Historical Curriculum in Saskatchewan

1. Historical Curriculum in Saskatchewan The Constitution of White Subjects

2. Where has curriculum Been? • … The fact about our present curriculum is that it was essentially created by the nineteenth century, following some eighteenth century models and retaining elements of the medieval curriculum near its center. A case can be made for every item in it, yet its omissions are startling. (Williams 1961, pp. 150-151)

3. Where has Curriculum Been? • Designate • What goes on in the classroom • What ‘content’ is deemed valuable • ‘Standards’ • Differentiate • Different ‘courses’ for different students • Standards = access

4. Where has Curriculum been? • By the twentieth century … the ‘classroom system’ (for example, lessons, subjects, timetables, grading, standardization, streaming) had become so pervasive that it successfully achieved a normative status – creating the standards against which all subsequent educational innovations came to be judged. (Hamilton, 1980, p. 282) • curriculum increasingly comes to mean ‘school subject’

5. Monday, January 19th, 1914

6. Monroe, P. (1907). A Brief Course in the History of Education. • “The curriculum becomes but the epitomized representation to the child of this cultural inheritance of the race” (p.407)

7. Horne, H. (1904). The Philosophy of education: Being the foundations of education in the related natural and mental sciences. “Curriculum is the accumulated racial experience, the product of human society as a whole living its life in the world” (p.145)

8. Horne, H. (1904). The Philosophy of education: Being the foundations of education in the related natural and mental sciences. • “In brief, the environment of the pupil is the achievement of the race, to which he potentially belongs, in the conquest of nature, in the movement of affairs, and in the knowledge of itself. … he finds his own life in the race’s life” (Horne, 1904, p. 98) • “If education cannot be identified with mere instruction, what is it? What does the term mean? I answer, it must mean a gradual adjustment to the spiritual possessions of the race” (p. 98) 

9. Horne, H. (1904). The Philosophy of education: Being the foundations of education in the related natural and mental sciences. • Intelligence … “may be fostered by home environment and good schools, (is) nevertheless bred and not created. The education is of small value unless it be applied to an intelligent race of men.” (p. 47)

10. Notes “It is however quite certain that the Slavic racial or religious ideals, or even racial characteristics, will never become dominant among us. These {qualities} are ‘embodied’ in a peasant population which has little or no influence over its second generation, for it has found a higher social level.” The Education of the New Canadians (1918), p. 61 “Shudder as we Anglo-Saxons may at the thought of it, our descendants are more than likely to marry Poles or Bohemians or Ruthenians or Russians, as we now call them.” The Education of the New Canadians (1918), p. 158 “Many of these people will be very slow to understand and apprectiate the higher ideals of our civilization, but we have every reason to hope that their offspring, born under the Union Jack, will grow up as valuable Canadian citizens.” The Education of the New Canadians (1918), p. 55 “The Icelander will be dealt with as the ideal type of non-Anglo-Saxon immigrant…” The Education of the New Canadians (1918), p. 39 “Accustomed to the rigors of a northern climate, clean-blooded, thrifty, ambitious and hard-working, they will be certain of success…” Stranger Within Our Gates (1909), p. 92 The need for English culture “broad and deep” to be a part of teachers of English… The Teaching of English (1902), p. 391 Only certain races had inclinations towards freedom – “… the Anglo-Saxon race displayed a special genius for self-government and political organization.” The Sense of Power (1970) p. 117 “We need more of our own blood to assist us to maintain in Canada our British traditions and to mould the incoming armies of foreigners into loyal British subjects.” Stranger Within Our Gates (1909), p. 50 • Anglo Saxon • Norwegian / Northern Europe • Slavs / Ruthenians / Eastern Europe • Orientals • Africans / Indians

11. Notes They (Mongolians) are practically unchangeable. A History of Education (1886) p. 10 “The Orientals cannot be assimilated.” Stranger Within Our Gates (1909), p. 189 A history of education. (1900) pp. 9-10 Its people belong to the Mongolian race, whose genius is shown by the early invention of paper, printing, gunpowder, and the mariner’s compass…. They are industrious and economical; and in the relations of everyday life they are polite and kind. They honour their parents, love their children, and respect their authority. Possessed of great patience, they endure oppression and suffering without a murmur. On the other hand, they are destitute of deep moral convictions. They are hypocritical and dishonest; and once in authority, they are apt to become tyrannical, and even cruel. Their wives are held in contempt. Destitute of hope beyond the grave, and incapable of spiritual delights, their aspirations are confined to earthly objects. “Blood, rather than language or religion, is the chief barrier that separates them from the rest of the community.” Stranger Within Our Gates (1909), p. 190 “We confess that the idea of a homogenous people seems in accord with our democratic institutions and conducive to the general welfare.” Stranger Within Our Gates (1909), p. 277, Argues for limiting and largely excluding orientals “Essentially non-assimilable elements are clearly detrimental to our highest national development, and hence should be vigorously excluded.” Stranger Within Our Gates (1909), p. 278 … no account is taken of uncivilized peoples, since education with them consists almost exclusively in training the body for war and the chase. Their education is thus too primitive in its character to bring it within the scope of our present understanding. History of Education (1900) p. 8 or from the psychology text …The Indian lost his broad lands more from lack of altruistic than of selfish motives. He was too often at war with other tribes, too revengeful, and his sympathies were too narrow. Halleck, (1985), p, 256 • Anglo Saxon • Norwegian / Northern Europe • Slavs / Ruthenians / Eastern Europe • Orientals • Africans / Indians

12. Warning – this work is important and vital – we need energy, determination and tolerance otherwise, “the future of our Canadian citizenship will fail to reach that high level of intelligence which has ever characterized Anglo-Saxon civilization throughout the world.” • “It is surely manifest that the greatest agency in racial assimilation is the common or public school. This is the great melting-pot into which must be placed these divers racial groups, and from which will eventually emerge the pure gold of Canadian citizenship.” p. 96 • “Teachers! This is the kind of work required of you in the foreign settlements. You must get acquainted with these people of divers nationalities and interpret to them what our Canadian citizenship means. The solution of the racial problem lies almost wholly in your hands; the future of our glorious country depends upon your attitude on this national issue.” p. 135

13. White Racialization • Don’t be scandalized… • Notice: • the centrality of race and racialization to education. • Echoes of Ken Montgomery’s work here – p. 438 • the process of racialization • the construction of a white-Anglo superiority • the construction of inferiority • the need to assert these things • fear that these things have not been accomplished • we may not be white enough, we may not stay white enough

14. Questions to Consider… • What does race mean in this textbook? • We will explore some of these meanings in seminar • What does it mean that teachers are being taught to think in racial terms? • Are teachers still thinking in racial terms? • What are the effects of teaching teachers to think in this way?