments held by the women who taught in the3 The educational requirements of each of these certificates are outlined in AR, 1923, F11-12.Temporary certificates were often granted to teachers who had been trained out of province and had not yetacquired their B.C. licence, and who thus had some normal school training and previous experience but whodid not possess all the qualifications necessary, and special certificates were usually awarded to teachers ofmanual training and domestic science.160FIGURE 5SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools. 1920-1930.NOTES: The Department of Education data concerning the characteristics of the teacher population inthe Okanagan Valley, and on which the calculations used in this thesis are based, enumeratesonly one teacher per school (or per classroom in schools comprised of more than onedivision) for each academic year. Other sources make it clear however that replacementappointments were made throughout the school year, both prior to and following the point ofdepartmental data collection, but which appear to have been omitted from the publishedreports. It is therefore possible that the official statistics may underestimate actual numbers ofteachers.161FIGURE 6SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools, 1920-1930.162FIGURE 7SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools 1920-1930.NOTES:^Teacher certification is categorised according to the class of teaching certificate held byindividual teachers. Each type of certificate required different levels of academic andprofessional qualifications. A = Academic (University degree and one year of Normal School);1= First Class (one year at University and one year of Normal School); 2 = Second Class (threeyears of high school and one year of Normal School); 3 = Third Class (three years of highschool and one term (four months) at Normal School, abolished in June 1922); T = Temporary(often awarded to teachers who had been trained out of province and who had not yetacquired their British Columbia licence); S = Special (usually awarded to teachers of manualtraining and domestic science).163FIGURE 8SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools 1920-1930.NOTES: Teacher certification, categorised according to the class of teaching certificate held, isrepresented for female and male teachers as the proportion of the total number of teachers ofeach sex.164Okanagan Valley, 59.9%, were in one-room schools, whereas only 40.5% of the maleteachers endured the same degree of professional and personal isolation.Relative inexperience was also a characteristic of many of those who taught in therural schools in the study area. 4 Nearly half, roughly 44%, of all rural teachers had onlyone year or less of experience as a teacher. Approximately 25% of the teachers had five ormore years of overall teaching experience and about 31% had taught for between two andfive years. Although the ages of all these teachers is unavailable, given their lack ofexperience it is reasonable to speculate that a substantial number of them were also young.Information collected during interviews with former teachers also supports this contention.They were unanimous in their impression that a great many of their collegues who taught inthe area in the 1920s were, to use their own words, \"youngsters\" or \"kids\" not long out ofnormal school, and that they themselves were therefore representative of much of the largerpopulation of teachers. Indeed, with the exception of three, who had taught in rural one-room schools elsewhere for a couple of years prior to accepting jobs in the area, all theparticipants took up their posts in the Okanagan Valley between the ages of seventeen andtwenty-one, with no previous teaching experience whatsoever, rural or otherwise. Thus thetypical rural school teacher in the Okanagan Valley in the 1920s was a young, single,inexperienced female, or as Lucy McCormick, a long-time teacher in the area, simplystated, \"usually a girl in her first school.\" 5Why did so many young people, and particularly women, turn to teaching as theirchoice of occupation? For some the initial decision to teach was forged early in childhood.To Agnes Ball teaching was definitely a vocation: \"I always wanted to be a teacher when Iwas a young girl....I just had it in me....I wanted to get out and do something, spread my4Details on the teachers' number of years of classroom experience were derived from the inspectors'individual school reports and not the Statistical Tables in the AR. As the figures cited here are taken from asample, rather than all of the reports for the study area, they are therefore approximations.5McCormick, \"Early Rural Schools,\" 39.165wings.\" 6 Like Agnes, Janet Graham had also always dreamed of being a teacher. As apupil in elementary school in Kamloops she became overawed by a particular teacher anddates her decision to teach from that time:When I was in Kamloops I had a teacher that was utterly charming. I came homeone day at lunch-time and said to my dear mummy \"I know what I want to be whenI grow up. I'd like to be a teacher just to show children how nice a teacher can be.For others the desire to teach stemmed from a general feeling of love for, and affinity with,young children. Mary Genier stated that \"I think that I was a natural....I knew children, Iloved children and got along well with them.\" Esma Shunter expressed similar sentimentsby stating enthusiastically that she was, and still is, \"crazy about kids and the worse theyare the more I like them.\"A few had been influenced in their initial career decisions by the members of theirfamilies and also by friends. The example of parents, siblings and other relatives who hadbeen, or were still, teachers encouraged some women to join the profession. A history ofteaching was well established in Esma Shunter's family: \"I had three sisters already whohad gone to Normal so it was sort of a family tradition.\" Ila Embree also had a sister whowas a teacher. Lloyda Wills attributed her decision to become a teacher \"partly\" to herfather, Thomas Alfred Norris, who had been the first teacher at Lumby School in the late1890's. However she also drew attention to the important influence of her close femalefriends in determining her choice of occupation: \"I had four very good chums, you know,girls, pals, three of them were going down to Normal School at Victoria, so I just made upmy mind to go with them seeing as my dad had been a teacher.\"6Unless otherwise stated all quotations of former teachers and pupils used in this thesis are takenfrom the personal history materials as cited in the bibliography. To assume that the complete picture ofteacher experience in rural areas can be found in this, and the chapters that follow, would be a grossoversimplification. It is possible, and even likely, that many teachers would not be able to identify with theworld of rural teaching presented here and that my sample of participants represents the exceptional rather thanthe average. Thus it is essential that the reader bears in mind that this thesis relates specifically to theOkanagan Valley and most importantly to the experiences of those individuals about whom I haveinformation.166It is clear from the comments of former teachers, however, that for a substantialnumber of them, their decision to teach did not originate from any strong vocational callingor indeed from the intrinsic appeal of the occupation itself. In fact many implied that theirentry into the teaching force was in a sense involuntary. They gave the impression that theyhad been more or less forced into the occupation because, for a variety of reasons, they feltthat their options for employment were limited. When asked specifically why they becameteachers many commented explicitly on the nature and extent of these limitations. At thesame time they seemed to accept their minimal prospects as a fact of life.In summing up the range of options available for a young woman just out of highschool in the 1920's Lucy McCormick expressed the commonly held perception of all thefemale participants. She stated emphatically: \"I think that's what most people did. Theyeither went nursing or teaching. They were all anybody I knew did. Or get married. Theywere the three things that girls did.\" For those who regarded marriage as an option ratherthan a necessity and wished to work, but also for those for whom the option of marriagewas not available and who therefore were compelled to find a job, nursing and teachingremained the only socially acceptable occupations. They were generally regarded assuperior to other types of work for young women such as \"hairdresser,\" \"secretary type,\"\"hired girl,\" \"work in a cafe,\" and \"telephone operator.\" 7 The participants suggested thatthese jobs were not considered as viable alternatives because they carried too little status.As Ila Embree bluntly commented on the latter occupation: \"Only the dummies becametelephone operators.\" Nursing had its drawbacks. Its appeal was limited by the fact that thenecessary training was lengthy and therefore required a considerable financial investmentwhich many families just did not have. Requiring relatively little training and few special7For discussions of the kinds of paid employment available to women in Canada in the inter-waryears, see Strong-Boag, The New Day Recalled, 41-80, Prentice et. al., Canadian Women, 218-239, andLight and Pierson, No Easy Road 251-312.167skills, the attraction of teaching was partly related to the relative immediacy of access to theoccupation.Some participants had to face family prejudice about the types of work that weresuitable for them. Esma Shunter's father had very definite ideas concerning the \"right\"choice of occupation for his daughters: \"and my father said 'There's no way you're goingto be a hairdresser'.\" Marianne Nelson simply stated: \"My father didn't want me to be anurse.\" Her decision was made for her. For others, like Alice Gibson, the stimulus forchoosing teaching rather than the other available opportunities was essentially, as sheadmitted, a \"negative\" one. When asked what had motivated her to take up the option ofteaching she asserted: \"I didn't want to do the other two.\" Her succinct answer clearlyillustrates not only her distinct lack of choice she faced but also the fact that her decisioninvolved little more than a process of elimination. \"After all,\" she added \"when you'reeighteen your mind might be a little bit more on tennis and the swimming and the boys.\"Economic necessity was thus one of the main driving forces behind the decision totake up teaching for many women and men. When Ruby Lidstone decided to become ateacher in the 1920's she did so because \"There were only two professions open to girls atthat time - teaching and nursing.\" Although she did not explicity state the reason for herchoice it is likely that she opted for the former for economic reasons. She made manyreferences in her memoirs to the fact that \"money was scarce\" in her family. Moreover,while at Normal School Ruby boarded with a young married couple in Victoria and \"actedas a babysitter to their two children [and] also did weekend household chores\" so that sheonly had to pay \"partial board.\" For Isobel Simard her choice of occupation was limited toteaching because her father \"couldn't afford anything else.\"He couldn't afford to send me anywhere else, even nursing....What I really wantedto do was go in for ballet dancing but Dad couldn't afford that....My sister was theone who wanted to be a nurse but the same thing happened there. Apparently it costso much to send anyone to train.Bernard Gillie was faced with a similar situation:168When I went into teaching that really wasn't what I wanted to do. I went intoteaching because it was the only thing that I was able to train myself for becausethat was all the money we had....That was the basic reason...because it was fairlyeasy to get into teaching in terms of the length of time [for training]...and themoney was good if you could call it that....What I really wanted to do was go intoforestry....I'm still a tree nut, I just love big trees...but I couldn't go into thatbecause that was a five year programme and there was no way I could go touniversity for five years.As far as Ila Embree was concerned getting a job was her first priority. Given the availablechoices, training to be a teacher represented to her the quickest and easiest way of gainingaccess to a relatively well-paying position in the workforce. Beginning Normal Schoolprior to 1922 meant that Ila only had to attend \"short term\" in order to acquire a Third classTeaching Certificate and was therefore eligible to teach in less than six months. Hermotives for becoming a teacher were clear: \"I wanted to get to work and earn money. Ahundred dollars a month was a lot of money in those days.\" Certainly her decision did notresult from any strong desire to make a life career out of teaching. \"Women didn't in thosedays. You were lucky just to get a job.\" For Ea, like many others, teaching was thereforejust \"something to do to earn a living. You had to do something.\" A considerable numberof young people were therefore directed into teaching for reasons that were mainly beyondtheir immediate control: they needed a job and teaching, especially for young women butalso for some men, was one of the few, perhaps the only, feasible option available.On completing their training at Normal School the young graduates began theirsearch for employment. The sense of forced choice that the teachers indicated they hadfaced in making their initial occupational decisions was also evident in their accounts ofhow and why their years in the profession began in schools in isolated rural communities.The job market for teachers in the 1920s was tight. In 1928 Inspector A.F. Matthews of theKamloops Inspectorate noted that \"the supply of teachers in this Province is now somewhatgreater than the demand for their services.\" 8 Given these market conditions competition forjobs was intense, particularly so for the recently graduated novice teacher for whom the8AR, 1928, V26.169degree of choice they were able to exercise in determining where they would teach wasnegligible. Obtaining a position in an urban graded school was almost unheard of. In fact itwas taken for granted that the beginning assignment for nearly all new teachers was thesmall rural classroom. As Mary Genier remembered: \"I didn't know of anybody at that timethat ever went to their first school except that it was a rural school. I don't think you couldget in a town school without experience.\" Lloyda Wills confirmed that this situation \"wasmore or less the set up at the time. New teachers...for their first year they had to go out tothose little one-room schools.\" Although in reality it was generally not the case some of thefemale participants perceived gender-based factors to have influenced women's assignmentto rural posts. Thus Alice Gibson asserted: \"Of course the men never had to go to thesesituations [or] very rarely....[T]hey always seemed to get the cushy jobs in the cityschools.\" But Alice, like many other women, just accepted this as a fact of life. In fact shewas resigned to the situation: \"That's the way it is....It was just par for the course.\"9Nevertheless Alice Gibson felt \"very lucky indeed\" to be offered a post at SugarLake School, not only because it was relatively close to her home town of Kelowna, butmore so because \"There was very little choice for 2nd class beginning teachers who werenot from the Vancouver area....In 1924 when I graduated from Victoria Normal there werehundreds of new teachers from the two normal schools flooding the market.\" Lists ofvacant teaching positions were issued by both the Vancouver and Victoria Normal Schools.Like countless others Lucy McCormick applied \"for lots of jobs - about sixty or seventy -all kinds of them all over the place.\" She even applied for a position \"on a barge where thekids had to all wear life jackets and the school was on the barge, one of those Davies raftsthey had on the coast.\" Lucy's enthusiastic hunt for employment was not unusual. As shepointed out: \"Everybody did the same thing. All my friends that I knew at that time [made]9In this context Jean Barman had suggested of the training females received at Normal School: \"Itsought to stamp its imprimatur on young women and part of that imprimatur lay in inculcating them withsuitable assumptions as to their deferential place in the teaching hierarchy, perceived as lying in the leastattractive positions, very often on the frontier.\" See \"Birds of Passage\", 24.170dozens of applications.\" Ruby Lidstone applied in vain for 100 jobs before she waseventually successful with her 101st job application to the Grandview Bench School inDecember 1927. Unable to procure a job in their own province many teachers had to lookfurther afield. Esma Shunter reported: \"Both of my sisters, they went to Normal andcouldn't get jobs in British Columbia so they went to Saskatchewan, and that waspractically the last we saw of them.\"As September and a new school year approached, those teachers who had failed toacquire a job turned to more drastic measures. For Janet Graham her choice of schoolswhen she graduated from Vancouver Normal School in 1923 was limited to one:You didn't choose....There was no option. There was a glut of teachers. You'dsend out...I don't know how many [applications] I sent out....No answer came. Sothen you could write to the Provincial Government and say \"Get me a school\" andyou went where they sent you and mine was Shuswap Falls.Bernard Gillie's account of his search for his first teaching job in the summer of 1926 issimilar to that of Janet's, but also fairly typical of many other beginning teachers in the1920s who found that, by force of circumstances, they had to accept schools in veryremote districts such as in the Northern Interior of British Columbia.I happened to hit the teacher market at a time when jobs were very, very difficult toget. To give you an idea of how difficult it was to get any kind of a job anywhere,the question is \"Where do you want to go?\" \"It doesn't matter. I'll go anywhere.\" Iwrote, I remember very well, this figure is deeply ingrained in my memory, I wrotefifty-six applications to fifty-six different schools in British Columbia and I didn'teven get an answer from one. [But] I knew I simply had to get a job somewhere.Finally in \"desperation\" Bernard decided that, since he was living on the family farm inStrawberry Vale in Victoria, he would go to see the Teachers' Registrar at the Departmentof Education to explain his case and ask directly for help in finding a job. When theRegistrar offered him a position at the school in Hutton Mills, a tiny lumber town locatedon the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway approximately seventy-five miles east of PrinceGeorge, Bernard accepted immediately and without reservation. \"It could have been inSiberia for all I knew but I didn't question it. I said 'Yes, fine. Where is that?'\"171Of the large numbers of teachers still unemployed as the new term began inSeptember, some turned to alternative sources of employment to earn money whilstcontinuing to look for a teaching position. However, as the narratives of former teacherssuggest, jobs became available at times throughout the year particularly in one-roomschools occupied by inexperienced teachers, often those born and bred in urban BritishColumbia, who found that they could not tolerate the isolated conditions. Esma Shunterworked in the packing house in Kelowna from September to December 1928 beforeaccepting the position of teacher at Shuswap Falls School in January 1929. The previousteacher, who had attended Victoria Normal School with Esma, resigned after only fourmonths because, as Esma was led to believe, \"she just couldn't take it.\" Esma suggestedthat part of the reason for that teacher's unhappy experience was that she could not adapt tothe harsh physical conditions that rural school teaching involved:She was from Victoria. She'd never been out of Victoria in her life and you knowwhen you get up there in December and the snow is up to your knees and you'vegot to climb a hill and walk, oh I guess half a mile up hill, right through the bush toget to the school, and when you get there you had to light a fire.As I listened to accounts of how beginning teachers acquired their first schools itbecame clear that family initiative and the influence of local community networks wereresponsible for filling many vacant teaching positions. Localism often had a strong impacton the process of teacher selection. For Marianne Nelson, who lived with her family inLumby, the problems of finding her first teaching position were considerably lessened byassistance from her father. A position at Hupel School became vacant when the teacher, ayoung man from Victoria, decided to resign at the end of the school year, possibly because,as Marianne suggested, \"One year out in the sticks was long enough for him.\" She wasoffered the job of teacher at the school primarily because her father knew the Secretary ofthe School Board. As Marianne explained: \"I remember teachers looking for schools andthey were saying I was lucky. I got my school through friends.\" Unable to get a teachingjob on graduating from Victoria Normal school in June 1929, Lucy McCormick remained172at home in Lumby until November of that year when the opportunity arose to teach atMabel Lake School. In describing how she came to be offered the post she explained that \"Igot it through word of mouth.\" She continued:In those days...in the interior the school boards wrote to Victoria and they sentpeople up from the coast instead of looking around locally....That's how I got myjob because the person they sent up couldn't stand it When the snow came andthey just couldn't stand it [they] just packed it up and went out....When the stagecame in from Mabel Lake to Lumby they looked around and one of the chaps in thestore...he knew I hadn't a job.Similar circumstances surrounded the appointment of Mary Genier to her first job atMedora Creek School in 1925. However, in her case, help came from a fellow ruralteacher. Despite the fact that she had \"applied all over the place\" Mary did not have a schoolby the beginning of the year and so took a job picking and packing fruit in Kelowna.Meanwhile Alice Gibson, teacher at Sugar Lake School and friend of Mary's fromKelowna, heard that the post had become vacant at Medora Creek when the teacher thereresigned in October, only one month into the new term. Aware that Mary was still lookingfor a teaching position she called to inform her that the school board urgently needed areplacement. Knowing little about the school and the local community, and undeterred bythe fact that the previous teacher had abandoned her post because of a \"nervousbreakdown\" Mary applied for, and was offered the job. She explained that \"I jumped ontoit because jobs were hard to get...because I needed a job. You can pick and pack fruit justso long....I just took Brownie's 10 word for it that it would be O.K.\" In 1927 a new schoolwas opened for the first time at Kingfisher. As a result of her family's connections in thearea - they farmed on land between Enderby and Armstrong - Isobel Simard was offeredthe job of teacher at the school. She accepted the position although with some reluctance.Her disinclination as revealed in the account below, which reflects Isobel's feeling that10Alice Gibson's maiden name was Brown. The nickname \"Brownie\" was coined during her yearsteaching at Sugar Lake School.173teaching had indeed been a forced choice of employment for her, but her acceptance of thejob also indicates the obligation she felt towards her parents:That first year I couldn't get a job so then I went to Kelowna to help a family....Ijust liked it so much there. Anyway, I did like housework....Then by the time I'dbeen there a year I didn't care whether I ever taught at all. [But] the Hadley's hadspoken to mother about this school being built and [said] that if I wanted it I couldhave it. But of course mother...just made me quit where I was and come on up andtake it because I had gone through normal school and Dad had paid money out toput me through and I think she just figured that's what I should do.Considering the difficulties most teachers had encountered in acquiring a teachingposition, the amount of time they spent in rural schools was somewhat shortlived. Indeed,throughout the 1920s transiency remained one of the principal characteristics of the ruralteacher population in the Okanagan Valley (see Figure 9), reflecting a common patternoccurring in other rural districts across British Columbia. 11 The highest turnover rateduring the period was in 1923 when 78.8% of the total number of rural teachers did notreturn to the same school in which they had been employed the previous year. This figurehad fallen to 39.5% by 1927. Subsequently the proportion of transient teachers increased to50.6% over the next two years but then fell to a decade low of 31.1% by 1930. In theirreports inspectors frequently deplored what Lord referred to as the \"constant migration\" ofteachers in rural schools. 12 They were particularly concerned about the detrimental impactof such teacher discontinuity on pedagogical effectiveness. Miller, to take a typicalexample, noted that schools were being \"handicapped\" by what he described as \"thisveritable menace to efficiency.\" 1311 See Wilson and Stortz, \"\"May the Lord Have Mercy on You\",\" 37-41, and passim, and Stortz,\"The Rural School Problem,\" 94-98.12AR, 1921, F36.13AR's, 1922, C36, and 1921, F37. See also IR's on the following schools for further commentson the problem of teacher transiency: Ashton Creek (March 7, 1923), where Miller warned that \"The frequentchanging of teachers...inevitably results in a lower standing,\" Coldstream (April 8, 1924), Ellison (May 3,1921), Hilton (May 10, 1922), Naramata Superior (November 15, 1921), Shuswap Falls (May 27, 1924) andWestbank Townsite (April 27, 1922). From about mid-decade inspectors began to refer to teacher turnovermostly in terms of its decline, a situation Hall regarded as \"decidedly encouraging.\" See AR, 1924, T53.174Rural teacher turnover was indeed a very real problem in the Okanagan Valley in the1920s. In fact mean teacher tenure over the decade was only 1.8 years. This figure issomewhat deceptive. Using the mean as the measure of central tendency is inapproporiatein this instance because it does not adequately represent the actual experience of themajority of rural teachers in the area. By focusing on teacher tenure within individualschools a more accurate description of the data emerges. As indicated by Figure 10, thefrequency distribution of the data is markedly positively skewed. Well over half (271 or57.1%) of those who taught in the area between 1920 and 1930 were likely to have spentonly one year in a school before vacating their post. The number who probably remainedfor a second year was damatically lower (118 or 24.8%). Even fewer were prepared to stayon for a third (48 or 10.1%) or fourth (19 or 4.0%) year, with a rare individual remainingfive or more years (19 or 4.0%) within a single school. Given the non-normal distributionof the data the mode, the most frequently occurring value in this set of data, is taken as thepreferred measure of central tendency. In this way modal teacher tenure in the rural schoolsof the Okanagan Valley over the 1920s was just one year. 14Interestingly, according to the same data the pattern of rural teacher tenure for eachsex was remarkably similar (see Figure 11). 15 Although the proportion of female teacherswho were inclined to remain in a school for five or more years was less than half that oftheir male collegues, this difference is more apparent than real since the small absolutenumbers in this category yielded a misleadingly large percentage difference. In all othercategories, where percentages are based on larger absolute numbers, the ratio of men towomen was more or less equal.14The dependent variable (teacher tenure in number of years) is a discrete rather than continuousscale. In the set of data illustrated in Figures 10 and 11, the mode is located at the minimum possiblediscontinuous value. Since the modal value represents in both cases more than half of the dependent measures(number of teacher-positions and percent in Figures 10 and 11 respectively), the median, another commonlyused measure of central tendency in sets of skewed data, is also equivalent to one in this case.15Barman has reported similar findings on British Columbian teachers in non-city schools for theperiod 1872-1901. See \"Birds of Passage,\" 22 and Table 5 on pages 32-33.175FIGURE 9SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools. 1920-1930.NOTES: For each school year teacher transiency is represented as the proportion of teachers who didnot return to the same school in which they had taught the previous year. In cases whereschools were comprised of more than one division the movement of teachers betweendivisions from one year to the next is not considered.176FIGURE 10• '—SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools 1920-1930.NOTES: Teacher tenure is categorised according to the number of consecutive years of experience ofan individual teacher within a single school over the period 1920-1930. The unit used is theteacher-position. One teacher-position represents a single uninterrupted period ofemployment by any one teacher in any one school. Forty-five (10.7%) teachers worked inmore than one school during the decade and each therefore contributes more than oneteacher-position. In cases of multi-divisional schools the movement of teachers betweendivisions from one year to the next is not considered.177FIGURE 11SOURCE: British Columbia, Department of Education, Annual Report of the Public Schools, 1920-1930.NOTES: Teacher tenure, categorised according to the number of consecutive years of experience ofan individual teacher within a single school, is represented for female and male teachers asthe proportion of the total number of teacher-positions for each sex. In cases of multi-divisional schools the movement of teachers between divisions from one year to the next isnot considered.178The data from which the figures cited above were calculated provides valuable informationfrom which to plot the general trends in teacher transiency in the Okanagan Valley between1920 and 1930, but offers few clues as to reasons why rural teachers were apparently somobile, as the vast majority so enumerated (374 or 89.3%) taught in only one school in thearea before disappearing from the records. Of the forty-five (10.7%) teachers who didtransfer to another school within the district, thirty-seven relocated once, five moved twice,with the remaining three individuals teaching in four different schools over the decade.Tracking the movements of this group of teachers yielded little useful information fromwhich generalisations could be developed to explain why teachers moved from oneparticular school to another. The data suggest that in most cases career advancement wasseemingly the prime motivation for a teacher to leave a school, in that the typical transferentailed a teacher moving to a larger, more prosperous school district, and was oftenaccompanied by a salary increase. Significantly, however, in some instances the reversesituation occurred. For example, in 1927, after teaching at Salmon Bench School for twoyears, Harriet Richmond moved to nearby Hendon. Both schools were of assisted statusand located in small, isolated districts, but at the latter both enrolment (thirteen compared tonineteen) and the annual school operating budget ($548 compared to $1102) wereconsiderably lower than at the former. As well Miss Richmond accepted a decrease insalary from $1000 to $960 per annum in order to work at Hendon.The geographical mobility of the teachers also appeared to be quite arbitrary. Some,like Miss Richmond, transfered only a few miles to a new school. Others travelled all overthe valley. Between 1922 and the end of the decade George E. Welbanks changed schoolsfour times. He first taught for three years at Despard, then transferred over fifty miles eastto Heywood's Corner where he remained for less than a year before returning back east tobe in charge of the school at Reiswig for three years. In 1929 he moved once again, thistime to Salmon Valley, but the following year found him teaching at nearby Heywood'sCorner for a second time. Likewise Earla H. McDonald taught at Hillcrest, west of179Enderby, in 1922 and then moved a considerable distance south-east to Shuswap Falls thefollowing year. Although there is no record of her having worked in the area in 1924, by1925 she had returned to teach in the Okanagan Valley, at Joe Rich Valley, east of Kelownaand thus much further south in the area.It is clear that if the reasons why a teacher took the decision to leave a particularrural school to tranfer to another, or even out of the profession altogether, are to beuncovered, it is essential to examine teacher transiency at the level of the individual.Information collected during interviews with former teachers confirmed that althoughfinancial remuneration and career advancement were certainly important factors determiningwhere they might work teachers often had other, very personal, reasons for terminatingtheir employment in a school.As the weight of evidence presented in this thesis will suggest, teaching in a remotecountry school in British Columbia in the 1920s, especially for the novice, could be anonerous assignment. It certainly was one which demanded the acceptance of considerablephysical, mental, emotional and professional hardships. Rural teachers faced endlesschallenges both in and out of their classrooms. They toiled long hours in often primitivebuildings, experienced seemingly insurmountable pedagogical difficulties andresponsibilities. They battled with brutal climatic conditions and sometimes wild animals,were forced to tolerate uncongenial, and even in some instances, hostile livingarrangements, suffered from constant local scrutiny, often highly critical, of both theirworking and private lives, and in all of this endured great personal and professionalisolation and loneliness. These arduous conditions took their toll of many rural teachers anddiscouragement was common. It is perhaps easy to understand, therefore, why someindividuals, finding themselves faced with such difficult and sometimes unpleasantcircumstances, chose to move on to a situation they felt suited them better, often after onlya brief time.180In his report for 1920 Inspector Lord suggested that one of the main causes of ruralteacher transiency stemmed from the demanding \"working conditions\" with which teachershad to contend in ungraded schools:In the last analysis the conscientious teacher finds her reward in the realization of aduty well performed; the knowledge that satisfactory results cannot be obtained is avital factor in the constant changing of teachers from one school to another. 16It is probable that this was precisely the case for some of the rural teachers who taught inthe area in the 1920s. However, in the course of my research I found little direct evidenceto support Lord's supposition. 17 In contrast many of the former teachers interviewedemphasised that the nature of the living and social conditions that existed in thecommunities in which they worked had a far greater influence in determining the quality oftheir rural teaching experience, and thus whether, or how long they remained at a particularschoo1. 18Janet Graham was appointed in September 1923 to teach at Shuswap Falls, a one-room school located in a tiny farming and trapping community approximately twenty-fivemiles east of Vernon. She was desperately unhappy in her first teaching post, and byDecember had resigned and returned to her home in Kelowna, where she worked as asubstitute teacher. Interestingly, as her comments imply, she felt that she could notrelinquish her position without the consent of her parents: \"I could have stayed if I'd hadto...\". Like many other teachers her misery originated not from her professionalresponsibilities but lay rather in her social circumstances:It was utter isolation as far as I was concerned....It was loneliness too, you see.There wasn't anyone to talk to....My few months at Shuswap was a time of great16AR, 1920, C34. For an extended discussion of the physical and pedagogical circumstancesencountered by teachers in the rural schools of the Okanagan Valley, see Chapters Six and Seven of thisthesis.17For an example of such a teacher, see Chapter Seven, page 212.18The living and social conditions of rural teachers in the Okanagan Valley in the 1920s is the focusof Chapter Eight of this thesis.181homesickness - never had I thought of such an experience....It was so foreign tome....I was truly grateful to my parents for letting me return home - to basicstandards of living - I felt very sorry indeed to let down the five lovely littlepupils. 19Ea Embree, whose home was in Delta, south of Vancouver, also found remote rurallife in British Columbia's interior hard to take. She taught at Kedleston, in a one-roomschool built on a steep hill, just seven miles outside Vernon. The small poverty-strikencommunity was comprised mainly of returned soldiers who had been allocated land by theSoldier Settlement Board and who were struggling to wrest a bare subsistence living fromthe land. As Ila suggested: \"They were starving to death, all of them.\" She outlined someof her reasons for leaving Kedleston after less than a year and a half:Where I had to board was a mile & a half from the school....I got tired of trudgingthrough the snow in the winter....I hated the climate up there. It was cold....Iwaded through snow lots of times. That's one of the reasons I quit up there [and]when they told me to be careful - some hunters had noticed animal [cougar andbear] paths at the side of the road - I thought it was time to leave - and applied for aposition at Mosher Siding through the Delta school board.Similarly Mildred Buchanan, also from Vancouver, who accepted a position toteach at the school in Glenrosa, a community of mixed farmers in the South Okanagan nearWestbank, transferred after only one year to Strathcona Elementary School in Vancouver.Professionally Mildred found the job in Glenrosa rewarding: \"It was a great experience....Ifeel that I was completely successful especially with...the inspector.\" An unsatisfactorypersonal life, however, induced her to seek out a new assignment. Denominationaldifferences were the main source of tension between Mildred and the residents of Glenrosa.The community was predominantly Plymouth Brethren and it was made quite clear toMildred that she was not accepted into their world. Although she was permitted to attendtheir religious services, at the same time, she was excluded from any active participation inthe weekly ceremony: \"They sat in a circle [but] I couldn't sit in the circle because I hadn'tbeen saved again. I had to sit outside.\" Moreover Mildred recalled one occasion that upset19Janet Graham's rural teaching experiences at Shuswap Falls, and then later Ewing's LandingSchools, are discussed in detail in Chapter Eight.182her a great deal. She had spent much of the Saturday prior to Easter Sunday decorating theblackboards at the school with seasonal chalk drawings of rabbits, chickens etc for herpupils. This had obviously been considered as too \"frivolous\" by the community andbecause she had not observed the traditions of this particular religious clique someone hadremoved all traces of the pictures before the Sunday church services, which were held inthe schoolhouse. Mildred reported: \"I found that they were very narrow-minded....It wasthe strictness of their religion, their narrowness, complete narrowness.\" Consequently, sheadded:I let them live their lives and I led mine....There was no getting together with theparents of the children....I wasn't going to stay up there if I could get a school inVancouver. If I had a chance to get a school in Vancouver I took it....I didn't wantto live that life up there. It had nothing to interest me except the teaching.In 1925 Vera Towgood, on graduating from Normal School, taught in the one-room school in Squilax, west of Salmon Arm, just outside the Okanagan Valley. Theproblems she encountered in trying to find suitable accommodation in the communityultimately provided a strong reason for transferring at the end of that school year to TrinityValley, another isolated one-room school, located in a dairy farming and pole- and tie-cutting district between Vernon and Enderby. As she clearly stated: \"I wasn't very happythere [Squilax] because there didn't seem to be anywhere to board.\" Vera recalled hertrying situation in vivid detail. 20 It had been arranged that she would board with \"Mr andMrs C.\" a couple who ran, and lived in, the local store. On arriving in Squilax late at nightshe found that to her dismay \"the Missus\" was away in Vancouver and that she wouldtherefore have to spend the night alone in a house with a man she did not know: \"Since itwas midnight I didn't feel like routing out another family, and [so] opted for the room thathad been prepared.\" As a precaution, however, Vera \"braced the chair under the doorknob\" before going to sleep. She was subsequently informed that \"Mr C.\" whom she had20Vera Towgood, \"A Chapter of My Early Life, 1925,\" typescript.183thought of at the time as a \"harmless old man\" had in fact had \"a bad reputation\" as awomaniser, and been \"found shot one night as he returned home, in front of his garage.\"Although his wife, \"a crack shot\" was implicated, \"nothing was ever proved.\"After Vera had been living at the local store for only a few days, Mrs C. \"found ittoo much of a tie to keep a boarder\" and so informed Vera that she had made arrangementsfor her \"to sleep in a room of the school building\" and for \"the fish warden and his wife[to] supply my meals.\" Vera was very uncomfortable about using the schoolhouse as abedroom because of the threat of unwanted intruders: \"I wanted to have my window openat night for fresh air, but purposely left the door unlocked, as I wanted to escape one way ifsomeone came in the other.\" In addition, when she approached the family who were to feedher, she found they were \"astounded\" at her suggestion, clearly unaware that any sucharrangements had been made. Luckily they felt sorry for Vera and agreed to provide herwith her meals each day. Vera recalled: \"I was very grateful and we became good friends. Ihave never forgotten, for I was very lonely until then.\" Unfortunately the family \"were justcamping there for the fall season of fishing\" and so after only a short period Vera was againlooking for somewhere to board. She was accepted into the home of the \"Finlander familyin the section house,\" an arrangement that also had its disadvantages:The first night I slept there was a roaring blast of noise, the house shook and I wasout of bed in terror and across the room before I was awake -- I had forgotten thatmy room was almost on the railway tracks....The lady of the station house was a good cook, but no matter what, sheinsisted on serving me first and alone. I would have enjoyed the company of thefamily, but she shook her head and I dined in state. I felt that with all the otherswaiting, I should hurry, and that perhaps they had only the leftovers.Fortunately Vera was able to remain with the Finlanders for the rest of the year andas time passed she became more involved with the people in the community and hersituation improved. However, when the position at Trinity Valley arose, Vera jumped at theopportunity to move. Although the transfer involved an increase in salary, financialremuneration was not Vera's prime reason for applying for the job. The unsettled nature ofher living arrangements in Squilax certainly prompted Vera to resign her position at the184school, but the decision to specifically choose Trinity Valley was motivated by another,more powerful influence:What I liked least was having only brief visits with my family [so] I wanted to benearer home [Oyama] and my Dad had a homestead up in Trinity Valley. He knewpeople there. Maybe that had something to do with it....I knew Dad knew somefamilies there and I thought from what he told me about them [that] it would be anice place to go.Significantly Vera also reported that \"my brother, Eldred Evans...was teaching in aBohemian settlement at Trinity Creek which was...through the backwoods...road towardEnderby\" and thus she was able to ride her horse to visit him when she wished to.Similarly, in June 1927, Bernard Gillie, a native of Victoria, decided to terminatehis employment of one year as teacher at Hutton Mills School in British Columbia'snorthern interior, in order to take up the position of Principal of the two-roomed school atEllison, near Kelowna, the following September. After his sheltered and comfortable lifeon the family farm, he found his \"living conditions\" in Hutton Mills \"very kind of hard totake. I wasn't used to that kind of thing really.\" He boarded in the mill's \"rude staff-house\"which proved to be very primitive:A tiny rough-walled room, a single narrow iron cot with a thin mattress, one smalltable, one chair. That was it. No curtains, no carpets. His window was too big forthe sash and would not close. Bernard had to stuff a towel into the four-inch gap inan effort to keep the cold out.Green lumber had been used to build the staff-house. Shrinking, it had filled thewalls with cracks. In turn, the cracks were filled with bed bugs. 21Bernard regarded his first teaching experience as \"a tough time\" and referred to the initialmonths as \"the dark days.\" He explained: \"I was still a kid really....I'd never been awayfrom home outside of a few miles. I'd had no experience and...franIdy, I didn't know howto teach school.\" Unfortunately his inspector, G.H. Gower, seemed less than sympathetic.In fact, Bernard considered him to have been \"pretty harsh\" on him.I didn't do a particularly good job in teaching, I know that. My inspector, when hecame, was not very happy with much that I was doing.... Later in the year [when] I21 The Daily Colonist, December 19, 1976, George Inglis, \"Variety -- Spice of Life,\" 6.185got the report...I was crushed. I wanted to resign. I wanted to quit because of thereport.With encouragement and support from the community, however, Bernard, persevered andthings improved. However, when the opportunity arose, he chose to relocate to Ellison.Replicating Vera's words he stated: \"I wanted to be nearer home. I guess I was a bit of ahomebody. '122As the recollections of former teachers recounted above make plain, a considerablenumber of young teachers did not make a complete break with their families when theybegan work. Even if, like Janet, Ila and Mildred, they did not explicitly state as such, giventhe opportunity many seemed to deliberately seek out positions in schools that enabled themto move nearer home and more familiar circumstances, perhaps to be able to live at home atthe weekends, or at least during the school holidays. Others did so under duress. MargaretLandon, who taught for one year in the one-room school at Salmon Bench, a lumberingand mixed farming district in the Salmon River Valley, reported:My parents were anxious for me to come home [to Armstrong] so I acceptedthe opportunity to join the staff at Armstrong Consolidated School in 1924-25although reluctantly as I had enjoyed my first year and they [the community] didn'treally want me to go.For some teachers, particularly women, the responsibility and obligation they felttowards their families influenced whether or where they taught. In a number of caseswomen subordinated teaching to their perceived need to act as primary care-giver to aparticular family member. A case in point is Ruby Lidstone, who taught in the one-roomschool at Grandview Bench, just above Grindrod in the North Okanagan, from January1928 to June 1929. Despite her heavy professional commitments as a novice teacher andthe fact that Grandview Bench, where she boarded, was more than five miles from herhome in North Enderby, a considerable distance to travel at that time given the poor road22Bernard also reported: \"The future of the mill was very uncertain. In fact it closed down...the nextyear after I was there. So there was a real question as to whether the school would continue.\" Between 1920and 1930 thirty-two rural teachers in the Okanagan Valley left their schools because they closed.186conditions and lack of transportation, Ruby made frequent trips home to comfort and carefor her mother who was dying of pernicious anaemia. She reported:When the spring came and the roads were dry she rode her bicycle to the Benchfrom her home and made a bi-weekly trip on Wednesday afternoons, to havesupper with her family - then rode back to Grindrod and walked up the long hill,pushing her bicycle.In January her mother finally passed away. Despite the fact that it was \"a hardwinter, very cold with a lot of snow\" Ruby made sure that she \"got home in mid week asoften as possible and always at weekends, when she tried to bake as much as her father &brothers would need for the week.\" When, six months later, her father committed suicideRuby made the decision to give up teaching at Grandview Bench altogether to remain athome to help run the family farm and provide for her brothers' needs. 23Mae E.A. McMynn, who taught at Westbank Townsite for the 1922-23 schoolyear, also took time away from her appointment to care for her mother. In January 1923she sent a telegram to the trustees informing them that \"owing to the illness of her mothershe would be detained another week.\" 24 Unfortunately she appears to have been the victimof uncooperative and unsympathetic school officials, who were no doubt displeased withthe fact that while she was absent from school, her classroom was \"closed accordingly.\"25In March of the same year Mae commented in the questionnaire she submitted to theTeachers' Bureau: \"The present secretary of the trustees...has caused much unpleasantnessfor the present, and I believe, previous teachers.\" Significantly three months later thetrustees made the decision \"to advertise for a teacher in Miss McMynn's place.\" 26 One can23For further details on Ruby's teaching career, see Chapter Nine of this thesis. Interestingly Rubyreferred to herself in her memoirs in the third, as opposed to the first, person.24School District #23, Kelowna, Westbank Townsite Public School, Minutes of Meetings, January8, 1923.251bid.26Ibid. June 29, 1923.187only speculate as to the reasons for Mae's brevity of tenure at Westbank Townsite School.Did she voluntarily resign her post or did particular members of the School Board, findingher work to be unsatisfactory, take the decision to terminate her employment at the school?Did she choose to leave in order to continue caring for her mother or because the\"unpleasantness\" directed towards her by members of the community forced the issue?Whatever her reasons were for leaving Miss McMynn remained at Westbank Townsite foronly one year. Christine Kearne, appointed to teach at Okanagan Landing School inSeptember 1921, seems to have experienced similar difficulties with regards to herrelationship with local school officials and other members of the community. In March1923 she felt obliged to warn future incumbents of the situation: \"There is very little co-operation between parents and trustees and parents and teacher. Trustees do not workharmoniously together, consequently frequent changing of teachers.\" 27 Records reveal thatshe resigned by the end of the school year as in September 1923 Dunbar H. McLean isnoted as being in charge at the schoo1. 28Teachers were also influenced in their decisions concerning where they might workby a variety of other people. Evidence suggests that in a number of cases rural teachertransiency was precipitated by the fact that, as Marianne Nelson suggested, \"other teacherfriends moved away\" or by \"a sentimental interest in one of the opposite sex!\" Contact withfellow collegues in whom they might confide was often critical to a rural teacher's stay in acommunity, especially for those individuals working in very remote districts that offeredlittle in the way of a social life. In 1926 Agnes Ball resigned her post as teacher atBroadwater, near Deer Park on the Lower Arrow Lake, to transfer to another one-roomschool, at Joe Rich Valley in the Okanagan. Both personal and professional factors27TBR.28See IRs, October 28, 1921, and September 26, 1923. See also Statistical Tables in the AR for theperiod 1920-1924. Okanagan Landing is included in the lists of Rural and Assisted Schools.188motivated her to relocate. Miss Reekie, the teacher in the junior division at WinfieldSchool, also in the Okanagan Valley, wrote to Agnes and suggested that she might considerteaching at Joe Rich Valley. Miss Reekie had previously taught at the school at Renata,across the Arrow Lake from Broadwater, and she and Agnes had become firm friends,attending many dances together. The idea of being close to her friend again appealed toAgnes. At the same time the position at Joe Rich Valley meant that she would be \"reallygetting a little bit further on into a bigger community\" and hence the opportunity to advanceher career.Some young teachers found the small isolated rural communities in which theywere \"marooned,\" often for months at a time, very limiting in terms of the opportunity forromantic encounters with eligible partners. This was certainly the case for Ila Embree. Shereported that at Kedleston there were few single men in the community: \"They were allmainly married men, soldier settlement fellas, they all had wives and kids.\" As a result\"There was nothing much to do on weekends except go out with some of the boys youdidn't want to go out with much up there.\" In contrast, when she transferred to MosherSiding School in 1921 in the much larger Delta School District, Ea stated that she \"met myfate...met him right away...on a skating rink near Mosher School.\" She got married withina year of moving to the coast and gave up teaching.During the 1920s, particularly towards the end of the decade, it was generallyaccepted that if a female teacher decided to marry then her position in the workforce was nolonger tenable. The withdrawal of women from the profession when they got married madea significant contribution to the brisk turnover of teachers in rural districts. In January 1929Vera Towgood was offered the job as teacher of the junior division in the two-room schoolat Winfield, a predominantly fruit and market gardening district, that enabled her to be nearher home, and boyfriend, in Oyama. Vera reported that the position had become availablebecause the previous incumbent, a young girl, had left to get married. Vera had similarintentions. As she explained: \"By this time I was planning to be married which I did in1891930. Automatically then a woman was not allowed to teach because she had a husbandwho was supposed to support her!\" Similarly in 1928, when Janet Graham gave up her jobin the one-room school at Ewing's Landing, a small community on the west side ofOkanagan Lake, she did so for precisely the same reasons: \"I left to marry....I was not freeto teach - that would be taking [a job] away from a man!\" 29While matrimony was undoubtedly one of the reasons why large numbers of femaleteachers withdrew from the profession, the stories of some of the participants indicate thatnot all female teachers dash to the altar. Instead when faced with the choice many opted totake up a another position rather than get married. By 1928, after two years at Joe RichValley School, Agnes Ball felt that it was time for a change once more, despite the fact thatshe had enjoyed her time in the Okanagan, and the community had asked her to return for athird year as teacher at their school. She explained what provoked this decision: \"It wasabout time for me to go....I hardly thought I should stay more than two years in any oneplace.\" Although she was \"pretty serious\" about going back to school to improve herqualifications, she decided that she would \"rather take a trip somewhere.\" She evenconsidered combining both of these ideas by enroling to do a course at the University ofCalifornia. When asked whether marriage had been one of the options she had consideredat that time she stated emphatically: \"No! I didn't want to get married. I didn't haveanybody in mind to get married....I wanted to try something else.\"Unfortunately, lack of money prevented Agnes from putting her plans into actionimmediately. However when she discovered that the position of principal at Telegraph29Judith Arbus found this to be the case for the women teachers she interviewed who had taught inOntario during the 1920s and 1930s: \"During the Depression...[m]en's work bcame even more stronglyvalued, while women's work, especially in a \"career,\" was no longer merely inappropriate but economicallyand morally open to question. As long as women were employed they were said to be taking the place of amale and hence they were seen as partially responsible for male unemployment.\" See \"Grateful to beWorking: Women Teachers During the Great Depression,\" in Feminism and Education: A CanadianPerspective, eds., Frieda Forman, Mary O'Brien, Jane Haddad, Dianne Hallman and Philinda Masters(Toronto: Centre for Women's Studies in Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1990), 177-178.190Creek School had became vacant she promptly applied. It involved a substantial increase inher salary and therefore the means by which to acquire the necessary funds to go \"travellingoverseas.\" Again her application was successful. Whilst at Telegraph Creek Agnes met herhusband-to-be and consequently found herself faced with a difficult dilemma: career ormarriage? The young man in question \"got really down to business\" and told Agnes that hedid not want her to teach after they got married. To begin with she was undecided: \"I didn'tthink I was going to [get married], that's why my husband and I put it off for quite a while,because he couldn't understand that I wanted to go to Egypt. I was still wanting to goplaces and one place was Egypt.\" Clearly she had her own ideas about what was best forher. Rather than an inevitability, she regarded marriage as an option which she elected topostpone until the time was right. This uncertainty prompted Agnes to delay her marriagefor two years until 1930.In the same way, after two years' service, Mary Genier was \"ready to getsomething better\" and so left the tiny one-room school at Medora Creek in 1927 to pursueother career opportunities. Much like Agnes, marriage was not a priority to Mary at thattime:I met him [husband-to-be] when I was teaching at Medora but I wasn't ready to becommitted to anything....I wanted to get my Alberta Certificate...and make myway....I knew I could get a job there because I had an uncle that had influence. Itaught there [Alberta] for two years and...had grades five, six and sevenand...about thirty-five or forty [pupils] and that was quite different. But I did wellthere too. Then I didn't want to stay there. I wanted to come back to the Okanaganso I got a job in Lumby [in 1929]....I got married in 1931. In those days youweren't supposed to be married and teach school. So I was married for a yearbefore it was made public. The School Board knew [but] they wanted me as ateacher....So the second year I was married I got pregnant and quit.Towards the end of the decade, mainly due to market forces, the rate of ruralteacher transiency in the Okanagan Valley declined. The short supply of teaching jobsmeant that many teachers were unwilling to relinquish their posts until an alternativeposition became available. Alice Gibson remained from 1924-1928 at Sugar Lake School, atiny, decrepid log structure located in a very isolated logging and trapping community191\"carved out of the bush\" approximately forty miles east of Vernon, in what on the surfaceseemed to be extremely primitive living and working conditions. Lottie Bowron's verdicton the school as a result of a visit in 1929 is telling:As this is rather a vacation place...it is all right for the summer months but it mustbe a lonely spot in winter and would not consider it a good place for a young girl. Itis very isolated. Better for a man. 30The main reason for Alice's unusually long tenure at the school, was, as she explained:\"The Inspector advised me to stay there until another job offered itself as it was still veryhard to get jobs.\" She finally left in 1928 when she was given the opportunity to teach atShawnigan Lake School, on Vancouver Island: \"It was generally a pleasurable experiencebut I was ready, after four years, to get back again into \"civilisation\".\" Similarly, LucyMcCormick, who was appointed to teach at Mabel Lake in 1929, reported: \"I was there atthe beginning of the Depression...and you just didn't move.\" Four years later in 1933 shetransferred to Shuswap Falls School, located a few miles from Mabel Lake, because theposition offered her \"better money,\" an important consideration to a young single teacherduring the early years of the Depression. She added that the move also enabled her to \"getout\" and live closer to her family in Lumby: \"I was glad to go. I'd done my share there.\"The purpose of the discussion that follows is to provide in intimate detail aportraiture of the multiple realities of rural teaching as it was encountered by a specificgroup of people, focussing on their working and living conditions and professionalresponsibilities, how they coped with the situations they encountered in isolatedcommunities, and the consequences of those experiences in terms of their life courses as awhole.30Bowron Reports, Sugar Lake, May 30 1929.192CHAPTER SIXWORKING CONDITIONS: SCHOOL FACILITIESThe framework of analysis for this and the next chapter centres exclusively onteacher experience within the confines of the schoolhouse itself. The physical andpedagogical circumstances that rural teachers confronted on a daily basis are the focus ofdiscussion. The quality of teacher work experience in remote districts was of necessity,given the enclosed nature of rural society, intimately tied to, and thus to a large extentalthough not exclusively, determined by community conditions. The specific circumstancesextisting in each community were crucial factors influencing not only the materialconditions of the schoolhouse and its grounds, but also the social and learning environmentwithin the school, that is, who was enrolled, when and why they attended or did notattend, and how they were educated.As outlined in Chapter Four the schoolhouses in which rural teachers spent theirdays were essentially a product of their immediate environment. Whether a school existedin a district often depended upon local initiative and support. It was usually built by localmembers of the community using materials available in the vicinity. The physical structurescontaining schools, and the furniture therein, could therefore be as primitive or as luxuriousas the communities creating them allowed. Consequently the vast majority of schools wereoften indistinguishable from other homes and farm buildings in the surrounding district andmerged into the topography.The comments made by teachers in the Bureau Records concerning the generalconditions of the buildings and grounds of the schools in which they taught variedconsiderably. Some found their circumstances to be agreeable and well-disposed.Obviously satisfied with their lot these teachers used adjectives such as \"excellent,\" \"verygood,\" or \"good\" to describe their workplaces. In the questionnaires only a few, however,193elaborated upon these brief comments to suggest the reasons for their assessments. GraceFord, teacher at Silver Creek School in 1928, described her school thus: \"Modern paintedbuildings [and] cleared yard....The school yard is fenced, trees are planted (last fall), thereis a swing and \"teater\" [sic] and the people of the district take an interest in their school &grounds.\" Margaret E. Whitworth, who taught at Ellison School in 1923, was equallycontent with her working conditions. She noted enthusiastically that Ellison was a \"Newschool [with] large grounds....The school is furnace-heated, has a good library,blackboards back and front, sand-table for Primary Work. Large basements where childrenplay in wet weather.\"Inspectors were also satisfied with the condition of some of the rural schools theyvisited in the Okanagan Valley, and on a few occasions congratulated school districts forthe highly commendable condition of their educational facilities. Thus in his report for1920, Lord, of the Kelowna Inspectorate, proudly announced: \"A pleasing feature of thepast year has been the interest manifested by many Rural School Boards in the appearanceof their buildings and grounds; in a considerable number of cases extensive improvementshave been made at a very considerable expense.\" 1 Individual schools were also singled outfor praise. In the same year Lord described Naramata School as an \"Excellent two-roomedframe building....One of the most attractive school properties.\" 2 On inspecting the schoolin 1925 Hall was equally impressed noting that the school grounds were \"Levelled; fenced;good space in lawn; very few rural schools in this inspectorate have such creditablegrounds.\" 3 He also considered Rutland School, a four-roomed brick structure, to be ofsuperior quality. As a result of his visit to the school in 1925 he reported: \"The condition oflAR, 1920, C33.2IR, December 9, 1920.3lbid., October 21, 1925.194the grounds, building, and school property generally is highly creditable.\" 4 Even schoolsestablished in very remote, and sometimes impoverished, areas proved to be in highlysatisfactory conditions. Miller described Hillcrest School in 1921 thus: \"New framebuilding....A neat looking schoolhouse, well planned, well built, and a distinct credit to thecommunity.\"5 In 1930 Lord commented on Joe Rich Valley School: \"This school, thoughsmall and isolated, is surprisingly well equipped. It is neatly decorated and the library iscreditable. The standing is quite up to the average of rural schools.\" 6 Agnes Ball whotaught at Joe Rich Valley between 1926 and 1928 stated that it was \"kept very well\" and\"even had blinds at the windows.\" Other former school teachers also recalled that theschoolhouses in which they worked had been in relatively good condition. LucyMcCormick described Mabel Lake School as \" a good solid building\" that was \"pretty wellcared for.\" Similarly Janet Graham who spent four years at Ewing's Landing School,remembered her classroom thus: \"It was light and bright and cheerful...a spacious roomwith room to spread.\" Bernard Gillie regarded Ellison School as having provided \"reallyexcellent accommodation for a school. [It was] well equipped, pleasant, comfortable, warm- all the things that a classroom...should be.\"Schools such as those described above, however, were the exception rather than thenorm for the study area. Located in remote and often impoverished communities, themajority of schools in operation in the Okanagan Valley over the decade of the 1920s wereof assisted status and thus the \"poorest and most needy category of rural schools.\" 7 Therepercussions of insolvency on educational matters were enormous. Unlike regularly4lbid., January 11, 1925.5lbid., November 2, 1921.6Ibid., May 1, 1930.7Ivan J. Saunders, \"A Survey of British Columbia School Architecture to 1930,\" Parks Canada,Research Bulletin 225(November 1984): 6. See also Figure 2 in Chapter Four of this thesis.195organized rural schools, assisted schools \"received no special design or constructionassistance at all\" and therefore \"generally possessed little architectural merit\" and were oftenbuilt with \"little or no emphasis on the requisites of minimal school facilities.\" 8 Moreover,as Hall of the Kelowna Inspectorate noted in his report for 1927: \"The small assistedschool remains the chief problem for it is here that the less experienced teachers areemployed, and it is likewise here that there is the greatest difficulty in obtaining suppliesand equipment requisite to successful work.\" 9Strictly utilitarian in purpose and built of lumber, log or wooden frameconstruction, most rural schools of the Okanagan Valley, much like those throughout therest of the province, were rectangular structures with windows down one, or sometimesboth sides, and with a small entryway or porch built on the front for the pupils' outerclothes and lunch pails. In general they were small, usually no larger than twenty-four bythirty feet, and poorly constructed, suffered from inadequate lighting, heating andventilation, and were sparsely furnished and equipped. 10 Lack of available money meantthat the upkeep and repair of many of the schools in remote districts was often minimal. 11It is not surprising therefore that in the Bureau Records many teachers referred in a rather8Ibid., 6, 9.9AR, 1927, M37.10A further source of information on the early history of school design in the province, which alsoincludes a section on the Okanagan, can be found in Douglas Franklin et. al., Early School Architecture inBritish Columbia: An Architectural History and Inventory of Buildings to 1930, unpublished internaldocument of the Ministry of Provincial Secretary and Government Services, Heritage Conservation Branch,Victoria, British Columbia, 1980, particularly pages 27-40.11 Significantly, the assisted schools in British Columbia were \"probably, by 1930, inferior tosimilar schools in the other western provinces\" and thus \"remained a growing embarrassment\" to theeducational authorities in the province. See Saunders, \"A Survey of British Columbia School Architecture,\"14 and 8.196derogatory fashion to their working conditions as merely \"fair,\" \"poor,\" or, as in a numberof instances, \"very poor.\" 12Inspectors frequently drew attention in their reports to the appalling conditionschool buildings and the need for them to be replaced, or at least undergo renovations. In1920 Lord deemed the \"loghouse\" used as the school at Heywood's Corner as\"unsatisfactory\" and regarded it as \"imperative that a new building be erected.\" 13 In hisreport on Blue Springs School in 1924 Hall warned: \"If this school is to remain inoperation...it will be necessary to make considerable improvements in the building in orderto make it fit for use as a school.\" 14 Similarly in 1928 he considered Hilton School \"not ingood repair; interior is dingy and unattractive and would be much improved by painting.\" 15Lord described the interior of Mara School as \"disgraceful\" when he visited the school in1930 and noted that it was \"urgently in need of decoration.\" 16 Some schools wereobviously unsuitable for the \"extreme\" weather conditions in the Okanagan Valley,particularly during the harsh winter months. As a result of his inspection of Fir ValleySchool in 1923, it was Hall's opinion that the \"small log building...must be cold, draughtyand almost unfit for use in winter.\" 17 Likewise when Lord visited Trinity Valley School inthe autumn of 1929 he pointed out that \"The schoolhouse requires a certain amount offixing-up before really severe weather sets in.\" 1812See for example teacher comments on Fir Valley, Mabel Lake and Medora Creek Schools in1923, and Ecclestone and Hendon Schools in 1928.131R, April 21, 1920.14Ibid., May 26, 1924.15Ibid., September 21, 1928.16Ibid., May 7, 1930.17Ibid., April 17, 1923.18Ibid., October 8, 1929.197A number of former teachers that were interviewed depicted the physical conditionof the schools in which they taught in less than glowing terms. Mary Genier describedMedora Creek School in the following way: \"It was really primitive, more like a barn than aschool.\" Marianne Nelson who followed Mary as teacher at the school referred to theschoolhouse as a \"wreck\" that had been \"condemned\" because, as she explained:The plaster between the logs of this building was loosening, the lighting was poor -there were only two windows on the one side and one small one near the teacher'sdesk! There were holes between the boards in the floor. When the pupils had gonehome and I was sitting quietly at my desk after school, mice would pop up andscurry across the floor. 19Vermin were also a problem at Sugar Lake School where Alice Gibson taught. Shereported: \"If you happened to look up at the right time you might see a rat running along alog.\" Alice politely, or perhaps rather sarcastically, described the school, a tiny one-roomlog structure built against the mountain so it was \"very dark,\" as \"rustic.\" Alice Laviolletterecalled that when she attended Hilton School there were \"great big cracks in the floor. Youlost your pencils underneath there. It was never banked up or nothing like that.\"Included in the structures used as schools were a significant number of otherbuildings of one sort or another that were never intended as schoolhouses, and thus weredeemed \"unsatisfactory\" and /or \"unsuitable\" by teachers and inspectors alike. Usually as aresult of overcrowding teachers and pupils had to relocate to alternative, temporary quarterssuch as a \"local church,\" 20 \"boarding house,\" 21 \"old dwelling-house,\" 22 \"fruit-pickersbunkhouse,\" 23 \"construction camp, \"24 \"vacant store building,\" 25 \"lower half of an old19See also IR, September 18, 1924, for details on the decrepid condition of Medora Creek School.20Okanagan Centre (TBR for 1923 and 1928, and IRs for the period 1921 to 1929), Glenrosa (IR,November 25, 1920) and Summerland High (IR, November 14, 1921).21Falkland (IR, April 27, 1921).22Falkland (TBR for 1923, and IRs for November 3, 1921, October 1, 1923, and September 24,1924).23East Kelowna (IR, April 21, 1921).198store,\"26 or \"hotel,\"27 In the unfortunate case of Lydia Hayes who taught at Seymour ArmSchool in 1923, school was held in the \"small front room of dwelling house occupied byteacher.\" 28Regardless of the type of building in which school was held the vast majority ofrural schools at this time did not have any modem conveniences such as electricity, runningwater or indoor plumbing. As Ila Embree, teacher at Kedleston School in the early 1920s,stated: \"Everything was primitive. No heat. No light. No anything like that.\" ShuswapFalls School was a rare exception in that \"when the power plant was opened in 1928,electric light was installed, making it the first rural school [in the Okanagan Valley] to havesuch a luxury. It was the end of the sub-line which served the operators' homes.\" 29Obtaining fresh water for the school, for both drinking and washing, could also be aproblem. In 1923, Miss E.G. Ford, teacher at Deep Creek School, pointed out thatalthough there was a well in the school grounds its contents were \"unfit for use. Trusteesare attempting to procure water for school purposes from another source.\"\" Usually theonly access to water was a creek, spring or stream, often inconveniently located, and whentemperatures fell below zero for periods of time during the winter, unavailable. In the caseof Despard School water had to be collected \"from spring quarter of mile away\" and at24South Kelowna (IR, December 21, 1922).25Naramata (IR, April 7, 1921).260kanagan Landing (Hodgson, \"Okanagan Landing School Days,' 119, and interview with IdaPalmer, March 2, 1989).27Summerland High (Division 3) where the \"noise\" from the \"hotel kitchen\" interfered \"seriously\"with the teacher's work (IR, November 14, 1921), and Lumby (interview with Lloyda Wills, March 5, 1989).28IR, April 24, 1923. See also TBR for 1923.29McCormick, \"Early Rural Schools,\" 41.30TBR.199Medora Creek School \"from stream at considerable distance.\" 31 Hall noted that water hadto be \"carried from Wood's Lake\" to Oyama School, but because this supply was onlyavailable \"for part of the year\" he recommended that \"it would be well to take steps toprovide a more satisfactory and dependable supply.\" 32Inside most schoolhouses the surroundings were bare and the contents usually inno better condition than the buildings that housed them. Desks, for both teacher and pupilsalike, were \"often homemade benches, sometimes logs split in half\" and consequently were\"very uncomfortable, causing much shuffling of pupils.\" 33 At Westbank School in 1923sixteen pupils were enrolled but, as Hall noted, \"Only six desks are satisfactory...\" Hetherefore demanded that \"twelve new ones should be provided.\" 34 Buster Schunter recalledthat as a pupil at Hilton School each desk accommodated a number of pupils, usually four,although \"Sometimes they squeezed five in if they were little ones!\" The rudimentary itemsof school furniture comprised a bench on which stood an open water pail with floatingdipper and \"germ-laden\" metal cups, usually one for each family, and sometimes a washbasin, soapdish and towel, a book-case and/or cupboard for supplies.Not only were many rural schoolrooms spartan but sometimes they were alsoinadequately heated. Climatic conditions in the Okanagan, particularly in the northern partof the valley, were severe during the winter months with very low temperatures and heavysnowfalls. Typical of the comments that rural teachers made are those of Marion L. Seldon,teacher at Silver Creek School in 1923, who described the weather thus: \"Cold winters,max. temp. 25° below zero, snow for about 4 months.\" 35 One of Lucy McCormick's most31 IRs, November 11, 1922, and September 18, 1924, respectively.32IR, October 16, 1922.33McCormick, \"Early Rural Schools,\" 38.34IR, April 11, 1923.35TBR, 1923.200vivid memories of the first year she taught at Mabel Lake School was that she \"was neververy warm.\" Rural teachers often fought a losing battle trying to keep their classrooms,themselves and their pupils warm. The central feature dominating the interior of most ruralschools, and often the only primitive source of comfort, was thus the heater. Usuallysituated towards the middle of the room it became the focus around which the days activitesrevolved during the long cold winter months.By the 1920s, the pot-bellied stove that had generally been used in most of theoriginal one-room schools had largely been replaced by an empty gasoline barrel turned onits side and set in an iron cradle. Some of these wood-burning contraptions were highlyprecarious. Marianne Nelson named the \"air-tight tin heater\" at Medora Creek School\"Vesuvious [sic].\" She explained why: \"After the fire in the stove became lively on nippywinter mornings, the lid might blow upward some 2 or 3 inches, at the same time lettingout a ring of smoke beneath it....I watched this stove anxiously after the first few of theseeruptions, but this blow-up never seemed to go beyond this huffing and smoking.\" Someschools were better off and had furnaces to heat the buildings. Even these proved to bepotentially dangerous. Miller, on inspecting Mara School in 1923, found that there was\"furnace-smoke pouring into the classrooms at all too frequent intervals.\" 36 On Lord'sadvice Grindrod School was closed at one point because of the \"nuisance\" caused by the\"very unpleasant odor apparantly coming from [the] furnace.\" 37Whether temperamental or not most stoves in rural schools were inefficient andtended to heat only those seated in its immediate vicinity. Consequently, as was the case atGrandview Bench School and many other rural schools in the Okanagan Valley: \"Thosenearest to it suffered from the extreme heat while those farthest in the remote corners,shivered from the winter draughts that found their way through the well-chinked walls and361R March 9, 1923.37Ibid., December 3, 1919201around the windows.\"38 Teachers recall having to spend considerable amounts of time\"moving children around\" their classrooms to make sure that everyone gained equal andmaximum benefit from the heater.Trying to ensure that their schools were warm before classes began was also aperennial problem for rural teachers. Ea Embree stated that the \"heavy iron heater\" atKedleston School kept the room warm, but only \"as long as you got it going in lots oftime.\" When Hall arrived at Peachland School one morning in January 1925 he found that\"the rooms were very cold; evidently the stoves were not lighted early enough.\" 39 AnneVardon stated that at Medora Creek School \"teachers usually came to school early to lightthe fire so the school would be warm when the children arrived. Many times the teacherswere late and the children came to a cold room. On many occasions the ink was frozen inthe inkwells....We'd have to wait till the school warmed up and the inkwells would thawand it wouldn't be very pleasant.\" Both pupils and teachers remember many freezing wintermornings, still clad in their outer clothing, waiting for the schoolroom to warm up. Wetclothes sat alongside inkwells and lunches to thaw on top of the stove creating a certain\"atmosphere\" in the schoolroom. A pupil who attended Ashton Creek School in the 1920svividly recalled this situation: \"I often wonder how the teacher stood the combination ofodors given off from wet socks, mitts, etc. that were spread under and hung upon the metalscreen around the big stove that heated our school.\" 40 Although the cold of the winterpresented many problems, the summer months could be equally unpleasant. Lackingsufficient ventilation rural schools could be unbearably hot and oppressive. Stan Wejr, apupil at Trinity Creek School, reported: \"[I]n the summer the mosquitoes were so bad one38Lidstone, ed. Schools of Enderby and District, 107.391R, January 16, 1925.40Bawtree, Reflections, 40.202had to run to school to keep ahead of them. There were no screens on the windows the firstyear at school and they got really thick inside...feasting on hands, legs and face.\"41In many cases the grounds on which rural schoolhouses stood were undevelopedand as devoid of refinements as the buildings themselves. In a number of instancesgrounds were non-existent. Miss W.M. Lang described the grounds at Joe Rich Valley in1923 as \"rough and unfenced.\" 42 Likewise Belle K. McGauley referred to Ashton CreekSchool grounds in 1928 as \"uneven, stumpy.\" 43 In the same year Vera G. Evanscomplained that at Trinity Valley School there were \"No suitable school-grounds except forone corner partially cleared,\" and Mabel Willoughby, teacher at Mabel Lake School,optimistically remarked: \"[grounds as yet unimproved.\"'\" Ida Winnifred Parker did notwaste words in describing her situation as teacher at Okanagan Centre School in 1923:\"School in church - no grounds.\" 45 Typical of the circumstances found in most ruralschool districts in the Okanagan were those at Sugar Lake, as depicted by Alice Gibson:\"There were no, as it were, school grounds. The log school was just set down in anuneven clearing with trails to a few houses...and to the lake.\"The grounds of the vast majority of rural schools may well have been inadequate asplaygrounds but they were nevertheless an important extension of the schoolhouse becausethey contained various other structures such as the woodshed, a shack or small stable tohouse the horses that some pupils rode to school, and most importantly the outhouses, or\"biffys,\" located often at some distance from the schoolhouse itself. School outhouseswere at best merely unpleasant. Most were squalid, unsanitary and graffiti-covered, and41Wejr, \"Memories of Trinity Creek,\" 79.42TBR.43Ibid.44Ibid.45 Ibid.203some were even a health hazard. Arthur Ward, who attended Glenmore School, describedthe facilities as \"two four-holers by the tule swamp. The little boys wet all over the seatsand everywhere, so were warned by the big ones to stay on their own side or have theirears cut off.\"46 Students at Hilton School remembered that there had been \"two outhouses,one for the boys and one for the girls. Toilet paper was an old catalogue when someonebrought one but most of the time there was none.\" 47 Although inspectors frequentlycommented on the unsatisfactory condition of the sanitary facilities at some schools, littlewas done to improve them unless they forced the issue. Lord warned on three separateoccasions that the \"unpleasant scribbling\" on the walls of the boys' toilets at Ellison Schoolshould be removed. 48 Likewise he commented that at Okanagan Landing School in 1921:\"Doors on both water-closets are STILL off as a year ago.\" 49 At Mission Creek School heconsidered that \"The condition of the toilet in respect of morality is disgraceful.\"50 AtGlenrosa School Hall reported: \"The closets are not satisfactory; pits should be dug;condition at time of inspection was far from what it should have been.\" 51 At Grindrod in1929 Miller found the situation intolerable and issued the following admonition: \"Unlessmore sanitary methods of disposing of the contents of the privy pails are put in practice atonce serious outbreaks of various forms of disease may be expected.\"52 School outhouseswere used by teachers and children alike.46Ward, \"Growing Up in Glenmore,\" 104.47Cherryville School Reunion, 1905-1970, unpublished booklet, 4.481Rs, April 13, 1920, November 28, 1921, and April 28, 1922.49Ibid., October 1921.50Ibid., April 14, 1920.51 Ibid., December 3, 1923.52Ibid., March 20, 1929.204For many teachers in remote schools the poor quality of the physical conditions inwhich they were expected to carry out their professional responsibilities were notconducive to an ideal working environment. However, in so far as effective teaching wasconcerned, virtually all those former teachers interviewed considered the paucity of schoolapparatus, in terms of instructional resources and supplies available in rural schools, farmore of a problem. Alice Gibson stated that at Sugar Lake \"Equipment at the school waspractically nil by today's standards.\" Mary Genier's experience at Medora Creek Schoolwas the same: \"As far as equipment was concerned there was nothing.\" Grace Fuhrrecalled that as a pupil at Trinity Creek School supplies had been \"likely adequate but onlythe barest needed.\" Hall pointed to the obvious consequences of this situation in his reporton Hilton School in 1924: \"The teacher is handicapped by a lack of supplies.\" 53 As Ivy K.Harper, teacher at Hendon School in 1928, lamented: \"[E]quipment, for better work, islacking. The great difficulty is to keep up to date; as modern methods requireappliances.\"54 Even an essential item of equipment such as the blackboard was often smalland of inferior quality. In many schools they were, as in the case of Sugar Lake School,\"painted wall-board\" and therefore \"not satisfactory.\" 55 The only other pieces of equipmentthat could generally be found in rural schools in the 1920s have been summed up by LucyMcCormick. They typically included \"a roll of maps on spring rollers which, with wearand tear, shot up like cannon and had to be rewound with a fork....A photo of the King, aUnion Jack, a globe, and a school handbell...\" 56 Facilities for sports activities werevirtually unheard of, as Charlie Hanson, a former pupil of Hilton School, recalled: \"Therewas not much for recreation for the children.\" In these circumstances the parents often531R, September 25, 1924.54TBR.551R, September 18, 1924.56See \"Early Rural Schools,\" 38.205improvised to provide the necessary equipment. Charlie continued: \"Mrs. A. Hanson madea ball by cutting strips of tire tubes, binding them round, and sewing a leather casing on tomake a ball. The bats were made from old discarded pee-vee handles that had previouslybeen used in the bush for rolling logs.\" 57 Some teachers also helped out. Thus one of the\"first things\" that Hilda Cryderman did when she was appointed as Principal at ColdstreamSchool was \"buy a football for the school.\" 58 At Mission Creek School Cecil E. Richie andhis students \"built a hockey-sized skating rink in the schoolyard, pumping the water with ahand pump and using sleds to carry the water in order to flood the rink.\" 59The primary concern of most rural teachers was the lack of sufficient books withwhich to instruct their pupils. In this sense Isobel Simard faced a particularly distressingand frustrating situation as she embarked on her first teaching post at the newly openedKingfisher School in September 1927:They hadn't finished the roof at the time and there were no books until after thesecond week. I had to teach without any textbooks for two weeks and then to thetune of the hammering on the roof and I thought then I would quit at Christmasbecause teaching was not for me. Then the books came and the hammering ceased.Well, then, I was quite willing to go on.School libraries were often extremely inadequate, and apart from the compulsorytextbooks supplied by the Departmant of Education, usually did not stretch beyond whatteachers themselves provided, or managed to procure. Margaret Landon reported that she\"never regretted\" the fact that she had purchased \"a set of \"World Books\" from a\"salesman\" who had called at Salmon Bench School because \"any kind of books were veryscarce in country schools.\" Ea Embree recalled that at Kedleston School she \"took a trunkfull of books up there of my own....Teachers bought a lot of [books] out of their money,57 \"Vernon and District School Histories,\" 6.58Details on Hilda that are included in this thesis are taken from letters sent to me by Nancy Jermynon March 25 and 30 1992. Nancy was Hilda's life-long friend and companion.59Chamberlain, \"Mission Creek School,\" 165.206and used them, out of their wages.\" At Medora Creek School Marianne Nelson explainedthat \"Our library consisted of my new set of \"The Books of Knowledge\", several of myNational Geographic magazines, my Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study and anysecond-hand story books I had got from home and friends.\" Moreover, although theprovision of pupils' writing materials was the responsibility of the parents, in many casesteachers also provided these essential items for their pupils at their own expense. AliceGibson suggested why rural teachers may have felt the need to do this: \"Some of thefamilies were rather poor and stores were a long way off, so I always had a supply ofscribblers and pencils, etc.\" Clearly rural teachers laboured under very tryingcircumstances.207CHAPTER SEVENWORKING CONDITIONS: TEACHER RESPONSIBILITIESBoth the official written documents and the personal recollections of formerteachers and pupils indicate that, irrespective of whether the physical conditions of theirworkplaces were problematic or not, rural teachers, with few exceptions, encountered andultimately had to cope with very diverse pupil populations in their classrooms. Thisdiversity engendered a whole slew of pedagogical challenges which, for the most part,were beyond the control of the individual teacher and which combined to produceconsiderable personal stress.A matter of major concern to all rural teachers was the problem of orchestrating thesimultaneous instruction of a group of children of varying ages, abilities and attainments.The design and then implementation of a structured academic programme to serve all thevarious grades in the rural school was an extremely difficult task, often made all the moretime-consuming when the previous teacher had failed to leave any progress reports on thepupils. As Lord commented on the obviously trying situation facing Duncan P. Clark, agraduate of Manitoba Normal School, who was appointed to teach at Mabel Lake School inSepember 1929: \"Mr Clark is not familiar with either ungraded or primary school work[and] the outgoing teacher left literally nothing to assist him in organizing his school.Satisfactory results can scarcely be expected for a time.\" Each teacher had to assess thelevel of attainment of individual pupils, and then group them together in appropriate gradesin order to shepherd them through the prescribed curriculum. Some schools had highschool classes which put added pressure on the teacher because the students' success or1 IR, October 3, 1929. Significantly, Mr Clark had resigned by November, to be replaced by LucyMcCormick.208failure obviously reflected back on them. Thus Margaret Landon, who began her teachingcareer at Salmon Bench School in 1923, remarked: \"I was lucky enough to have a smallgroup of pupils in grades 1 to 7 so there was no grade 8 to prepare for governmentexaminations in June.\" In the case of children with special needs, whether learning disabledor gifted, rural teachers felt particularly frustrated because they had neither the training northe resources, much less the time, to devote to them. Some pupils suffered from a lack ofstimulation. Alice Gibson regretted the fact that because Sugar Lake \"was such a smallschool, the smarter ones often had no-one to challenge them.\" Similarly Alice Laviollette,from the point of view of a pupil, reported: \"We had no goal really and there was nocompetition because I was the only one in my grade....What you did, you did. It wasn'tlike trying to compete or be the first one in the class.\"Timetabling and preparing individual lessons in every subject and for each grade,and then marking the assignments set, as well as keeping up to date with the compulsoryschool records such as monthly report cards for each pupil, was an administrativenightmare for rural teachers. Particularly for those with little experience it demanded aseemingly inordinate amount of work. Lloyda Wills explained: \"When you have...all thosedifferent grades you have to keep working not only inside the classroom but outside toobecause you have to prepare so much of the time for what's coming. You never know whatthey are going to ask you.\" To Isobel Simard it seemed that \"Every hour of the daypractically I was preparing lessons.\" Marianne Nelson expressed similar sentiments whenshe stated: \"I taught by one method, constant work, work, work, for me, that is.\"Rural teachers were not only subject to severe time constraints in trying to carry outtheir work, both in terms of the huge volume of preparatory work and also the shortteaching time available per grade, but such problems were merely exacerbated by the lackof teaching aids as outlined earlier. In the face of such limitations rural teachers, ofnecessity, had to extemporise, modifying or varying their lessons according to theresources at their disposal, and also preparing their own materials. The dearth of textbooks209was partially overcome by teachers spending substantial amounts of time laboriouslycopying out various exercises, assignments and notes onto the blackboard. Isobel Simardstated that at Kingfisher School she \"always kept lots of work on the blackboard for them.I had to go down in the evening to prepare work on the blackboard for them.\" In fact shereferred to the schoolhouse as \"my home\" because she \"spent so many hours in thatschool.\" Pupils. also recalled that most of their lessons were, as Laura Gregory, formerpupil of Mission Creek and East Kelowna Schools, described them, of the \"chalk and talk\"variety. Alice Laviollette clearly remembered that at Sugar Lake: \"The teacher dideverything on the board....No textbooks. All our work was put up on the board.\" Somerural teachers made use of the \"hectograph\" or \"jelly pad\" duplicator, a primitivecontraption, usually homemade from a metal cookie tray and gelatin-based mix, thatreproduced multiple copies from master sheets that had been written out using \"verypurpley and messy\" ink. To Marianne Nelson the hectograph had been invaluable. Sherecalled spending long hours on many nights preparing and then pressing out worksheetsand maps to keep her students busy the following day, and thus she suggested jokingly: \"Ihad hectograph ink in my blood.\"Rural teachers also learnt to utilise the natural resources on their school's doorstepto provide interesting lessons for their pupils. Lloyda Wills, like many others, often tookthe whole school on an \"excursion.\" She explained that while she was teacher at HiltonSchool: \"We just took off, went up through the bush and studied the flowers and theanimals that we saw [and] brought home one of each wild flower. It was a nature lesson inother words.\" Anne Vardon recalled that at Medora Creek:Our teachers took us on many nature rambles and there always seemed to be severallarge coffee jars with frogs' eggs hatching into tadpoles, at the back [of theclassroom] on a table....It seemed we were forever drawing any flower that was inseason, or leaves or fruit.Organising instruction during the actual school day required that rural teachersdevelop considerable management skills to ensure that their pupils were productively210occupied at all times and that their classrooms remained under control and runningsmoothly. For the most part teachers worked with each grade separately. Ila Embreedescribed the strategy adopted by most rural teachers: \"You bring the ones in the class tostand around your desk - grade 1 or 2 or 3 or whatever it is - and talk to them and teachthem and then send them back to do it. Then you call up the next grade.\" Isobel Simardreported: \"I knew I was teaching from the front of the room all the time.\" This meant that atany one time the majority of pupils were working unsupervised. This situation posed a realdilemma for many rural teachers, as Margaret Landon explained: \"To keep the classesgoing with suitable busy-work while I taught each class in turn was my biggest problem.\"Fortunately there were some periods in the school day in which all, or most, of the pupilscould participate together such as music, art, or physical exercise.Finding themselves swamped with work a number of rural teachers reverted back tothe old monitorial system of using older students to help those in the lower grades. AnneRichards remembered that at Okanagan Landing School one of her teachers \"used toperhaps take somebody out of the grade eight or seven [who] was doing well and didn'tneed extra [help], and sent them down to look after the grade one's and the grade two's andhelp them with their work.\" 2 Many of those interviewed also recalled that the situationoften occurred where information was \"absorbed\" by pupils in different grades simply by\"listening in to\" or \"overhearing\" other pupils' lessons. Thus Margaret Landon stated thatat Salmon Bench School \"the children helped each other and everyone was exposed toother classes so could pick up on things they might have missed.\" Mary Woollan, a pupil atNorth Enderby School from 1917-1924, recalled that \"jumped grades were frequent as somuch could be learned from listening to the senior classes and helping with the juniors.\"32Se,e also Hodgson, \"Okanagan Landing School Days,\" 116.3 [Jones and Lidstone], In the Shadow of the Cliff, 14.211The extent to which an individual teacher was able to deal successfully with suchexigent circumstances was dependent to a certain degree upon the level of enrolment at theparticular school in which they taught. Schools with relatively small numbers on the rollwere, after an initial period of trial and error, manageable. Alice Gibson, for example,likened her position as teacher at Sugar Lake, where the numbers never rose above eight inthe four years that she taught at the school, to that of a \"governess job.\" She explained that\"with only six or seven pupils in three to four levels it wasn't difficult to keep a goodworking rapport.\" Similarly, Mary Genier, who never had to teach more than ten pupils atMedora Creek School, stated that for her, working in a small one-room school was \"justlike tutoring. You take one kid at a time.\" However, in some schools, those designated as\"heavy\" by teachers and inspectors alike, usually because enrolment was at the level ofthirty pupils or above, the organisational and instructional problems outlined above were ofan order of magnitude greater than in schools with low enrolments.4 Marianne Nelsontaught in a number of rural schools throughout the Okanagan Valley and in describing herexperiences she made a clear distinction between the different types of schools according totheir level of enrolment:My first five years of teaching, in small ungraded schools, were satisfactory, in thatI wasn't driven to the necessity of doing so much preparation and correcting ofwork, for such long hours beyond the school day....When I taught in the largerungraded schools I rarely went to bed before 12 P.M. to one A.M. as I had workanswers and essays to correct, to find out how the pupils were doing....The twoschools...with thirty pupils in eight grades, were, 'teacher killing' schools. I heardseveral cases where young beginner teachers quit at Christmas, or the next Juneafter September, or had nervous breakdowns....I was lucky to have had five yearsof experience in two ungraded schools with a school attendance of only twelvepupils or so. I can well sympathise with any inexperienced teacher who gave upteaching thirty-plus pupils with eight grades.Although there is little direct evidence in the written sources supports the contentionthat \"heavy\" schools proved unendurable for the young and inexperienced in the4Schools described as \"heavy\" included Westbank Townsite (TBR, 1823), Deep Creek (IR, October9, 1930), Falkland (IR, November 14, 1928), Lavington (IRs, June 11, 1928, and November 7, 1930),Mission Creek (IR's, December 1, 1921, and April 26, 1922), Okanagan (IR, December 2, 1921) and Rutland(IR, March 6, 1929).212profession, one can infer from inspectors' comments that this may have been precisely thecase for some unfortunate individuals. Miss H. Graham, teacher of only one year'sexperience, was appointed in September 1921 to the one-room school in Grindrod whereenrolment stood at thirty-nine. When Miller visited her in October of that year he reported:\"This is a difficult proposition for a comparatively inexperienced teacher accustomed onlyto much smaller schools.\" Miss Graham was obviously finding her assignmenttroublesome. Miller stated that she needed to \"endeavour to strengthen her control bymaking sure that the pupils are at all times profitably occupied if she wishes to obtain goodresults.\" When he returned to the school in March 1922 he noted that the character of herteaching was still \"unsatisfactory.\"5 Miss Graham did not return to teach at Grindrod thefollowing September. Her reasons for resigning the post are unknown but she may wellhave been one of those teachers who, as Marianne Nelson suggested, chose to \"quit\"because they found their conditions of work intolerable.To control such a varied group of children in one room made maintaining disciplinea concern for all teachers in rural schools. For some keeping order in their classrooms wasa substantial challenge. There was no place for the teacher who could not control hercharges. Again such problems were magnified in schools with large enrolments. Overageboys, who often rivalled the teacher in size as well as age, could be particularlyproblematical. Isobel Simard stated that, compared with teaching on average only eightpupils at Kingfisher School, at Ashton Creek she had \"a tough time\" because it was \"socrowded. There was hardly room to get between the desks in that little school....I had somany pupils and they were all big fellas, taller than I.\" Anne Richards, who attendedOkanagan Landing School in the early 1920s, recalled that \"some of those kids in gradeeight were practically grown up, sixteen, seventen years old....They would be hard tohandle too.\" Lord had designated Okanagan Landing an \"unusually heavy ungraded5IRs, October 26, 1921, and March 15, 1922.213school.\" 6 Laura Alcock was a pupil at Mission Creek School between 1918 and 1923. In1922, just prior to the opening of a second classroom, enrolment at this one-room schoolhad risen to forty-nine. Laura vividly remembered the \"stress\" that one of her teachersexperienced in trying to control the \"big boys\":There was no discipline at all. There would be amongst the smaller childrenbecause they were more afraid, but the bigger ones just dominated her with theirsaucy remarks....I can remember her bursting into tears. She could notdiscipline those great big boys....She simply could not control them. Possiblyif it had been a man teacher it might have been a different picture. But theynever did anything that they were told....They were like grown men, the onesthat were in grades seven and eight.At the two-roomed Coldstream School, where enrolments were consistently highthroughout her tenure as Principal of the school, Hilda Cryderman worked hard to maintaincontrol: \"Discipline was one of Hilda's strong points. She laid out the rules in Septemberand anyone who disobeyed just once was punished - there was no \"don't do it again\" withher, and the pupils knew and understood the rules.\"The designation \"heavy\" referred not only to those schools where class size madethem difficult to organise but also, and in many instances similtaneously, to those wherethe pupil population included children from various ethnic backgrounds. In addition tohaving to cope with pupils of differing ages and abilities, some teachers also had toaccommodate children, often newly arrived in Canada, who spoke little or no English.?Immigrant children often frequently spoke their native language with their parents at homeand teachers had to constantly battle to ensure that such children reverted to English duringthe school day. As a pupil at Medora Creek School, Anne Vardon recalled the followingsituation: \"When my younger brother started school I remember the teacher getting after us6Ibid., October 28, 1921. See also IR, Sepember 26, 1923.?For a discussion of this particular problem, see Wilson, \"The Visions of Ordinary Participants,\"particularly pages 243-245.214all the time [saying] 'Don't speak German to him. He's got to learn English.' We all had tolearn English when we went to school.\"In this context there were a number of rural schools in the Okanagan wherelanguage and cultural barriers presented considerable difficulties and resulted in teachingconditions that were strenuous in the extreme. Inspectors often commented explicitly on thenature and extent of the problems facing teaching in such schools. After his visit to NormaSchroeder, a beginning teacher of less than twelve months' experience, at BenvoulinSchool in 1930, Hall reported:This is the most difficult rural school which I have seen in the course of my workas an inspector. The attendance averages around fifty, all grades are represented,and a large proportion of the pupils are of foreign extraction. 8A week later he encountered a similar situation at Rutland School. Dorothy Clements wasin charge of division six in which Hall noted: \"Over sixty percent of the forty-one pupilsenrolled are of foreign parentage; a considerable proportion entered school in Septemberwith no knowledge whatever of English.\" 9 In 1929 Lottie Bowron visited Mission CreekSchool, where the teacher, Norma Ross, had graduated only three years earlier fromVancouver Normal School and was under considerable pressure:This room has 7 nationalities in 42 pupils and is far too heavy for any but anexperienced teacher and even then is too heavy for one. Miss Ross had written tome early in the year telling me that conditions were rather trying. 10The problems teachers faced as a result of their pupils' lack of fluency in Englishwere obviously intensified in schools that were located in ethnically homogeneouscommunities. At Hupel School, for example, where Margaret Fraser taught a class of justeight students in 1930, Lord reported that \"Seven of these pupils, from one family, are of8IR, November 21, 1930. See also IRs for March 12, and September 25, 1930.9Ibid., November 27, 1930. The same situation occurred in other divisions of the school. See IRsfor December 20, 1927; December 5, 1929; and April 2 and November 28, 1930.10Bowron Reports, May 31, 1929.215French-Canadian parentage.\" He also noted that, although overall the \"standing\" of thepupils was \"good,\" the teacher was obviously hampered by their \"natural deficiency inEnglish.\" 11 Likewise at Okanagan Centre School, Hall reported: \"Fourteen of the twenty-two children enrolled are of Japanese parentage. While the children are industrious andanxious to learn, language difficulties interfere with the work of teaching them.\" 12 MaryMcKenzie's position at Medora Creek School was similar. A large proportion of her eightpupils were of German descent which prompted Hall to write \"This is not an easyschool....In quite a number of cases the children are of foreign parentage so that a goodmany language difficulties exist.\" 13 At Trinity Creek in 1930 there were only twelve pupilsenrolled at the school but the teacher, Henry Edward Vogel, had no English-Canadianpupils at all to teach. On inspecting the school Lord noted that the children were \"all ofCzecheslovakian parentage\" with \"obvious English deficiences.\" 14 Throughout the 1920steaching at Grindrod School was not an easy assignment because the enrolment wascomprised primarily of non-English-speaking Ukrainians who were, in Miller's opinion,\"somewhat difficult types of pupils.\" 15 This situation \"handicapped\" the teachers who wereemployed at the school \"to a very considerable extent\" and served to \"preclude anythingvery high in the way of average attainment.\" 1611 IR, May 13, 1930.12Ibid., November 6, 1930.13 Ibid., October 28, 1926, and June 16, 1927, and interview with Mary Genier nee McKenzie,March 1, 1989.14IR, May 14, 1930. See also TBR, 1928.15IR, February 17, 1927.16Ibid., October 21, 1927. See also IRs for November 29, 1922; March 8 and December 7, 1923;January 22 and December 10, 1925; May 8, 1930; and TBRs for 1923 and 1928. For brief discussions of theprovision of education for the Ukrainian children living in Grindrod, see Weber, \"A History of the UkrainianPeople,\" 36, and Lidstone, ed. Schools of Enderby and District, 114. Other schools where the ethniccomposition of the pupil population was problematic included Coldstream (IR, December 13, 1928; May 15and November 25, 1929; and April 8, 1930), Mabel Lake (IR, November 4, 1930), Shuswap Falls (IRs,November 4 and May 16, 1930), Winfield (IR, 1929) and Woodville Road (IR, May 17, 1921).216The daunting prospect of solving the dilemma of how to instruct those pupils withwhom they could not communicate effectively tested teacher patience and resourcefulnessto the limit. Not only did the vast majority of rural teachers face the job alone, but their taskwas made all the more frustrating by the fact that, professionally, they were not equipped todeal with the difficulties of language and cultural change. In the 1920s, English as aSecond Language (E.S.L.) training for teachers, as well as the necessary curriculummaterials, were undeveloped and certainly unavailable, in rural schools. Evidence suggests,however, that out of necessity most rural teachers coped with such \"adverse,\" difficult\" and\"trying\" conditions, and that some even did so with a measure of success. Inspectorsreported how \"impressed\" they were with individual teachers and commended them for\"doing good work\" and \"achieving satisfactory results\" given their circumstances.Information regarding the specific practices and strategies that rural teachers actuallyemployed to effectively instruct non-English-speaking pupils was more difficult touncover. Given the large proportion of foreign children at Mission Creek School, Lordsuggested that the most germane approach for the teacher to adopt was essentially apragmatic one:[U]nder such conditions the fundamental aim of the school would seem to be thedevelopment of whatever abilities a child may have, at as rapid a rate as possible,rather than a rigid adherence to the standards established for schools of normaltype 17When Ellison School opened in September 1927, the situation facing BernardGillie, and his assistant Irene Cooper, was probably typical of many other rural teachers.They had to accommodate a group of eighteen Austrian children, whose parents hadrecently moved into the district to work on the tobacco farms. Bernard explained incolourful detail the nature of the predicament he faced and how he attempted to cope with it:\"[They] didn't speak a word of English...couldn't understand a thing I said and I had to17IR, November 18, 1929.217provide an education for these people. I was completely stunned.\" With no informationabout the level of educational attainment of the children Bernard and Irene were at a loss asto how to grade them. In this situation, Bernard continued:We lined them all up - this could hardly be described as reliable pedagogy -according to size and the nine or ten smallest ones went into Irene's room and theother ones came in my room.What, and more importantly how, to instruct these children was the next problem.Lacking any appropriate language textbooks, and \"in a state of panic\" Bernard wrote to aformer instructor at Normal School pleading for help. As a result he acquired a few copiesof \"English for New Canadians\" to help him teach the Austrian pupils. Fortunately Bernarddiscovered that many of the young immigrants were proficient in arithmetic. He explainedhow he capitalised on this situation:Since arithmetic is the same in Austrian as it is in English it doesn't really makemuch difference. These poor little wretches. When I didn't know what else to dowith them I put copious quantities of addition, subtraction, multiplication anddivision on the board and said \"O.K. Get busy and do this.\"Unable to speak to the children in English the only way that Bernard could communicatehis instructions was by way of \"waving my hands around and making signals and signsetc.\"Rural teachers also had to take account of the fact that many immigrant childrenfound the process of adjustment to their new culture very bewildering. Mary Genier feltsorry for the \"little German kids\" at Medora Creek School who were obviously confusedabout their new schooling experience: \"One little girl crawled under the desk for the firstday...like a little wild animal, scared to death.\" Sometimes, of course, there was alsoprejudice. A number of former pupils, particularly those of German origin, related that theyhad experienced racial discrimination from both pupils and teachers. Anne Richardsrecalled that after the First World War \"There was that terrible feeling againstGermans....You didn't let anyone know that you were German. I was lucky. My fatherwas English so I got away with it.\" In the same way Alice Laviollette stated that she and218her siblings \"had quite a hard time because we were classed as Germans and we didn'thave many friends.\"Compounding the problems associated with having to cater to the pedagogicalneeds of such a diverse group of children, rural teachers also had to accept the probabilitythat the level of attendance at their schools could be, and often was, both sporadic andunpredictable. Irregular attendance patterns, the result of a combination of complex andsometimes conflicting causes and motivations, were a common feature of rural educationand for the most part were well beyond the control of the teacher.First a word about the function that education served in rural communities. Theattitude towards education varied considerably not only from one school district to another,but also between different families in an individual community, according to the homesituation. Most of those former teachers interviewed reported that, in their experience,parental support for education in rural districts, in terms of whether they encouraged theirchildren to attend school, was positive, and often enthusiastic. According to MarianneNelson: \"[They] generally are people who have come as pioneers....They want theirchildren to get a better education. They stress that to their children. So the childrentry....To them education, by all means, first and foremost.\" At Mabel Lake LucyMcCormick had the firm support of the parents because they \"were anxious for theirchildren to get as much education as they could.\" Likewise, as far as Vera Towgood wasconcerned, the community at Trinity Valley, where she taught, \"were all families thatencouraged and wanted them [their children] to learn. They were interested. The children'sattitude toward learning was very good, in fact eager.\" Grace Fuhr, a former pupil at theschool, expressed similar views: \"I would say they cooperated wherever they could [and]were glad to have their children have the opportunity of schooling.\" Ida Palmer recalled thather parents were very concerned that she and her siblings attend school in OkanaganLanding: \"They wanted us to be educated so badly.\"219Other children attended school, some teachers believed, only because they werecompelled to do so. Mary Genier remarked that \"Their attitude wasn't for education. Thekids had to go to school....They didn't go because they wanted to be educated and dosomething better.\" The response of some rural parents to the education of their childrenwas, so Alice Gibson asserted, \"passive.\" In this sense the attitude held by Anne Richard'sparents, who lived at Okanagan Landing, was typical of this perspective: \"I don't thinkthey thought too much about it or worried too much about it. They sent us to school andthat was it....I don't think they thought too much about ...whether we were becomingeducated or not.\"Such passivity can partially be explained in terms of the limited future prospects thatthe majority of young men and women in rural districts faced on leaving school. Mostremained in the small communities in which they had been born, raised, and educated, tofollow on in their parents' footsteps, making a living farming or logging. Accordingly,attaining a high degree of academic achievement seemed both unnecessary and irrelevant.Bernard Gillie suggested that this was the case for most of his pupils at Ellison School:They didn't take it [education] very seriously. The idea that they would go on...tohigh school never was taken seriously....In general they were typical...youngstersof agricultural families with the same attitudes and interests that their parents hadreally. Most of them [were] not particularly ambitious, nice youngsters...but ratherslow-paced....They didn't expect to go on to, the majority of them, to any kind ofcertainly professional career.After all, as Ila Embree contended: \"Work and a job and bringing some money in was themain ambition of everybody in those days.\" Thus in isolated districts, schools were soclosely adapted to the communities of which they were a product that the level of educationchildren both required and received represented no more than the needs of rural society. Itwas a reflection of what rural parents expected.It is interesting, however, that even in those families where the parents had aminimal interest in education, their children often developed a strong desire to attendschool. When actually in the classroom they were \"anxious\" and \"eager\" to learn. Such220eagerness may have been because, as Alice Gibson suggested was the case at Sugar Lake:\"There wasn't anything else to do for them....There was nothing there.\" This situation alsotended to occur in poverty-stricken homes, the miserable circumstances of which providedlittle in the way of comfort or stimulation for the children concerned. In such cases theschool, and hence the teacher, became the critical hub of their lives. Alice Laviollete and hersister Amanda Singer, who attended various one-room schools in the Okanagan Valley, area case in point. Alice stated:You went...and it was a committment....It was something you knew you had to do[but] you were pleased to be able to do it....It was a routine. It was a way of lifeand you knew you were at least accomplishing something. You were getting awayfrom home and getting out into the world.Amanda's feelings about school were the same: \"I was always happy to go to school. Ireally enjoyed school and I was always looking forward to seeing everybody there.\" Asnoted earlier, the school was frequently the only social institution for children, and indeedadults, in remote communities and thus was, as Lucy McCormick observed, \"a focal pointfor them....It was something they looked to. It was important.\" 18Unfortunately, whether the attitude to education was \"positive\" or merely \"passive\"the isolation, harsh topography, transiency and chronic poverty so characteristic of many ofthe small rural settlements in the Okanagan Valley, were factors which had a tremendousinfluence on the process of education in general. They could not help but impede schoolattendance. Moreover it is clear that in many instances pupil absence from school was oftena direct result of these factors as opposed to being an indication of any disregard for theimportance of education by their parents.18Wilson and Storz also discussed the significance of rural schools in this context: \"Schools andteachers were extremely important socializing agents in the remote areas of the province. Such districts oftenlacked the emenities of urban life including Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, C.G.I.T. (Canadian Girls in Training),and other church-based clubs, as well as the recreational centres and organized playgrounds that by the 1920swere becoming quite the rage in urban areas. In rural B.C. the school was one of the few public gatheringplaces specifically designed to educate and socialize children.\" See —May the Lord Have Mercy on You,\"\" 31.221Even though in most cases rural schools were centrally located in a community, thescattered nature of settlement in the Okanagan Valley meant that the distance between homeand school prevented some pupils from attending regularly. This situation occurred atReiswig School in 1928, as its teacher George E. Welbanks was at pains to point out:\"(N.B.) Because of the distance some children have to come, the attendance variesconsiderably.\" 19 Five years earlier Aileen M. Halford reported a similar problem at HiltonSchool: \"Difference between average attendance [8.4] and number of children of school age[14] is accounted for by great distance from school.\" 20Most teachers and pupils travelled to school on foot, others came by horse andbuggy or on horseback. Occasionally, however, severe weather conditions caused alreadypoor roads to become impassable. This combined with inadequate or unavailabletransportation to exacerbate the problem of distance. Alice Gibson stated that for the pupilsat remote Sugar Lake School \"Weather conditions would keep them home more thananything else.\" Many former pupils recalled the problems of trying to get to and fromschool, particularly in the winter. Anne Vardon attended Medora Creek School with herbothers and sisters: \"Whenever we got a heavy snowfall overnight, my Dad harnessed theold mare and ha[d] her pull a big log to school to make a trail for us to walk in, as therewere no ploughs to clear the roads.\" Millie Bonney still has vivid memories of her journeyto Springbend School: \"It was pretty cold sometimes and you had to trudge through deepsnow and [your] hands would be freezing when you got [there], almost crying with pain.\"On arrival at school during periods of severe climatic conditions rural teachers had to takeprecious time out of their already hectic schedules to ensure that their pupils were warm,dry and comfortable enough to concentrate on their lessons. On many occasions Marianne19TBR.20Ibid., 1923222Nelson had to deal with \"children, walking several miles to school, scantily clothed, whohad to be warmed near the school stove, and for quite some time.\"Some schools closed completely, often for weeks at a time, due to inclementweather. Esma Shunter, who taught at Shuswap Falls School at the end of the 1920sreported: \"The second year I was there...in February, it got so cold they had to close theschool....The kids couldn't come to school so they closed the school down for twoweeks.\" Isobel Simard remembered the same situation happening at Kingfisher School:\"There was one winter that was so cold the school had to close in January for a week ortwo.\" Anne Vardon recalled that at Medora Creek School \"When the temperature wentdown to 35 degrees] below zero (F) the school was closed for usually a few days.\"The level of school attendance was also dependent on the nature and extent ofeconomic activity and hence available employment in an area. Transiency was a commonfeature of the settlement pattern in rural districts, particularly those based on strugglingsubsistence economies. This often posed a real problem for teachers who couldunexpectedly be faced with the possibility of an increase, or alternatively a decrease,sometimes substantial, in the number of pupils enrolled at their school. At Medora CreekSchool Marianne Nelson stated that attendance varied because \"sometimes an extra pupilwould be added for a time when the parents of this pupil moved into the area to do somelogging.\" This was a common experience for teachers in rural schools. In his report onOkanagan Centre School in 1929 Lord pointed out that \"Several pupils are transientsattending only during the fruit packing season.\" 21 A year earlier, Olive Grace White,teacher at Mission Creek School, commented: \"The population of this district is veryfluctuating, as a large number of foreigners and Japanese (who have large families) areonly in the district for the time being. \"22 Enrolment at the school had risen dramatically21 1R, September 23, 1929.22TBR, 1928.223from thirty-eight in 1926, to fifty-five the next year, to seventy-three at Miss White's timeof writing. 23 At Bear Creek School in 1923 Winnifred J.L. Raymer was confronted withthe opposite situation. She noted: \"The school population varies, for although there are 12on the roll, these are not always in the district.\" 24 The number of children living in the areathat were of school age had fallen to four. Similarly Bernard Gillie remarked in February1928 that Ellison School had \"but a very poor enrolment owing to foreign settlers leavingthe district..\" He optimistically added \"but a new colony is to arrive about April 1st.\" 25Throughout the decade of the twenties Westbank School suffered from chronicattendance problems that appear to have been related to the ethnic makeup of the schoolpopulation. The school district adjoined an Indian Reserve with the result that, on average,half of the school enrolment was comprised of Indian or \"half-breed\" children. When Lordinspected the school in the spring of 1922 only five of the eleven students enrolled attendedthat day. In these circumstances he urged that the trustees take measures to enforcecompulsory attendance, and warned: \"Until they do so it is impossible for any teacher tosecure satisfactory results.\" 26 The situation did not improve. When Lord inspected theschool almost a decade later his report stated: \"Almost half of the pupils are Indians whoseattendance has been very irregular; the other pupils also attend poorly. Only three childrenwere present on the day of my visit; so it is impossible to judge the standing of theschool.\"2723See ARs for the period 1926-1928. Mission Creek is included in the lists of Rural Schools in theStatistical Tables.24TBR, 1923.25 TBR.26IR, April 25, 1922.27Ibid., May 6, 1931. See also IRs for December 10, 1920; November 8, 1921; November 19,1929; and March 28, 1930.224When the number of pupils in their schools dropped rural teachers not only hadtheir work plans disrupted, but were also threatened with the likelihood of school closure,if enrolment fell below the required minimum to keep the school open. 28 Bernard Gilliefaced just this situation. In 1928, the enrolment at the two-room school at Ellison fell tothirty-seven, which was below the level to warrant a second classroom. Bernard wasinformed by Inspector Hall that unless he could find a way of bringing the enrolment up tothe necessary level he was to lose his second teacher, and face the daunting prospect ofconverting the school into one-room and teaching all thirty-seven pupils himself, Bernardrecalled his dilemma and how he eventually solved the problem, which he described as\"enough to drive anyone to distraction\":I've never worked harder in my life than I did for that month. I worked fifteen tosixteen hours a day trying to prepare material....I resorted to desperation....Iscoured the neighbourhood to find if anybody had a couple of youngsters thatlooked as if they might be of school age. Let's not worry about whether they reallywere or not. I found a couple and I persuaded their parents to send them to school.So that gave me my thirty-nine or thirty-eight or whatever I needed....Nobody evercame and said \"Let me see the birth certificates of these two kids that you'vegot\"....For all [anybody] knew they could have been three years old.Rural teachers also had to accept the fact that parents, struggling to provide the bareessentials of food, clothing and shelter, might withdraw their children from school in orderfor them to work. Often a child's contribution, either as an extra unit of labour on thefamily farm, alternatively in terms of the additional few dollars they might earn workingelsewhere in the community, was vital to a family's economic survival. For almost threemonths at the beginning of the school year in 1923, Miss M.E.A. McMynn, teacher atWestbank Townsite School, had a much reduced class to teach, because, as she explained:\"Until nearly the end of November about half the pupils are absent to pick and packfruit.\"29 Inspectors frequently drew attention to such truancy in their reports, and noted the28For a more detailed discussion of this point see Chapter Four of this thesis.29TBR.225deleterious affect it had on pupils level of academic attainment. As a result of his visit to theschool in 1920 J.B. DeLong noted that the children in the superior school at Naramata\"have been very irregular in their attendance because of Apple picking; accordingly whilesome have a fair grasp of the work covered, others will need much careful solid drill workbefore they are up to the standard. \" 30 Lord warned that similar problems occuring atOyama School in 1929 needed to be curbed: \"Far too many pupils are absent, forconsiderable periods, packing and picking fruit. I would urge that the school board takesteps to prevent continuance of this practice.\" 31Millie Bonney stated that, while the majority of her fellow classmates at Springbendwent to school regularly, others did not: \"I remember one boy who didn't attend too wellwhen he got to about grade seven and his reason...was that he was helping mostly in thewoods.\" Similarly Amanda Singer recalled that her brother \"missed so much school all thetime. Dad would keep him home to cut firewood and things like that. Of course a bookdidn't mean much to him.\" Girls were sometimes required to care for siblings while parentswere at work. Alice Laviollette reported:[I] had to stay home lots of times to stay with the younger kids....I was always theone who had to stay....Lots of times I would have to take [the baby] to Mum whereshe was working because she was nursing then. Really I didn't go to school everyday.Farmwork and childcare aside, family impoverishment sometimes drove parents,often through shame or embarrassment, to keep their children at home when they could notafford to provide them with appropriate clothing or footwear, or with a lunch for noonhour. To quote Alice Laviollette once again:The reason why I quit going to school was because we had nothing to eat in thehouse, absolutely nothing. We were just starving....We had nothing to make lunchwith....We had no clothes and we were very, very poor.30IR, October 25, 1920.31 Ibid., November 26, 1929.226Thus rural teachers had to cope with children who were often hungry, undernourished andpoorly clothed. Lloyda Wills, who taught Alice and some of her siblings at Hilton Schoolrecalled the desperate situation of the family . On one particular occasion, after they hadbeen absent from school for three days, she decided to go to their home to ascertain thereason for their truancy, whereupon she found them \"playing outside in their bare feet.\"Lloyda quickly realised why they had not been attending school:They didn't have very much. They didn't have very much to eat either. They werequite poor. They didn't even have enough bread in the house for their lunches andthat's why the mother didn't send them.Finally pupil attendance in rural schools was affected by illhealth. Outbreaks ofcontagious diseases spread rapidly from one pupil to another and could empty aschoolroom in a very short time. In his annual report on the Kelowna Inspectorate in 1924,which included sixty-one schools in rural districts, Hall noted:The work of the schools was greatly handicapped during the year by poorattendance, due to illness; in consequence of successive epidemics of whoopingcough and measles many of the schools were closed for a time, while for severalweeks the attendance was so broken that satisfactory work was out of the question.As a result the standing of a considerable proportion of the schools was noticeablyaffected... 32In 1927 a serious outbreak of poliomyelitis occurred in the Okanagan Valley,extending over several months. The effect on school attendance was marked, as Hallpointed out in his report at the end of the school year: \"The alarm caused by the prevalenceof infantile paralysis led to the closing of many schools for a considerable time during theschool term; in many cases little of the year's work was overtaken during September and32AR, 1924, T53. See also Hall's individual school reports in 1924 for East Kelowna (February 19)and Peachland (February 22). For examples of other schools where low attendance rates were caused by illnessand disease, see IRs for Hupel (December 4, 1923) where \"school was closed for nearly six weeks...onaccount of a scarlet fever epidemic\", Kedleston (September 24, 1923), Mara (May 7, 1930), Medora Creek(October 2, 1929), Shuswap Falls (May 16, 1930), and Westbank (December 10, 1921) where \"due to anoutbreak of measles\" only eleven of the nineteen pupils enrolled were in attendance. See also School District#23, Kelowna, Westbank Townsite Public School, Minutes of Meetings, for January 1929, which states thatthe school was closed for a few days because of mumps.227October.\"33 At least on one occasion, however, when a school was closed due to illness itdid not unduly upset the teacher concerned, despite the lost teaching time. When EllisonSchool was shut down for almost two months in the fall of 1927 because of poliomyelitisin the Kelowna area, Bernard Gillie, unable to teach but also not permited to leave thedistrict, found alternative employment: \"It was during the apple picking season. Ithappened that the janitor of the school had a big orchard there...so I picked apples fornearly all of that period.\" Consequently Bernard was \"extremely wealthy\" as he was able todraw two salaries, one from teaching and one from picking fruit!The pupils were not the only ones in rural schools to suffer from the effects ofillness, as Lucy McCormick explained: \"If an infectious disease struck, everyone camedown with it, including the teacher.\" 34 With noone to take over from them at the schoolmany rural teachers often struggled on with their work. Lucy continued:I had never had any childish diseases and I got chicken pox at Mabel Lake. Butthere was no use me staying home. I couldn't give it to the youngsters because theyhad given it to me....I couldn't sit in the cabin [teacherage]. I didn't have anythingto read except the labels on cans....So I went back to school.In Ruby Lidstone's case it was she who infected her pupils at Grandview Bench Schoolwith mumps in 1929, but like Lucy she also \"continued at school though she often feltrotten and one by one all the pupils contracted the mumps.\"The preceeding analysis of teacher experience in the rural schools of the OkanaganValley graphically depicts the demanding working conditions they faced in theirclassrooms, from the inferior quality of school buildings and grounds to the lack ofinstructional resources, equipment and supplies, to the diverse and fluctuating nature oftheir pupil populations. Taken together such circumstances ensured that life for the lone33 AR, 1928, V28. See also individual school reports for Okanagan Mission (December 7, 1927),Oyama High (March 14, 1928), Peachland High (October 27, 1927), Rutland (March 13, 1928), SalmonBench (October 24, 1927), and Westbank Townsite (October 28, 1927).34McCormick, \"Early Rural Schools,\" 40.228teacher in an isolated district was at the very least hectic. Often they proved formidable.Professional survival in a one-room school was thus a real challenge. In this sense one canfully appreciate the significance of the comments of Lottie Bowron regarding the situationof the teacher at Reiswig School when she visited her in 1929. She simply stated: \"MrsGibson looked as if she was ready for the end of term.\" 35There is no doubt that working under these strenuous conditions militated againstany serious hopes that rural teachers might have harboured of developing, and thensuccessfully implementing, a comprehensive, up-to-date and structured academicprogramme in their schools, such as was advocated in the Putman-Weir Report of 1925.Consequently the daily agenda for most pupils who attended rural schools consistedprimarily of instruction in the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, and usually by way ofword and phonic drill and rote memorisation. Millie Bonney, former pupil at SpringbendSchool, stated that \"There were no frills in those days. We had the three R's and the onlything other than that was what we used to call exercise. But there was no equipment at all.\"Likewise, at Okanagan Landing School Marguerite Hodgson recalled that \"the three \"R's\"were stressed, so there were not too many subjects to tax our youthful brains.\" 36 AnneVardon, who attended Medora Creek School, explained in more detail:Spelling was very important in those days, as was arithmetic and writing. I thinkspelling and arithmetic were done every day, with a spelling bee once a week.Reading was also important. Almost every weekend we would have from one tofour verses to memorise.... Some of the other subjects that we were taught wereLanguage, Geography, Grammar, Literature, History and Art. 37In addition to their strictly professional responsibilities, teachers in rural schoolswere also expected to find time in their already busy workdays to perform in a number of35 Bowron Reports, May 29, 1929.36Hodgson, \"Okanagan Landing School Days,\" 116.37lnterestingly, the teachers who were interviewed recalled very little about matters of curriculum ortheir teaching methods.229other roles at the school. Although these non-teaching \"duties,\" as Lucy McCormickdescribed them, were both \"many and varied,\" for the most part rural teachers undertookthem voluntarily and accepted them as being part of their job.One of the questions posed in the questionnaire circulated by the Teachers' Bureauto teachers in rural districts was \"Does Board engage a janitor for school?\" Sixty-fivepercent (59 of 91) of the teachers in the Okanagan Valley who completed and submitted thisdocument to the Department of Education answered in the affirmative. These responses didnot necessarily indicate either a full-time or an adult employee however. In some districtsindividuals were appointed only part-time or to do a specific job. At Salmon Valley School,the teacher, Lydia Hayes, reported that a janitor was engaged \"For firelighting 5 monthsonly.\" 38 In a number of instances the School Board employed one or more children tocarry out some, or all, of the janitorial work. Belle McGauley stated that \"2 school pupils\"were engaged at Ashton Creek School, and Alfred Hooper, teacher at South KelownaSchool noted: \"One pupil paid to do sweeping only.\" 39 Children could not always berelied upon however, as R.N. Nesbitt clearly pointed out was the case for EcclestoneSchool: \"Pupil, not well done.\" 40 Concomitantly this meant that even where a janitor wasengaged rural teachers could also be liable for at least a portion of the work. They may alsohave had to supervise the work of others to ensure that it reached the required standard.Moreover in at least thirty-five percent (32 of 91) of the rural schools in theOkanagan Valley teachers were entirely responsible for keeping their classrooms clean andwarm. Vera Towgood recalled having been forewarned by an instructor at Victoria Normal\"about the possibility that we might find a one-room school in \"a less than clean condition\".38TBR, 1928.39Ibid., 1928 and 1923 respectively. Pupils were also employed at Ewings Landing (TBR, 1928),North Enderby (TBR, 1923), Okanagan (TBR, 1928), Silver Creek (TBR, 1923) and Westbank Townsite(TBR, 1923 and 1928).40TBR, 1928.230[He said] \"Don't hesitate to do what you can - sweep it out, scrub the floor & walls ifnecessary. Remember that \"all work is noble\".\" Many of the former teachers who wereinterviewed confirmed that fulfiling such obligations had indeed been part of their ruralteaching experience. Lucy McCormick stated that \"as a rule\" those who taught in ruraldistricts also served as the \"caretaker, firelighter, and general custodian of the school,especially if it was in an isolated area.\"41 A number of others, such as Marianne Nelson,emphasized the multifarious nature of their work by describing themselves as a \"generalfactotum\" rather than exclusively an educator of children.Whereas chores such as sweeping the floor, cleaning the blackboards and generaltidying up could be done after school, lighting a fire in the stove could only be done earlyin the morning. This made it imperative that those rural teachers arrive at the schoolhouselong before the start of the normal school day. Lucy McCormick lived in a teacherage in thegrounds of Mabel Lake School and her daily routine began thus: \"I'd light the fire in myown cabin and rush over and light the fire in the school.\" While teaching at Hupel SchoolMarianne Nelson lived less than half a mile from the schoolhouse, whereas most of herpupils \"walked several miles to attend school.\" So early each morning she \"carriedkindling, wrapped in newspaper from my boarding house to start the winter and cool-weather fires.\" Esma Shunter experienced real problems in trying to get the old ShuswapFalls School warm before her pupils arrived: \"There was a big hole where the stove pipewent out and the snow would come down and the stove would be covered with snow andyou'd have to sweep the snow off before you lit it.\"Use of the school building in many rural areas for various community functionsoften increased the teacher's janitorial workload. Lucy McCormick recalled that \"As theschools were frequently used for Saturday night dances and for church services onSundays, on Monday mornings most of the desks would be in the wrong places and had to41 McCormick, \"Early Rural Schools,\" 39.231be reorganized.\"42 Likewise Ila Embree reported that at Kedleston \"When there were anyevents in the neighbourhood they happened in the school yard or at the schoolhouse andyou didn't know if it [would] have been cleaned up like you'd like to have it.\" 43Interestingly, although rural teachers were not overly enthusiastic about theirjanitorial duties, in general they did not object strongly to the expectation that such workwas their responsibility, perhaps because as Marianne Nelson suggested \"there wasn'tmuch to it.\" In this sense Alice Gibson expressed a commonly held view of many of theparticipants: \"All this was not a hardship as it was the status quo for most one-roomteachers of that era.... [It was] one of the things you did.\" At least on one occasion howevera teacher decided that she drew the line at some of the heavier manual tasks she wasexpected to do. At Shuswap Falls the Secretary of the School Board informed EsmaShunter that chopping wood for the school stove was the teacher's, and thus her,responsibility. Esma thought otherwise. After she had deliberately broken \"two axe-handles\" the Secretary gave in and employed a man to do the job. Esma statedtriumphantly: \"This is one teacher who doesn't split wood. It's not in her contract....I wasthe first teacher there that ever got her wood split for her.\"In many instances, usually because they were too busy to do the work themselves,rural teachers, acting on their own volition, enlisted the support of other individuals whowere willing to offer their services at the school. Most frequently the situation occurredwhere one of the older students would act as a \"pupil-janitor.\" Thus Lloyda Wills reportedthat at Hilton School: \"I did it when I had the time to do it but I assigned different ones[pupils] for different days to do it.\" As one of the senior pupils at Medora Creek School,Buster Schunter sometimes helped out. He recalled:42Ibid.43References to the problems caused by schools being used for community functions are made in theminutes of the meetings of various school boards, see School District #23, Kelowna, South Okanagan PublicSchool (May 3, 1921), and Westbank Townsite Public School (January 7, 1929).232The janitor [was] the kids. You took your turn one week, and [then] thenext oldest kid, he took a turn. You'd clean the blackboard. You'd clean thebrushes and you swept the floor before you left for home. And in the morning youwent there early and lit the fire and things like that.Ila Embree used to finish school early on Friday afternoons so that the pupils couldclear up all the garbage that had accumulated in the school grounds over the previous week.While at times \"pupil-janitors\" provided an \"adequate\" service, more often the schoolhousereceived merely \"a lick and a promise.\" 44 Otherwise as in cash-poor Kedleston the fivedollars a month that could be earned for doing the housekeeping at the school was muchsought after by the pupils. Consequently Ila Embree stated: \"There was almost a war at theend of the month - Who'd do it next month? So I hired a steady adult - What a joy to have awarm school in the long winters.\" Ila paid the janitor out of her own salary.It was also quite common in rural districts for the parents of the pupils to help outvoluntarily with the janitorial duties. In the case of Sugar Lake School the task of heatingthe schoolhouse was a joint effort by teacher, pupils and community members together.Alice Gibson explained: \"The men would have a bee and cut up a bunch of wood, and thechildren would bring it in and I would keep it [the stove] going.\" Similarly at MedoraCreek School Gertrude Cumming, a former pupil, recalled: \"The grown-ups were greatsports and always willing to help with things. Some weekends there was a cleaning bee.The school floor was scrubbed with water heated outside over an open fire.\" MarianneNelson even managed to persuade one of the Trustees at Hupel School to help her:The stage which carried the mail to Enderby from Mabel Lake, passed bythe school, early Tuesday and Friday mornings. One of the trustees who livedacross the river from the school, crossed over by boat to post or get mail from thispassing stage. Instead of waiting in the cold, [he] used to put on the fire and sit inthe comfort reading my National Geographics or senior textbooks on cold winterymornings. Believe me, I appreciated this in those cold winters.Teachers in isolated districts also had to double as nurse, doctor or even dentist fortheir pupils when the situation arose. Complying with Provincial Department of Health44Lidstone, ed. Schools of Enderby and District, 107.233regulations, rural teachers routinely checked their pupils for contagious diseases andadministered general health care precautions. Wilma Hayes, former student at EllisonSchool, recalled how one of her teachers, Eldred K. Evans, acted on the advice of the localPublic Health Officer to help reduce the incidence of goitre amongst the pupils at theschool: \"One such project that I recall was in the days before the use of iodized salt. Eachnoon hour every student lined up, under Eldred's supervision, for a glass of watercontaining several drops of tincture of iodine.\"45 Some teachers even acted in the capacityof dentist. Marianne Nelson reported: \"I used to pull teeth too. I got pretty good at pullingteeth.\"Dealing with situations like those described above presented most rural teacherswith few problems. However, when unpredictable crises struck such as a sudden illness oran accident at their schools they were often unprepared, and therefore unable to cope.Although the situations they faced were perhaps no worse than those confronted by theirurban collegues, the fact that expert medical care was so much harder to come by in ruralareas made any problems potentially more serious. Lucy McCormick explained:She had to deal with any emergency....Telephone service was non-existent,and medical services the same, with no Public Health nurse to turn to. The MedicalOfficer of Health...had such an area to cover that a school was lucky if they sawhim every second year. If hospital care was needed it was a long way fromCherryville, Mabel Lake, or Trinity Valley by horse and buggy to Vernon.A number of \"unfortunate\" incidents were related to me by former teachers where childrenneedlessly suffered due to the lack of immediate and appropriate medical attention. AtMabel Lake School one young girl had her eye punctured by a stick and as a consequencelost her sight in that eye. At Medora Creek School another girl died as a result of a rupturedappendix. Teachers expressed the utter frustration and helplessness they felt in such45 lodine supplements were given to school pupils in the 1920s because prior to its use \"25 percentof the Kelowna school children had large goitres.\" See David Green, \"Dr. William John Knox 1878-1967:Beloved Doctor of the Okanagan,\" OHSR 33(1969): 14. Lucy McCormick also noted that a \"duty\" of therural teacher was to give \"iodine tablets\" to their pupils. See \"Early Rural Schools,\" 39.234circumstances. They not only lacked the necessary knowledge and expertise in medicalprocedures, but in most rural schools supplies to render even the most basic first aid didnot exist, as Marianne Nelson's account of the contents of the medical facilities at MedoraCreek School clearly illustrates:There was no equipment for first aid...nothing. With the exception of some cleanwhite rags coming from the kind lady of my boarding place, I used a green salvefor cuts, some tweezers to pull out slivers, and some needles and thread and safetypins, to save a pupil's dignity, should he or she rip clothes in play.Marianne added resentfully: \"Our Normal training should have included a course in firstaid.\"Finding time during the school day to take a few quiet moments alone was virtuallyimpossible for the teacher in a rural school. Even during recess and noon-hour they wereobliged to oversee their pupils activities and to take responsibilty for their behaviour, as theminutes of the South Okanagan School Board for 1920 imply: \"The question of the teacherleaving the school during lunch hour was discussed. It was decided that same c[oul]d notbe allowed.\" Significantly a later entry for the same date stated that \"a change of teacher\"was \"advisable\" and the \"secretary was instructed to advise [the present teacher] that herengagement w[oul]d cease at the end of current term.\" 46 Whether the two entries werelinked is unknown.At recess, there was usually little in the way of sports equipment. So if weatherpermitted, teachers often organised, and sometimes participated in outdoor games such asKick-the-Can, Fox-and-Goose, Run-Sheep-Run, Mother-May-I, Anti-Anti-I-Over,Prisoners Base, Tag, Hopscotch, Skipping and Softball. When it was too cold or wetpupils remained inside and the teacher resorted to various types of guessing games.Many rural teachers were also \"ordered\" to preside over the organisation of a hotmeal for their pupils at lunch-time. This usually consisted of a soup concocted from46School District #23, Kelowna, South Okanagan Public School, Minutes of Meetings, October 5,1920, 21.235vegetables, either dried or in season, and would be cooked slowly on the school stove overthe course of the morning. \"So there goes the teacher,\" Lucy McCormick stated, \"cook aswell as nurse.\"47 Some teachers, particularly those working in impoverished communities,like Marianne Nelson at Medora Creek School who felt very concerned about those of herpupils whom she regarded as obviously \"deprived\" and \"underfed,\" initiated the provisionof food for their pupils at lunch-time at their own expense. In such cases they did so, notbecause they were required to, but in response to a perceived need to ensure the childrenreceived at least minimal nutritional requirements. Marianne stated: \"You should have seenthose kids look forward to lunch.\" Anne Vardon, one of Marianne's pupils, recalled herkindness: \"We were very poor at that time, and whenever she could she always helped outby bringing extra lunch that she thought we'd like, like extra cobs of corn or extra tomatoesor extra apples or something.\"A final \"duty\" that many teachers in rural districts were expected to fulfil was theimprovement of their school grounds. Despite the enormity of the task that they confrontedthey made valiant attempts to ameliorate their often bleak surroundings. Some, likeMarianne Nelson, managed to get help. She reported: \"In my first two schools I asked theTrustees if we could have the school grounds cleared of logs and stumps. I stated that thechildren needed some organised fun etc. The Trustees willingly did this.\" Lucy McCormickwas not so fortunate so she and her pupils \"dug out stumps to make a baseball diamond\" inthe grounds of Mabel Lake School themselves. At Medora Creek School GertrudeCumming, a former pupil, recalled: \"The teachers used to encourage the pupils to have agarden plot where flowers were grown. The girls tended them. The boys looked after avegetable] plot but it didn't come to anything at the old school.\" 4847McCormick, \"Early Rural Schools,\" 40.48See also IR on Medora Creek School (October 28, 1926) where Hall commended the teacher,Mary McKenzie, for her \"small school garden.\"236The in-school workday of the typical rural teacher was thus fully occupied. Intrying to coordinate their time effectively and allocate it between their many responsibilites,they had, out of necessity, to become a jack-of-all-trades. A huge gulf existed betweenwhat was expected of them and what in reality they could achieve given the circumstancesin which they were required to perform. Anne Richards, referring to one of her teachers atOkanagan Landing School, has encapsulated most rural teachers' inevitable situation, giventhe trials and frustrations they confronted on a daily basis:I think she had more work than she could stand really....But she was, well I guess,like all country school teachers, she did the best she could and that was all.Stan Wejr, a former pupil of Trinity Creek School, appreciated the huge undertaking itmust have been to effectively manage a rural school in the 1920s when he wrote: \"Believeme, that teacher earned her salary.\"49The issue of whether the instruction teachers received during their months atNormal School actually equipped them to practice their profession in an isolated ruralschool was a moot point among the former teachers interviewed. When questionedspecifically in this respect Esma Shunter's response, like that of many of the others, wasemphatic: \"No. I don't know how it could.\" Although they felt that their pedagogicaltraining had been an important part of their lives in terms of their personal development, bythe same token many of them also made vociferous complaints about what they regarded asthe shortcomings of that training. Alice Gibson stated: \"Normal School was a wonderfulexperience but there's no way it could prepare you for one-room teaching. The problemswere different in every one.\" Lucy McCormick questioned how any Normal Schoolprogramme could feasibly instill in student teachers an awareness and understanding of theidiosyncrasies of living and working in remote districts: \"The teacher training didn't domuch to equip a young teacher to face a group of children and a community which could be49Wejr, \"Memories of Trinity Creek Area,\" 79.237very critical.\" The struggles of individual teachers trying to adapt to the hardship andloneliness of rural life in general, and how they coped with such difficulties, are addressedin Chapter Eight as part of the discussion of the teacher in the community. At this juncturethe emphasis remains on their classroom responsibilities.As noted earlier, the foremost stumbling block for new teachers was instructional:how to coordinate tuition in a multi-grade situation. The statements by former teachersindicate that in this regard they deemed their professional training to have been bothimpractical and irrelevant in the face of the actual circumstances they encountered in theirrural classrooms. Mary Genier recalled: \"All I did [at Normal School] was review thesubjects that you had to teach. But they didn't tell you how to go about it.\" MargaretLandon, only nineteen years of age and fresh out of Normal School, began her \"new life asa school marm in fear and trembling\" in the one-room school at Salmon Bench in 1923.Her \"first task,\" she explained, was the \"making of a timetable\" whereupon she soonrealised that her \"year of preparation\" at Vancouver Normal School \"seemed veryinadequate.\" Marianne Nelson concurred: \"[W]e weren't told how to devise a timetable forteaching eight grades. Never shown how to teach raw beginners to read etc.\" HildaOyderman stated: \"In teacher training we had training in making multi-class timetables butno training in the necessity for meaningful work for the other grades while I was teachingGrades 7 or 8. We called it seat work.\"Facilities for practice teaching existed at both Vancouver and Victoria NormalSchools in the 1920s and most of those interviewed regarded such experience as the \"mostuseful\" and \"valuable\" aspect of their training programme, because as Bernard Gilliesuggested, it gave them \"some idea of the importance of the continuity of lessons etc.\"Unfortunately, as Alice Gibson pointed out, \"It was geared mainly to teaching onegrade...situations in city schools.\" In 1927 Ruby Drasching did her \"final two weekpracticum...at a rural school \"Happy Valley\", on the outskirts of Victoria,\" an assignmentof far too short a duration and in a location that was hardly isolated enough to give Ruby238any real sense of what teaching in the remote corners of British Columbia's hinterlandreally entailed. Her first teaching post was the one-room school at Grandview Bench whereconditions were qualitatively very different to those she had experienced in suburbanVictoria.50The following account of Bernard Gillie's rude introduction to the very real worldof one-room teaching was an experience replicated in countless other rural schools. Ithighlights the immense training gap that existed as teachers tried to follow Department ofEducation policy and Courses of Study:One of the things that they taught us in Normal School was that you had to planall your lessons. You made a lesson plan for everything you were going to do andwe had a formal plan form that you made out and all the rest of it. Knowing what Iknow now, that's theoretically a brilliant idea....I started out trying to do this. HereI am with six classes, some of them had only two or three youngsters in, includingof course a group of eight beginners who had never been to school before. So if Itried to plan a lesson, to write out a lesson plan for each one of those classes for allday long I needed a twelve day week in order to do that and I didn't have one. Thiswas hopelessly unrealistic....I couldn't bridge the gap, the gulf between theory andpractice. How do you turn it into a practical performance day after day after day.This is what really I found difficult...to tackle what seemed at first as a totallyimpossible situation....This was the experience of hundreds of teachers, droppedinto one-room schools, totally inexperienced, not knowing how to go about reallymuch anything.It is also apparent from the comments inspectors made in their reports on thepedagogical practices of those under their supervision that many novice teachersexperienced problems in trying to adapt to their situations in rural schools, a process thatoften took a considerable period of adjustment. Miller's assessment of May E. Burton,teacher with no experience in charge of Deep Creek School in 1925 where enrolment stooda thirty pupils, is typical. He suggested that she \"must learn to economize her time and keepher pupils more profitably employed....More frequent revision and closer observation ofgrade and term limits, coupled with a rather firmer grasp of the requirements of the Courseof Study, will also be of help in bringing about improved conditions.\" Almost exactly50The same was true of the Normal School in Vancouver where schools in places such as Surreywere used for practice teaching.239twelve months later he filed a similar report on Miss Burton, noting no real improvement. Itwas not until October of 1927 that he was able to state she had \"gained somewhat inteaching strength\" and was \"making fair progress.\" 51 Historian David C. Jones hassuggested a cynical metaphor that is particularly pertinent here: \"[N]ormal school training inthe early twenties prepared trainees to teach on the moon better than in the typical one-room...school.\" 52The transition from training to employment was eased somewhat for those teacherswhose own public school education had taken place in a rural setting. Bernard Gilliesuggested that for him, as for many others in similar situations: \"What we did in sheerdesperation was think \"Well, what did my teachers do?\" I simply fell back on how they haddone things.\" Ila Embree firmly believed that she was \"much better prepared\" to teach in aone-room school because she had \"been through it\" and thus \"knew how to do it.\" Sheargued: \"I learnt how to write, MacLean's Method 53 , and all that sort of thing at Normaland I specialised in Physical Education [but] if I hadn't gone to a country school...I wouldnever have known how to teach at all.\" Alice Gibson felt the same: \"I don't think I wasconscious of it at the time, but a one-room school was quite ordinary to me.\"51 IR, December 8, 1925, December 2, 1926 and October 19, 1927. Examples of other teachers whoseemed to be experiencing similar problems abound in the records. See for example inspectors' comments onRuby E. Drasching (IR's, Grandview Bench, November 9, 1928 and May 29, 1929), Irene Pellow (IRs,Falkland, November 26, 1925 and April 15, 1926), Islay B. Noble (IRs, South Okanagan, November 30,1921 and March 1, 1922), Miss E. L. Haywood (IR, Sicamous, February 23, 1925), Vera M. Ford (IR,Hillcrest, January 21, 1925), and Emily M. Melsted (IR, Silver Creek, April 6, 1925). It was not only newgraduates that found teaching in rural districts problematic. There was another group of teachers, many withlong years in the field, who were also unprepared. A prime example of such a teacher was Miss A.E. Browne,a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, with over eighteen years of teaching experience, who taught atSicamous School from 1927-28. Miller noted in his report that she was \"not finding it easy to adjust hermethods to the needs of a British Columbia one-room school such as this.\" See IR, November 9, 1928. Seealso inspectors' comments on Anson W. Morrow (IR, Lavington School, June 11, 1928), Duncan P. Clark(IR, Mabel Lake School, October 3, 1929), and Mary Gemmell (IR, Salmon Bench School, February 26,1923).52David C. Jones, Empire of Dust: Settling and Abandonning the Prairie Dry Belt Edmonton:University of Alberta Press, 1987, 179.5311a is referring here to The MacLean Method of Muscular Movement Writing introduced into theBritish Columbia school system in 1921. See AR, 1921, C10.240Just as teachers in rural schools were inadequately prepared for the tasks theyencountered in the classroom, they also suffered from a professional support system thatwas sadly lacking and did little to mitigate the daily frustrations of one-room teaching.Teacher anecdotes about the nature of their relationships with the inspectors whosupervised their work manifested an ambivalent attitude towards these men. On the onehand teachers looked forward to visits from their inspector because they offered news ofthe \"outside\" and thus a welcome respite from the overwhelming feeling of isolation thatwas so common amongst those who taught in outlying rural districts. For the vast majorityof teachers he was their only link with the larger world of education. Often, as historianJohn Calam has pointed out, the inspector was the \"sole educational professional in whomthey could confide during an entire school year.\"54 Some participants, like MargaretLandon, \"approved\" of their inspectors using words such as \"kind\" and \"supportive\" todescribe certain individuals. Generally, however, most teachers were not overly impressedwith the quality of the service they received from their inspectors. In this context they citeda number of specific grievances related mainly to availability and utility.Rural teachers were certainly not hampered in their work by an excess ofsupervision. In fact for the vast majority of teachers contact with their inspector wasminimal. Constrained by their heavy workloads - too many schools to inspect in too short aperiod of time - as well as the often unreliable nature of transportation and communicationbetween scattered rural communities, inspectors were hard-pressed to meet the demands oftheir job. As Inspector A.F. Matthews noted in his 1922 report: \"Six schools in isolatedparts of the district were not inspected, as three of these were closed temporarily on the dateof visit, and the difficulties of travel and lack of time proved obstacles in the case of theothers.\"55 Consequently visits from the inspector were rare and frustratingly brief, usually54Calam, Alex Lord's British Columbia 18.55AR, 1922, C33.241limited to a few hours twice, sometimes only once, a year. This was hardly sufficient timefor him to gain an intimate knowledge and understanding of the precise circumstances eachteacher faced, both in her school and in the local community. Mary Genier clearlyremembered that when Hall came to Medora Creek to inspect the school \"He didn't spendmuch time.\" On one particular occasion Lord's visit to Esma Shunter and her pupils atShuswap Falls School was cursory to say the least:He never went inside the school. He came at recess and we were out in the yardplaying and he came over and talked to me and then he left....The only thing hetalked about... - I think he used to teach school in Kelowna and he taught some ofmy older sisters - and all he talked about was my older sisters: Where they were andwhat were they doing? and then he got in his little car and drove off. 56Many teachers also suggested that they received few practical or constructivesuggestions from their inspectors on how to improve their performance in the classroom.Ila Embree's comments were fairly typical: \"He just walked up and down and scared thedickens out of you and you wondered what he was thinking.... [H]e didn't help me any butI got fairly good reports.\" Some also felt that their inspectors' reports were not very useful.Lucy McCormick recalled:When you got your report...it was just routine...it was terrible...it didn'tmean a thing....Also he usually left instructions with the teacher to approach thetrustees regarding improvements. This was not an easy task, and by the time theInspector's official report was received the term was over and his suggestions wereconveniently forgotten. 57She added indignantly: \"How was any young teacher going to go and tell the trustees thatthey should be doing this or that. That was his job.\"During the provincial inspector's visits his agenda was strictly administrative: toassess the pedagogical capabilities of the teacher, the academic progress of the pupils andthe overall \"standing\" of the school. Other more personal issues were rarely addressed.56Lord was Principal of the Central Elementary School in Kelowna from 1910-1914. See Calam,Alex Lord's British Columbia, 4, 103-111.57lnterview with Lucy McCormick and McCormick, \"Early Rural Schools,\" 40.242Many inspectors seemed to express little concern, or even interest, in the life of theindividual teacher outside of her professional responsibilities, surely a matter of crucialimportance to a young teacher's survival in a remote school district. But as LucyMcCormick suggested, some inspectors gave her the distinct impression that \"It was just ajob....Sometimes it depended on what kind of person he was, how well he got on with[teachers] who were sort of isolated in a community.\" Accordingly in many instances aserious communication problem existed between inspector and the inspected in rural areas.But perhaps this was inevitable given the nature of the power relationship between the twoparties. As historian John Abbott has summed up: \"[M]ale inspectors, usually heads offamilies and well advanced in their careers, superintended a very young, inexperienced,minimally trained, and transient female teaching force.\" 58 Although the local school boardhad ultimate control over a teacher's tenure, a \"poor\" or \"unsatisfactory\" inspector's reportcould adversely effect a teacher's prospects of transferring to a better position in anotherschool, could be instrumental in influencing a school board's decision to dispense with ateacher's services, or as Alice Gibson stated: \"If you didn't do a good job, the Inspectormight move you.\" Many teachers therefore found their bi-annual visits from the inspectormore stressful than fruitful. Marianne Nelson reported: \"I truly never felt at ease....I wasnervous.\" It was partly for this reason that Lucy McCormick suggested that some younggirls were \"really almost frightened\" of their inspector.The recollections of former teachers imply that there may have been more insidiousaspects to the teacher-inspector relationship and that in some cases the latter used hisposition of trust to take advantage of those under his supervision. Lucy McCormickcontended: \"There was the odd inspector who wasn't a saint by any means.\" MarianneNelson, speaking from personal experience, was more explicit. She felt extremelyuncomfortable in the presence of one particular inspector: \"I was quite busty and he was58Abbott, \"Accomplishing \"a Man's Task\",\" 313.243very fond of...looking down your clothes and so on, the old devil.\" At one point, in theearly 1930s, she and a number of other female teachers decided to get together and reportthis individual so that \"something be done about\" his behaviour, which had beencontinuing for some years. In the end they let the matter drop, partly because they werevery skeptical about whether their grievances would ever have been taken seriously but alsobecause the man in question was within a few years of retirement. Marianne regretted thatshe had not taken the matter further. She also suggested that some young women teachers,fearing the loss of their job, may have had good reason to permit such otherwiseunacceptable behaviour to occur: \"It was such hard times that maybe a girl would do almostanything if she were destitute.\" In contrast the participants referred to the visits of LottieBowron in very different terms. To quote Lucy again: \"She was very nice and...a verymotherly sort of a person. She knew what to ask to find out for herself. I think probablyteachers would open up to her more than they would to a man.\" Unfortunately Bowron'smandate did not include all female teachers but was restricted primarily to those in difficultsituations. Consequently the typical rural teacher very often felt very much alone as regardsprofessional help and support. As Alice Gibson so succinctly stated: \"What do I rememberabout teaching in a rural school? That I was entirely on my own.\" Marianne Nelsonreiterated Alice's sentiments almost exactly: \"You were on your own. You were completelyon your own.\" So too did Mary Genier: \"The kids and I were more or less isolated....Itaught them. They learned from me.\"Such professional isolation meant that rural teachers welcomed the annual Teachers'Conventions.59 Lucy McCormick reported:59A number of teachers' associations exisited in the Okanagan in the 1920s. In 1922 the OkanaganValley Teachers' Association, the first of its kind in the area, was formed in response to \"a need...feltamongst the teachers...for more unity.\" A local organisation serving Armstrong, Enderby, Vernon, Lumbyand Oyama was also established and called the North Okanagan Teachers' Association. See Lidstone, ed.Schools of Ds)11)11wff and District,, 64. In 1929 another association was formed to represent rural teachersworking in schools further south in the Okanagan around the Kelowna area. See AR, 1929, R30.244I always went....That was part and parcel of our in-service training....Theywere very useful because they were geared to small schools, mainly because thereweren't that many big schools, and from the point of view of getting to know otherpeople...with similar problems.Agnes Ball expressed the same opinion: \"It was useful to get together and talk with otherteachers.\" Inspectors also acknowledged the importance of these yearly meetings. Forexample, Hall of the Kelowna Inspectorate noted in his report for 1926 that the annualassembly of the Okanagan Valley Teachers' Association had \"proved, as usual, stimulatingand helpful to those attending. \" 6° Moreover he felt \"increasingly convinced of the value ofthe small convention of this type [to] teachers employed in the rural districts...to exchangeideas and to help each other with classroom problems [and thus] offset the handicap underwhich rural teachers work.\" 61 Held in October in either Vernon, Kelowna or Penticton, theconventions not only provided rural teachers with professional enrichment and a chance toupdate their knowledge and expertise in the field, but also served an important socialfunction as well. Indeed, for many lone rural teachers the annual meeting of their localteachers' association represented their only chance for contact with collegues. Not all of theparticipants reported having attended teacher conventions during the 1920s however. Thecost of travelling to the central location where the meeetings were held, as well asaccommodation expenses for the duration of the convention, had to come out of theteachers' own pockets and were sometimes prohibitive. Moreover, to those working invery isolated communities serviced by inadequate transportation networks, the meetingswere inaccessible. Many more, unfortunately, had simply been totally unaware of theirocurrence.An outsider might view the job of the rural teacher as a particularly onerous one thatostensibly offered little in the way of any recompense. However, this was not the generalview of many of the former teachers interviewed. In fact in a number of cases the60AR, 1926, R38.61 Ibid., 1929, R30.245participant's own perspective was quite the opposite. None disputed the fact that they hadendured often extremely strenuous working conditions in their rural classrooms, but, at thesame time, they also made it quite plain that there had been some gratifying aspects to one-room teaching.Being far removed from any direct supervision meant that rural teachers were, asAlice Gibson's, Marianne Nelson's and Mary Genier's comments above imply, able toexercise a considerable degree of autonomy. While there were limits to what they couldachieve given the paucity of instructional resources, equipment and supplies at theirdisposal, as well as community expectations and their own lack of preparedness andgeneral inexperience, and although the content of the curriculum they were required tofollow was determined by the Department of Education, ultimately rural teachers were alaw unto themselves in their classrooms. Bernard Gillie recalled his situation at EllisonSchool, which he regarded as representative of other rural districts, as one where the\"community was hardly aware of what you were doing.\" The general attitude was: \"Whathappens in the school is the teacher's business.\" Esma Shunter reported the same scenariofor Shuswap Falls: \"Nobody interfered....I never had anybody tell me what to do.\"Likewise Lucy McCormick stated that as the teacher at Mabel Lake she had been\"absolutely autonomous. Nobody questioned [me] at all.\" With usually no principal to tellthem what to do, or from whom they could seek advice, teachers in remote one-roomschools had to make their own decisions and were thus in control of the daily pedagogicalactivities that took place in the school. They were free to set the pace of work to meet theneeds of individual students, to alter their schedules if and when it suited them, or toexperiment with different kinds of teaching methods to find the approach that worked bestfor them. In this sense some participants viewed their professional isolation as working totheir benefit rather than to their detriment. Thus Janet Graham reported: \"It made youresponsible. You have the full responsibility of getting them through.\" As a young noviceteacher Agnes Ball believed that teaching in a one-room school encouraged her to be \"more246independent....It was a good start off for me....A good grounding is what a person needs,to jump head first into something. I think that had done me a lot of good.\"Thus in contrast to their colleagues who taught in large, hierarchically structured,urban school systems, teachers posted to one-room schools in remote districts werepermitted a kind of freedom in their jobs. While not all teachers may have relished theopportunity for such independence, the stories related to me by former teachers reveal thatsome clearly did. Lloyda Wills reported that the autonomy she had so appreciated whileteacher at the one-room school in Hilton in 1925-26 was lost when she transferred to thelarger graded school in Lumby where the external controls over the structure of her workwere more keenly felt:I think of all the years [23] I taught school that I enjoyed that first year themost because it was new to me and it was nice to see what I could do....I justthoroughly enjoyed it...because you could do what you wanted to do....[Later] itbecame a drag instead of a pleasure....All those darn red tape rules started comingin. They wouldn't let you do what you could do.Participants also regarded the one-room school as a superior environment in whichto teach in the sense of the highly personal nature of their work and their familiarity withthe children they taught. Thus Lloyda Wills recalled: \"I had such close contact with thepupils....It was really a pleasure.\" The intimate atmosphere of the small rural communityfostered the development of such special relationships because, as Vera Towgoodsuggested: \"You know all the children and you know all their homes. You know what theirbackgrounds are....My relationship with the pupils was close. Having so few, 11 or 12, Igot to know them well.\" Lucy McCormick expressed a similar opinion: \"This intimacy withfamilies helped [the rural teacher] understand the emotional life of her pupils.\" 62 Thebonds that developed between the rural teacher and her charges were often very strong andwhen participants recalled their pupils they spoke with affection and warmth. Many hadobviously cared very deeply for their \"kids\" or \"little ones.\" Significantly, many former62McCormick, 'Early Rural Schools,\" 40.247teachers depicted their relationship with their pupils with family-like metaphors. IsobelSimard's attitude was typical: \"The salary never bothered me at all. I never thought aboutthat. All I thought about was the children and getting them through their grades and helpingthem. They were like my own children to me.\" Pupils also recalled the family atmosphereof the rural school and the way in which their teachers cared for them. Amanda Singer, aformer pupil of Alice Gibson's at Sugar Lake, recalled Alice in a particularly poignant way:She was a really nice teacher, really nice. She was always kind [and] dideverything she could to make us happy....I always felt like she was my big sister. Icould talk to her about anything....That's what I really liked about her. You tell herthat I just loved her and I'll never forget her.Thus, at least for some individuals, rural teaching offered rewards that helped to offset thehardships and for this reason they enjoyed their work.\"The log school was just set down in an uneven clearing with trails to the few homes...and to thelake.\"Sugar Lake School, 1926.\"The teacher did everything on the board....No textbooks....All our work was put up on theboard.\"Interior view of Sugar Lake School, 1926.248249\"Really excellent accommodation for a school...well equipped, pleasant, comfortable, warm - allthe things that a school...should be.\"Exterior and interior views of Ellison School, 1927.\"It was a strange assortment, from a five year old girl...who could not speak English, to a fourteenyear old boy who was ready for Grade 8, with either none or one or two in the grades between.\"Pupils outside their school at Medora Creek, 1928.\"In quite a number of cases the children are of foreign parentage so that a good many languagedifficulties exist.\"Vera Evans, teacher at Winfield School, with her pupils, 1929.\"I had some funny experiences in that cabin, I tell you!\"Teacherage at Mabel Lake School, 1929.\"[WM dug out stumps to make a baseball diamond.\"Mabel Lake pupils playing in school grounds, 1929.251\"Many teachers were not much older than their students.\"Lucy Hargreaves, teacher, with pupils at Glenrosa School, 1923.\"The means of entertainment were in our own hands....We made our own fun.\"Fancy dress party at Sugar Lake School, 1926.252253\"[T]he little one-roomed school...was really the center of our lives.\"Pupils outside Kedleston School, 1920.\"I can recall my Dad going to work on the school...It was a volunteer project...built by the men ofthe district.\"The construction of Springbend School, 1924.254CHAPTER EIGHTLIVING AND SOCIAL CONDITIONSThe physical and pedagogical circumstances that rural teachers encountered in theirclassrooms were certainly gruelling. However, far more of a test of the individual teacher'sability to cope with the exigencies of working in a remote district was whether they wereable to adapt to the prevailing social climate of the local community. To Lottie Bowron thewelfare of female rural teachers rested on two main prerequisites: the availability of safeand congenial accommodation and access to a satisfactory social life. In fact, as Bowron'sreports attest, where and with whom, and thus how they lived could make or break ateacher's stay in a rural community. To complete the picture of rural teacher experience inthe 1920s it is therefore necessary to explore beyond their strictly professionalresponsibilities and activities to consider the more personal aspects of teachers' livesoutside of the school house. Bearing in mind the influence of localism on teacherexperience, this chapter offers a detailed look at teacher perceptions of, and attitudestowards, their social experiences in the rural districts of the Okanagan Valley. Specificallythe aim is to uncover the nature and extent of teacher interaction with the local community.First of all, a general note about the role and place of the teacher in ruralcommunities. Only very occasionally did rural teachers live close enough to their familyhomes that they could remain there.' Rather, accepting a position as the teacher in one of'See for example TBR's for Bear Creek (1923) where Miss Winifred J.L. Raymer noted that shelived \"at mother's home about 2 1 /2 mi. from school,\" South Kelowna (1928) where Alfred H. Hooperremarked: \"I have been the only teacher employed by the district since the school opened six years ago and Ihave always boarded at home,\" and Glenemma (1928) where Lewis J. Botting wrote: \"I live in my ownhome.\" Both hooper and Botting lived in their own homes rather than with their parents. For a briefbiograpical sketch of Botting, a long-time resident of the Salmon River Valley area, who taught atHeywood's Corner School from 1920-1925 and then at Glenemma School from 1925 until he retired in 1934,see Donald W. Ferguson, \"L.J. Botting - Falkland's First Teacher,\" OHSR 54(1990): 135-136. Miss AnnieFenton, who taught at Springbend School from 1925 until her retirement in 1930, also lived at home. Herfamily had a homestead in Springbend and when her father died he had \"willed her the...house and 21 acres ofland, so she lived there and drove an old Model T Ford coupe to and from the school.\" See SpringbendCommunity Recollections, 52-53.255British Columbia's interior schools, necessitated that, ipso facto, the individual concernedsimiltaneously agreed to relocate and live in the district in which the school was situatedand to endeavour to function socially as a member of the local community. While theintimate nature of rural life made teacher integration with the community all the morepertinent, at the same time the very structure and organisation of rural society, with itsinherent isolation and insularity, could militate against this crucial process.Specific community conditions varied from one district to another but a commonfeature of nearly all the rural settlements in the Okanagan Valley was the pervasive isolationthat seemed to impinge upon almost every aspect of daily life. Geographically, mostcommunities were located in out-of-the-way places, far away from the major towns likeVernon or Kelowna, and suffered from extremely inadequate, and often unreliablecommunication and transportation networks. Vera Towgood nee Evans' comments onTrinity Valley, taken from the questionnaire she submitted to the Teachers' Bureau in 1928,are typical of other one-room teachers' assessments concerning the general livingconditions of the districts in which they worked: \"Isolated - 15 miles from 'phone. Mailweekly from Lumby - 15 miles away.\" She also noted that the nearest railway station wasat Enderby, twenty-two miles distant, then added \"but road is little used - oftenimpassable.\" The station at Vernon, over thirty-one miles away, was the only alternative.On another occasion Vera reported that what she liked \"least\" about teaching in isolatedrural schools were the \"only brief visits with my family and the distance from shoppingareas and the outside world.\" Similarly Ida Winifred Parker, who taught at OkanaganCentre in 1928, commented that although she regarded community conditions as \"good\"she qualified her statement with \"but impossible to leave for week-ends except byautomobile - no sunday boat.\" 2 Particularly during periods of inclement weather it wasoften just not feasible for teachers in remote areas even to consider travelling outside their2TBR.256immediate vicinity. Lucy McCormick recalled that while she was teaching at Mabel Lakeshe \"didn't get out that much in the winter....The roads weren't ploughed or anything inthose days. One winter I wasn't out from Christmas to Easter....I just knew I couldn't doit.\" Likewise Esma Shunter, who taught at Shuswap Falls, stated:In those days you wouldn't believe the road. You couldn't get out in theSpring. At Easter when I wanted to go home [to Kelowna] for the holidays...thecar couldn't go on the road [because of] the mud....The road was terrible so therewas very little in the way of community get-togethers.Thus, by force of circumstance finding themselves confined to their school districtsfor sometimes months at a time, rural teachers had to rely on local residents forcompanionship. However, as Esma's comments imply, the opportunity for socialinteraction within the communities in which they worked could also be limited due to thewidely dispersed pattern of settlement in many districts and the difficulty of getting fromone home to another. A number of teachers indicated that a common feature of many of thefarming communities in the Okanagan in the 1920s were the long stretches that existedbetween individual homesteads. Thus in 1923 Gladys E. Walker reported that in Ewing'sLanding \"Homes of the pupils are scattered.\" 3 In 1928 George E. Welbanks noted ofDespard: \"District quite \"spread out\" with few families,\" and Ethelwyn B. Lee describedMeadow Valley as \"sparsely settled.\"4 Bernard Gillie, who taught in the one-room schoolat Hutton Mills, a small lumber town in the north of the provice, before transferring toEllison, a predominantly tobacco-farming district, outside Kelowna, attributed the\"different kind of social structure\" he found at the latter location to the economic base of thecommunity:Being an agricultural community [Ellison was] much more scattered. There isn't theclose association that you get in a company town like Hutton Mills whereeverybody lives next door. The whole thing was on ten acres, I guess. It creates adifferent atmosphere when everybody is living as a group, in and out of one3 lbid.4Ibid .257another's houses and all the rest of it. In an agricultural community that's not so.Your next door neighbour lives half a mile down the road.The majority of rural settlements in the Okanagan in the 1920s were family-basedrather than community-based. Moreover, as far as most of the small, indigent, subsistencefarms that proliferated throughout the valley were concerned, the family economycontinued as the predominant form of economic organisation. Accordingly, up until 1930 apioneer-style way of life was still much in evidence in the Okanagan and so many teachersworked in extremely impoverished communities. Ruby Lidstone nee Drasching describedGrandview Bench, a small mixed farming district in the north Okanagan, where she taughtin 1928, as a \"rather struggling community...of English nationality.\" 5 In the same wayAileen M. Halford reported in 1923 that the circumstances in Hilton, a farming andranching area, east of Vernon, were \"not of high standard\" and \"not such as to induceprosperity.\" 6 Five years later the general standard of living in the district had not changed.P. Evaline Scott, teacher at the school in 1928, remarked: \"It isn't very good, too manyforeigners here who are very poor.\" 7The repercussions of these circumstances on teacher experience were significant.The long hours and physically demanding nature of farm work meant that, for those tryingto wrest a bare living from the land, socialising was a rare luxury, and definitely not apriority. Moreover, when families did take time to relax they tended to keep to themselves,especially in winter. Lloyda Wills recalled that while she was teaching at Hilton School in1925-26 she had little contact, in terms of recreation, with the community:I didn't have much [of] a social life [because] there weren't that manyfamilies around to do very much at that time....People were busy, clearing the landand getting soil ready for gardens and all this sort of thing, and looking after theirstock....You're doing something all the time if you are a rancher. There isn't muchrest.5 Ibid.6Ibid.7Ibid.258It was perhaps for similar reasons that Mary Gemmell wrote of the community in SalmonBench in 1923: \"Ranches are poor & there are not many comforts....There is practically nosocial activity in this district.\" 8Compounding the geographical isolation and extreme poverty of the communities inwhich the majority of rural teachers worked was the fact that many were also very small.Lydia Hayes, teacher at Seymour Arm, located at the northern tip of the study area in a tinytrapping, wood-cutting and small scale farming area, described the community in 1923thus: \"This place, at present, is almost deserted.\" 9 In this context a number of participantseven questioned the use of the term \"community\" as an accurate representation of theirschool districts. Thus Mary Genier, referring to Medora Creek, stated: \"It wasn't acommunity...just three families.\" Likewise Alice Gibson recalled that at Sugar Lake:\"There was really no community - just a few scattered log cabins in the woods.\" JanetGraham, who taught at Shuswap Falls School in 1923, reported: \"There wasn't anycommunity. There was just this farmhouse.\"Given such seclusion, and in order to ensure their professional and personalsurvival, it was imperative that rural teachers establish, and then strive to maintain,amicable relations with the residents of their communities. They were obliged to accept thespecific circumstances they encountered, and, to the best of their abilities, conform to localpriorities. Alice Gibson firmly believed that: \"You had to be one of them.\" This was oftennot an easy task, especially in cases where the teacher's social background, religiousorientation, personal standards and general outlook on life did not coincide with that of thecommunity, particularly the \"powers that be\" who ran the school. Rural teachers worked ina very small world where local control over education was in the hands of a group ofpeople who were themselves products of the rural environment, elected into the position by8Ibid .9Ibid.259virtue of their ranking within local social hierarchies. The members of the school board,more often than not parents of pupils, were essentially non-professionals with littleknowledge or experience outside the local community. Whether they may, or may not,have been supportive of the teacher, their first allegiance was usually to the local ratepayersto whom they were accountable. Many participants emphasised how important it had beenfor them to remain on good terms with the \"main people\" in the rural communities in whichthey had taught. Agnes Ball suggested that it was essential for rural teachers not to\"impose\" themselves on the community:Listen to other people's views and always listen to the people in the placewhere you go. Don't go in there just qualified and thinking you know it all. Neverdo that....Go in there with an open mind and listen to what the main people say.The position of the teacher in rural districts could be further complicated by the factthat some communities suffered from internal divisions. Mary Genier reported that inMedora Creek \"the kids got along fine\" whereas the parents \"didn't communicate at all.\"Likewise in Ashton Creek, Belle McGauley, teacher at the school in 1928, noted: \"Thepeople around here are very friendly themselves, but they cannot seem to pull together.There is a continual feeling of opposition in the air.\" 10 Often the cause of a rift in thecommmunity was political in origin. Lucy McCormick recalled that at Mabel Lake \"therewere frictions between the Conservatives and Liberals. The families were split.\"Sometimes the lack of communication between the different families in a community, suchas in East Kelowna, was based on class. Laura Alcock reported:Up in East Kelowna we had a very, very definite class distinction amongthe people. There were the lower benches and the upper benches. The lowerbenches were considered just the ordinary types. Up on the upper benches werepeople that came from the Old Country with lots of money....They never mingled.They just kept in their own little cliques.In these circumstances rural teachers had to use exceptional tact to negotiate theirway through the often very complex affairs of the families they dealt with. As Lucy10Ibid.260McCormick argued: \"I think that in isolated communities [teachers] had to learn diplomacyvery fast....It was a question of how to get along.\" Neutrality was their best strategy asfavouring any one faction or family in a community could prove a rural teacher's downfall.Community disunity could adversely affect the quality of life of the rural teacher in otherways. Thus in 1928 Jennie M. Richards wrote of the Salmon Bench district: \"Not a verygood community spirit, so very little social life.\" Esma Shunter expressed similarsentiments about Shuswap Falls: \"There was just no community feeling...nothing went onin the community.\"The role and status of teachers in rural communities was almost wholly dependenton the attitudes of the local residents. However, sealed off in their remote settlements, ruralinhabitants often retained very insular attitudes. Such parochialism could make it difficultfor the teacher to become an accepted member of the community. In trying to adapt to thevery real isolation and loneliness of life in country districts, rural teachers also had to cometo grips with the fact that although they might live in the local community, they were, inmany respects, clearly not of it, and thus were often, as one historian has suggested,considered as a \"stranger outsider.\" 11 Laura Alcock, a former pupil at Mission CreekSchool, suggested why teachers might have been viewed in this way:The teacher was seen as different. [She] wore different clothes. You wouldthink of her as a city person [with] fancy sort of clothes and fancy boots and all thatsort of thing....There was a certain fear of the school teacher. She was sort of on apedestal.Some teachers indicated that they too had been keenly aware of their situations. MaryGenier recalled: \"I think [the people in Medora Creek] thought I was a little bit wild, but Iwasn't. I was just different from them.\" Ila Embree voiced a similar opinion about herexperience as the teacher in Kedleston: \"They must have got a joke when I went up there. Idressed differently. I was so different from them.\" By virtue of their education and social11 Ben Eklov, Russian Peasant Schools: Officialdom. Village Culture, and Popular Pedagogy, 1861-1914 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 16.261background, teachers who went to work in small backwoods communities often foundthemselves treated as outlanders, even intruders in some cases, and as the representativesof the larger world of education emanating from Victoria. At times, as Stortz hassuggested, they \"must have exuded an almost alien urban presence, an academic in anoverwhelmingly working class milieu.\" 12 Being the \"teacher\" could also hinder thedevelopment of close relationships because community members often failed to lookbeyond the role to the person. Teacher acceptance in rural areas was also, usually, afunction of time. Bernard Gillie cut right to the heart of the issue when he said:It's very difficult to become [part of a community] largely because teacherstend to be transient....Many [rural] teachers...never really got their roots down intoa community....Especially in agricultural communities, it takes years to establishyourself as a real member of the community.At the same time, rural teachers stood at the head of the principal, and frequently theonly, social institution in remote settlements, as former pupil Eric McCaul's verdict onDeep Creek clearly illustrates: \"There was no community life there at all. Just the school.\"Vera Towgood offered the same scenario for Trinity Valley: \"I don't know that they didmuch as a community except for the school because there wasn't anything else there.\" 13 Inthis context rural teachers occupied a central place in their local communities. In the mindsof most rural residents the term \"school\" held much wider connotations then merely thephysical structure in which their children spent their days. Rather \"school\" indicated acomplex system of interpersonal relations between the teacher, her pupils and thecommunity, both in the schoolhouse and in the community at large. Teachers had to learnvery quickly what was required of them as their success was largely determined by howwell they measured up to community expectations. Failure to do so could result in harshcriticism, and even ostracism in extreme cases.12Stortz, \"The Rural School Problem,\" 114.13 See Chapter Four of this thesis for a discussion of the importance of the school in ruralcommunities.262Participants recounted the many demands made of them. In addition to theirprofessional responsibilities rural teachers were also looked to as role models for theirstudents and as a moral example to the community in general. Lucy McCormick indignantlyreported : \"Not in rural schools, you didn't have your own life! Good gracious, if you'dhad a drink it would have been something else....Everybody else was drinking but not theschool teacher.\" The image projected by rural teachers was critical. They were presumed tobe nothing less than paragons of virtue. Under constant community scrutiny of both theirprofessional and personal activities, rural teachers, as one participant shrewdly suggested,\"practically lived in a fishbowl environment.\" Moreover, it was often taken for granted thatthe teacher could be relied upon to offer wise counsel on a wide variety of subjects and wasoften pressured into organising community events when necessary. Lucy McCormickrecalled:Things were referred to me to ask my opinion...and I would say in most cases theteacher in the rural community had a great deal of influence...because she probablyhad a little more education than the rest and they thought she should know theanswers....[I was] much in demand regarding big decisions. I helped figure out thevolume of water to construct a small hydro-electric plant....[T]hey expected me todo all sorts of things because I was the teacher. If they decided they were going tohave some kind of entertainment, I would have to run the entertainment.Alice Gibson reported a similar situation at Sugar Lake: \"[T]he only thing there that wasdone together at all was something to do with the school and I would have something to dowith that.\" Teachers often found that the community judged them as much by the quantityand quality of their non-teaching activities and as by their work inside the classroom.Living up to community expectations clearly put rural teachers under a great deal ofstress. At the very least it meant that their role as teacher spilled right over into the sociallife of the community and that the boundaries between their public and private lives wereblurred. The life of the teacher and that of the school were woven together as an integralpart of the very texture of rural society. As Alice Gibson stated: \"Everything was of onepiece and the schooling went along with the living and existing...and keeping nature away263from the front door.\" Thus, ultimately, rural teachers found themselves in the contradictoryposition of being central figures in communities of which they were never truly a part.Of immense importance to the quality of life of teachers working in isolated districtswere their board and lodging arrangements. However it is apparent that when it came tofinding a suitable place to live rural teachers had little say in the matter. In most instances itwas quite simply beyond their contro1. 14 Often the decision was made long before theyarrived in the district and was usually based on local custom and availability. Whenquestioned about the degree of choice she had been able to exercise in deciding where tolive in Hupel, where she had been offered the job of teacher at the school in 1925,Marianne Nelson replied: \"None. I \"boarded\" where former teachers had.\" In the same wayMary Genier, referring to Medora Creek, reported: \"All the teachers boarded at theSchunter's. You had no choice. You went there and that was it.\" Esma Shunter recalledthat at Shuswap Falls: \"There was no other place to stay....They were the only ones thathad a house big enough.\" Lucy McCormick, who lived in a teacherage at Mabel Lake,stated: \"I had to live in the cabin.\" Although, in the event, rural teachers may not haveapproved of the accommodation offered to them, Bernard Gillie suggested that it was\"wise\" to accept the community's decision because \"rejection\" could result in unwelcome\"hostility\" and \"enmity\" from the parties concerned.The specific living conditions experienced by teachers in individual school districtsreflected local circumstances and attitudes and were, as a result, extremely diverse, both interms of type and quality. Participants reported a wide range of accommodation situationsas they moved from one school to another. The majority of teachers \"boarded\" in thehomes of local residents, an arrangement that proffered certain advantages but also entailed\"Miss Lily J. Owen, teacher at Okanagan School in 1923 appears to have been an exception.Objecting to the fifty dollar a month cost of boarding in her school district of Benvoulin she chose instead tolive at some distance from the school to get cheaper lodgings: \"As the distance from Kelowna to OkanaganSchool is only three miles, I found it much better to cycle each day and board in Kelowna where board is farmore reasonable than nearer the school. Since Sept. 1921 I have only boarded in Benvoulin about twelveweeks.\" See TBR.264some distinct drawbacks. On the one hand it meant prepared meals and somecompanionship that helped alleviate at least some of the rural teacher's feelings of isolation.Some communities obviously provided very satisfactory lodging arrangements for theteacher. Thus in 1923 Charlotte E. Simpson, teacher at Glenemma, wrote of hercircumstances: \"Present boarding place - excellent,\" and in 1928 Olive Grace Whitedescribed the home in which she lived in Mission Creek as \"very good and close toschool.\" 15 Marianne Nelson, who taught in a number of schools in the Okanagan,reported: \"I was lucky. I always had nice boarding places.\" Other teachers were content butnot overly enthusiastic. Ruby Drasching wrote that the facilities at Grandview Bench in1928 were \"Plain but rather comfortable,\" and George E. Welbanks assessed Despard'soffering in 1923 as \"Fairly convenient; quite satisfactory.\" 16Typically circumstances were far from ideal. In some rural districts the teacher soonrealised that her value to the community was judged not just in terms of her teaching skills,but also in dollars. Friction over where the teacher lived was a common occurrence,particularly in impoverished subsistence farming communities where the teacher's boardingcosts, which averaged thirty to thirty-five dollars in most districts in the Okanagan Valley inthe 1920s, 17 might represent the sole family income for those who boarded her. Sometimesteachers were forced to move from one boarding place to another as the circumstances ofthose with whom they lived changed. 18 While teaching at Hupel School Marianne Nelsonhad to transfer from her original living quarters when the wife of the married couple who15 TBR.16Ibid.17lnterestingly female teachers paid less than males for their board in some school districts. See forexample TBRs for 1928 for Oyama High and Winfield. The reason for this discrepency is unclear. Did womeneat less than men? A more likely explanation was that female teachers, as some former pupils reported,helped out with the household chores in the homes where they boarded. This contribution may have beentaken into account when assessing their boarding fee.18 See Chapter Five of this thesis, pages 182-184, for an extreme example where a teacher had tomove four times over a single school year.265boarded her died. Likewise Agnes Ball found that she had to move on from her boardingplace in Joe Rich Valley when the family with whom she lodged invited an elderly relativeto stay and allotted the visitor Agnes' bedroom! When the people with whom Alice Gibsonhad lived for three years in Sugar Lake moved away, Alice had to make alternativearrangements: \"I boarded at a logging camp, eating with the men...in the cookhouse...andsleeping in a little log cabin.\"The general poverty afflicting most rural settlements in the district meant thatteachers sometimes found the physical condition of their boarding places hard to take,although, as the recollections recounted here suggest, most seemed to accept their situationsas being a necessary part of the rural teaching experience. Almost certainly the buildings inwhich they lived would be frugal with few, usually no modern conveniences. Quite often,too, teachers were expected to live in log structures that were decrepit and ill-kept,sometimes unfinished, poorly insulated and thus cold, damp, and uncomfortable. LloydaWills' description of her accommodation in the community at Hilton was fairly typical:In the winter in my house...where I boarded [I would] wake up in themorning and find an inch, or an inch and a half of frost along the edge of [my]blanket....The window would be frosted over. And they didn't have taps and hotand cold water in the house...and no electric light...just lanterns and lamps and thebig basin and the big jug for water....[T]he whole water jug [would be] frozensolid in the morning when you woke up because the house wasn't finishedyet....There were big, large cracks between the logs.Although Janet Graham experienced similar conditions in her first year teaching at Ewing'sLanding she accepted the physical hardship as a matter of course:It was a chilly little room I had. On cold, cold mornings the frost would comethrough the seams of the wood and be white on the inside. I once had my hot waterbottle frozen at the end of my bed....But that didn't bother me. I was a good sport,and I was used to, as they say, \"taking things as she found them.\"Alice Gibson recalled of her boarding place at Sugar Lake:Of course, the plumbing was out of doors....All the toilets were outside. Ifyou wanted to have a bath you [had it] after everyone else had gone to bed...in agreat big flat sort of a tub thing beside the stove in the living room.266But, like Janet, when asked if she found such primitive conditions a problem Alice replied:\"No, because everybody up there lived that way.\"Boarding also posed difficulties for rural teachers in a social sense. Bernard Gilliepointed out that gossip could be a very real problem for new teachers trying to \"establish\"themselves as a member of the local community:You have to be...very careful what you say....People will repeat what yousaid. If at the dinner table you say...something like \"Billy Smith was a ...two-headed little hyena this afternoon...and I boxed his ears,\" well that's all round thecommunity by the banshee telegraph in no time, and it doesn't earn you anyBrownie points, believe me. You have to [use] discretion to establish yourself.A number of participants also raised the issue of the meals provided by their hosts. In mostcases teachers merely complained of the \"monotony\" of the culinary fare offered them.Others, particularly those boarding with foreign families, were shocked at the food theywere expected to consume, but nevertheless felt obliged to accept it for fear of appearingungrateful, and therefore possibly alienating the family in question. Janet Graham recalledthat at Shuswap Falls she was given \"a slice of venison for breakfast, venison in oursandwiches and I don't know what we came home to. And on Sunday\" she addeddespondently, \"for a great treat you had these salted Kokanee from the creek!\" At MedoraCreek Mary Genier boarded with a German family. Often breakfast consisted of \"meat andpotatoes and sauerkraut - a great big feast in the morning.\" It was not to Mary's liking: \"Tothis day I just hear the word sauerkraut and [I feel squeamish]. There was too much of it.\"Likewise Marianne Nelson recalled: \"Sometimes the lunches were odd. One place where Iwent to, this lady didn't know how to make lunches too well. She [gave me] prunesandwiches. I couldn't eat them [but] foolishly left them in my lunch kit and it hurt herfeelings for weeks.\" Agnes Ball experienced similar problems. She explained that at oneparticular boarding place \"the woman didn't know how to cook. I was either constipated orstarving to death....I would stay at the school after school was over, get my work all done,and then make it as late as possible to get home just after dinner time.\"267Rural teachers seldom had any privacy if they boarded with a family. In this contextthe problems teachers experienced often stemmed from the fact that there were childrenliving in the house. Some teachers preferred not to board with the parents of their pupilsbecause they disliked the intrusion into their personal affairs. Ha Embree, who taught atKedleston, was relieved that the home in which she boarded was occupied exclusively byadults: \"You don't want to board with a lot of kids....You don't want them involved inyour private life.\" This may also have been precisely the reason why Blanche H. Duclos,teacher at Reiswig School in 1923, was content with her living arrangements. She wrote:\"The teacher's boarding place is very pleasant, no children.\" 19The presence of children also invariably meant that in the evenings there was noquiet place for teachers to correct books and prepare lessons for the next day. Often theroom allotted to the teacher was small and lacked a desk. Certainly during the winter itwould be too cold to use as a study. It must also be remembered that the vast majority ofrural schools had no lighting and so teachers were unable to remain at school after dusk.Some teachers even had to share sleeping quarters with their pupils. At Medora Creek MaryGenier slept in a little two-roomed cabin that was attached to the main house of the peoplewho boarded her. She had one room and the three female children of the family slept in theother. One teacher, Anna Thorlakson, who taught at Kedleston School between 1918 and1920, clearly did not like boarding with her pupils and so set out to persuade the schoolboard to improve her living arrangements:They were apparently not particularly happy years for her. She lived with a familywho had children attending the school and found the arrangement not at allsatisfactory. At her suggestion...a small two roomed teacherage was constructed in1920 attached to the rear of the school. This contained a wood burning stove withone hot plate and very little else. The teacherage was to be available to the teacher atno cost but he or she was to supply all the amenities.2019TBR.20Hughes, \"The Kedleston Story,\" 9. Not all teacherages were provided rent-free.268Teacherages were provided by a number of school boards and were usuallyconveniently located on the school grounds or at least in the near vicinity. Some, like that atKedleston, even adjoined the school house itself. 21 Teacherages offered those who lived inthem a certain degree of privacy and a means of avoiding any local feuding that might occurover the income from their boarding fee. Thus in 1920 the trustees of South OkanaganSchool recognised the \"pressing need...for an official residence\" which they consideredwould enable the teacher to \"take that position of social independence which the importanceof her office demands.\" They issued a clear warning to the ratepayers of the district:[U]nless some provision [is] made to overcome present conditions, it w[ill] beimpossible to secure or to retain the services of the type of woman that we areanxious to get - a woman of strength of character, decision, and ideas of her own &driving force sufficient to carry them out, a woman who w[oul]d be the last kind ofindividual...to allow her private & domestic affairs to be permanently at the mercyof any ratepayers who chose to offer to take the teacher in. 22A \"Pleasant 4-room cottage\" was constructed and provided \"rent free\" to the teacher. Notsurprisingly Winifred MacGregor, teaching at the school in 1923, described her livingconditions as \"excellent.\" 23However, living in a teacherage might also be a harrowing experience, especiallyfor the young teacher away from home for the first time. Providing basic amenities such asfood, heating, and lighting, as well as water for drinking, cooking, bathing and washingclothes could prove to be a substantial challenge for those unused to fending forthemselves. The teacherage also presented problems of a more maleficent nature, both realand imagined. Possible encounters with wild animals and the threat of unwelcome maleintruders with suspect intensions could unnerve, and even endanger, the teacher living21 See TBR for Trinity Creek (1928) in which the teacher, Eldred K. Evans, noted that hisaccommodation consisted of an \"Unfurnished teacherage 11' x 19' on end of school.\" See also IR for October17, 1927.22School District #23, Kelowna, South Okanagan Public School, Minutes of Meetings, October27, 1920.23 TBR.269alone. It required an individual of some fortitude to cope with the solitary existence thatthese isolated domiciles imposed upon their tenants. Lucy McCormick was one suchindividual.For the four years she taught at Mabel Lake School - November 1929 to June 1933- Lucy had no choice of accommodation but to rent, for five dollars a month, a two-roomedteacherage located approximately 800 metres from her school house. 24 She recalled: \"Atfirst my mother was a bit horrified at the fact that I was going to live by myself in a cabin.\"Mabel Lake was Lucy's first teaching post and initially, like her mother, she found theprospect of living in a teacherage somewhat daunting.\"But,\" she added, \"I managed allright.\" In many respects Lucy was quite fortunate. Although the cabin was sparselyfurnished it had a pot-bellied heater in the bedroom and a stove for cooking and so was\"quite comfortable, really.\" Moreover, the owners of the cabin provided Lucy with woolcomforters for her bed and also took care of her bedlinen. She had to cater to all her otherneeds herself however. Obtaining water was sometimes a real problem, particularly in thewinter: \"I had to can), water from the creek and [it] froze so hard that...I had to get into abeaver dam in order to get water.\" With no local stores Lucy had to send to Lumby,seventeen miles away, for supplies. She made an arrangement with the driver of the mailstage that travelled through Mabel Lake to Lumby on Friday mornings. Lists of herrequirements were delivered to the butcher, grocer, drugstore, etc. in Lumby and thendelivered back to her via the returning stage on Friday evenings.Lucy implied, however, that living alone in the \"cabin\" could have been apotentially frightening experience. She recounted stories of the \"very odd characters\" thatshe came into contact with at Mabel Lake, of the local young men who took great delight intrying to intimidate the \"new\" teacher by playing \"tricks\" on her, and the fact that she often24For a photograph of the teacherage that existed at Mabel Lake in the 1920s see page 251 of thisthesis.270saw cougar roaming the district. As she stated: \"I had some funny experiences in thatcabin, I tell you!\" She recalled that on one particular evening she was alone in the cabinpreparing work for the next day when there was a knock at the door: \"I opened the door alittle bit, in the dark, and this hand came out...with all blood running out of it...and all Icould see was his two eyes and all this beard and he said, 'Isaac sent you this.' It wassome fresh liver.\" The visitor had been the brother of a local farmer who thought that Lucymight appreciate the offer of some fresh meat. It had been an innocent encounter that Lucyhad found amusing - \"I thought it was funny\" - but she speculated that a person of a morenervous disposition might have been \"frightened to death\" and that the situation would have\"scared the wits out of her.\" Lucy also suggested that baiting or harassing the unsuspectingteacher was a common past-time in rural districts and that Mabel Lake was no exception.On one occasion some of the local young men at Mabel Lake, in an attempt to intimidateLucy, tied a violin string to the screen of one of the cabin's windows and used a bow tomake a sound like a \"wild banshee.\" She was unperturbed. Realising the prank she decidedto retaliate by chasing the offenders away with a \"toy sword\" left over from a schoolconcert. Her ploy was effective. In spite of all this Lucy emphasised that she was never\"depressed\" at Mabel Lake. She explained why she \"never had any fear at all\" about livingalone in an remote community:I was pretty self sufficient when I think of myself at that time. I'd been brought upthat way, to sort of depend on myself. That's my personality....The fact that I hadgrown up in a rural community helped me understand the situation and make dowith the bare minimum of supplies....I didn't feel badly about [the isolation]. Ididn't feel \"Oh, I can't hardly wait to get out of here.\" I didn't feel that at allbecause where my parents lived [in Lumby] was pretty well as isolated.Other teachers at Mabel Lake had not fared so well. The previous incumbent, Duncan P.Clark, appointed in September 1929, resigned after only two months. While his shorttenure at the school can be partly attributed to certain professional difficulties he271experienced, Lucy is convinced that he also fell prey to local aggravation: \"They smokedhim right out....They put wet sacks down the chimney....He quit I guess.\" 25Some communities appeared to make little effort as far as to provide the teacherwith somewhere to live. Thus in 1928 Mr F.L. Irwin noted that in Rutland lodgingfacilities were \"Difficult to procure in private family.\" 26 Likewise Miss M.W. Lang,teacher at Joe Rich Valley in April 1923, lamented:Very difficult to get good board and accommodations....There is no settled placefor teacher to board. Have had much difficulty myself and altho' I have [had] fairlygood accommodation since Feb. 1 this may not be available next term and teacherwill have difficulties. 27However, the alternatives to boarding with a family or living in a teacherage were limited.Some teachers ended up living in hotels. The fact that there was \"very little co-operation\"between the parents and herself may have explained why Christine Kearne lived in the\"Strand Hotel\" in Okanagan Landing in 1923. 28 Miss A.G. Brown described facilities inSicamous thus: \"Very little choice (2 hotels)....From $40 up.\" As Miss Brown's commentsimply hotel accommodation could be expensive. Thus Agnes Blackberg, who also taught atSicamous, had to pay sixty-five dollars a month to live in the local hotel, an amount thatwas double the average cost of boarding and just over sixty percent of her monthly incomeof $108.29\"Batching\" was the only other option. This was an arrangement whereby teacherswere expected to find their own accommodation, usually in one of the derelict buildings tobe found scattered about the local area. Lydia Hayes noted that the boarding arrangements25See IR, October 3, 1929, and also Chapter Seven of this thesis, page 207.26TBR.27Ibid.28 Ibid.29Ibid., 1928, 1923.272for the teacher in Seymour Arm in 1923 were \"(poor) unless one is willing to batch.\" Shechose the latter: \"I was able to secure a cottage and begin housekeeping.\" 30 Five years laterMiss Hayes was teaching at Salmon Valley School. Once again she was unable to arrangefor a satisfactory place to board and so had to batch. On this occasion her problemsstemmed from the obstinacy of the school trustees:There are a number of good boarding places in the next district but my sc[hool]b[oar]d made a restriction that [the] teacher had to live in their district and as therewasn't a suitable boarding place near the school I rented an abandoned homenearby. 31For some teachers the prospect of batching must have been a worrisomeproposition. Particularly for those newly arrived in a district, and thus unfamiliar with thegeneral layout of the local territory, the job of finding a roof over their heads was mostprobably the cause of a good deal of stress. Such facilities were also invariably of poorquality and sometimes makeshift, usually extremely limited and by no means guaranteed tobe found near the school. Howard Daniel, teacher at Trinity Valley in 1923, insinuated thatthe school may not have been a suitable posting for female teachers because of the distancethey would have to travel between their living quarters and the school house. He noted thataccommodation in the district was \"O.K. for male....Necessary for a female teacher towalk two miles. Plenty of shacks for \"batching\" purposes for men.\" 32 In the same wayReuben Nesbitt warned in 1928 that Ecclestone School \"would be almost impossible for alady teacher on account of board facilities.\" He described his accommodation as \"Poor,unsatisfactory...almost batching.\" 33 In contrast at least one female teacher deliberatelychose to batch. When Janet Graham first began teaching at Ewing's Landing in 1924 she30Ibid.31 Ibid.32Ibid.33 Ibid.273boarded quite happily with a local family. However when the opportunity to rent a smallshack on the lakeshore arose she jumped at the chance. It gave her privacy andindependence and a place of her own to which she could invite her mother from Kelownato stay. Janet, much like Lucy McCormick, expressed no apprehensions about living alone:My life in my \"cabin\"? I loved it! freedom! I lifted my water needs from thelake daily! My outdoor toilet was on the hillside behind the cottage - yes, chilly inwinter....My food was my responsibility - lqt. of fresh cold milk from [a localfarm] daily. Vegetables from store at wharf [as well as] eggs bread, butter....[F]ishfrom the lake. I had a rowboat & went fishing when I needed. Meat? rarely orcanned. My dear mother spent a month or more with me, and loved it all & didsome good cooking....There wasn't a chance of a stranger in the world. I kneweveryone....I loved the rural areas. I certainly never sought a city. I wouldn't havebeen happy in a city....I really was country.Walking between their living quarters and the school house and then back againeach day, or indeed anywhere alone in the local area, was a concern for rural teachers.Most merely emphasised that the journey could be strenuous because of the distance and/orthe poor terrain over which they had to travel, particularly during periods of inclementweather. Ha Embree stated that she \"hated\" the climate in the winter while she taught atKedleston School. She boarded over a mile and a half from the schoolhouse and found thesteep uphill walk very trying at times: \"I waded through snow lots of times.\" For IsobelSimard, as teacher at Kingfisher School in the fall of 1927, getting to school was alsotreacherous. Due to a flash flood in the area she explained that \"the creek rose and thebridge washed out. So we felled a tree across the creek and I had to walk across with thewater roaring right below.\" The following spring the same situation occurred and Isobel\"was obliged to walk on windfalls over deep water through the woods to get to school.\" 34Whereas Alice Gibson had but a short walk to school each day from her boarding place inSugar Lake, some of her pupils lived out in the bush on the opposite side of the lake to theschool house. Each morning Alice would take a small rowing boat across the lake to collect34Lidstone, ed. Schools of Enderby and District, 103.274the children so that they could attend classes. At the end of the school day she made thereturn journey to deliver the children home again.Other teachers recalled that on occasion they had faced both frightening andpotentially dangerous situations. Wild animals were responsible for most of the fearfulencounters. Sightings of skunks, chipmunks, rats and deer were commonplace occurrencesfor rural teachers and for the most part posed no problem. Cougars and bears were a totallydifferent matter. A number of former teachers had vivid memories of what could have beenfatal incidents. Lloyda Wills recalled one \"rather startling\" encounter with a \"grizzly\" on theway home to her boarding place in Hilton one late afternoon:I was walking neatly along just past the school and I turned sideways...andhere was a bear standing up. And he was huge, he was big...he stood right up onhis hind feet. My books went in one direction and I ran all the way back to theschool as fast as I could. It wasn't that far but I could hear the little trees snappingand it seemed to me that he was coming after me....I ran into the school house,slammed the door shut, not that that would have been much help if he had beenafter me...but it seemed safe at the time. I guess I waited there for about fifteen totwenty minutes before I realised it [the bear] was going in the other direction downthe bank through the bushes and across the creek. So I ventured out again, pickedup my scribblers and...ran the rest of the way [home].While teaching at Trinity Valley School Vera Evans had a similar near-encounter, but in hercase it was with a cougar. She recalled: \"I had a horse to ride and explored the area throughthe woods on logging roads...and both my horse and I had some scary moments.\" Oneweekend she had decided to visit her brother who was teaching at Trinity Creek. As helived quite a distance \"through the backwoods\" Vera rode her \"trusty horse.\" However onsighting a cougar she recalled that \"my horse pricked up his ears, became excited andrefused to go further. Suddenly [he] leaped forward, nearly throwing me off, and flewdown the road helter skelter....Was I glad that I hadn't been left on the road with theunknown ten-or.\"Female rural teachers were also very much aware that by walking unaccompaniedalong deserted and isolated foot paths they faced the possibility of being the subject of an275attack of a very different sort. Interestingly, few of the former teachers interviewed seemedto take this threat very seriously. Marianne Nelson reported:I had to have a guard in 1929...when I walked home alone because [a]teacher had been murdered in Port Essington....When this came about any younggirl teaching in an out-of-the-way place shouldn't walk home alone. 35The person appointed as Marianne's \"body guard\" was one of her pupils, a grade three girlwho was also one of the children in the family with whom she boarded, and who in theevent turned out to be of little use to Marianne in terms of protection. The first time theysaw a cougar the child fled in fear leaving Marianne to walk the rest of the way home onher own. Marianne, unimpressed by the service provided by the young sentinel, decidedthat since she felt quite content to do so, she would go back to traveling to and from schoolalone. If anyone in an official capacity was to ask her why she did so her stock answerwas: \"There are quite a few wild animals here but no wild men!\" She also questioned whyit was only considered necessary for female rural teachers to be chaperoned on the journeyback from school at the end of the day: \"They didn't think there were any lechers walkingthe roads at eight o'clock in the morning!\" Similarly, Esma Shunter, who taught atShuswap Falls, recalled:There had been some teacher molested...and there was a rule saying that theteacher could not stay in school after the last child had left....The farm [where Iboarded] was down in the valley...and to get [there] you had to go up a very steephill. You couldn't do that on a bicycle. So you really had to walk and I think a lot ofthe girls [other female teachers] were probably afraid to walk, especially in thewintertime when it gets dark early.Like Marianne she felt no need of any protection but complied with the \"rule\" anyway: \"Ihad Mischief [a dog]. He was just as good as a man anyday. He'd scare the pants offanybody.\"35Marianne was referring to the murder of Miss Loretta Chisholme, teacher in the one-room schoolat Port Essington, near Prince Rupert, in May 1926. For details on the case, which remained unsolved, seeWilson, \"\"I Am Here to Help If You Need Me\",\" 105, and footnote 50.276The recollections of former teachers underscore the fact that, living arrangementsaside, a most important component of the experience of working in remote ruralcommunities, and one that had a profound influence on their sense of personal well-being,was the need for a fulfilling social life. While the majority felt that, given the rigorousnature of their professional commitments, the opportunity to indulge in recreational pursuitswas essential, in some instances a heavy workload left rural teachers with little time.Especially in the case of novices, it sometimes precluded the possibility of an active socialschedule. Thus Lloyda Wills recalled the year she spent at Hilton School:I didn't have much time for a social life...because I had too much work todo, even with just my eleven pupils....I had quite a few books to mark all the time,lessons to set for the next day. I worked as long as I could at the school correctingbooks every day and what I didn't get finished I'd take home with me at night....Inever went around visiting very much because I never had time...because I was thejanitor, I was the teacher, I was the person who looked after...everything else....Itwas my first year [as a teacher] and I was learning all the time.Similarly Agnes Ball reported that although she had \"jolly times\" with the people in thecommunity at Joe Rich Valley \"I was pretty well wrapped up in my teaching.\" VeraTowgood stated that at Trinity Valley she had not had much of a social life because her timehad been taken up \"mostly with schoolwork.\" Luckily, she added, \"I wasn't much of a gadabout anyway.\"As indicated earlier, the isolation and impoverishment of most rural settlements inthe Okanagan meant that the recreational facilities available to teachers in remote districtswere often extremely limited. According to Alice Gibson: \"The means of entertainmentwere in our own hands....We made our own fun.\" Moreover, most teachers had fewindividuals with whom they could share a social life. Thus for the most part their leisuretime was restricted to associating with the people in their boarding places, nearbyhomesteaders, and even their pupils, often just a couple of families, and to the kinds ofactivities in which the community engaged. Lucy McCormick remembered that at MabelLake: \"I learned to play cards. I'd never played cards in my life before but I had to learn to277play...because it was the social thing that people did.\" 36 By the same token, Lucy addedthat although she was an Anglican she had attended the religious services of the SeventhDay Adventists that were held every Saturday in Mabel Lake \"because there was nothingelse to do.\" Musical soirees were also quite popular. A former pupil of Heywood's CornerSchool recalled:Lack of transportation prevented most of them from going far, so we ofteninvited one or two school teachers to spend the weekend with us. Dad had broughthis piano from England, and some of the girls could play and sing, so many amusical evening was arranged. 37Similarly, Mary Genier reported: \"I was quite a good singer then....We'd have greatmusical evenings.\"Another activity which accounted for much of the free time of rural teachers was thepractice of \"eating around.\" Buster Schunter, a former pupil at Hilton School, reported:\"Every weekend each [family] would strive to have the teacher up for a dinner.\" Thus VeraTowgood recalled that during her time as teacher in Trinity Valley \"different familiesfrequently invited me to dinner on Sundays.\" Janet Graham stated that in Ewing's Landing:\"I was often asked to the homes of pupils & their dear parents for supper.\" Likewise AliceGibson reported: \"A lot of my dealings with the parents would be social....They'd ask meover for supper. I was always going over to one house or another for supper.\" LucyMcCormick stated: \"As I lived alone I was invited out for huge meals - fortunately I wasvery skinny and could eat pecan pie and ice cream without any pain....I put on poundsbecause they were such good cooks.\"Teachers also took advantage of the ample opportunities for outdoor sportsactivities that existed in many rural areas. Bernard Gillie spent many hours \"exploring thecountryside\" around Ellison on horseback, as did Vera Towgood in Trinity Valley and36A number of participants reported that card games had been a favoured past time among theresidents of rural communities in the Okanagan in the 1920s.37Heywood, \"The Heywoods of Heywood's Corner,\" 167.278Agnes Ball in Joe Rich Valley. Janet Graham stated that at Ewing's Landing: \"We hadsuperb tennis courts. I bought a boat of my own so that I could go fishing.\" 38 Similaramenities were available in Naramata in 1923. Edward W. Tanner, principal of the three-roomed school noted that he had access to \"Basketball, Badminton, Tennis, Boating &Fishing.\"39 Like many other teachers Marianne Nelson's social life in Medora Creekincluded \"hiking, rowing, also fishing [and] horse-back riding\" in the summer and \"skatingon ponds [and] skiing also in winter.\" At Sugar Lake, Alice Gibson enjoyed her free timein the winter \"snowshoeing, skiing and tobogganing by day and going by horse and sleighto old-time square dances at Cherryville, some twelve miles south.\" 4°Attending dances, whether in their own district or sometimes miles away in a largercommunity, was an important aspect of the rural teacher's social life because it gave themthe chance to make acquaintances, possibly of a romantic nature, with members of theopposite sex. As far as Ila Embree was concerned the year she spent in Kedleston wasquite lonely. She recalled: \"There wasn't any social life....I would describe it as afailure...except you'd get a boyfriend [from] Vernon. There used to be dances in Vernon. Iused to go to them....The teacher was the thing in the community in those days.\" As 'la'scomments suggest, female teachers often became the focus of male attention in ruralcommunities. Indeed as the newcomer in a remote district many former teachers recalled theflattering attention they had received from local bachelors from which they seemed to gain acertain eclat. Janet Graham stated: \"They'd come and look you over as soon as youarrived...trying to see if they could get this girl.\" Alice Gibson reported that at Sugar Lake:\"I was the only young woman....The young fellows were loggers and trappers [and] I had38In the TBR she submitted in 1928 Janet noted that although the district was isolated in the winterit was also \"Pleasant, suitable for one fond of summer sports.\"39TBR.40See also TBR for Sugar Lake School in 1928 where Alice wrote: \"Friendly neighbours andfacilities for all kinds of water & winter sports.\"279no shortage of swains....All single men were boyfriends of the teacher in those outlyingareas.\" Likewise Lucy McCormick remembered that at Mabel Lake there had been \"allkinds of single fellers\" and thus she had been \"much in demand at school dances.\" Shecontinued: \"If you went to a dance you were absolutely exhausted by the time you gothome because you had been dancing continuously [with] huge loggers who loved to squaredance - my poor ribs!\"Thus as far as promoting an active social life was concerned the very facts ofhaving been both young and single were perceived by many of the female participants asdistinct advantages. At the same time their popularity with the opposite sex could beproblematical. Bernard Gillie suggested that in many remote communities the rivalryamongst the local men could be so intense that they were \"ready to fight a duel any day ofthe week\" over a female teacher. \"In some instances,\" he added, \"they treated her as if shewas just something to amuse them [and] took advantage of her in one way or another.\"Furthermore he maintained that the attempts by female teachers, particularly \"young girls\"from \"city homes,\" to initiate friendly, albeit purely platonic, relations with the men in thecommunity were \"misinterpreted nine times out of ten, you can bet on it....The cultureclash is right there.\" He recalled a number of \"very ugly incidents\" that had occurred. Fromthe female perspective Marianne Nelson reported: \"These young fellers got the idea thatbeing friendly was serious. They wouldn't take no for an answer and became very angry.\"In this respect it was essential for female teachers working in isolated ruralcommunities to exercise caution when associating with the men of the local community.Agnes Ball made it clear that fraternising with married men was strictly out of bounds: \"Ididn't let anything like that go on. I knew that there could be trouble.\" Likewise AliceGibson was very careful about the type of relationships she established with the men atSugar Lake: \"Everyone wanted to take the teacher out - but I had no special attachment.[We] went in groups to dances at Cherryville or Vernon. Not much going steady until[you] were ready to settle down.\" Mary Genier, who often spent her weekends with Alice280at Sugar Lake during the two years she taught at Medora Creek, concurred: \"Brownie andI, we never palled with any of the boys. We were good friends with all of them....[T]hey'd do anything for us, but as to date them - no. We went in a group.\" She thenadded with a chuckle: \"Brownie bought a car in the second year we were up there so wewere independent, you know. We didn't need men!\" Although she had many admirersamongst the men in Ewing's Landing, Janet Graham never felt pressured into acceptingtheir advances because she had a \"gentleman friend\" who lived near her home in Kelowna.She reported: \"They all knew I had a 'friend' in Kelowna....It gave me a protective cloak.\"At Shuswap Falls Esma Shunter had no say as to whether she was \"protected\" against themen with less-than-honourable intentions who wished to court her:Boys from Lumby used to come out every once in a while but most of themwere French and for some reason or other [my landlord] didn't like Frenchmen andhe wouldn't let me go out with any. As a matter of fact, by Saturday night he'dusually had a few [alcoholic drinks] and he would go out and run them off thefarm!Fortunately Esma found the behaviour of her landlord amusing rather than controlling.In gauging their male acquaintances female rural teachers also had to avoidalienating the women of the local district. By virtue of their unmarried and economicallyindependent status women teachers were often perceived as having an edge over the rest ofthe female population in the community, who generally had greater family commitmentsand were thus able to exercise less choice in their lives. Invidiousness and resentmenttowards the teacher were sometimes the result of such a situation. Ila Embree recalled thatat Kedleston: \"I don't know that I was popular with the ladies round there. I was free to dowhat I pleased. I wasn't stuck home with a bunch of kids like most of them were....I thinkthey thought I went out with too many fellers \" Likewise Marianne Nelson suggested that\"Because we had \"jobs\" and were free there seemed to be a bit of envy, but it wasn't toocommon....I snickered at it....There were others that were so nice it made up for it.\" Atthis point in the interview Marianne broke down into tears. While teaching at Medora Creekshe had become very close to the woman with whom she had boarded and found the281process of recalling the happy times she spent with this woman, who had since passedaway, quite distressing.The other side of the equation should not be overlooked. Some former teachersindicated that in the rural communities to which they had been posted in the 1920s there hadoften been few single females of their own age. In these circumstances they turned to thewomen with whom they boarded, the mothers of their pupils and even the pupilsthemselves for companionship. Many female rural teachers, like Marianne, forged strongand lasting bonds with the women in the local community. Esma Shunter recalled ofShuswap Falls: \"There were no young people around there...at all [because] once they gotold enough to leave, they left.\" Consequently Esma spent the majority of her leisure timewith the other women in the community: \"If they went anywhere they always took me withthem.\" Mary Genier suggested that in some instances the relationship between rural womenand the local teacher was mutually beneficial. Referring to Medora Creek she reported:In fact, I think the women had more fun and more pleasure when Brownieand I were there than they'd ever had in their life (sic). We shied and we swam andwe skated and we hiked and we would coax them along. You know...they likedgoing along with us. They liked doing things.Mary also enjoyed an easy camaraderie with some of her older female students. Onefifteen year old girl in particular \"was more of a friend than a pupil....We were goodfriends.\" Janet Graham recalled one of her pupils in Ewing's Landing in a similar way:\"Sybil Leckie-Ewing was my inseparable friend. She was called a limpet. She was fifteenwhen I went there....I enjoyed her company. She was a dear kid. She needed me too.\" InKedleston there were no young women with whom Ea Embree could socialise. To assuagesome of her loneliness Ila found friendship with her oldest pupil, a seventeen year old girl:\"[She] often asked me up to her home and I'd go once in a while on a weekend, way upabout two miles through the bush....It was a break, a little different.\" 4141Establishing friendships with their pupils is not surprising given the fact that many rural teacherswere themselves very young. Mary Genier was only nineteen when she took up her position at Medora282Even if the people in the districts where they lived and worked were congenialmany former teachers implied that, from a professional point of view, they often felt verymuch alone and longed for the opportunity of contact with their peers. Some, like MargaretLandon who spent her first year as a teacher at the Salmon Bench School, were lucky:I was fortunate that the previous teacher was teaching in the Silver CreekSchool on the Salmon Arm Road. She was a tremendous help especially when theChristmas Concert came into the picture. In fact we joined classes for the occasionand we put on a joint affair.The two young women also spent a good deal of their free time together. Margaretcontinued:Ruth was engaged to be married to the oldest...boy [of the family withwhom I boarded] and she climbed the hill every Friday from Silver Creek to spendthe weekend...so we became very good friends especially as she had to share mybed. I was very sorry when she...got married and moved to Seattle.Whilst teaching at Medora Creek Marianne Nelson also \"chummed\" with \"twoteacher friends\" who were working in the nearby schools at Hilton and Sugar Lake. Shestated that \"Teachers clubbed together [and] became friends in small rural schools.\" Indeed,as far as she was concerned, even though she liked and got on well with everyone in thecommunity at Medora Creek, if she had been unable to spend time with other teachers \"Itwould have been more lonesome.\" For Mary Genier, who followed Marianne at MedoraCreek, the social life she shared with teacher Alice Gibson at Sugar Lake was a criticalaspect of her rural teaching experience. In fact it was more important than the job iself. Sheexplained why:I had never lived in the wilderness [but] I taught there at Medora Creek fortwo years and I would never have survived except for Brownie up at SugarLake....I used to go there nearly every darn weekend....To me right then the schoolwas incidental. That was my job. I had to do that.In order to help them cope with the stresses and demands of their occupationwomen teachers working alone in isolated districts sought one another out and groupedCreek. Similarly, Janet Graham was twenty when she went to work in Ewing's Landing and Ila Embree wasjust nineteen at the time of her appointment as teacher in Kedleston.283together wherever and whenever possible to create a collegial support system based ongender. These relationships which often developed into intense and lasting friendships,were very important to the women concerned. As historian Veronica Strong-Boag hasargued: \"[W]omen placed great value on personal ties and contacts. A predisposition tointimacy, rooted in patterns of socialization, helped sustain a female culture without whichlives would have been poorer and harder.\" 42 Thus Marianne Nelson suggested: \"[We]understood the need to help each other.\" With practical assistance from their inspectorsoften a far cry away, the mere fact of being able to meet and discuss their experiences hadbeen a source of great comfort to many of the former women teachers interviewed,primarily because it made them aware that other teachers in other one-room schools werefacing the same, or at least very similar, difficulties. They offered one another not onlypractical advice, but more often than not, a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to cry on. Asemphasised earlier, rural teachers were also an important source of employmentinformation for their colleagues, alerting one another to suitable teaching positions innearby districts as they became vacant. This was an invaluable service during the 1920swhen the oversupply of teachers caused much competition for jobs and where manypositions were filled through informal and local networks. Then rural teachers themselvessometimes played a significant role in the hiring process. The practice of visiting each otherin neighbouring districts, usually for the weekend, also gave rural teachers the opportunityof a much welcome respite from the intensity and tediums of daily life in small and isolatedcommunities.Unfortunately rural teacher networking was a closed circle depending oncircumstances. All too often the secluded conditions in which one-room school teacherslived obviated the possibility of association with collegues on a regular basis. As BernardGillie stated: \"Maintaining close contact with fellow professionals was difficult and often42Strong-Boag, The New Day Recalled, 218.284just simply did not happen.\" Janet Graham recalled of her experiences teaching at bothShuswap Falls and Ewing's Landing: \"No contact with other teachers - no sharing of sociallife with any teachers, no teachers dwelling within miles! & no means of travel, had Iwished to meet others.\" Lloyda Wills faced the same situation at Hilton: \"[T]hey were toofar away. It wasn't easy to get to visit them and I guess they were all as busy as I was.\"Lucy McCormick concurred. She stated that rural teachers were only able to connect withtheir peers \"if they were close enough...but not usually. Usually it was on your own.\"Rural teacher discontent, discouragement or unhappiness were not commonphenomena among the former teachers interviewed. Although most recalled that they hadfelt very lonely and homesick when they took up their first teaching posts in the 1920s inthe one-room schools located in various rural communities throughout the OkanaganValley, they qualified their statements by adding that they had quickly become reconciled totheir situations and ultimately had enjoyed their assignments. Indeed for the most part theiraccounts of their experiences were positive. One of the reasons for their success may havebeen because many had been fortunate in their appointments. Thus Bernard Gillie reportedthat the year he spent teaching in Ellison he \"felt very much at home\" mainly because thepeople with whom he boarded treated him \"like a member of the family....You were goingto be there for a year so they took you in. Some people weren't that fortunate but I justhappened to be lucky.\" Agnes Ball found similar circumstances in the community at JoeRich Valley: \"They made me very welcome, very much at home and I liked everybody. Iliked them all.\" In the TBR she completed in 1928 while working at the school Agnesdescribed the general living conditions of the district as \"Comfortable and happy....For onewho enjoys...a cheery social life this district is ideal.\" Lloyda Wills recalled the kindness ofthe locals while she taught at Hilton School: \"The people up there were very, very good tome. People coming from Sugar Lake down into Lumby...would stop every time they wentby to see if there was anything I needed.\" Ruby Lidstone had been \"welcomed with openarms\" and treated as \"just part of the community\" by the residents of Grandview Bench. To285Lucy McCormick in Mabel Lake: \"It seemed...they just accepted me as part, as one of thegroup....I had a very good relationship with the parents.\" At Trinity Valley the communitywere equally accommodating. Vera Towgood recalled: \"They were all very kind tome....My relationship with the parents, on my part, left nothing to be desired. They wereall very friendly and supportive.\" Marianne Nelson also had the full support of thecommunity in both Hupel and Medora Creek:Every school I taught [in] they backed me up....It really was a cruel life[but] all you have to do is pass the word around and you got help. You got goodcooperation from the people in those country schools. In every way they werehelpful. If they see that you're working and you're earnest, they will.Likewise it appeared to Alice Gibson in Sugar Lake that there was \"nothing they wouldn'tdo for the teacher.\" She then added: \"The most important thing [in a rural community] isthe parents. If the parents are with the teacher you got it made.\"43The recollections of former teachers make it abundantly clear that the quality of ruralteacher tenure was largely contingent upon the extent to which the teacher was able tosecure the active support of the community. Accordingly, if the local residents wereconsiderate and helpful, and if the teacher was well-liked and respected and accepted asvery much a part of the community, then the life of the teacher working in an isolatedschool district was not only bearable but could be a very pleasant one. As suggested earlierrural teachers occupied a central place in their communities and many were made to feelvery special. In this context Ha Embree recalled of the people in impoverished Kedleston:\"They gave me nice Christmas presents I knew they couldn't afford....I just felt choked. Isaw the way the kids were dressed and I knew they couldn't afford it. But what could you43The TBR's also include numerous examples of teachers who reported favourably about the socialcircumstances of the communities in which they taught. See records for South Okanagan (1923) whereWinifred MacGregor wrote: \"This district is an extremely pleasant district to be in both socially & from aneducation standpoint\"; Charlotte Simpson noted that although there were \"Few amusements [and] no church\"she regarded Glenemma (1923) as a \"splendid community\"; C.F. Swannell described the people in WestbankTownsite (1928) as a \"very social set,\" Eldred K. Evans noted of Trinity Creek (1928): \"People of the districton the whole are very congenial and wish their children to have the full benefit of an elementary education\";and Lucy Hargreaves simply wrote that community conditions in Glenrosa were \"The best.\"286do. You...just say \"Thank-you\".\" Teachers often made strong lasting friendships withlocal residents, with many maintaining contact all their lives. Quite a considerable numberof young women would marry local boys and settled down to live in the area and made areal contribution to community life.\"The geographical location of the schools in which rural teachers worked was also asignificant factor. Many of the participants lived in relative proximity to their families.Margaret Landon, who taught at Salmon Bench School, suggested the benefits to ruralteachers of such a situation: \"I wasn't too far from my home in Armstrong so I wasn'thomesick and it was amazing how quickly I settled down.\" In the same way Janet Grahamreported that when she taught at Ewing's Landing School: \"I was close enough to myfamily [in Kelowna] not to be lonely. Letters came up and down on the boat every day if Iwanted to. I had home ties in that sense.\" Lloyda Wills was a typical \"suitcase teacher.\"She boarded in the community at Hilton during the week but most Friday evenings,weather permitting, her father drove out to Hilton to collect Lloyda and take her home thetwenty miles to Lumby to spend the weekend with the family. Access to their families oftenhelped to combat the overwhelming feelings of isolation and loneliness so common amongrural teachers.Concomitantly, a number of participants regarded themselves as fortunate to havebeen posted to one-room schools in the southern as opposed to northern interior region ofBritish Columbia where living conditions were perceived to have been far more severe.Thus Alice Gibson reported: \"A lot of them went up north. But I was lucky.\" Ila Embreeshuddered at the thought of teaching in a remote community like Telegraph Creek because\"that would be different...not much of a life up there.\" Mary Genier, who found Medora\"See life-histories of Ruby Lidstone and Vera Towgood in Chapter Nine below. Three otherparticipants - Isobel Simard, Esma Shunter and Mary Genier - also married local men and remained living inthe Okanagan Valley all their lives. See also Hayes, \"My Favourite Teachers,\" 137; McKechnie, \"TheSkelton Family,\" 124; Bawtree, Reflections, 45; Upton, The History of Okanagan Mission, 63.287Creek to be very isolated, sympathised with those teachers who worked further north:\"They must have been desolate up there...in the wilderness.\" Likewise Lucy McCormickrecalled:The ones who were up north...got out of there as quickly as they could. Iknew several teachers who taught up north because that is where most people wentto....Some of my friends who were teaching in very remote areas found life ratherdifficult....Two of [them] went to the Cariboo and it [1929] was a very, very coldwinter. It was the coldest winter we'd had for many years and in the Cariboo it wasfifty and sixty below zero. It was dreadful....Some of them had it pretty [t]ough.In contrast, one teacher, Agnes Ball, consciously chose to teach in a remote northerncommunity. As she explained: \"I had a craving for the north.\" Thus in 1921, at the tenderage of sixteen, without even completing her secondary education, and in spite of the factthat she thought her parents \"would have been very much against it, \" she applied for, andwas accepted, to the position of teacher at the one-room school in Wandsworth, a tinysubsistence farming community located near Prince Albert in northern Saskatchewan. Infact, Agnes remarked, it was \"so far north\" that the school had to be closed for the monthsof January and February because it was \"too cold\" for the pupils to attend.Community endorsement and school location were not the only factors influencingteacher contentment in rural areas. Earlier I cited how Lucy McCormick had settled easilyinto her role as the teacher in Mabel Lake. Significantly she intimated that having beenraised in rural Lumby facilitated the process of adjustment considerably. By the same tokenshe suggested that for those teachers who had grown up in urban centres such asVancouver and Victoria the transition was more difficult: \"[M]any of these persons wereunaccustomed to country life and found conditions rather rough. Local teachers were not soupset by the isolation and better fitted the situation.\" 45 A number of other participantsexpressed similar opinions. Thus Bernard Gillie, who although a native of Victoria hadspent his childhood on a farm on the outskirts of the city, contended that teaching in a rural45McCormick, \"Early Rural Schools\", 42.288school was \"a tough assignment and a very unfair assignment in many instances\" especiallyfor teachers from \"city homes\" who neither shared nor understood rural values andconsequently had \"no idea of what they were getting into.\" Marianne Nelson concurred:Most of the students who were let out in June [from Normal School]were...poor kids from the coast, youngsters that had never been out in thecountry....No wonder they said it was terrible. We out here in the bushes, we wereIndian. We were, I mean we were used to it, you know....They must have feltlonely.Like Lucy McCormick, Marianne had grown up on a farm in Lumby. Representative of theexperiences of many of the other participants, Vera Towgood, whose home was in Oyama,reported: \"I think what I liked best about teaching in a rural school community was that Ihad grown up in a relatively rural area and felt at home. I understood them better.\"The many young urbanite teachers who were thrust, often with little monition, intoone of the provinces isolated hinterland settlements must undoubtedly have experiencedenormous culture shock. The way of life to which they were accustomed and the brutalreality of the environment to which they were expected to readily adapt must have seemedlike worlds apart. Country-reared teachers on the other hand were usually more familiarwith basic living conditions. Many had grown up with outdoor privies, bathing in athimbleful of tepid water, and cold bedrooms, were used to \"making do.\" They were notunduly perturbed about walking alone along unlit and lonely pathways at night, or theprospect of the occasional unexpected brush with bear or cougar. Moreover, as thecomments of former teachers recounted above suggest, they were au courant with themores and attitudes of rural folk and thus better able to handle their situations.It must be remembered, however, that for some teachers even a \"rural\" upbringingwas still no real preparation for the kinds of circumstances they confronted in very remotecommunities where living conditions had progressed little beyond the pioneer stage. In thiscontext Alice Gibson, who grew up in Kelowna, raised a significant point: \"My life inKelowna, you might say was city life, only a small city, but city life in comparison toSugar Lake....The difference between the Okanagan in Kelowna and...Sugar Lake was so289vast....It [Sugar Lake] was very, very primitive.\" In many, although by no means all,instances a teacher's ability to \"fit into\" the community in a rural district was dependentupon whether the social circumstances of that community coincided with the formerlifestyle of the teacher.Janet Graham is a case in point. Born in 1904 in the Orange River Colony in SouthAfrica, where her father, Walter Moodie was working as a civil engineer, both Janet'sparents were of British heritage. In 1908 the Moodie family moved to British Columbiafirst to Kaslo, then to Prince Rupert and then finally settling in Kelowna by 1910, whereWalter had been appointed manager of the Canyon Creek Irrigation Company. TheMoodies lived on the \"upper bench\" in East Kelowna, a predominantly English communitycomprised of people from the \"Old Country,\" in a very comfortable home designed byWalter and built by the Irrigation Company: \"Besides having three bedrooms and a largeverandah, it contained a bathroom with tub and flush toilet. With these amenities it wasunique in 1911.\" 46 Janet led a sheltered and relatively privileged life growing up inKelowna. As far as her education was concerned, although she spent a brief period duringthe First World War attending public school, for the most part Janet was educated at homeby governesses. As she stated: \"It was all done privately. We were very British.\" Oncompleting her secondary education Janet spent one year in the Arts Programme at theUniversity of British Columbia, and then a year at home in Kelowna \"deep in piano\" beforeentering Normal School in Vancouver in 1922. On graduating at the end of that year Janetacquired her first teaching position in September 1923 in the one-room school at ShuswapFalls, a tiny, impoverished, subsistence farming community located twenty-five miles eastof Vernon. Although she stated that she \"really was country\" and \"certainly never sought acity\" the living conditions Janet encountered in Shuswap Falls were such a shock to her46Janet Graham and Marcella Bell, \"Walter Hill Moodie 1871-1955,\" OHSR 55(1991): 112.290sensibilities as to be intolerable. She had resigned from her post by Christmas. Her reasonsfor leaving were very clear:It was the loneliness...you see. There wasn't anyone to talk to....I didn't seebeyond this great farm where I was living...with these kindly good people....Theywere real types and trumps in their world but it wasn't my world....I was incircumstances I'd never met before....It was all so foreign to the way I lived....Iwas so very lonely [and] thoroughly homesick....I was so unhappily out of mydepth. I came home. I didn't hear who succeeded me.Janet described some of the activities she found most \"distressing\" about the lifestyle of thepeople she lived with:They netted fish, which was forbidden, and by moonlight from Shuswap River.They didn't, but their friends stole turkeys for Thanksgiving. [They] were alwayshiding from the police....He was a packer and a trapper and he took me - I lovedhorses - riding on his trapline one day. [There were] great big hunks of meat [asbait] in the traps. Oh, I was so thankful we didn't see anything trapped. I wouldhave found that very difficult....Once a month the men would go to Vernon for a good drinking bout. Theynever misbehaved [and] were never indecent in any way [but] I used to be sort ofdisturbed about the drinking because they'd carry it on at home with homemade thisand that and t'other. They weren't ever objectionable [but] I'd been brought up in ateetotalling house. I used to shove my trunk against the [bedroom] door, ratherfoolishly. The drink...sort of bothered me or at least was foreign to me.Janet's situation in Shuswap Falls must have caused her much anxiety, so much sothat she often replied to my questions about her experiences thus: \"I have no recollection. Ithink I just closed my mind on it all....It was something I have no pleasure inremembering.\" After a short period of living at home with her parents in Kelowna, duringwhich time she did some substitute teaching in one of the local schools, Janet began hersearch for another permanent teaching position, and was soon offered the job of teacher inanother one-room school in the Okanagan Valley, this time at Ewing's Landing on the westside of Okanagan Lake. Her account of the time she spent working in the community wasin stark contrast to that at Shuswap Falls:I fitted into the district [and] I was well chosen for their purpose....Theywere thoroughly British, the whole crowd of them. Penniless mostly, but with abackground that was very complementary, similar to mine, what I would callgentlefolk....[They were] highly educated people from the \"Old Country\" [who]had the background which appreciated the things I did....I was amongst civilisedpeople....291All my experiences [at Ewing's Landing], I can say quite honestly, were asa friend amongst friends. I couldn't have been in happier circumstances....It wasjust like one big family really [and] I felt utterly at home.Significantly Janet enthusiastically noted in the TBR she completed in 1928 while teacher atEwing's Landing School: \"The happiest spot in B.C. for the right person! - My fourthyear, - and they still cheer me on!\"Personal disposition was very important in determining whether teachers were ableto prevail over the hardships they encounted in rural communities. As Alice Gibson bluntlystated: \"If you went to teach in a country school...[y]ou either survived or you got out.\"Likewise Mildred Buchanan suggested that to feel sorry for oneself was \"just fatal\" andthose who fell prey to such introspection \"made their own unhappiness by not seeing that[rural teaching] was a great experience.\" Self-assurance, independence and certainlysanguinity were valuable assets to the teacher working in a remote school district. As notedearlier, Lucy McCormick attributed her success at Mabel Lake partly to the fact that she was\"pretty self-sufficient\" because she had been \"brought up that way, to sort of depend onmyself.\" Ila Embree had much the same personality: \"I thought I could handle it....I alwayswas confident [and] figured I could do it.\" Mary Genier had also been a determined andindependent young woman when she went to teach at Medora Creek:The men [in the community] were domineering with their wives and theirchildren [but] not with me because I wouldn't knuckle under....I don't think theyever had a teacher like me. I think they were all mousy whereas I wasexhuberant....Things used to go my way....Anytime I really wanted to dosomething I always managed somehow. Still do.Esma Shunter, who taught at Shuswap Falls School in 1929, six years after Janet Graham,was similarly optimistic: \"I guess I was very naive. I thought I could handle anything....Iwas young and healthy and full of vigour and vitality. [I] thought I knew everything therewas to know, and had the world by the tail.\" She further suggested that her \"sense ofhumour\" and the fact that she \"wasn't expecting so much maybe\" had helped ensure hersurvival. Consequently, she added: \"I don't ever remember being lonesome....I didn'thave any bad experiences. I had a lot of fun.\"292As Esma's comments imply, youth and good health were also distinct advantages toteachers working in remote pioneer communities where physical hardship was very much apart of daily life. Lucy McCormick reported: \"[Bleing young I was capable of choppingwood, shovelling snow and living on my own. I also, fortunately, was very healthy.\"Alice Gibson suggested that youthfulness, although usually denoting inexperience, mayalso have helped rural teachers adapt more quickly to their situations: \"The younger thebetter because you're not set in your ways.\"It is clear from the stories of rural teachers recounted here that their socialexperiences in isolated school districts varied enormously, not only from one district toanother but between different teachers who taught in the same school. Significantly, thediscussion emphasises the decisive roles played by social background and upbringing, aswell as individual personality, as the key variables determining the extent to which teacherswere able to adapt to the idiosyncracies of living in a remote rural district.293CHAPTER NINETEACHING AS PART OF THE LIFE COURSEThe foregoing account of the teacher experience in the rural schools of theOkanagan Valley over the decade of the 1920s contributes to the growing body ofknowledge on this subject relating to both British Columbia and Canada. In the finalanalysis, however, such a snap-shot perspective is incomplete in that it fails to addressissues concerning the full impact of that experience on the individual teachers concerned.Specifically, how did involvement in the profession fit into the larger structure of thefemale life course as a whole? Significantly, details from the interviews and personaldocuments utilized in this study strongly suggest that for many women their experience as arural school teacher, albeit brief, played an important, and for some a profound, role intheir lives. By approaching the rural teaching experience from a longer historicalperspective and incorporating the experience in the 1920s within the wider context of theentire life course a more complex, yet clearer, vision emerges of what teaching actually didfor women in terms of how they used the profession to accommodate their own personalagendas. This perspective is essential if a more complete understanding of the precisenature of the meaning of teaching as work to women is to be constructed.Employment options may well have been limited for young women in the 1920s,and there is no doubt that the difficult and demanding living and working conditions thatteachers were forced into accepting in small isolated communities in British Columbia'shinterland tested the will and stamina of the strongest of individuals. It is also true thatmany could not long endure the sometimes intolerable circumstances of rural teaching andquickly and quietly left the profession. However, in many other cases the reverse situationoccurred. The stories related to me by former rural women teachers reveal that many294regarded their experience in rural schools, particularly their inaugural year, as a challenge.Motivated by a determination to succeed they had their sense of self-worth and confidenceenhanced by their ability to prove to themselves that they could persevere with, andultimately survive under, such adverse conditions. For these individuals the potential forpersonal and professional development that teaching in a rural school offered faroutweighed the negative aspects of the job.Attaining a teaching certificate gave women the opportunity to deviate from whatwas considered in the 1920s as their normal life course. Instead of remaining in the familyhome until they married, teaching provided them with the alternative option of movingaway from familiar networks of kinship and of becoming financially self-sufficient. Thepossibility of leading an independent life, of building new relationships grounded in thereality of their work as teachers, had been a highly attractive, albeit daunting, prospect formany of those interviewed. Yet after they began teaching they came to thrive on their newlyacquired independence. Their financially secure and relatively autonomous position enabledthem to fulfil a variety of other personal aspirations such as the quest for adventure, theimprovement of their professional and academic qualifications, or just having thesatisfaction of being able to repay parents for putting them through Normal School, or helpfinance the education of one of their younger siblings. Some women moved out of theworld of public school teaching to pursue other opportunities, often related to education inits broader sense, and found that their training and experience were invaluable assets inthese other lives. Moreover it is apparent that the mere fact of having taught also had asignificant impact in shaping these womens' lives if they became wives and mothers.Most importantly teaching provided women with choice: to determine forthemselves the future course of their lives by giving them the freedom to decide if, when,and where they might work, and if and when they might marry and bear children. Thus theeconomic independence that teaching afforded women expanded both their personal andcareer horizons and opened up new vistas beyond the traditional domestic roles. While the295majority of women teachers did ultimately conform to societal expectations and withdrewfrom the profession to marry and most, although not all, bore children, some chose to deferthe process until they felt they had satisfied their own career objectives. A small minority ofwomen decided to abandon the expected life course altogether and remained single all theirlives.A crucial aspect of women's work as teachers concerns the nature of theirparticipation in the occupation. While the commonly held image of the young femaleteacher who pursued a brief career in teaching for only a few years, and whoseinvolvement in the profession was merely a stop-gap measure, a way of productively fillingthe period between their own schooling and getting married, certainly occurred in reality, itwas not the only career pattern for women teachers that existed. On the contrary, thepredominant pattern that emerges from the stories of former rural teachers was that of thewoman whose career spanned many years, even decades. Some had long and successfulcareers before marrying. Clearly for many women, not only single women but also asubstantial number of those who were married, teaching was by no means a temporaryresort but rather a life-time commitment.At the same time, unlike many of their male contemporaries, whose career pathsoften entailed a continuous upward movement within the occupation's administrativehierarchy, women's participation in the profession was typically episodic. 1 Movement inand out of the teaching corps over the course of their working lives was a commonexperience of most of the women interviewed. A woman might initially teach for a fewyears and then leave the profession for a period of time, only to resume her career at a laterstage in her life, sometimes out of necessity, but often because she wished to, and anopportunity had presented itself. Most returned to the classroom when their family1 Other historical studies of female teachers that have emphasised this aspect of women's workexperience include, Clifford, \"Man/Woman/Teacher,\" Underwood, \"The Pace of Their Own Lives,\" andRinehart, Mortals in the Immortal Profession.296commitments had lessened. Their teaching certificate was a much prized possessionbecause it gave them the peace of mind that they could re-enter the profession if, and when,they chose to. Some women resumed their careers after their husbands had passed away.As a widow, the ability to teach provided them with access to the job market at a time whenthey most needed it, financially and emotionally. Many taught until their retirementThe reasons for women teachers' erratic career paths were complex. The extent towhich family obligations, both real and perceived, governed these women's lives was ofparamount importance. Consequently any decisions concerning work were deeplyentrenched within, and contingent upon, their changing personal family circumstances.Essentially it was their relationships with their family group - with parents and siblings andthen later husbands and children - that defined their lives and played a key role in their lifeplanning. As suggested earlier, the example of, or pressure from, other family membersexerted a powerful influence over many a young person's decision to become a teacher.Moreover, although they considered their inaugural years in teaching as a significant time intheir lives in that it marked a breaking away from their families and the transition intoadulthood, most retained close family ties and continued to regard their parents' residenceas \"home.\" Often young female teachers, given the opportunity, accepted positions inschools near their families, although they might only get home at the weekends. Thus manydid not make a complete break with their families when they began work.Although they did not always explicitly state it as such it is clear from personalaccounts that for many former teachers traditional gender roles had at various times in theirlives overshadowed their career opportunities. Teaching may have provided women withgreater freedom to determine their life course but undoubtedly the claims made on them bytheir families dictated the outcome. The responsibility and obligation that these women felttowards their families often influenced their decisions about whether and where theytaught. Thus while numerous women lived a life of independence, many more felt thatothers depended on them. Some women withdrew from the profession for periods of time297because of their perceived need to care for particular family members. The motivation tofind employment in a school either in, or nearby, their home district was sometimesprecipitated by the fact that a parent had become too old, infirm, or sick to be able to lookafter themselves. In addition, with few exceptions, female teachers left the field when theygot married in order to \"keep home\" and rear their children. Certainly the expectation thatsuch behaviour was the \"right\" thing to do dominated the conscious views of many of thewomen I interviewed.I now turn to the specific details of the lives of six former rural school teachers.Their stories were chosen because they are representive of the variety of responses to theopportunities afforded by the experience of teaching as work to women as well as men.Vera Towgood nee Evans2was born on August 21, 1905 in Kingsley, Quebecwhere her parents ran a dairy farm, shipping butter and cream to Montreal. Eldred, herbrother and only sibling, was born in 1907. Around 1910 the Evans family moved toSaskatchewan where they homesteaded, albeit not very successfully, so in 1913 theypacked up their belongings and travelled to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, thistime to pursue fruit farming. They located first at Reiswig, where they rented a ranch. Withno school within walking distance of home Vera attended the Blue Springs School andboarded with a local family. After five years they moved again settling permanantly inOyama, where Vera and Eldred completed their elementary and high school educations.Vera then enroled at Victoria Normal School for the year 1924-1925 and achieved a SecondClass Teaching Certificate.Vera's first teaching post was in the one-room school at Squilax, west of SalmonArm, beginning in September 1925. Although, like most other novice teachers, she had2Most of the information on Vera's life-story included here, particularly the specific details of herteaching experiences in the 1920s, are taken from the conversation I had with her in her home as well asseveral written communications. Although, sadly, Vera passed away before I had finished compiling thedetails of her post-professional life, her daughter, Joyce Bingham, kindly agreed to help me in this respect.298been unable to exert any real choice in the matter of where she would begin her career as ateacher, this situation was not of any particular concern to Vera. Of much greaterimportance was the fact that she now had to opportunity to \"earn some money\" and toprove to herself that she was capable of surviving and being an independent person in herown right. She recalled the immense sense of anticipation she felt on the day she left hometo travel by C.P.R. train from Vernon to Squilax via Sicamous. \"I set out with my steamertrunk and my suitcase on my big adventure...full of high hopes and excitement in startingmy new career.\"Unfortunately Vera's introduction to the world of rural teaching was fraught withsetbacks that must, at the very least, have been discouraging. Arriving at Squilax at eleveno'clock at night \"in pitch black darkness and a light rain\" and three hours late, Vera foundno-one to meet her:I felt very much alone, not one light in sight. My trunk had been deposited on theplatform of the little station, and for a moment I thought of taking refuge under itsroof. I took a deep breath and started to walk in the direction I had been told [by thestation brakeman]....It was an uncanny feeling to be lost and blind in strangecountry. My suitcase was heavy, and my new shoes hurt my feet, but I wouldn'tgo back. I summoned up my courage and told myself that \"this is an adventure, andI'll have a story to tell when I write home.\"Her recollections of the year she spent at Squilax were instructive because they reveal invery personal detail how one young and inexperienced female teacher coped with therigours of living and working in a remote district. Her story also clearly indicates that,much like the other participants, she was determined to succeed in her assignment. As sheencountered each problem she took stock of her situation and accepted the challenge.At the end of the year Vera chose to resign her position at Squilax. Looking backshe acknowledged that, although her first teaching assignment had been extremely trying attimes, ultimately it had been a positive experience from which she had benefitted: \"I did mybest, and enjoyed it, and gained a fair bit of experience and independence.\" Moreover it hadenabled her \"to repay a loan I had received from my parents. The money would enable mybrother to go to Normal School that year.\" A confidence and pride in the significance of299what she had achieved came through clearly in her recollections of that time. Theexperience certainly did not deter her from continuing to teach in isolated districts as sheproceeded to work in a further three rural schools over the next four years. After SquilaxVera transferred to Trinity Valley near Lumby for two years. Then in September 1928 shetaught at the school in Fairview, near Oliver, further south in the Similkameen, but onlystayed three months. In January 1929 Vera moved back to the Okanagan to be in charge ofthe junior room in Winfield. In the summer of 1930 Vera got married, a decision thataltered her life significantly. As she simply stated: \"This put an end to my teaching career.\"Typical of many other women teachers in the 1920's who chose to many, Vera,after only a brief period of professional service, withdrew from public school teaching, todedicate her life to her new career as a wife and mother. She gave birth to four children,one girl and three boys, in the \"dirty thirties.\" Yet the subsequent pattern of Vera's life-course also differed significantly from that of many of these same women, some of whosestories are recounted here, in that she did not return to the occupation at a later stage in herlife. Although she did do \"a little bit of subbing\" when they were \"desperate\" Vera's role asa young mother, as well as poor personal health were contributing factors and certainlyrestricted Vera's capacity to pursue a full-time career in teaching. As her daughter stated:\"With 4 children under the age of 9, and with health problems, I don't think that my motherever seriously considered going back into teaching....I can never remember herexperiencing really good health.\" 3At the same time her husband also exercised a strong influence on the decisionsVera made about the direction in which her life would proceed. Although he did not overtlysuppress her occupational interest, neither did he actively encourage her in this regard.Rather it has been suggested that in a very \"subtle\" way that he may have \"repressed\"Vera's desire to work outside of the home on a permanent basis:3Personal letter from Joyce Bingham, November 26 1992.300He wouldn't have minded her going back [into teaching] as long as it hadn'taffected his quality of life too much....Although my father loved my mother dearly,and was proud of her accomplishments, there were many things that he was just notinterested in. I don't think he would really be aware that my mother was influencedby her years teaching. 4It is likely that by not wishing to challenge the boundaries of her life, which were so veryclearly defined within the domestic sphere, Vera simply \"made the best of things.\"Although she \"probably had regrets\" she \"never expressed them.\" Instead she became\"resigned to the fact\" that she would never return to a career in teaching. 5However, Vera did not simply forget her experiences as a teacher in the 1920s. Atthe time of our conversation she was very frail due to ill-health. Yet her memories ofteaching were lively and witty, vivid and engrossing. Her tenure as a teacher had beenrelatively short-lived, a mere five years, but there is no doubt that, to her, it had been ameaningful experience and represented an important stage in her life. At the time it hadbeen, as she stated, an \"adventure\" from which she had gained \"experience\" and\"independence\" as well as being able to help provide the necessary funds for her brother'steacher training.In the longer term, teaching also had definite repercussions on Vera's life-course asa whole. Thus when Vera retired from the profession in 1930 she took her \"teacherness,\"the skills and talents she had acquired and developed in various rural classrooms, with herinto her new life. Although she was no longer physically involved in an institution ofschooling, throughout her life she made choices, whether consciously or not, that enabledher to remain close to children and to matters of an educational nature. Clearly teachingprovided her with a set of ideals that continued to motivate her. Specifically, teachingplayed a central role in shaping her life as a mother. As her daughter reportrs:[M]y mother's experiences in teaching influenced the way we were brought up agreat deal....I think it did affect the way she parented her children....She was so4Ibid, and telephone conversation with Bingham, December 3 1992.51bid.301good at explaining things to us, and getting us to question what we saw....I doknow that thinking was encouraged....Education was always considered veryimportant in my family. All 4 of us children obtained University degrees, whichwas most unusual for farm families in the Okanagan Valley at that time. 6On at least one occasion Vera was able to use her teaching skills in a very practical way.During the early 1940s she decided to home-school one of her sons. Her daughterexplained:When my oldest brother was 6, we were living 4 miles way from school,and my mother chose to tutor him at home for the first year. She obtained thecorrespondent course materials from the ministry and helped him to complete gradeone at home. I don't know that she would have considered doing this withoutexperience. After that we moved closer to the school.?Of immense import are the ways in which Vera affected the work and careerdecisions of her daughter who also, significantly, chose to become a teacher\"[T]eaching...was a job that I always had an affinity for because of my mother'sinfluence....Without [her] encouragement and help, I probably would not have everbecome a teacher.\" 8 Over her daughter's thirty-three year career Vera continued to impactupon her \"values\" and \"ways of connecting with the world.\":Through the years my mother was always very interested in what was goingon in education and in my teaching, and it was very interesting for me to hear herpoints of view. I also think that much of my' success as a teacher came aboutbecause of the respect that she instilled in me for the child as an individual, and theimportance of enhancing self-esteem. Hearing stories of her experiences in teachingin the early days certainly encouraged me, and helped me keep my own challengesin perspective....[A]nd that is her legacy. 9Vera also built on her teaching experiences to actively contribute towards the life ofher local community. After the Second World War, she \"taught English to \"displacedpersons\"....She got a lot of satisfaction from this, and enjoyed the appreciation that she6Personal letter from Joyce Bingham, November 26 1992.7 Ibid.8 lbid. It is interesting to note that it was a common feature of the lives of many of the teachersinterviewed that one or more of their children also became teachers.9Ibid.302received from her students.\" 10 The immigrant children she taught at both the rural schoolsin Squilax and Winfield would obviously have prepared Vera for this work and given herthe self-confidence to volunteer for the task. She also maintained direct links over the yearswith the schools and pupils with whom she had been involved in the 1920s. As she stated:\"Now and then I hear from one of my former pupils, and it is gratifying to hear theircomments, and to know that so many of them are living useful lives.\" Over fifty years afterits opening Vera was invited by \"the teachers at the school in Winfield...to come and spendsome time with the children\" and talk to them about its history, as part of the anniversarycelebrations. It \"meant a lot\" to her \"to be remembered and to take part.\" Finally, for mostof her adult life Vera was a supportive member of the Women's Institute, sometimes actingon the executive. In that capacity she played a principal role in the researching, writing andcompiling of a number of projects aimed at preserving the local history of Oyama forpresent and future residents.Vera's story thus represents an example of the way in which a woman, beginningteaching in the 1920's, was able to use the occupation as a means of concatenating her ownpersonal desires for work and career with the more traditional life course expected ofwomen at that time, namely marriage and family.Alice Gibson nee Brown was born in 1905 in Montreal, one of the three daughtersof George and Sadie Brown, who were of Scottish and English origins respectively.George had owned a tea business and also worked as a book-keeper and thus Alice and hersisters had lived a \"typical middle class life\" in Montreal. The Brown's decided howeverthat the \"big city\" was not the kind of environment in which they wished to raise theirchildren and so in 1912, after purchasing ten acres of what was advertised as good orchardland in the Glenmore district of Kelowna, the family moved to the Okanagan Valley in1 0Ibid.303British Columbia. Unfortunately, George's inexperience in working the land coupled withthe fact that their land in Glenmore, then appropriately named Dry Valley, was unsuitablefor growing fruit, resulted in many of their crops failing. Realising that he was not a \"bornfarmer\" George moved his family after about five years into Kelowna where he once againtook up book-keeping, and later had interests in the dairy and bakery businesses.Whilst in Glenmore Alice's elementary education had been at the one-room schoolin the district and so when she transferred to the Kelowna High School she found it a \"bittraumatic.\" In 1923 she attended the Normal School in Victoria and graduated with aSecond Class Teaching Certificate. Like other newly qualified teachers Alice applied formany teaching positions and only a week before term began in September 1924 she wasoffered the job at the one-room school at Sugar Lake. A tiny logging and trappingcommunity comprised mainly of \"squatters,\" Sugar Lake was located approximately fortymiles east of Vernon and seventy miles from her home. The centre of the community atSugar Lake was a \"picturesque hunting and fishing resort\" called Tillicum Inn, run by aMajor M.A. Curwen and his wife, where the teacher, and hence Alice, \"always boarded.\"She taught in the community for four years.In 1927 the Curwen's had rented out the Inn and left for a trip to England. Onreturning to British Columbia later that year they had settled in Shawnigan Lake onVancouver Island, where the Major had formerly taught at the private boys' school there.When he wrote to Alice informing her of a vacant teaching position at Shawnigan LakePublic School she jumped at the chance, sent in an application and \"on the recommendationof the Curwen's\" was offered the post. Compared to Sugar Lake her new job was \"Quite ashock. From six pupils to 39 - Grades 1, 2 and 3.\" Nevertheless Alice settled easily intoher new situation and \"made friends with the young people of the village almostimmediately.\" However she \"only taught one year\" at the school because, she explained: \"Imet my husband...and got married in the summer of 1929.\" As \"married women didn'tteach in those days\" Alice gave up her teaching career at this point and, although she304privately \"tutored a grade one child\" when she was first married, she did not return to full-time public school teaching again for thirty years.In 1930 the Curwen's offered Alice and her husband, Eric, the management ofTillicum Inn with the option to buy after a year. As Alice recalled: \"We went up and stayeda year - and enjoyed it - but the depression had knocked the bottom out of hunting andfishing lodges so we came back to Shawnigan Lake.\" Interestingly, during that year theteacher at the school in Sugar Lake, Barbara Webster, boarded with Alice and Eric at theInn. Soon afterwards they took what Alice regards as a \"big stepping stone\" in their lives,and began building their own house in Shawnigan Lake on plots of land given to them byEric's parents. By this time -1932- they already had two children, one girl and one boy,and with the birth of their second son in 1933 their \"little family was complete.\"During the depression years of the 1930's Eric was employed as \"a sawyer in themills around\" but because there were \"frequent shut-downs and lay-offs\" he was \"in andout of work\" and thus the young Brown's were \"poorly off.\" In spite of their tight financialcircumstances, Alice did not participate in any paid employment outside the home. Shestrongly believed that as a wife and mother it was her primary responsibility at that stage inher life to care for her husband and to nurture and raise their three children:Married women with children didn't work in those days. You stayed home withyour children and brought them up. That [teaching] was not my job then. My jobwas to bring up my family.Instead, in order to \"make a few dollars a month,\" Alice started working at home writingarticles for the Victoria Colonist and the Cowichan Leader which she \"continued for someyears.\"By the 1940's, \"as soon as the children were old enough to leave with Eric,\" Alicehad become \"heavily involved in community work\" in Shawnigan Lake. She began toattend the local church and became the organ player, an activity she \"kept...up for somefifty years.\" She also played \"an active, and often secretarial\" role on the local SchoolBoard, in the Girl Guides Association and the Brownies - \"I was Brown Owl\" - as well as305the local library, Chamber of Commerce and Women's Institute. With respect to the latterorganisation she acted as President of the South Vancouver Island Women's Institute fortwo years. Then in 1953, with her children now grown, Alice \"went into business withanother woman. We ran a coffee shop in Shawnigan for seven years.\"In 1960 Alice resumed her teaching career. The coffee shop was sold and with hershare of the profits she bought a car. She enrolled at the University of Victoria for a\"summer refresher course\" and got a job almost immediately in a \"two-grade primarysituation\" at the Cowichan Station Public School and was thus \"in business again.\" Alicethen taught for eleven years until she retired \"for the second time\" in 1971, aged sixty-five.She had taught for a total of sixteen years.As a result of her visit to the school on May 30, 1929 it was Lottie Bowron'sverdict that Sugar Lake was a \"lonely\" and \"very isolated\" location and thus \"not...a goodplace for a young girl.\" In fact she decided that it would be \"Better for a man.\" In contrast,Alice, who was just nineteen when she began teaching at the school, reported that she had\"a wonderful time\" and \"really enjoyed the wild life up there and the things wedid...learning to ski, learning to snowshoe and all that kind of thing....I learned to targetshoot.\" Her four years at the school \"introduced\" her to \"a backwoods life\" that she had\"never experienced except in books.\" It was precisely the fact that the remote and primitiveliving conditions at Sugar Lake were such \"a different kettle of fish\" that made Alice'sexperience there so exhilarating and memorable for her:The whole atmosphere and everything was so different than what I [was] used tobut I liked it. You had to realise that there was that segment of the hunters' andtrappers' way of life....I admired them tremendously because of the lives they didlead and the fact that they survived and were cheerful....[I]t was, and is, in a littlenutshell in my mind.The intensity and vividness of Alice's recollections of Sugar Lake suggest that herfirst teaching experience was one that was filled with adventure and pleasure. Theimpression it left on her was both powerful and lasting. She especially appreciated thebeauty of the \"natural surroundings - practically untouched by man\" and the opportunity306this gave her of \"associating with the wild.\" She spent much of her free time taking \"walksin the woods\" and exploring the area around Sugar Lake. In this respect one experience thatwas \"particularly important \" to her involved a trip that she took up into the mountains withsome friends:On the first week of one summer holiday, Mary McKenzie\" and I, with twotrapper friends, plus a chaperone, went on a ten day trip with pack horses and tents,etc., high up into the Monashee Range, above the timber line, and into some snow.The weather was not too good, but the scenery was breathtaking and I will neverforget it. I saw my first, and only, porcupine in the woods.The community at Sugar Lake was very remote so that the school was the focalpoint of the children's limited world. Alice \"regretted\" this \"closed in\" life that her pupilsled. So in her capacity as their teacher, and perhaps as one of the most influential people intheir lives, she saw it as her duty to teach them not only the prescribed curriculum but alsoto endeavour to provide for their general welfare and happiness. Every day Alice wouldrow across the lake to collect the children from a family and bring them to school and didthe return journey at the end of the day. She often took the children on \"jaunts\" such asnature trails and picnics in the woods around the school and also organised fancy dressparties for their entertainment. It gave her great pleasure to be in the position to \"bring tothese children news of the outside world.\" Alice also recalled: \" One year I took a little sixyear old girl pupil home with me to Kelowna for the Easter holidays. She had a ball.\"Interviews with two of Alice's former pupils from Sugar Lake indicate that her impact onthese individuals was indeed profound. As one stated: \"Those two years I spent at SugarLake...were the best years of my life.\"There is no question that Alice was a dedicated teacher and achieved great personalsatisfaction from her job, but at the same time it is also clear that she worked primarily forthe benefit of her pupils, their parents and the community. A sense of deep community1 lAs noted earlier Mary was the teacher at Medora Creek School \"about seven miles down the road\"which meant that, weather permitting, she and Alice \"spent most weekends together.\"307involvement emerged as the dominant theme in Alice's account of her experiences at SugarLake. For example, on a number of occasions she used her own resources to assist the lessadvantaged people living in the district:[I] was the only person in the community with ready cash [as] I was theonly one...that had a monthly cheque coming in....In one case, a man and wife andfamily had a job to go to [in another district] but no money for the move so I boughttheir houseboat from them - a cabin on floats - I kept it for a year and then sold it.Another family, same thing, but they had chinchilla rabbits which I bought, hutchesand all....I kept them and fed them to maturity...and then sold them at the right timethrough one of my trapper friends....That was the sort of help teachers in pooroutlying places often felt called upon to give.Alice owned a car and made it available, always ensuring that it was \"full of gas,\" toanyone who wished to borrow it. These activities offer just a few examples of the completeinvolvement and service orientation Alice had for her work as a rural teacher. Notsurprisingly she assessed her social status in the community as \"very high...as everyonethought I was wonderful.\"Although Alice gave up her career as a teacher after only five years in order to getmarried, she nevertheless, like Vera, built on her experiences at Sugar Lake to serve herlocal community and to run her own business. Moreover, as the biographical details aboveillustrate, throughout her life Alice remained closely involved with both young people andeducational concerns. It is interesting that Alice, like Vera, influenced the work and careerdecisions of her children, in that her daughter also opted for teaching as her choice ofoccupation. When she returned to the profession in 1960 it is significant that it was on herdaughter's suggestion. Alice's account of what prompted her decision to teach again at agefifty-five after so many years away from a classroom is revealing:My daughter was teaching then at Duncan and she said \"Why don't you go backteaching?\" So I thought, Well, if my children say \"Why don't you?\" why don't I?because you don't like doing things that they're against. But it was her idea.It almost seems as if it was an acknowledgment that her responsibilities to her family werenow complete. She also implied that her experience of raising her own children may havecontributed directly to improving her abilities in the classroom: \"I have no illusions about308my work in the four years I was at Sugar Lake....but I know myself that when I went backteaching for 11 years...I did a much better job in every way than I had at 19 years of age.\"When Alice became a teacher in the early 1920's it was not out of any great sense ofcalling or mission. As she stated: \"Why I chose teaching - because I liked the idea betterthan nursing or business college.\" Furthermore over her working life she spent more timeout of, as opposed to actively working within, the profession. But for Alice teaching wasby no means just a prologue to anticipated marriage. Once she began teaching she came tolove her work and was totally committed to the education and overall well-being of herpupils, both in and out of the classroom. In contrast to her initial pococurante attitude to theoccupation is the real sense of her having been engaged in vocational work.Ruby Lidstone nee Drasching 12 was born in December 1908 in Winnipeg,Manitoba, the first child of Ellen (nee Louch) and Martin Drasching. Her mother was fromWarwickshire, England, and her father was of Swiss origins, although he had emigrated toEngland, where the young couple had met. They married in August 1906 and then almostimmediately \"sailed for Canada.\" The Drasching's settled in Winnipeg and worked in thehotel business, where they \"did well for themselves.\" Two more children, sons, were bornin 1911 and 1913. When war broke out in 1914 it changed the lives of the Draschingfamily:The hotel business slackened and the...[h]otel was converted into a barracks for thesoldiers....This was time for Martin to seek new employment and perhaps a newhome....The mountains in B.C. reminded Martin of his native Switzerland, so afterconsulting his wife they decided to venture west.In 1916 they exchanged their Winnipeg property for a farm at the foot of the Enderby cliffsin the north Okanagan. They built up a small mixed farm of cattle, chickens, a few fruit12Unless otherwise stated the details on Ruby are taken from her unpublished memoirs which alsoincludes a number of often uncited and undated newspaper clippings. Information in the newspaper articlesthat did not corroborate that in the memoirs was not used.309trees and bees. Their new life working on the land was certainly a \"struggle\" for this\"gently-reared couple from the city\" and often they \"found it hard to make ends meet.\" As achild Ruby helped out on the farm whenever she could. She wrote that she \"assisted hermother with the dressing of the poultry\" and also contributed to the family effort \"when thebees swarmed and when it was time to extract the honey.\"Ruby's first year of schooling had been in Winnipeg and so when she came toBritish Columbia she entered grade two of the four-roomed school in Enderby. One of theteachers at the school, Miss M.V. Beattie, under whose guidance Ruby graduated fromgrade eight in 1922, \"left a profound impression on her that lasted all her life\" and was nodoubt the person who most influenced Ruby into taking up teaching as a career. 13 Rubythen attended the Enderby High School for three years before enroling in the NormalSchool in Victoria in the fall of 1926. The following excerpt, which refers to her teachertraining year, reveals the strong attatchment Ruby felt towards her home and family and isan early indication of the enduring obligation she felt that it was her duty, first andforemost, to care for her family's needs:This was Ruby's first experience away from home and many were thehomesick nights and days....Ruby did not go home for the Christmas holidays. Times were hard andmoney was scarce and her mother Ellen was not too well. She might never havereturned for the second term had she seen how things were at home.Her mother was dying of pernicious anaemia.Ruby's year in Victoria was nevertheless an extremely enjoyable and important newexperience, and one that \"passed very quickly in spite of the hard work and a lot of study.\"She had formed a number of \"firm friendships\" with fellow female students and so it was\"a sad affair\" and \"many were the tears that were shed\" when the time came to leave the\"halls of learning.\" On graduating from Normal School with a Second Class Teaching13Ruby's great admiration for Beattie led her to write a short biography of her life. See Ruby E.Lidstone, \"Mabel Beattie: Enderby's Honoured Pioneer,\" OHSR 41(1977): 149-152.310Certificate Ruby returned to the family farm in North Enderby and began the hunt for herfirst teaching assignment. Although she applied for many positions, in fact \"one hundred ofthem that summer - many to the Prairie schools of Alberta and Saskatchewan\" she was notunduly disappointed when she found herself still unemployed in September, because \"hermother was far from well, indeed, she was soon to become seriously ill.\" Instead, toRuby, \"it seemed as if \"it was meant to be\" for she had this time with her mother and spenther evenings reading and sewing while her mother rested.\"In December 1927 Ruby's 101st application was successful and she was appointedas the teacher of the one-room school at Grandview Bench, just above Grindrod,approximately five miles from North Enderby, and thus relatively near her home. In hermemoirs Ruby emphasised the immense satisfaction she gained being financially self-sufficient for the first time in her life.Wages were then just less than $100 per month, with room and board $35monthly. Out of the balance Ruby paid $50 a month to her father to pay off hernormal expenses, so she was left with the grand sum of $15 a month on which tomanage. Yet this amount coming in regularly seemed to make her very rich and shewas able to do so many things with her first earnings. She was at last able to buysome ready-made clothing.During her first winter months at the school, when the weather was bad, Rubyboarded with a family who lived near the school. However, because her mother's healthwas \"not getting better\" she decided to make the effort to spend more time with her andreturned home as often as she could. In July of 1928 Ruby attended summer school inVictoria. She did not go alone, however, but took her mother with her \"so that she couldsee and smell the ocean once again...\" As Mrs Drasching had by then \"deteriorated verymuch\" and was \"very tiny and frail\" she had to travel everywhere in a wheelchair. This washard work for Ruby but she was only too pleased to see her mother happy.Ruby returned to Grandview Bench that fall for a second year as the teacher at theschool. However because her mother was now \"bed-ridden most of the time\" she was\"very punctual with her Wednesday trip home from the Bench.\" In January her mother311finally passed away. Nevertheless, Ruby still made sure that she got home in mid-week tohelp her father and brothers by doing the household chores of cooking and cleaning.In June 1929 tragedy again shattered Ruby's life when her father committedsuicide. He had taken his wife's death \"very hard\" and afterwards a \"sad, forlorn looksettled on his face and never left it, inspite of all that was done to try to cheer him.\" Noinquest was considered necessary because it was decided that he had \"died of a brokenheart.\" The months that followed her father's death were \"a trying time\" for Ruby, and onewhich involved \"giving up her teaching duties and trying to operate the farm\" with the helpof her brothers.Whilst teaching at Grandview Bench Ruby \"attended her first public dances...heldevery so often in the schoolhouse.\" It was at one of these events that Ruby had metClifford Lidstone, from Winfield. They had continued to see each other and during thisdifficult time he \"offered help and encouragement.\" Love blossomed between Clifford andRuby and \"on a bitterly cold day with the thermometer at 40°F below zero\" in January1930 they were married. Clifford then purchased the Drasching farm, the house wasrenovated, and in October of that year \"much joy and happiness came into their lives\" whenEleanore, their only child, was born.Although her career was, to quote Ruby, \"interrupted\" by the death of her fatherand then her marriage, this did not stop Ruby from continuing to harbour an interest in thework of young people. She taught Sunday school at the local Anglican church, was \"aleader\" in the Junior Women's Auxiliary for two years, and for three years retained theposition of Diocesan Co-ordinator of the Girls' Auxilliary. However \"as soon as she wasable to\" 14 she was back in the classroom. In 1933 she began as a substitute teacher in thelocal schools and carried on in that capacity for thirteen years, although her daughter has14Interview with Eleanore Bolton, daughter of Ruby Lidstone, 1 March 1989, Vernon, BritishColumbia.312suggested that Ruby did not really like substitute work because \"there were no books tomark at night.\" 15After the Second World War the Lidstones sold the farm and moved into Enderby.Ruby then decided to return to the profession full-time and subsequently \"taughtcontinuously for 29 1/2 years\" in the Enderby area. In February 1946 she was appointed toteach in the Enderby Junior-Senior High School as \"homeroom teacher\" for grades six andseven. As the \"only lady teacher on staff\" she served as chaperone for all the Drama Clubtrips as well as the girls' sports activities. In 1953 she moved to the M.V. BeattieElementary School, named after her former beloved teacher, where she remained until1972. For the two years remaining prior to her retirement in June 1974, aged sixty-five,she taught at the A.L. Fortune Junior Secondary School where she specialised in teachingEnglish and then later Guidance. Her daughter has suggested, however, that: \"She wasforced to retire. She would never have retired unless she'd been forced to.\" 16 Thusalthough after 1974 Ruby did not teach full-time again she \"substituted on a regular basis\"and \"in every capacity from kindergarten to grade 12.\" When she died in 1987 she hadtaught in the schools of Enderby and the surrounding area for over fifty years.For almost two decades after she qualified as a teacher in 1927 Ruby's participationin the occupation was similar to that of many other women teachers, in that it wascharacterised by her periodic movement in and out of the workforce. There is no doubt thatthe need she felt to care for her parents and siblings, and then later her husband anddaughter, clearly determined her life during those years. In terms of her life course as awhole, however, it was teaching that she seemed to value most. Accordingly, she resumeda full-time career as a teacher in 1946 when she felt her family responsibilities permitted herto do so. Although she may not have advanced very far up the professional ladder, she15Ibid.16Ibid.313certainly made teaching her life's work. Ruby loved teaching. In fact, as her daughtersuggests, \"She absolutely adored it.\" 17 Furthermore she always remained, even beyondretirement, a committed teacher and educator who devoted her energies to the cause ofeducation in both its narrow and wider definitions.For Ruby, her success as a teacher was defined by her relationships with herstudents and the respect she won from the members of the community in which she livedand worked. In writing her memoirs she recorded little about what or how she taught, butemphasised instead the sense of satisfaction she got from the \"extra curricular studies\" sheorganised, such as the \"craft club\" held on Friday afternoons for her pupils at GrandviewBench School. The fact that she noted that the community were \"loud in their praises of thepupil's handiwork, which would equal any done in a larger school with more equipment\"is a clear illustation of her pride in her accomplishments as a teacher. She also noted thatshe was \"instrumental\" in helping the students in the Journalism Club produce the firstEnderby Junior High School Annual in 1948, a tradition that continues to the present day.A \"major reward\" of Ruby's career was the \"contacts maintained over long numbers ofyears with past students.\" To her it was \"always a thrill to meet and to teach children offormer pupils.\" Perhaps a more telling testimony of how she valued her work as a teacheris revealed in her expressed intention to \"continue to live my life so that it might be aninspiration and example to my students and would hope that some small spark wouldremain to kindle their lives in the future.\" If the tributes paid to her when she retired in1974 are any measure of her success, then Ruby was certainly a well-respected teacherwho was held in high regard by her charges and colleagues alike. She noted that she was\"feted on four separate occasions when teachers and students from all over the valleyattended.\" She also revealed that it was a \"highlight in her life\" when, in 1978, the students17Ibid.314in grade twelve at the A.L. Fortune School chose her as the guest speaker at theirgraduation ceremonies.In addition to her work as a teacher within a school setting, Ruby remainedthroughout her career \"keenly interested in\" and actively involved with teacher associations,at both the local and provincial level, participating in many capacities ranging fromsecretary, vice-president, president and coordinator of public relations, to editor andpublisher. In recognition of her long-term services she was the recipient of honorary lifememberships of the Okanagan Valley Teachers' Association (1970), the Enderby DistrictTeachers' Association (1970), and the British Columbia Teacher's Federation (1971), thelatter two being the first of their kind to be awarded to a teacher still in active service. Shewas also a member of the Canadian College of Teachers, and became secretary and thenpresident of the Okanagan Chapter of that organisation. Ruby regarded her contribution tothese associations not only as an important element in her professional development,believing that \"participation in this work has stimulated my classroom efforts.\"Ruby was also a vital and active member of the community in which she lived forreasons other than in her capacity as a classroom teacher. Many local organisations such asthe Junior Women's Auxiliary, North Enderby Ladies Club, the Queen's Committee, theParent-Teacher Association, the Enderby Museum Society, and the Okanagan HistoricalSociety have gained from Ruby's expertise. In fact it has been suggested that Ruby was\"the best organized organizer organizing every organization\" that she ever belonged to. 18Throughout her years of teaching Ruby also developed a love of writing and a desire torecord the history of Enderby, thus ensuring its preservation for future generations. Inaddition to the many articles published in the Okanagan Historical Society's Annual Reportand in the local newspaper, the Enderby Commoner, she has also written two books: In theShadow of the Cliff: A History of North Enderby, with David Jones, and Schools of18Marjorie Abbott-Pavelich, \"Ruby Lidstone - Our Friend (1908-1987),\" OHSR 52(1988): 109.315Enderby and District 1896-1965, the latter while \"convalescing from a broken elbow in thespring of 1965.\" In 1979 Ruby was the \"first person\" to be chosen as Citizen of the Yearby the Enderby Chamber of Commerce in recognition of her outstanding contribution toeducation and her community.Lucy McCormick's parents were Annie and Isaac Hill who had met and married inManchester, England in 1892, and emigrated to Ireland soon afterwards. They ran a smallmixed farm in County Down, Northern Ireland, where Lucy was born in March 1910, andshe and her other four siblings were raised. The eldest daughter and elder son moved out toBritish Columbia first, prior to the First World War, both settling in the Okanagan Valley,in Kelowna and Lumby respectively. Then in May 1921 the rest of the Hill family, exceptfor one sister who remained in England, emigrated and came to Lumby where they alsofarmed. To Lucy's parents Canada offered \"a better way of life away from the troubles inIreland\" in which to bring up a young family.To begin with Lucy lived with her sister in Kelowna in order to attend the smalltwo-room school in East Kelowna. Her parents had thought that it would have been toomuch of a \"traumatic transition\" for her to go immediately into the larger superior school inFrench-Canadian Lumby. After a year, however, she transferred to Lumby and then wenton to high school in Vernon from where she graduated in 1928. The following year sheattended the Victoria Normal School, attaining a Second Class Teaching Certificate. Lucy'sfirst teaching post was the one-room school at Mabel Lake, a farming and logging district,to which she was appointed in November 1929 and where she stayed for four years. Likemost novice teachers Mabel Lake was Lucy's \"first experience being away from home\" andalso like so many others she had to come to terms with the often difficult situations andcircumstances that rural teaching entailed. Teaching at Mabel Lake made a significantinfluence on Lucy in many ways, but particularly in terms of her personal development.She considered \"self-sufficiency\" as the most important lesson she learned from the316experience: \"I don't think anything would faze me again. I felt I could have livedanywhere.\"In September 1933 she moved to the one-room school at Shuswap Falls where shetaught for a further seven years. It was during this period that Lucy met the person whochanged the course of her life. As she explained:I met my husband in 1936 as I was returning from the opening of the Vimy RidgeMemorial in France. My eldest brother was a Canadian soldier who survived theBattle of Vimy Ridge in W.W. I - on my way from France I detoured to Englandand Ireland and met Charlie on the S.S. Athenia returning to Canada.As Charlie lived in Toronto, but also because they were uncertain of whether they shouldmarry in such uncertain times, the young couple were only able to correspond at first. InNovember 1940, however Lucy, aged thirty, made the decision to resign her position atShuswap Falls, give up teaching, and leave her home, family and rural existence to travelacross Canada to the city of Toronto to marry Charlie. Unfortunately they were able tospend less than a year living together before Charlie, in service with the R.C.A.F., wasposted to Brantford, outside Hamilton. Being alone in Toronto Lucy was at a \"loose end\"and \"needed to do something.\" She did not wish to teach in a city school and so for a shortperiod she worked for the Red Cross and became involved with \"food administration.\"Then, being \"a patriotic soul\" she decided to join the R.C.A.F.W.D. 19 The four years shespent in service during the war were, as she recalled \"a very enjoyable part of my life.\" Itwas a new and exciting experience to her particularly so given the fact that she was amember of \"the second [women's] squadron to be formed and the first to be sent out toR.C.A.F. stations.\" In her case she was posted near Ottawa.On her release in March 1945 Lucy returned not to Toronto, but to her parents'home in the Okanagan. Although she \"didn't intend to teach after the war\" she was soon\"commandeered\" back into the classroom:19Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division.317I came home to Vernon as my father was ill and my former Inspector met me andasked me if I would consider teaching. I said 'no' as I had been away from teachingfor 6 years. [H]owever as Charlie was still in [the] R.C.A.F. and not sure when hewould be released I decided I'd keep busy.Consequently, she taught for a year at Reiswig, a one-room school east of Lumby. Thefollowing year \"still Charlie was away\" so she agreed to take on the position of principal atLavington, a two-room school in the Coldstream district. \"So that,\" she stated, \"madethirteen years of rural school teaching during depression years.\"Charlie was finally released from the R.C.A.F. and so Lucy promptly gave upteaching again and returned to her husband in Toronto in 1947. He resumed his position atTimothy Eaton's and she was \"back to keeping house.\" For the next six years Lucy wascontent in her role as a wife and partner to her husband and did not work during this time.In 1949 she and Charlie took a \"belated honeymoon\" and travelled to the United Kingdomto \"meet my inlaws in Ireland and visit my sister in London.... We did a lot of travellingbetween 1948-53.\"By 1953 Lucy had settled back into a life of domesticity, and as she stated \"set upmy home again.\" It was not long, however, before she felt that she was ready to return tothe workforce, and indeed to teaching. At the same time she had also decided that she\"didn't want to do regular mainstream teaching\" and so began looking for a new challenge.Lucy was at a juncture in her life where the decisions she subsequently made resulted in theredirection of the path of her career as a teacher. As she explained:To continue my education saga, in 1953 I became involved with the newlyformed Toronto Association for the Mentally Retarded as a teacher. The upshot ofthis experience was I continued in this field....and although I had no specialtraining...(there wasn't any available in Can[ada] or the U.S.) I learned by trial anderror to the point where I was able to collect a certain expertise in this field andended up teaching teachers at S[ummer] School.The provision of special schooling for the mentally handicapped in Toronto was in itsinfancy in the early 1950's. As Lucy proudly claimed: \"I was there at the very beginningwith the work on retarded children.... Nobody was qualified in those days [so] we learnedas we went along.\" Originally hired as a classroom teacher she quickly moved into more318administrative positions, first as a principal of a school, then as supervising principal incharge of a number of schools, and finally as liaison coordinator for the Toronto area. Lucycontinued working with the mentally handicapped in Toronto until she retired in 1975 atwhich time she and her husband then settled in the Coldstream in the Okanagan Valley.Lucy's career as a teacher had spanned thirty-five years.Lucy's marriage to Charlie in 1940 had a major impact on the decisions shesubsequently made regarding her work and career. Teaching had obviously been animportant part of her life but for thirteen years following her marriage she more or lesswithdrew from the profession. Even though she did teach for a year each at two other ruralschools just after the Second World War, the fact that at one of these schools - Reiswig -she \"didn't sign a contract\" but \"worked month by month\" clearly illustrates that herparticipation in the occupation at that time was merely a temporary expedient whilst she waswaiting for her husband to return from his war-time service.Marriage to Charlie meant living in Toronto and this represented a new experiencefor Lucy. All her life she had lived in rural areas, and since the age of eleven, in theOkanagan Valley. She must have found the transition to city life in Toronto exciting butalso daunting and she did not feel comfortable about teaching in a city school. Howeverwhen she became aware of work that was just starting to be done to provide specialeducation for children with developmental handicaps she saw an opportunity to make a realcontribution. She joined the Parents Council for Retarded Children and was initially hiredto teach at the rate of \"$4 per day.\" Significantly it was her wide experience in rural schoolswhich had required her to cope with children of very diverse abilities and ages together inone room that had impressed her interviewers so much and prompted them to hire Lucy asa classroom teacher. She loved her new work - \"I got to enjoy it so much\" - that shedevoted the next twenty-two years to the cause of improving educational facilities formentally handicapped children, mainly in the capacity of an administrator, where she wasin a more powerful position to initiate and carry through such improvements.319Lucy has been described as \"a remarkable woman\" who was \"instrumental ingetting education for the mentally handicapped in Toronto.\" 20 Indeed two years after shehad retired, the Metropolitan Toronto School Board built a new school for students withdevelopmental handicaps and named it the Lucy McCormick Senior School in her honour.Lucy \"went back to Toronto for the opening\" of the school in October 1977 and althoughgenerally taciturn about her accomplishments as a teacher her description of the school itselfreveals, in an indirect way, how proud Lucy is of this particular achievement: \"It is a twostorey building with air conditioning, elevator, carpeted throughout...a far cry from myrural school days!\"In many ways the details of Lucy's early career in teaching portray the stereotype ofthe young female teacher who taught in rural one- and two-room schools for a number ofyears and then left the profession to many and pursue a life of domesticity. But Lucy, likeso many other women teachers, later returned to her life as a teacher and used the skillsacquired in her rural classroom to shape her life in new dimensions. Her contribution to thedevelopment of the highly specialised field of education for the mentally handicapped inToronto was, and still is, an exceptional achievement.Hilda Cryderman 21 was the daughter of William and Ella Cryderman (neeDonaldson) who had both been born and raised in Ontario, he near Hamilton and she inAyr. They both then emigrated, independently, to British Columbia, settling in OkanaganLanding, in 1892 and 1890 respectively. They were married in Vernon in 1895. Williambecame a prominent architect and contractor who \"built many fine homes and buildings20Telephone conversation with D. Secord, Vice-Principal (Summer School), Lucy McCormickSenior School, Toronto, July 22 1992.21Unless otherwise stated the details on Hilda are taken from letters sent to me by Nancy Jermyn onMarch 25 and 30 1992. Various other materials relating to Hilda such as her Curriculum Vitae, a letter fromthe B.C.T.F. to the Business and Professional Women's Club, newspaper articles that refer to her, publishedpapers authored by her and photographs of Hilda were enclosed along with the personal letters. Nancy andHilda \"shared a home for 45 years together.\"320throughout the Okanagan Valley\" including the family home which was situated justoutside the centre of Vernon. The Cryderman's raised a family of four girls, although onesadly died at the age of fifteen, and two boys. Hilda, born on May 10 1904, was the thirdeldest.Hilda attended both elementary and high school in Vernon before entering theVictoria Normal School in 1923. On graduating with a first class teaching certificate a yearlater, Hilda obtained her first teaching post as principal of the two-roomed school in theColdstream which she commenced in September 1924, aged nineteen. Hilda remained asprincipal of the school for thirteen years.In 1936 Hilda was responsible for pioneering \"School of the Air\" radio broadcastsby organising pilot school programmes in the Okanagan Valley, which were later adoptedby the Department of Education and expanded by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.Towards the end of her tenure at the Coldstream School Hilda decided that she wanted toimprove her academic credentials and so she attended summer school at the University ofBritish Columbia for three years, specialising in History, Economics and PoliticalGeography, before obtaining her B.A. in 1937. In the fall of that year she was \"invited\" toteach Business Law, Canadian History and International Studies at the newly openedVernon Senior Secondary School. In 1938 she again spent her summer at the University ofBritish Columbia, this time to do post graduate studies in Vocational Guidance andCounselling, but also as President of that summer session. In 1939, in addition to herregular classroom teaching responsibilities, Hilda was appointed as girls counsellor, andthen later as head of the Guidance Department for secondary schools in the Vernon district,again pioneering in this specialised area of education.In 1942 Hilda was selected by the Department of Labour to organise and direct the\"Save the Berry Crop\" campaign. The project entailed her supervising a group of a hundredhigh school girls from Vancouver who had volunteered to pick the crops on the farms thathad been vacated by the Japanese farmers in Mission, in the Fraser Valley. The task took321five weeks, mostly over the summer vacation, after which the fruit was subsequentlyprocessed and shipped to Britain to be made into jam for the Armed Forces. Between 1943and 1945 Hilda took a leave of absence from teaching when she was drafted by theCanadian Legion Educational Services to act as educational counsellor for the Women'sForces in the Pacific Command. Basically her mandate was to help service women whowished to improve their education in preparation for their return to civilian life. In thiscapacity she travelled throughout British Columbia and set up forty-five classes in Navy,Army, and Airforce stations, and in military hospitals. In 1944 she attended the VictoriaSummer School of Education as lecturer in Guidance and Counselling. Hilda returned toher teaching duties at the conclusion of the war and remained as a teacher and counsellor atthe Vernon Senior High School for another twenty-two years She took early retirementfrom teaching in 1967, aged 63, when she was appointed to a seven-year term as the \"onlywoman\" Federal Commissioner on the Public Service Staff Relations Board of Canada.She died in 1985 having taught for forty-three years.As a young girl Hilda had been something of a \"tomboy\" and spent much of herchildhood \"playing with the boys in the neighbourhood.\" She had been brought up to beindependent and to be confident in herself and her abilities. She was also encouraged tobelieve that she could achieve whatever she wanted out of life. In this context her motherhad an important and influential effect on her: \"I had a wonderful mother. She never evensuggested that I should not play baseball and hockey with the boys of the neighbourhood.My mother never suggested I might fail in anything I was planning to do.\"Hilda had \"always wanted to be a teacher. She loved knowledge and [was]interested in teaching young minds. It was a challenge.\" The circumstances leading to herappointment to her first teaching job illustrate well Hilda's determination to achieve hergoals. As a result of \"a discipline problem in the school\" the Coldstream School Board hadbeen experiencing some difficulties with regards to staffing. In his report for April 8 1924Inspector T.R. Hall noted: \"Teacher in charge for two weeks, being the third teacher since322January.\" The position was again vacant in the summer of the same year and so Hilda,eager to remain in the Okanagan Valley, immediately applied for it. In an interview in alocal newspaper almost thirty years later Hilda recounted how she had to \"battle\" to get thejob however because the trustees had wanted to hire a male teacher as principal of theschool: \"The trustees were dubious...they scratched their heads...mumbled into theirbeards...\"We really would prefer a man,\" they said. \"In fact we need a man.\"\"22 In spiteof this opposition the redoubtable Hilda broke down their defences and managed topersuade them otherwise. She had been confident she could \"do just as good a job as anyman\" and told the school board just that.It appears likely that Hilda's experience at the Coldstream School, which certainlymust have been a challenge, was critical in terms of the future course of her career. Overher thirteen years at the school she became firmly committed to the value of education andto the fundamental importance of equality in access and opportunity for all. Moreover shebecame passionately concerned about the rights and status of women in society in general.Specifically she was interested in the advancement of women's career opportunities, andparticularly, but by no means exclusively, in her own profession. In her roles as classroomteacher and principal it is probable that she developed and perfected strong organisationaland stategical skills and discovered her talent for leadership. In short she must have beenempowered by this first teaching assignment. Hilda's general \"philosophy for living\"which she maintained throughout her adult life, must surely have been born during herformative years as a young girl and then consolidated over the period she taught in theColdstream:Whenever she took on a project she made it a success. She never thought aboutfailure and she anticipated all the things that might happen and was ready for them.She never said \"no\" when asked to do something for the benefit of others....Shewas always positive and knew her facts and had them straight. She was a leader.22Vancouver Sun, Magazine Supplement, July 2, 1955, Mabel Johnson, \"She is Head of HerClass,\" 4.323As a woman of growing ambition her experience as a rural school teacher providedHilda with the confidence, but more importantly the opportunity, to seek out and be electedinto positions in organisations - local, provincial and national - that enabled her to activelywork towards correcting what she observed as injustices and inequalities in life. Teachingthus gave Hilda the means to act powerfully and influentially in the larger public arenaoutside of the school setting.Some of Hilda's primary concerns were \"to improve the role of teachers, thestanding of teachers and high standards in education.\" In her capacity as president of theNorth Okanagan Teachers' Association (1936), the Okanagan Valley Teachers' Association(1939), the first woman to be elected to these offices, Hilda was in a position to generateinitiatives towards achieving these objectives. In 1946 she chaired the Strategy Committeethat won equal pay for women teachers in the Okanagan Valley, the first to do so in thecountry. In an interview given for a local newspaper in 1985, six months before her death,Hilda revealed that this particular achievement was still her \"most thrilling personalmoment.\" She stated: \"I remember the strategy and excitement of winning equal pay forwomen teachers in 1946. We were the first in Canada. Arbitration was a dirty wordthen.\" 23 In 1953 she served as chairman of the Equal Pay Committee that successfullypetitioned the government to enact the Equal Pay Act in British Columbia that year. NancyJermyn, Hilda's lifelong friend and companion, has related a incident that sums up the realsignificance of these achievements:Some years later we were at a Bus[iness] and Professional] Women's [Club]meeting in Grand Forks and a girl, a teacher, when she heard Hilda was present,said \"I must go and meet Hilda and thank her, after all she put the bread on ourtable.\"No doubt Hilda's success with the equal pay issue led to her election as president ofthe British Columbia Teachers' Federation in 1954, again the first woman in the office in23Vernon Daily News, June 29, 1985, Lynn Atkins, \"Order of Canada for Local Woman.\"324the organisation's thirty-five year history. In a tribute to Hilda, R.M. Buzza, ExecutiveDirector of the B.C.T.F. in 1982, wrote:It was the women teachers of B.C. who asked Hilda Cryderman to be theircandidate to climb up through the two vice-presidencies to the President of theBritish Columbia Teachers Federation.For three consecutive years women from all the local associations in theprovince saw that they were delegates to the Teachers Conventions to vote forHilda.In 1954 the teachers had their first woman president, Hilda Cryderman. Inthe next ten years there were another two women presidents - that was Hilda's wayalways to make it possible for other women to follow....Hilda we salute you! 24In recognition of her service Hilda was awarded honorary life memberships of both theOkanagan Valley Teachers' Association (1967) and the British Columbia Teachers'Federation (1969), and was awarded the Fergusson Memorial Award (1971), the highestaward given by the B.C.T.F.Hilda's desire to improve the status of women extended beyond her ownprofession. Holding executive offices locally, as well as at the provincial and national level,Hilda made important contributions to the Business and Professional Women's Club, towhich she was granted Honorary Life Membership (1958), the Council of Women, theUniversity Women's Club and the National Native Women's Association, the latterawarding her Honorary Membership and their Beaded Medallion in 1972, \"a very specialhonor and rarely given.\" 25 She was a very accomplished platform speaker and in 1975travelled extensively throughout Canada and the United States giving invited lectures topromote International Women's Year. In 1978, in recognition of her contribution to \"theadvancement of women in all fields but more particularly her outstanding service inimproving the status of women in the teaching profession,\" Hilda was made an Honorary24Buzza had been invited, as he stated, to \"contribute something in writing for the Business andProfessional Women's Club 50th Anniversary Dinner Tribute to Hilda Cryderman on behalf of the BritishColumbia Teachers [sic] Federation.\" The tribute is dated April 5, 1982.25Nancy Jermyn, \"Hilda Cryderman,\" OHSR 50(1986): 147.325Member of the Alpha Province of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society InternationalOrganisation of Educators. In 1982 she was named \"Woman of the Century\" by theVernon Business and Professional Women's Club.Hilda was interested in working not only for the benefit of women but \"for peopleof all ages and in all walks of life.\"26 As a result she became actively involved in manyorganisations and served on innumerable committees concerned with educational andhuman rights issues. Moreover she was an \"excellent Parliamentarian\" and, althoughdefeated, ran as Liberal candidate for the Okanagan-Revelstoke Riding in the 1953 and1957 federal elections. In 1985 her \"lifetime of leadership and service\" resulted in her beingawarded the Order of Canada, and made the first Honorary Member of the Human RightsInstitue of Canada. 27Hilda was in some respects atypical of most women teachers who began theircareers in the 1920's. First of all, she never married but remained single all her life. Sheplaced great store on her independence. The financial self-sufficiency that she gained as anunmarried teacher was important to her because, initially, she was \"the sole support of herfamily for a long time. She paid for a business course for her younger sister and brotherand supported her mother.\" Later Hilda came to thrive on her autonomy. Teaching gave herthe economic security to pursue the other issues about which she cared so passionately:\"She enjoyed her independence and freedom to do the things she wanted to do. Helpingpeople was more important to her and righting injustices wherever she found them.\"Secondly, also unlike the vast majority of female teachers, Hilda's career as ateacher, except for her war-time service, was uninterrupted. She taught continuously fromher graduation from Normal School to her retirement. Interestingly, however, herprincipalship of the Coldstream School aside, she never aspired to move up into the26Ibid., 146.27Nd.326administrative hierarchies of the schools in which she taught. She clearly had the leadershipskills to do so but instead chose to remain a classroom teacher and counsellor. Althoughher influence extended well beyond her work as a teacher, it was teaching, defined not asthe transmission of a curriculum but as the ability to reach the hearts and minds of youngpeople and the satisfaction of knowing that their lives may have been enriched or improvedby her efforts, that Hilda valued most. Indeed, as she once stated: \"But don't forget -- mostof all, I'm a teacher.\"28Bernard C. Gillie was born in 1907 on the family farm in the Strawberry Valedistrict of Victoria, British Columbia. His father, whose family came from Scotland, andhis mother, from eastern Canada, were two of the thousands of people who came out westlooking for a better life. Although they had originally met and married in Nicola, andestablished a large cattle ranch there, in 1906, when Bernard's father became almost blindas a result of a serious illness, they moved to Victoria and settled on what was then a fiftyacre farm in Strawberry Vale.Bernard began school in 1914 in the one-room school in Strawberry Vale near thefamily home. Then when a new two-room building was completed, he transfered there tocomplete his elementary education to grade eight. He entered the Oak Bay High Schoolwhich involved travelling a twenty mile round trip each day between home and school. Ongraduating from high school in 1923 Bernard enroled at Victoria College for one year.Then, as money was tight, he decided that the best course of action would be to taketeacher training, teach for a few years, and return to university, this time to the Universityof British Columbia, to pursue his real desire, which was forestry engineering. Hetherefore spent one year at Victoria Normal School. His one year at University made him28Johnson, \"She is Head of her Class,\" 4.327eligible to graduate from Normal School with a First Class Teaching Certificate withhonours standing.Representative of many other young teachers in the 1920's, Bernard was faced withlittle choice as to the type or location of the school for his first teaching assignment. In theevent it turned out to be the one-room school in the tiny mill town of Hutton Mills, seventy-five miles east of Prince George, where he remained for one year. Bernard's secondteaching post was as principal of the two-room school at Ellison, a \"typical farmingcommunity\" based mainly on fruit and tobacco growing, located approximately ten milesfrom Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley. He was surprised that his application to the schoolhad been successful: \"Here am I, one year's experience and not very good experience atthat, having not the foggiest idea what a principal did for a living outside of teach school.\"The circumstances surrounding his appointment are revealing. They hint at the stereotypicalattitudes that existed at the time towards women, as compared to men, in terms of thedifferent locations they occupied, and functions they performed, within the hierarchy of aschool, and the different chances for promotion that existed within that hierarchy, at least asperceived by Bernard.[When] I went to Ellison in 1927-8...very, very few women were appointed toadministrative positions....Women didn't apply for those jobs. It never occurred toa woman in those days to apply as a principal....That's a fact.\"The teacher appointed to take charge of the junior classroom at Ellison was a local womanfrom Kelowna. Bernard was of the opinion that:She could have been principal just as well as I could have done. No question. [But]it would never have occurred to anybody to appoint her. In fact people would havebeen really quite stunned if you had suggested that they [appoint a woman].Equally, in turn....if somebody had suggested that I go there and that she be theprincipal, I don't think I'd have gone. I would have regarded that as a blot on mymasculine escutcheon or something... 2929The desire of the school board for a \"male teacher for the principal\" is noted in the school minutesfor 1927. See School District #23, Kelowna, Ellison Public School, Minutes of Meetings, June 25 1927,page 95.328At the end of his first year at Ellison Bernard considered that he had done wellenough to warrant an increase in salary and so he gave the school board an ultimatum: moremoney or his resignation. They accepted his resignation. The summer of 1928 saw Bernardback in Victoria. By this time his vision of forestry engineering had begun to fade. Instead,discovering that he \"liked teaching\" and in fact \"enjoyed all aspects of it\" and because hethought he was \"fairly good at it,\" he decided to change his plans and pursue a career in theteaching profession.In the fall of 1928 he began a three-year stint as the principal of the two-roomschool at Britannia Beach, a copper mining company town less than thirty miles up thecoast from Vancouver. During this period Bernard became heavily involved with theB.C.T.F., eventually serving as President of the Federation for a term in the mid-1940's.He maintained his association with the B.C.T.F. until the early 1960's when he wentnorth. In 1931 Bernard returned to Victoria once more, this time to teach. He had beenhired by the Oak Bay School District to teach at the Monterey Elementary School, aposition he subsequently held for nine years. In 1940, he changed schools, but not schoolboard, when he was appointed first as vice-principal, and then later principal, of theWillows Elementary School. Bernard was determined to complete the Bachelor's degree hehad begun in 1923 and so during the nineteen years that he was employed by the Oak BaySchool District, he also attended summer school for \"eleven straight summers\" as well as\"night classes\" and \"Saturday lectures\" at the University of Victoria. He was finallyawarded both a B.A. and B.Ed. In 1950, when the S.J. Willis Junior High School inVictoria opened its doors for the first time, Bernard C. Gillie stood at the helm as theprincipal and remained there for ten years.By 1962, with only a decade left until his retirement, Bernard decided that hewanted \"to try something quite different.\" Two positions for a district superintendent ofschools had become available in the Northwest Territories: one each for the Eastern andWestern Arctic. He applied for both and was given the choice of either one. He opted for329the latter. So in 1962 Bernard along with his wife - he had married in 1958 - six-month-oldbaby girl, and huge Great Dane, Dusty, began the long 1 500 mile drive north to his newjob. Based in Fort Smith, Bernard, in his capacity as superintendent, was responsible forsixty-five schools in the vast area covering the Mackenzie River District. He remained inthis job for ten years, the last four of which he was director of education for the whole ofthe Northwest Territories from east to west.On retiring in 1972 Bernard and his family, which now included two daughters,returned to Victoria and the family home in Strawberry Vale. He was not ready, however,to forfeit his involvement in the educational world and so determined to continue to keephis \"hand in education.\" Lecturing part-time in the Faculty of Education at the University ofVictoria for a short period, Bernard also became involved in a number of education-relatedprojects in association with the University. For a number of years he assisted in theprovision of a resource service for teachers called L.E.A.R.N. (Laboratory for EducationalAdvancement: Resources and Needs). He also acted in an advisory capacity in the selectionand preparation of materials being compiled on the Haida Indians of the Queen CharlotteIslands. During the 1970's he spent five years as a member of the University Council forBritish Columbia, a government appointed body set up to administer the finances andprogrammes of British Columbia's three universities. In recognition of his services toeducation the University of Victoria awarded him an honorary doctorate.It was never Bernard's original intention to become a life-long teacher. Rather heviewed the occupation as a means of achieving what he really wanted out of life, and in thissense teaching was initially merely a fundraiser to him. As he explained: \"The idea was thatI would teach for a few years, get enough money to go to university to do forestry...[This]was so common with so many people who taught in those days....It was a stepping stone.\"In addition, as he pointed out, his year at Hutton Mills was in many respects typical ofcountless other beginning teachers, female as well as male. However once he had made thedecision to pursue teaching as a \"career\" he was determined to get ahead.330Unlike many of the women teachers interviewed, whose work patterns for theirteaching careers indicated a somewhat bi-modal distribution due to their intermittent workrecords, Bernard's participation in the occupation was not only continuous but also entailedrapid advancement through the ranks. He quickly progressed from being a teacher in a tinyone-room school to the position of principal in a two-roomed school. From there hesuccessfully sought promotion into positions in the administrative hierarchies of largemulti-divisional schools in urban areas. His career culminated in his appointment asdirector of education for the whole of the Northwest Territories.Significantly, and again unlike the majority of women teachers, Bernard's careerwas largely unaffected by his personal family commitments. He retained a strongattachment to his home in Strawberry Vale, and indeed during the Depression years of1930's took the decision to live at home in order to provide his parents with financialsupport during a difficult time. He also married, albeit later in life, and he and his wiferaised two children. But, however important these occurrences were, and indeed are, toBernard, they did little to interrupt and/or alter the course of his career. Bernard may wellrepresent an extreme example of the male career path in teaching, but his story is importantnevertheless because it draws attention to the basic and fundamental differences inexperience that existed between men and the majority of women in terms of the nature oftheir participation in the occupation.Under traditional occupational theory the structure of career is based on a verticalmodel which is comprised of two fundamental components: advancement or upwardmobility, and continuous and long-term career commitment. In the light of such a definitionmany of the women whose work histories have been recounted here would not be regardedas committed career teachers in that their participation entailed neither continuous norprogressive advancement in the occupation. Moreover, pursuing a \"career\" as a teacher inthe traditional sense was not necessarily always the main priority in their lives and certainly331had little to do with what they viewed as commitment to the job. Recent sociologicalresearch has begun to question whether the vertical conceptualisation of career is at allappropriate to an understanding of the relationship between women and their commitmentto work and career. Sari Knopp Biklen has described the ways in which women's worklives have generally been examined as both \"inadequate and misleading\" because they arebased on \"stereotypical assumptions about women\" and as a result \"we are hindered inthinking clearly about the work women do because of our immersion in a sociology ofoccupations which takes the lives of men as the norm.\" 30 But, as Rosemary Grant makesplain: \"[The career perceptions and concomitant experiences of women are different frommen's in important ways.\" She argues that for women, far more than for men, \"home andfamily circumstances\" have \"powerful effects\" on women's careers and as a result their\"career pathways\" are necessarily \"locked into, and shaped by, developments in theirpersonal lives.\"31 Sandra Acker also views the \"male-as-norm assumption\" as problematicbecause of the tendency in conventional sociological writing \"to take male experience as thenorm to which women are then (unfavourably) compared.\" As a consequence, she arguesthat:Writers get tangled up trying to equate 'commitment' with what men do. 'Lack ofcommitment' turns out to mean interruptions for childrearing; 'commitment' tomean furthering one's career, especially by moving out of classroom teaching. 32Scholars such as Biklen, Grant and Acker suggest the need to go beyond analysesof the working lives of women where the sole criteria used are the expectations andexperiences that have characterised most mens' work lives and which in turn view any30Sari Knopp Biklen, \"Can Elementary Schoolteaching Be a Career?: A Search for New Ways ofUnderstanding Women's Work,\" Issues in Education 3, 3(Winter 1985): 217.31Rosemary Grant, \"Women Teachers' Career Pathways\" Towards an Alternative Model of 'Career',\"in Teachers, Gender and Careers, ed. Sandra Acker (New York: The Falmer Press, 1989), 39, 47.32Sandra Acker, \"Women and Teaching: A Semi-Detatched Sociology of a Semi-Profession,\" inGender, Class & Education, eds. Walker and Barton, 128332departures from the male and thus \"normal\" work pattern as failure or deviation. The issueof women's career commitment has to be understood somewhat differently. A revisedapproach is sought that supplements, if not replaces, the vertical model of career with\"alternative\" conceptualisations that take into account women's own perspectives and thus\"fits more readily with the realities of women's lives.\" 33 As Biklen contends: \"A genericcareer model must, at its base, account for the lives of both men and women equallywell.\" 34In the course of her interviews with female secondary school deputy head teachersGrant found that for many of the women \"motherhood was a highly valued role.\" This ledher to suggest:Riven traditional role expectations and responsibilities it is inappropriate to expectthe majority of women to adopt the consistently single-minded approach to careeradvancement....Nor do they necesarily wish to do so if this means forfeiting otherequally fulfilling aspects of their lives....The probability is that many women willattempt to juggle family and career roles and that there will be times - possibly inmid-career - when their career advancement will be constrained by family demands.It is important, therefore, to regard women's avowed intentions to pursue careergoals as being subject to fluctuation and change. 35Biklen studied the attitudes of a group of female elementary teachers towards theirwork, and how they negotiated their work interests with sex role and family expectations.She discovered that although they were not always \"physically engaged in full-timeteaching\" because they withdrew from the profession for periods of time over the course oftheir careers, usually to have children, the women she interviewed \"always considered\"themselves as teachers. This apparent contradiction stemmed from the fact that the womensaw that \"bearing and caring for children of one's own did not necessarily reflect upon33Grant, \"Women Teachers' Career Pathways,\" 39.34Biklen, \"Can Elementary Schoolteaching Be a Career?\" 228.35Grant, \"Women Teachers' Career Pathways,\" 41.333one's career commitment.\" 36 Moreover they \"questioned why breaks for child-rearing wereequated with lack of job commitment when they had always thought of themselves asteachers.\" 37 Biklen described the career pattern for these women teachers as one defined by\"internal consistency about one's occupation rather than continuing externalemployment.\"38 As she explained:Externally, then, the lives of these women represent the interrupted careerpattern. Internally, however, they thought of themselves as teachers, whether or notthey were in the job market, and they made choices that kept them close to childrenor to educational concerns. While they did not, in some ways, challenge theboundaries of their lives, they exhibited a coherence in their attitude toward theirwork. 39As noted earlier, commitment to a career usually is seen as inseparable from upwardmobility. The women teachers interviewed by Biklen also brought a different perspective tothis issue. She found that the most \"committed\" teachers brought a \"high level of idealism\"to their work which caused them to concentrate on the \"quality of work and worksetting.\"40 The children were clearly the \"core\" of their work and this focus determined to alarge extent their \"work orientation.\" To quote Biklen:It is this kind of work orientation that I define as idealistic, because it reflects aperson's ideal concept of how a job ought to be done. The teachers focused on thecontent of the occupation, rather than on their work as a link to other occupationalchoices. Quality of performance overrode career value. These teachers oftenthought of how they served the occupation rather than of how the occupation couldserve them.41Although no doubt exists that opportunities for promotion within the school were limited,the teachers idealism about their work also affected their attitudes concerning how36Ibid., 220.37Ibid., 223.38 Ibid., 220.39Ibid., 223.41 Ibid., 224.334worthwhile it would be to move out of their classrooms and up the administrative hierarchyof the school. The immense sense of \"personal satisfaction\" from having gained\"reputations as great teachers\" was of vital importance to these women teachers because itenabled them to \"wield more power and strengthen their autonomy....As the teachers sawit, to be a great teacher meant \"something.\" They were not sure that being a greatadministrator carried an equal weight.\" 42Ellen Lewin and Virginia Olesen have developed the concept of \"lateralness\" as a\"viable and meaningful career pattern\" for women. 43 In their study of female nurses theyfound that for certain of the women they interviewed their careers were characterised not by\"advancement\" but by \"rewards of intensification\" by which they were referring to the\"personal satisfaction\" derived from \"a sense of work well done.\" 44 As they explain:[G]etting better at her job constitutes a central source of satisfaction for the lateralnurse. The pattern which emerges shows that this factor of intensification - thesense of importance which grows from heightening the attributes of the job,becoming more skilful, and relating more sensitively to patients - not only isreflected in stated job satisfaction but may also become an element in the definitionof advancement.45Likewise, Jennifer Nias, in her analysis of a group of elementary teachers, the vastmajority of whom were female, revealed that most frequently the word \"commitment\" wasused synonymously with \"caring.\" Individual teachers were in the occupation because theyfelt \"'the need to give' [often] because they 'care about children'.\" In this sensecommitment to a teaching career entailed \"a high level of 'inclusion'... [where] self and role42Ibid., 227.43E1len Lewin and Virginia Olesen, \"Lateralness in Women's Work: New Views on Success,\" SexRoles 6, 4(August 1980): 626.44Ibid.. 619, 624.45 Ibid., 625.335are necessarily fused.\"46 An equally large proportion of the respondants used\"commitment\" to mean \"occupational competence\" where their definition of the word wascharacterised by a concern with \"taking the job seriously\" and \"'doing the job well'.\" 47 Inboth cases \"'commitment' meant 'involvement'...i.e. a willingness to give thought, timeand energy to the day-to-day performance of the job.\"48 In contrast, and significantly, Niasreported that as far as commitment defined as \"career-continuance\" was concerned she\"encountered only three direct references...all of them from men.\" 49 These findings did notmean that those who used commitment in the sense of \"caring\" or \"occupationalcompetence\" did not wish to pursue careers as teachers. They clearly did.Locating women's work as teachers within the context of the above literature notonly helps clarify the nature of their involvement in the profession but also provides aframework for evaluating the dynamics of what teaching meant as work to women. Suchan approach brings to the fore the potential problems inherent in making inferences and/orassumptions about the inevitability of womens' work experience from outside theframework of the women themselves and of imposing a set meaning on what thatexperience involved. As the details of the lives of the women teachers presented in thisthesis clearly show these women were able to construct lives within the confines of what itmeant to be a woman, and indeed woman teacher, in the 1920's, and to meet their ownneeds in very personal and sometimes unexpected ways. Any analysis of women's workmust therefore be derived from women workers' own perceptions and definitions of work46Jennifer Nias, \"'Commitment' and Motivation in Primary School Teachers,\" Educational Review33, 3(November 1981): 184-5.47Ibid., 186-7.48 Ibid., 182.49Ibid., 188.336must therefore be derived from women workers' own perceptions and definitions of workand career.CONCLUSIONThis case study of teachers and teaching in the rural schools of British Columbia'sOkanagan Valley in the 1920s is significant on a number of levels. The findingscorroborate many of the conclusions reached by other scholars whose research interestshave focussed on the phenomenon of rural schooling elsewhere in the early decades of thetwentieth century. In many respects, the nature of rural school conditions and teacherexperience in the Okanagan Valley were found to be similar to those recorded in otherstudies relating to different regions of British Columbia, 1 as well as across Canada2 and theUnited States. 3 Irrespective of geographical location rural teacher populations were1 See the work of Wilson and Stortz, as well as David C. Jones cited in the bibliography anddiscussed at length in Chapter One of this thesis, especially pages 40-42. See also Adams and Thomas,Floating cwell for an interesting, albeit less academically rigorous, account of ruralschooling that is based on the reminiscences of former teachers and pupils.2For scholarly studies of the Prairies in the inter-war period see Robert S. Patterson, \"Voices Fromthe Past: The Personal and Professional Struggle of Rural School Teachers,\" and David C. Jones, \"Schoolsand Social Disintegration in the Alberta Dry Belt of the Twenties,\" both published in Schools in the West,eds. Sheehan, Wilson and Jones, 99-111 and 265-283. See also Jones' \"Glory, Glory to Alberta,\" which isincluded as a chapter in his Empire of Dust, 176-202. The lives of teachers and pupils in rural schools on thePrairies can also be found in the work of John C. Charyk whose approach to the subject is anecdotal ratherthan analytical but informative nevertheless. See The Little White Schoolhouse, Volumes 1-3 (Saskatoon:Western Producer Prairie Books, 1968-1977), Syrup Pails and Gopher Tails: Memories of the One-RoomSchool (Saskatoon: Western Producer, 1983) and The Biggest Day of the Year: The Old-Time School Christmas Concert (Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1985). John Abbott has addressed twoimportant issues relating to rural education in Ontario: the difficulties involved in the provision of schoolingfor children in isolated districts and the often problematic relationship between rural teachers and theirinspectors. See \"Hostile Landscapes and the Spectre of Illiteracy: Devising Retrieval Systems for\"Sequestered\" Children in Northern Ontario 1875-1930,\" in An Imperfect Past: Education and Society in Canadian History, ed. J. Donald Wilson (Vancouver: Centre for Curriculum and Instruction, University ofBritish Columbia, 1984), 181-194, and \"Accomplishing \"a Man's Task\".\" For a more popular piece that isbased primarily on the personal recollections of former teachers who taught in rural Ontario, see Myrtle Fair,I Remember the One-Room School (Cheltenham, Ontario: The Boston Mills Press, 1979). Studies of ruralschooling and teaching in Quebec and Newfoundland can be found in Jacques Dorion, Les ecoles de rang au Quebec (Montreal: Editions de l'homme, 1979) and Phillip McCann, ed. Blackboards and Briefcase PersonalStories by Newfoundland Teachers. Educators and Administrators (St. John's: Jesperson Press, 1982). For ageneral overview of Canada as a whole see Cochrane, The One-Room School in Canada. 3Particularly useful here are Link, A Hard Country and a Lonely Place, Wayne Fuller, The OldCountry School: The Story of Education in the Midwest (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982) andWayne E. Fuller. \"The Teacher in the Country School,\" in American Teachers: Histories of a Profession at337338typically comprised of young, single, and primarily female individuals. They were alsogenerally inadequately trained and highly transient. The often gruelling professional andsocial conditions encountered by these teachers in small, isolated, and usuallyimpoverished communities, that suffered from inadequate and often unreliabletransportation and communication networks, tested the will and stamina of the strongest ofindividuals. Rural teachers toiled long hours in poorly equipped buildings where theystruggled with seemingly insurmountable pedagogical difficulties and responsibilities. Theyhad to tolerate primitive, sometimes uncongenial, and occasionally hostile livingarrangements. They suffered from constant local scrutiny, frequently highly critical, ofboth their working and private lives. And in all of this many endured great personal andprofessional isolation and loneliness. Taken together such circumstances ensured that lifefor the lone teacher in a remote school district was at the very least trying. For some it wasintolerable. Yet not for all. Despite the uniformly grim circumstances of rural teachingmany teachers regarded their experiences as gratifying and enjoyable. The question I posedwas, why?This question was answered by documenting the experience of rural teaching fromthe intimate perspective of the teachers themselves. Oral interviews with former teachers, aswell as details from personal history documents, revealed that teacher experience in ruralschools was by no means homogeneous. In fact the weight of evidence pointed to diversityrather than uniformity of experience. Thus, although rural teachers may have shared somecommon demographic characteristics, and often had to cope with similar occupational andsocial problems and stresses, it was found that a crucial aspect of the rural teachingexperience was the very personal nature of that experience. The underlying relationship thatWork, ed. Donald Warren (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989), 98-117. See also AndrewGulliford, America's Country Schools (Washington, D.C.: The Preservation Press, 1984) and Cuban, HowTeachers Taught.339existed between the individual teacher and the local world of education in rural districts wasof fundamental importance in determining the nature of teacher experience.A central theme of the study was the profound influence that localism andcommunity conditions had in shaping the educational structures and practices that evolvedin these districts. Localism ensured that each school and the community in which it wassituated was different. The experiences of each teacher depended on such factors as theparticular school in which they taught, the community in which the school was located, andthe character of the school's organisation and management as dictated by the school board.Consequently the specific circumstances encountered by individual teachers variedenormously. The influence of localism had significant implications for teacher experience,and ultimately, played a predominant role in determining the nature of that experience. Theunique economic, social, political and personal circumstances that existed in eachcommunity resulted in often extremely disparate teaching experiences from one school tothe next. Thus, as this study argued, to comprehend fully the historical experience of ruralteachers it is essential to examine that experience in the context of the local communities inwhich rural teachers' lives were embedded.While the recollections of former teachers indicated that local conditions certainlyhad a decisive effect on their experiences in rural schools, the role played by more personalfactors was found to be equally, if not more, significant. The very structure andorganisation of rural society, with its inherent isolation and insularity, meant that in order toattain a degree of success teachers had to conform to the idiosyncracies of the particularcommunity in which they taught. The extent to which teachers were disposed to adjust tothe circumstances in which they found themselves depended primarily on their upbringingand social background, as well as their personality. Teacher reactions to, and managementof, their living and working environments were thus extremely diverse. No single teacherexperienced rural teaching in the same way as another. In essence, how each teacheractually perceived their experience was as unique as the community in which they taught.340This brings us to the original question I posed in the Introduction: What did it meanto be a teacher in a small rural school in the Okanagan Valley in the 1920s? This study ofrural teacher experience not only provided a detailed analysis of what that job entailed butalso offered insights into the significance of the experience to the individual teachersconcerned and the impact that teaching had on the female life course as a whole. The mainconcern was with how women teachers made sense of, and constructed meaning in, theirlives and construed their social reality. Specifically I have tried to document the interplaybetween constraint and choice in women's lives and the ways in which women were able toforge personal meanings within an imposed structure.To the women whose stories are recounted in this study teaching offered manyadvantages that far outweighed the negative aspects of the job. In spite of the difficult anddemanding living and working conditions they had to deal with in rural districts, and incontrast to the sense of restricted occupational choice, many women came to love theirwork and were deeply committed to their pupils and the people in the local communities.Women teachers stressed their degree of autonomy, high social status and immense senseof job satisfaction at least as much as the limitations of their work. The evidence in thisstudy strongly suggested that for a substantial number of women their experience as a ruralschoolteacher, even if that experience had been brief, played an important role in their lives.Most importantly teaching gave women choice in their lives and the opportunity topostpone, either temporarily or permanently, the expected life course for young women inthe 1920s, that is marriage and the roles of housewife and mother. Many women thrived onthe economic independence and autonomy that their work as teachers afforded them.At the same time however the experience of teaching did not \"revolutionize\" thelives of women. Historian Veronica Strong-Boag has outlined the powerful ideological4Underwood, \"The Pace of their Own Lives,\" 515.341constraints which defined the boundaries of women's lives in the 1920s and whichdetermined how and why their lives took the shape they did:[W]omen had to make their way in a world that, for all its appearance ofinnovation, remained committed to their sex's primary responsibility for themaintenance of family and home. Right from birth, female socialization wasdesigned to produce citizens committed to domestic values [and] the maternal rolethey were expected, almost without exception to embrace. The implications of thisfundamental allocation of responsibility touched every facet of female experience. 5The women whose lives were the focus of this study were no exception. Unlike themajority of their male contemporaries, traditional gender roles overshadowed the careeropportunities of the women who were interviewed. Their career pathways werecharacterised by periodic movement in and out of the labour force as opposed to most menswhich displayed continuous and usually upward movement. Clearly \"women's lives do notshare the same rhythms [as men's].\" 6 Motherhood was regarded as an equally, and forsome a more, fulfilling aspect of their lives. For the most part these women accepted whatJudith Arbus has referred to as the \"gender status quo.\" 7 Teaching may have providedwomen with greater freedom to determine their life course but the responsibility andobligation, both real and perceived, that these women felt towards their families had aprofound influence on the decisions they made concerning work and career. As educationalhistorian Geraldine Clifford has contended: \"For women, far more than for men, familymembership has determined or influenced entry to, persistence in, and departure from ateaching career.\" 8 She further argues that the effects of home and family circumstances on5Strong-Boag, The New Day Recalled, 217.6Franca Iacovetta and Mariana Valverde, ed. Gender Conflicts: New Essays in Women's History(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), xix.7Arbus, \"Grateful to be Working,\" 187.8Clifford, \"Man/Woman/Teacher,\" 320.342women's lives \"requires not mere acknowledgement or apology, but reconceptualization inhistory and sociology.\"9This study addressed the important issue of women's participation in theworkforce. It argued that if we are to understand the nature of the meaning of teaching aswork to women the experience of women teachers must be \"thoughtfully situated in timeand space.\" 1 ° Moreover, it is only by listening carefully to their personal accounts andclosely examining the details of their lives that it becomes possible to go beyond theideological assumptions of what the life of a woman who began teaching in the 1920'sentailed. Only then does it become possible to speculate on the reasons for, andconsequences of decisions that were made in terms of rewards as well as limitations, and tounderstand the complexities of what work and career meant to these individual women.As well as focussing on the experience of the teachers who taught in remotedistricts this study also considered the process of schooling in the rural communitiesthemselves. As the primary, and frequently the only, social institution in many ruralcommunities the school acted as the pivot around which the rest of rural society revolved.Standing at the helm of the school the teacher occupied a central place in the localcommunity. The life of the teacher and that of the school were woven together as anintegral part of the very texture of rural society. Through a detailed examination of the lifeand work experiences of teachers who worked in rural districts this study also offeredsome insights into the role of education in rural society and how remote schools functionedat the local level: where, how and why they were established, managed, supported andcontrolled; who was enrolled in them; when and why they attended, or did not attend; andhow they were educated and experienced learning. Information collected during interviewswith former rural school pupils provided fascinating material concerning the dynamics of91bid., 329.10Personal Narratives Group, Interpreting Women's Lives, 12343the rural classroom, the nature of the relationships that developed between teachers andtheir pupils, and the responses of the students, and indirectly their parents, to their ruralschooling experience. The evidence strongly supported the contention that the education oftheir children was given a high priority by rural residents. At the same time, however, ruralschools were intensely local institutions. They were so closely adapted to the communitiesof which they were a product that they came to mirror not only the material conditions, butalso the attitudes, mores and values of the local community. Accordingly, the nature andextent of the education rural children both required and received represented no more thanthe needs of rural society. It was a reflection of what rural parents in the 1920s expectedand wanted.Finally, the significance of this study is not restricted exclusively to the field ofeducational history but also contributes to the broader question of rural history, an area ofresearch that has been largely neglected. Although referring to the American situation,historian William Link's suggestions as to the possible reasons for this dearth of researchinto rural history are also pertinent in the Canadian context:First, geographical diversity makes study of the rural world an imposing subject,full of obstacles to understanding collective pasts; decentralization and regionaldistinctions make the rural experience considerably more difficult to understandthan the urban experience. Second, the sources of rural history, unlike those ofurban history, are scattered, largely oral and unwritten, often unpreserved and lostin the oblivion of the past. 11School and community in rural areas were so intimately connected that this study, by virtueof its focus on the school, inevitably offered some perspective on the nature of rural societyand the qualities of rural life itself. Rural schools provided a window on their socialsurroundings. Thus, the ways in which rural residents organised and ran their schoolsrevealed not only their views on the relative importance of education but also suggestedmuch about their general attitudes towards work and recreation and thus what was of value11Link, A Hard Country and a Lonely Place, ix.344in their lives. Rural living in the 1920s is portrayed in this study as strenuous. Physicalhardship, isolation, poverty and constant work were its predominant features. 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Magazine 3, 2(September 1908): 161-165.Walker, H.M. \"Enderby, the Gateway of the Okanagan.\" Westward Ho! Magazine 2,6(June 1908): 67-69.Wamboldt, Beryl. \"Enderby and District: From Wilderness to 1914.\" OHSR 33(1969): 31-48.Ward, Arthur. \"Growing Up in Glenmore, 1911-1926.\" OHSR 44(1980): 101-105.Wardrop, Jim. \"Donald Graham: Pioneer, Politician and Co-Operator.\" OHSR 44(1980):19-22.Watt, George M. \"Transportation By Road and Trail in the Okanagan Valley.\" OHSR27(1963): 50-57.Webber, Jean. \"Coldstream Municipality.\" OHSR 15(1951): 77-85.Weber, Dolores. \"A History of the Ukrainian People in Grindrod.\" OHSR 43(1979): 30-42.Weeks, Joseph B. \"Steamboating on Okanagan Lake.\" OHSR 6(1935): 220-229.^ . \"The Swan Song of the Sternwheelers on Okanagan Lake.\" OHSR 13(1949):59-62.379Weiler, Kathleen. \"Rural, Liberty, and Hope: Women Teachers in Country Schools inCalifornia 1860-1900. Paper presented at the American Educational ResearchAssociation Conference, San Francisco, 27 March, 1989.Wejr, Stan. \"Memories of Trinity Creek Area in the 1920's.\" OHSR 50(1986): 78-79.Westkott, Marcia. \"Feminist Criticism of the Social Sciences.\" Harvard EducationalReview 49, 4(November 1979): 422-430. Reprinted in Feminist ResearchMethods: Exemplary Readings in the Social Sciences, ed. Joyce McCarl Neilson,58-68. Boulder, San Francisco: Westview Press, 1990.White, Hester. \"Governesses.\" OHSR 23(1959): 47.Wills, Lloyda. \"Thomas Alfred Norris --1874-1960.\" OHSR 43(1979): 67-68.Wilson, Catharine Anne. \"Outstanding in the Field\": Recent Rural History in Canada.\"Acadiensis 20, 2(Spring 1991): 177-190.Wilson, J. Donald. \"The Visions of Ordinary Participants: Teachers' View of RuralSchooling in British Columbia in the 1920's.\" In A History of British Columbia: Selected Readings, ed. Patricia E. Roy, 239-255. 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THESESBryans, Wendy. \"Virtuous Women at Half the Price: The Feminization of the TeachingForce and Early Women Teacher Organizations in Ontario.\" M.A. thesis,University of Toronto, 1974.Dendy, David. \"A Cent a Pound or on the Ground: Okanagan Fruit Growers andMarketing, 1920-1935.\" M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1981.Jones, David Charles. \"Agriculture, the Land, and Education: British Columbia, 1914-1929.\" Ed.D. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1978.Ormsby, Margaret A. \"A Study of the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia.\" M.A. thesis,University of British Columbia, 1931.Stortz, Paul James. \"The Rural School Problem in British Columbia in the 1920's.\" M.A.thesis, University of British Columbia, 1988.Thomson, Duncan Duane. \"History of the Okanagan: Indians and Whites in the SettlementEra, 1860-1920.\" Ph.D. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985.Yakimovitch, Larry Mike. \"An Historical Interpretation of the Land Utilization and TenurePattern in the Vernon Rural Area of the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. M.A.thesis, University of Oregan, 1965.381APPENDIX 1DID YOU TEACH IN A ONE-ROOM SCHOOL?I am a historian of education at the University of British Columbia and am currentlystudying the history of rural and one-room schools in British Columbia, focussing on theOkanagan area in the period from 1920 to 1930.While I have been able to compile a comprehensive list of school and teacher namesit is very difficult to build up a detailed picture of exactly who these teachers were -- Whydid they decide to pursue a teaching career in one-room schools in remote areas? What wasit like to teach in these schools? How did local conditions and circumstances affect the wayin which they carried out their teaching responsibilities?I would be very grateful for any information that would shed light on my researchtopic. In particular, I would like to share the recollections, impressions and experiences ofthose people, both teachers and pupils, who encountered life in the rural and one-roomschools in the Okanagan in the 1920's.My address is: Penelope Crabtree, Department of Social and Educational Studies,Faculty of Education, 2125 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BritishColumbia, V6T 1Z5.Thank-you for your cooperation.APPENDIX 2ATTENDING A RURAL SCHOOL IN THE OKANAGAN VALLEY IN THE1920s1. How old were you when you first went to school?2. Can you remember the names of the schools you attended btween 1920 and 1930?3. Can you describe the conditions of:a) both the interior and the exterior of the school house itself?b) the school grounds?c) equipment and supplies in the school?4. Was the school adequately heated?5. Was a janitor employed to heat the school?6. How did you get to school every day?7. Did you ever have any difficulty in getting to school?8. Can you remember how many pupils there were in the schools you attended?9. How many grades did each of the schools you attended include?10. Can you remember the name(s) of the teacher(s) who taught you?11. Can you remember where, and with whom the teacher(s) lived?12. How did you feel about your teacher(s)?13.Did you get on well with her/him/them?14.What sort of homes did most of the pupils come from?15.What kind of work did your parents and those of other parents do?16. Do you recall the parents of the pupils ever coming to the school to see the teacher forany reason?17. How do you think the teacher got on with:a) the parents of the pupilsb) men in the community?382383c) other women in the community?18.What was the attitude of the community towards education?19. Do you ever remember the Inspector visiting the school? If so, can you describe thesevisits? Did a female Inspector ever visit your teacher? If so, can you describe these visitsalso?20. How old were you when you finished attending rural schools?21. What are your most vivid memories of you education in rural schools? Please explainin as much detail as possible any events or feelings that stick out in your mind as beingimportant/amusing/upsetting/ etc. Don't forget to indicate, if you can, which schools and/orteachers you are referring to? Remember that I am interested in your experience in ruralschools and that 4.11 your recollections , however trivial you may think they will seem tome, are important.Finally, what values do you think you gained from attending rural schools?THANK-YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION384TEACHING IN RURAL SCHOOLS IN THE OKANAGAN IN THE 1920'STEACHING AS EMPLOYMENT AND/OR CAREER1. Why did you decide to take up teaching as a means of employment?2. How old were you when you began teaching?3. Was your training at Normal School adequate as preparation for teaching in a rural area?4. Why did you choose to teach in a remote rural area?5. What were the names of the rural schools in which you taught between 1920 and 1930?6. What salary did you earn and do you think it was appropriate for the job that you weredoing?7. What degree of intellectual stimulation did you gain from your job?8. Was your task as a teacher affected by your gender? In other words, was your job madeany easier/more difficult by the fact that you were a woman/man?9. How long, in total, did you teach in rural schools?10. How often, if at all, did you move from one school to another?11.What reasons did you have for moving?12.Did you ever attend Summer School or one of the annual Teachers' Conventions?SCHOOL FACILITIES1. How would you describe the conditions of:a) both the interior and the exterior of the school house itself?b) the school grounds?c) equipment and supplies in the school?2. Was the school adequately heated?3. What funds were available for buying school equipment and supplies?4. Was a janitor employed to clean the school house?385PUPILS1. How many pupils/grades did you teach in each school?2. What was your relationship with the pupils like?3. What were the pupils attitudes towards learning?4. Did they regard education as important?5. How would you assess the academic performance of the pupils?6. What kind of teaching methods did you use in these small rural schools?7. How would you assess the general state of health of the pupils you taught?8. Was the attendance of the pupils affected by climatic conditions/seasonal changes inemployment in the community etc.?INTERACTION WITH THE COMMUNITY1. What were your relationships like with:a) the parents of the pupils?b) men in the community?c) other women in the community?d) the school trustees?2. What was the attitude of the community towards education?3. What degree of authority did you have over educational policy-making in thecommunity?4. How would you describe your status or standing as a member of the community ingeneral, and as a teacher in particular?5. What degree of authority did you exercise in the decision-making in the community?6. Do you think you fitted into the community well or did you feel that you were anoutsider?7. Were there any experiences that were particularly important in your time as a teacher inrural communities?386SOCIAL/PERSONAL LIFE1. What kind of accommodation did you have? Can you remember how much it cost?2. How much choice did you have in deciding where and with whom you lived?3. How would you describe your social life as a teacher in a rural community?4. What means of entertainment were available for you to pursue?5. Did you have contact with other teachers either in your own community or elsewhere?EDUCATIONAL POLICY-MAKING1. What was your relationship with the Inspector like?2. How did you feel about the visits of the Inspector to your school(s)?3. Did Lottie Bowron, the Rural Teachers' Welfare officer, ever visit you ? If so, can youdescribe her visit(s)?4. What degree of job security do you consider you had as a teacher in a rural school?What are your most vivid memories of your experience as a teacher in rural schools? Pleaseexplain in as much detail as possible any events or feelings that stick out in your mind asbeing important/amusing/upsetting etc. Don't forget to indicate which schools you arereferring to. Remember that it is your experience as a teacher in rural schools that I aminterested and that X11 of your recollections, however trivial you think they may seem to me,are important.Finally, what values do you think you gained from living and working as a teacher in ruralcommunities?THANK-YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION387APPENDIX 3TAPE RELEASE Subject to the conditions noted below, I release all rights, title or interest in, and to all orany part of this recording to PENELOPE CRABTREE who, for scholarly purposes only,may freely cite and/or quote from it according to guidelines established by the ProvincialArchives of British Columbia. Unless specified below, I do not object to the recordingbeing deposited in the said Provincial Archives.Conditions:None: [ ] orSigned:Date:Agreed:Signed:"@en ; edm:hasType "Thesis/Dissertation"@en ; vivo:dateIssued "1993-05"@en ; edm:isShownAt "10.14288/1.0055656"@en ; dcterms:language "eng"@en ; ns0:degreeDiscipline "Social and Educational Studies"@en ; edm:provider "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en ; dcterms:publisher "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:rights "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en ; ns0:scholarLevel "Graduate"@en ; dcterms:title "Portraits in the first person: an historical ethnography of rural teachers and teaching in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley in the 1920s"@en ; dcterms:type "Text"@en ; ns0:identifierURI "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/2588"@en .