“I Paid No Attention To It”: An Oral History of Curricular Change in the 1930s

Abstract

In 1937 the Ontario Department of Education introduced unprecedented changes to the curriculumand pedagogy of the elementary schools of the province through the publication anddistribution of the document Programme of Studies for Grades 1 to VI of the Public andSeparate Schools. By exploring the oral history of twenty-one teachers who taught in the elementaryschools of Ontario during the 1930s, this article will explain how teachers understoodand experienced the pedagogical and curricular changes introduced in 1937. Juxtaposingthe oral history of teachers with the evidence of documentary sources will provide a means ofcreating a more nuanced account of the unprecedented reforms that were attempted in 1930sOntario.RésuméEn 1937, avec la parution du Programme d’études pour les écoles publiques et séparées de l’Ontario,le Département de l’éducation apporta des changements sans précédent au programmed’études de la 1ère à la 6e année et à la pédagogie en vigueur dans les écoles élémentaires de laprovince. C’est à partir de témoignages recueillis auprès de 21 personnes ayant enseigné à ceniveau durant les années 1930 que nous analysons la réaction des enseignants face à ces changementsintroduits cette année-là. La comparaison de ces entretiens avec les sources documentairespermettra de nuancer davantage les résultats de ces réformes sans précédent entreprisesen Ontario à cette époque.

Back to School? Historians and the View from the Classroom

“…Those who recalled the 1937 curriculum revision associated it only with greater flexibility in their teaching and giving students more opportunity to be more independent in their learning. 64 Lynn Lemisko and Kurt Clausen argue that there is little evidence to suggest that teachers in either Alberta or Ontario made serious efforts to shift towards teaching practices consistent with child-centred, project-based progressivism. 65 These findings are consistent with Robert Stamp's brief memoir in which he describes "march[ing] from a progressive activity-oriented playground into a traditional desks-in-straight-rows, sit-down-and-be-quiet 1940s Ontario elementary school."…”