A history of education in the Morris-Macdonald School Division no. 19 with emphasis on secondary education

• Main Author: Enns, John
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/8056

The purpose of this study was to present a historical record of the origin and growth of education, with emphasis on the development of secondary education, in the area now known as the Morris-Macdonald School Division No. 19. Aside from the fact that no other student of the Faculty of Education of the University of Manitoba has undertaken such a study, the subject was of considerable interest to the writer since he taught in one of the high schools of this area for more than a dozen years and has observed many of the school developments first hand. No attempt was made to interpret events, neither was there any intention to present a particular viewpoint. The thesis merely sets out to narrate what happened to bring about the present state of education in the area. The principal sources of information were the minutes and records of various school disticts and the annual reports of the Department of Education. In addition, some of the data were obtained from local newspapers as well as from local history files in the Legislative Library. The enrolment figures and the dates of school district formation came from the Provincial Archives. School yearbooks and church booklets marking special anniversaries, as well as the historical compilations of the Women's Institutes also proved to be helpful. Finally, in some instances where a coherent story could not be found from written materials, the missing links were sought through personal interviews with knowledgeable people. The Morris-Macdonald Division area has been an agricultural community since it was settled, where grain and mixed farming provioed work and income for most of the individuals. a large number of small unincorporated villages and a few larger towns grew, not only to supply business needs, but also to become the high school centres for both town and farm young people. The type of farming practised resulted in relatively sparce settlement that made ready communication within a large constituency difficult. Accordingly, the one-room rural school district, comprised of not more than twenty square miles of land, became the common educational unit, as well as the centre of many local community activities. In the south...