URBANIZATION AND EDUCATION IN ONTARIO AND QUEBEC, 1867-1914

Abstract

Urbanization has been a significant cause of educational problems - problems both for the rural school and for the urban school - in Canada for the past one hundred years. The industrialization of Canada in the late nineteenth century, particularly Ontario and Quebec, was accompanied by rapid urban growth which changed population patterns and placed strains on both rural and urban schools. Educators and politicians of the day seemed aware of what was referrcd to as the "rural school problem" and concentrated a great deal of energy (unsuccessfully as it turned out) in attempting to solve this dilemma. Unfortunately they seemed unaware that urbanization was also creating an urban school problem every bit as serious.