and elementary education is absolutely free. With the 

 exception of Quebec, all the provinces have laws of com- 

 pulsory school attendance, uniformity in the training of 

 teachers, text books and the grading of children. Upon 

 application the provincial government gives immediate 

 financial assistance for the erection of new schools where 

 settlement warrants it or increased attendance demands 

 a larger edifice. Each year thousands of new schools are 

 built throughout the length of the country, especially in 

 the ever growing Western Provinces. Assistance in the 

 payment of teachers is given by a system of grants. Na- 

 ture study, manual instruction, school gardens, domestic 

 science and technical education have been taken up ener- 

 getically, whilst agriculture, which after all is the country's 

 prime interest, forms an important item in the curriculum 

 of all schools. 



In the cities and towns of the Dominion, no expense 

 is spared in the erection of handsome, spacious school 

 buildings, where health conditions are the prime consid- 

 eration, and they form no mean part in the aggregate of 

 Canada's fine public structures. Solicitude is exerted in 

 the health and the general welfare of the pupils in the 

 plans of construction, and medical officers and health 

 nurses supervise the general well-being when they are in 

 operation. 



Every province possesses finely equipped agricultural 

 colleges with up-to-date faculties of scientific farming ex- 

 perts where the most progressive and modern methods of 

 agriculture are taught and where the degree of Bachelor 

 of Scientific Agriculture is conferred at graduation. AJ 

 it is impossible for many of the sons and daughters of 

 farmers to attend all the year round and complete the 

 courses, winter sessions are held in every province where 

 short courses are given imparting a thorough training to 

 boys and girls over the public school age in intelligent 

 farming and scientific methodc, domestic science and 

 other phases of farm work. These courses have proved 

 of immense interest and value and are widely appreciated 

 by agricultural communities, whilst the attendance is 

 yearly increased as the benefits to be derived from these 

 short terms are the more fully realized. 



Educating the Foreign Born 



A great problem in Canada has been the educating of 

 the foreign born, and as it is a matter of difficulty and 

 lassitude for those past their youth to break away from 

 the language and customs they have used and fojlowed 

 from childhood, the work of Canadianizing is carried on 

 through the children. By a compulsory use of the Eng- 

 lish language in school hours and the inculcation of Can- 



THE WIDE FIELD 



OP CANADIAN 



EDUCATION 





In the Rural Districts 



In the rural districts naturally, where in the first 

 settlement farms are often widely separated, scholastic 

 facilities do not exist in the same perfection, though every- 

 thing is done by the education departments to meet the 

 more difficult conditions, and the child of the farmer need 

 not fall far behind his city brother in the progress of learn- 

 ing. The majority of the schools are ungraded, that is, 

 several small classes are taught by the one teacher, and 

 the districts are of such dimensions as to make the school- 

 house easily accessible from the furthest limits. Fully 

 trained teachers are provided from the provincial normal 

 schools; attendance is compulsory as in the city; and the 

 child from the farm receives a sound, practical education 

 which suffices at completion to enter upon the more ad- 

 vanced courses of the high school, or to take up more in- 

 telligently and scientifically the first industry of agricul- 

 ture. Not a small percentage of farm children go from 

 the public to the high school and numbers become grad- 

 uates of the agricultural colleges and universities. 



238 



adian ideas and ideals by zealous, painstaking teachers, 

 the question of the assimilation of the foreign born has not 

 presented great difficulties and the second generation 

 generally prove staunch and loyal Canadians. The large 

 voluntary enlistment in the Canadian army of foreign born 

 and young men born of foreigners who emigrated to this 

 country, bears eloquent tes.irnony to this spirit. 



There is virtually no limit to educational facilities in 

 the Dominion, and the child having completed public and 

 high school courses may go further and has twenty-six 

 universities to choose from, ten in Ontario, four each in 

 Quebec and Nova Scotia, two each in New Brunswick and 

 Saskatchewan and one each in Alberta, British Columbia, 

 Manitoba and Prince Edward Island. Through the 

 Rhodes Scholarships, these young Canadians have the 

 opportunity of entry into the colleges of Oxford and 

 Cambridge, fostering the Imperial union and continuing 

 their scholarship with students from every part of the 

 globe. Some of the Canadian universities, notably Mc- 

 Gill at Montreal and Toronto at Toronto, have won 

 world-wide reputations and furnished European universi- 

 ties with professors. 



