Faculty Advisory Board

The History of the Faculty of Education:

150 years from Normal

Progress report March 20, 2007

 

 

Jacques Cartier Normal School -- Timeline -- McGill Normal School..........

1857 - 1907 The Normal Years

Normal School Beginings commenced on a Tuesday

1857 Jacques Cartier Normal School (JCNS) (corner of Ste. Claude and Notre Dame) officially opened the morning of TuesdayMarch 3, 1857 in the Chateau de Ramezay

The religious order of brothers carried major load for teacher training, as did the sisterhoods for female teachers. They were segregated as to sex for both elementary and secondary training. A growing need for personnel to man the English Catholic schools led to the creation of a separate institution to meet the situation. Population outpaced the religious orders ability produce teachers to fill classrooms.

1857 McGill Normal School (MNS) Belmont Street officially opened the afternoon of Tuesday, March 3, 1857 in Belmont Street.
The Hon. P.J.O. Chavreau, Superintendent of Education for Lower Canada precided at both inaugural openings

What is Normal about a Normal School?

At the morning session Superintendent Chavreau had invited Mr. Regnaud, a teacher of twenty years, to take part in the opening ceremonies. In the 1830's Regnaud had been invited by the Superintendant of Public Instruction in France to establish and direct one of the first primary Normal Schools in the country. Mons. Guizot, Minister of Public Instruction then invited Regnaud to come and establish the first Normal school in Canada. "...:My reception was most cordial but...I had come a little too soon...The internal political dissenstions of 1837 happened some weeks after the opening of the Normal School , and the establishment was by these circumstances converted into a guard house. The pupils dispersed, and thereafter, the formation of a Normal School became impossible."

Regnaud outlined the attributes of the Normal School. He noted that the Latin word "Norma " signifies the manner of proceeding conformably to reason - to the nature of things, and to general usage. To render a school primary Normal , it is necessary that it should embrace all the branches of primary teaching. A Normal School to train teachers should not confine itself to different methods of teaching, nor to examples of the application of those methods. It has a duty to 'review everything teachable in elementary schools, to correct all errors that may affect it, to regulate all princi[ples composing it, and to place teaching in the way to perfection the most complete and the soonest attained.

He continued stating that the object of a Normal School is to 1.) Train primary school teachers and, 2.) To try and verify all the different methods of primary school teaching which require an understanding of "...reading, writing, French and English Grammar, Geography, Arithmetic, the rudiments of Geometry, Algebra, and trigonometry, Surveying...the use of mathematical instruments including the Theodolite and mariner's compass,some ideas of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and ...elements of Natural History...History...Astronmoy...Music (vocal or instrumental)... Agriculture...horticulture...and Book-keeping (in a practical manner)"

Later that afternoon Chavreau picked up on the definition noting that Normal was derived from the latin word 'norma' meaning rule. The word was also close to 'forma' hence the form. Rule is to the moral world, what form and shape is to the physical world....If anything requires rule, it is certainly education...A Normal School , therefore, must consist of two distinct departments: 1.) The Normal School propoer where the rules of the art of teaching are expounded, and 2.) the Model School, where they are illustrated by practice.

The 1857 Prosepectus of the McGill Normal School

(JELC 1857, Vol.1 No.1 pp.30-31)

The McGill Normal School is chiefly designed to train effective teachers for the protestant population of Lower Canada. It is a provincial institution, under the control of the Government, and of the Superintendent of schools. Its connection with McGill college consists in the Superintendent of Education having associated with him for its management the governing body of that university, which will enable the pupil-teachers to derive from such benefits from the university as its large means of education allow it to offer.

Instruction and training in the Normal school itself -- Staff: the Principal (Principal John Dawson- Natural History and Agriculture) , 2 english professors (Mr. Robins and Mr. Hicks) , and a professor of french (Mr. Léon Fronteau).

By practice in the Model Schools -- Practice teaching: it will have model schools for girls and boys, in the normal school building; and more fully to carry out this important part of the work, the large and excellent model school for both sexes already in operation under the committee of the Colonial Church and School Society, has been associated with the institution, as a branch model school.

The McGill Normal School is intended to give a thorough training to teachers, especially for the protestant population of LC...It is attained by instruction and training in the Normal School itself, and by practice in the Model Schools

1862-63....Special Regulations for Government and Discipline (of Pupil-teachers)
1. Pupil -teachers guilty of drunkenness, of frequenting taverns, or entering disorderly houses or gambling houses, of keeping company with disorderly persons, or of committing any act of immorality or insubordination, shall be expelled.

2. There shall be no intercourse between the male and female pupil-teachers while in the school, or when going to, or returning from it. Teachers of one sex are strictly prohibited from visiting those of the other.

3. They are on no account to be absent from theeir lodgings after half-past nine o'clock in the evening.

4. They will be allowed to attend such lectures and public meetings only as may be considered by the Principal conducive to their moral and mental improvement.

5. Proprietors of boarding-houses authorised by the Principal, shall report to him any infraction of the rules, with which they may become acquainted.

6. The Professors shall have the power of excluding from the lectures for a time, any student who may be innatentive to his studies or guilty of any minor infraction of the regulations.

7. Pupil-teachers shall be required to state, with what religious denomination they are connected, and lists of the students connected with each denomination shall be furnished to one of the ministers of such denomination resident in montreal, with a request that he will meet weekly with that portion of the pupil-teachers, or otherwise provide for their religious instruction.

Every Thursday afternoon, after four o'clock, will be assigned for this purpose.

8. In addition to punctual attendance at the weekly religious instruction, each student will be required to attend public worship at his own church, at least every Sunday.

(Source: McGil University Calendar 1862-1863)
Click here for 1862-63 Officers of Instruction

Course of Study

(for Elementary Diploma and Model Diploma):

All the branches of a good English and french education, with special reference to their principles and practical applications, and to the best methods of teaching them. Instructions will also be given in the art of teaching and the management of schools, in history, the elements of geometry and algebra, natural philosophy, chemistry, natural history, agriculture, drawing and music. Religious instruction representing the denomination with which the pupil-teracher may be connected.

McGill Normal School Teaching Diplomas

In 1857 McGill Normal School initially offered 1 & 4. By 1907 it was also offering 2, 3, and 5

1.Elementary School Diploma.

2.Advanced Elementary School Diploma.

3.Kindergarten Diploma

4.Model School Diploma.

5.Academy Diploma.

1873.....Click here for 1873-74 Officers of Instruction........

1875 - Image Jacques Cartier Normal School

1882 (JCNS) Moves north to Logan's Farm on Sherbrooke Street (Lafontaine Park)

1906.....Click here for 1906-07 Officers of Instruction.

1907 Jacques Cartier Normal Schjool celebrates its Golden anniversary

1907

June - McGill Normal School closes down on Belmont Street

September - Macdonald College School for teachers opens at Ste. Anne-de-Bellevue

1926 Catholic High School of Montreal (a private institution operated by the Presentation Brothers) opens on Durocher Street north of Sherbrooke

1939 (Feb) approval obtained for the Catholic Committee to create an institution for the education of English Catholic male teachers, and to be called (JCNS, English section)

1939 Sept. 8 opening of (JCNS, English Section) assigned one floor of an abandoned wing at JCNS

10 (college graduates) students in the one-year postgraduate group and 20 high school graduates in the two-year junior group (notable students - John Scullion, Vincent Patton, Leo Sanchini, Brendan Fahey, Tom Francoeur and Martin O'Hara

First student teaching school---Edward Murphy School (EMS) on Craig St. E.

1940 Catholic High School Examination Board created.

1942 February - when the teacher training program vacated the college to provide facilities for the Canadian Womens Army League. For the duration of WW2 teacher training was located at the downtown campus.

1945 September - After WW2 the School for Teachers moved back to Macdonald College

1948 Sunday afternoon in March (JCNS) burns

St. Thomas Aquinas School in St. Henri became Student teaching centre for next 4 years

(EMS) top floor becomes home of program

1950 5 sisters of St. Ann enrolled in the JCNS-English sector college

1952 JCNS Building on Lafontaine Park rebuilt and re-opened.

1953 - Development of female segment of the school really began. Prior to this Sisters of the Congegation of Notre Dame first at Notre Dame College then at Marianopolis College trained female teachers.

1954 Thomas Alexander Francoeur joins the staff

1955 School opened up in an elementary school in NDG and became The Saint Joseph Teachers' College ranking with Ecole Normale Jacques Cartier

1956 Madeleine Buteau, Martin O'Hara and Paul Gallagher join faculty

1957 Father John Hilton becomes Vice-Principal of the college (later the principal) and becomes the Chaplain to the Newman Club at McGill University

1957 the amalgamation of the School of Teachers, the School of Physical Education, and the Department of Education created The McGill Institute of Education (housed in the Faculty of Arts). D.C. Munroe, Macdonald Professor of Education, moved from being Director of the School for Teachers to his new appointment as the first Director of the Institute.

1958 St. Joe's moves into the former Catholic High School of Montreal on Durocher Street.

Staff that join here Brendan Fahey, Dominic Modaferri, William Ryan, Norman Henchey, Robert Lavery, Bill Lawlor, Paul Boulianne, Louise Bourgault, André Leblanc, Henri and Helen Gougeon, Sister Scott, Socrates Rapagna, eo Dowd, Kathleen Francoeur, Maurice Dupré, Clifford Papke, André Provencher, Grahem Spence, Ann Creaghan, Lenore Duggan

 

1964 25th Anniversary of St, Joe's

1965 The Institute became the Faculty of Education under the Deanship of C. Wayne Hall with programs at both Mac and downtown.

1970 St. Joe's merges with Macdonald College for Teachers to become the Faculty of Education, McGill University containing a Department of Catholic Studies.

1907 A Closing..An Opening...At McGill

For fifty years (1857 to 1907) the McGill Normal School trained 2,989 teachers to whom were issued 4,118 diplomas -- 300 of Academy grade, 1,452 of model school grade, 33 kindergarten, and 2,333 elementary diplomas. All the proceedings of the final session were reported on page 32 of the Saturday, June 1, 1907 edition of The Montreal Daily Star . Dr. S.P. Robins, Principal of the school since 1883 made his last report indicating that the McGill Normal School was closing to be replaced "by a body of wider relationship -- the new institution at Ste. Anne de Bellevue".
Macdonald School For teachers

 

...And A Continuation At Jacques Cartier Normal School

In 1907 the McGill Normal School was celebrating its Golden Jubilee by preparing to close its doors. Meanwhile since 1882 Jacqes Cartier Normal School (JCNS) across from Lafontaine Park celebrated its 50th anniversary with a day long program of activities that started with a cable from His Holiness Pope Pius X read by Chairman J.O.Cassgrain. The general theme of the day was the 'Nobility ' of the teaching profession, and considerations of the respective fields of 'Lay' and 'Religious' teachers. After a midday dinner, in the Refectory, celebrations continued well into the afternoon, and concluded with an "instructive address" by Rev. Father Perrier, school inspector, on the subject of "school laws" ( see detailed press report) The

 

Jacques Cartier Normal School 1898

Jacques Cartier Normal School 1906

Jacques Cartier Normal School - Lafontaine Park early 1900's

 
Jacques Cartier Normal School - Lafontaine Park early 1900's
JCNS continued training teachers at the same addresss for the next 32 years.

 

1907- 1970 The Macdonald Years: From School to Institute

This new institution was Macdonald College. The work of the College was arranged into three schools - a School for Teachers, a School for Agriculture and a School of Household Science. The School for Teachers was opened on November 5th, 1907 with 115 registered students. Work in thje School for Teachers was under the supervision of the Teachers' Training Committee and carried on in accordance with the regulations of the Protestant Committee of the Council of Public Instruction. In the inaugural year the tution fee in the school for teachers was free to residents of Canada! However, there was a charge of $3.25 per week for lodging in a double room with single beds.

 

The Protestant Day School of Ste. Anne de Bellevue (present day Macdonald High School Bldg.) was the observation and practice school for the School for teachers. Prior to 1907 it consisted of 18 pupils and one teacher. By the Fall of 1907 after the College had been established it had grown to 98 pupils and four teachers. For the next 63 years The School for Teachers was housed at Macdonald College. The only exception was the wartime move from February 1942 - September 1945 when the teacher training program vacated the college to provide facilities for the Canadian Womens Army League. For the duration of WW2 teacher training was located at the downtown campus.

1910 Macdonald Staff Pics

Sinclair Laird appointed Dean 1913

The Robins Family and Teacher Training 1918

Prof. Kneeland Retires 1918

 

1966 Macdonald Institute of Education Directors and Chairs

 

 

English Catholic Teacher Training prior to 1939

 

 

 

By 1939 there was a growing need for personnel to man the English Catholic schools. A movement for a separate institution emerged. Some of the officials who lobbied for it were James Lyng of the Montreal Catholic School Commission (MCSC); Principal Michael McManus; Edson Wescott, Provincial Inspector; Gerald Coughlin lawyer and member of the Catholic Committee; and, Father Emmett Carter, a young Inspector for the MCSC. In February 1939 along with the strong support of the Archbishop of Montreal Msgr. Georges Gauthier, an institution for the education of English Catholic male teachers was created (Class of 1939-40) with the name Jacques Cartier Normal School, English Section.

Class of 1939-40

Class 1940-41

By 1955, after a few intermediate moves, the school was located in NDG in an old elementary school. Of most importancewas the change in name to The Saint Joseph Teachers' College. In 1958 St. Joe's moved into its Durocher Street location in the former Catholic High School of Montreal building.

By the 1960's The Royal Commission of Inquiry on Education in the province of Quebec (The Parent Report) recommended that St. Joe's ally itself quickly to a university.

After WW2 the School for Teachers moved back to Macdonald College where it remained until 1970. In 1957 the amalgamation of the School of Teachers, the School of Physical Education, and the Department of Education created The McGill Institute of Education (housed in the Faculty of Arts). D.C. Munroe, Macdonald Professor of Education, moved from being Director of the School for Teachers to his new appointment as the first Director of the Institute. In 1965 The Institute became the Faculty of Education under the Deanship of C. Wayne Hall with programs at both Mac and downtown.

 

1970 - 2007 The Faculty Years: Mergers and Amalgamations

 

The 1970 St. Joe's Faculty that merged into The McGill Faculty of Education Faculty

Finally in 1970 The Faculty of Education merged with St. Joseph Teachers' College, vacated its 63 year home at the Macdonald College campus, and moved into the newly constructed building at 3700 McTavish Street. The only request made by St. Joe's, and accomodated to by McGill University, was the creation of a Department of Catholic Studies within the Faculty. For the first time in provincial history Anglophone teachers were now trained together under the same roof, regardless of confessionality!