172 THEISLAND ACADIANS 
     
    
   
   
    
     Thanks to the regional assemblies and the annual conventions 
     
     which were open to the public, taxpayers took a greater interest in 
     
     education. They informed themselves about their responsibilities for 
     
     the maintenance of the schools, and above all, the proper education 
     
     for their children. Extremely impressed by this progress, the Chief 
     
     Superintendent of Education, Alexander Anderson, remarked in his 
     
     annual report of 1907: 
     
    
   
   
    
     No section of our people puts forth more effort to secure Education for their 
     
     children, and none are more self-denying and none more enthusiastic than 
     
     the Acadians. There is no Acadian District but votes a good supplement to its 
     
     teacher. They have generally good schoolhouses and school grounds planted 
     
     with shade trees and are well supplied with the necessary apparatus. In all 
     
     these respects they are far in advance of districts older and much wealthier.”° 
     
    
   
   
    
     Regional assemblies continued to be held in some parishes, albeit 
     
     irregularly, right up until 1953 when the Home and School Association, 
     
     as it exists today, was created on the Island. It is interesting to note, 
     
     however, that even in its final years the Acadian Teachers’ Association 
     
     always included in the agenda of its convention a report from the 
     
     regional parent-teacher assemblies. 
     
    
   
   
    
     THE SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS SOCIETY 
     
    
   
   
    
     To acertain extent, it was the conventions of the Acadian Teachers’ 
     
     Association that gave rise to the Saint Thomas Aquinas Society, an 
     
     organization that was to become the principal voice of the Acadian 
     
     community on the Island. It was founded at a public meeting on 
     
     August 18 during the 1919 convention, held in the parish of Bloom- 
     
     field. The meeting had been called to discuss the formation of a 
     
     society that would be responsible for “raising funds for the education 
     
     of young Acadians” (TR)?'. The need for this type of organization was 
     
     obvious to the members of the convention who knew full well that 
     
     the majority of Acadians were small farmers and fishermen by trade 
     
     and thus could not afford to have their numerous children educated 
     
     in colleges and convents. Yet the Acadians desperately needed educated 
     
     people capable of contributing to the growth and preservation of their 
     
     culture.