The subjects to be taught and the textbooks used have always been carefully monitored by the Superintendents of Education. No deviation was allowed. Since the middle of the Twentieth Century, teachers and professional consultants have helped to broaden the student outlook with a wide range of subjects.

“”7

In early studies all teachers were required to concentrate on the three r s , using such book

titles as: Murray’s Reader — Introduction and Spelling with casual interpretation of the

Carpenter’s Assistant

The Universal Prince Edward Island Barnum and Chamber’s Spelling Book

Daily Lesson Books adopted in the schools of the British and Foreign Bible Society from Grades 1 to 4

Challoner’s History of the 01d and New Testament

Gray’s Arithmetic

Lennie’s Grammar

Goldsmith and Chamber’s work on Geography

Regarding religious studies, the directive from the Department of Education, in 1848, read as follows:

...that the Protestant authorized version of the Scriptures is read in some schools, and Douay in others. In mixed schools both versions are to be read, without exposition of doctrinal points, or allusions to them The Catechisms of the particular denominations to which the children belong, are taught them, when their parents of guardians desire it.

Records of the local school indicate that student population had its ups and downs with the number of teachers varying with this fluctuation.

CONCLUSION

In retrospect, the education system was good at the beginning. However it was kept at a stale- mate for many years after changes should have been made.

For those who had struggled for a better education, the movement was toward the towns or larg— er villages. The larger population gave these areas the chance to pay larger supplements to the teachers and to keep their tax rate low. The opposite situation was found in the sparsely popu- lated areas of the Island. In many areas it was nearly impossible for a family to make a living. Paying taxes to hire a teacher and to keep the school open was an added burden to the family. If a teacher were hired, it was, in many cases, someone in the community who was willing to take over the job without extra remuneration. It wasn’t necessarily a person with the required

qualifications.

With this disparity, the towns continued to move away from the rural areas in providing an all~ around education for their children. For nearly one hundred years inequality abounded in the Province. Snobbery was the theme of the day when teachers met for their Annual Conventions, as the “country cousins” arrived in the city. This was the unwelcome group of teachers on Prince Edward Island who were considered to have less knowledge in the ways of helping to educate the young. This difference did not end until the UNIT system was instituted in 1970.

At the turn of the twentieth century many of the seaports had large populations and like the port village, Stanley Bridge, had more than one teacher hired. With the import of people to work at the Dairy in Stanley Bridge, the shipbuilding industry, the wharves, and stores, the number of residents hit an all time high. However, the bustling area began to decline when demands on shipping became more centralized. The ‘stakes’ for the railway line which was supposed to pass through Stanley Bridge were moved inland, and the children of large families became adults. The age of mechanization was beginning to have an effect upon this village.

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