This document is an excerpt from the Annual Report of the Department of Education of the Province of Alberta for the year 1937. The report is by E.L. Fuller, then Chief Inspector of Schools, and it describes, in detail, conditions in a typical one-room prairie school during the Great Depression.

W.H. Swift, the man who would eventually succeed Fuller, and who would become Deputy Minister of Education, holding that position for over twenty years, outlined his recollections on the Depression and education in 1994 . According to Swift, the provincial government had suffered drastic losses of revenue during this period. Similarly, municipal and school authorities suffered a great increase in unpaid taxes (Boddington 1998, 93-97).

Swift remembered that it had been common practice among homesteaders for them to clear and work their lands, and erect their buildings, during the summer. In the winter, he noted, "they would find employment in the mines, the forests, on the railways or somewhere to accumulate some cash funds"(Boddington 1998, 92). During the Depression such employment ceased to be available. As a result, in an area like the Athabasca district, for example, there were a great many settlers who had virtually no revenue the year round. Swift pointed out that social assistance did not exist in any organized way and such welfare as was obtained through the Alberta Provincial Police, representing the provincial government, was very meagre.

The point to all this, noted Swift, "was that school districts had little income, and in the homestead districts, practically none at all"(Boddington 1998, 93). He pointed out that during this time school grants were set forth in The School Grants Act and only such amounts as were specified in the Act could be paid. There was one exception, namely that the Minister of Education could authorize what was referred to as a "special grant", to take care of extraordinary circumstances. These, it was presumed, would be relatively infrequent. According to Swift, the basic grant was ninety cents per day per teacher. Hence the school board had to raise the bulk of its financial needs through local taxation. At some point before 1930 there was also established a grant to assist school districts with low assessments (taxable property) on a sliding scale based on ratio of assessment to number of teachers employed, usually one. About 1933 the basic grant was reduced to 75 cents per day. The equalization grant was paid for a maximum of 160 school days, eight months. Many homestead schools operated for only eight months of the year, closing in January and February (Boddington 1998, 94).

During the early thirties The School Act made no provision for collective bargaining. Each teacher was employed under an individual jointly signed contract which specified "the rate of salary, an annual figure but paid on a daily basis, the rate being divided by 200, and the number of days in a full school year" (Boddington 1998, 94). Teachers' contracts were continuous, Swift noted, but either party could end the contract effective June 30 by giving 30 days notice. A contract could be terminated during the school year with the consent of the Inspector. As a result, there was no real secured tenure. Related to this was that the Act provided that the minimum salary of a teacher was $840 (the original 210 school days times $4 per day), but the Minister was empowered to authorize a lower salary if conditions warranted. Prior to 1930, Swift pointed out, a salary less than $840 would be most unusual.

How did these conditions affect teachers? According to Swift, as district funds dried up, teachers' salaries were unpaid in whole or in part, except for the grant. They were given notes for unpaid portions. "The fact was", Swift argued, "that a fairly high percentage of teachers received a very limited amount of actual cash for their teaching" (Boddington 1998, 94).

As districts found themselves in increasingly strapped conditions they began to look at their expenditures and the teacher's salary was a very high portion of these. As a result, Swift noted, the School Boards began to look at salary reductions. Increasingly they applied to the Minister to authorize a salary below $840. The local school inspector would be asked to investigate and make a recommendation. In due course the requests became a flood. The Minister, Perrin Baker, authorized an official of the department to approve on his behalf all requests for $700 or more. Eventually many salaries were approved at as low as $600. Village, town and city salaries also dropped but not to the same degree as in the rural districts. Yet $1200 became a not unusual salary for the principal of a three or four room village school.

Rural schools usually had a janitor. According to Swift, this was most often a senior boy or girl who would get to school early and get the fire in the stove going in winter, clean up after school and keep water in the crock or pail for the pupils to drink. The normal stipend for this was $50 a year. Many Boards were in such dire straits that they made it a condition of employment that the teacher would do the janitor work. This could not be written into the formal contract but teachers, hard pressed to get a job, would agree verbally to this requirement (Boddington 1998, 95).

According to Swift, "there soon became a great surplus of teachers, competing with each other for the finite number of places" (Boddington 1998, 96). Many factors and no doubt others contributed to this surplus. Swift noted, for example, the outflow of young teachers to other occupations ceased, resulting in fewer annual vacancies. Another factor was that high school graduates, unable to find employment, or to finance university, went into the one-year Normal School program greatly increasing the numbers looking for schools. As well, many who had formerly taught and were forced to enter other work found themselves unemployed and attempted to get back into teaching. "It was a buyers' market", argued Swift, "the School Boards being the buyers". Finally, he continued, School Boards became less able to provide schools with needed supplies, including books. Maintenance was neglected. Morale and working conditions were at an all time low in the one-room schools. According to Swift, the lowest depths of morale in his experience occurred when he "visited a school south of Lac La Biche, summer operation only, and the teacher could only provide [him] . . . with an unchopped round of stove wood to sit on" (Boddington 1998, 97).

As to the quality of teaching? Swift argued that while it probably fell "a bit" due to the factors referred to above, he saw "no particular decline in the devotion and the industry of the teachers". He remembered that:

It was said that the teachers worked harder because they wanted to be sure of not having their contracts terminated. I think this was not the case. I think they recognized that they were in the same boat as their community . . . and merely continued to do their best, as they had or would have done under better circumstances. In other words they continued to be conscientious (Boddington 1998, 97).

Questions for Discussion

Fuller's report provides a platform from which issues germane to the social studies curriculum might be examined. For example, a discussion might surround the issues relating to the onset of the Great Depression and its effects on the Prairie region of Western Canada, economically and socially. More specifically, one might discuss how the one-room schoolhouse represented the pioneering spirit of those who settled on the Western plains. Further, Fuller's inventory of school supplies might be used to compare the educational experience of the 1930's with that of today, and also between rural and urban areas.

Activities for the Classroom
It is still possible to collect reminiscences and anecdotal information from people who lived through this period. A good project might be to collect this information and present it in a classroom setting. The subjects might be grandparents or other relatives, neighbours or seniors from the local community.

References

Boddington, Steven. "Education From the Top Down: A Biography of W.H. Swift". Edmonton: University of Alberta, Ph.D. Dissertation, 1998.

Government of Alberta. Thirty-Second Annual Report of the Department of Education of the Province of Alberta, 1937. Edmonton: King's Printer, 1937.

Documents In the Classroom