The Promise of Schooling: Education in Canada, 1800-1914

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Canada saw revolutionary changes in public education in the 19th
century. Once the preserve of the privileged few, schooling became
accessible to all, particularly at the elementary level. Paul Axelrod
attributes the transformation in part to the growth of a Canadian middle
class that saw schooling as a vehicle for inculcating a common mindset
in the citizenry. Efforts to do so in the case of Native peoples had
predictably devastating consequences.

This book—the first in a new series whose objective is to fill the
gap between undergraduate textbooks and specialized monographs—relies
heavily on scholarly literature. Unfortunately, these citations are not
tied to specific footnotes within the text.

Axelrod is a recognized expert on the Canadian university experience,
so it is not surprising he includes higher education in his examination.
However, such an inclusion may be inappropriate given his
characterization of the role of the middle class; it was certainly not
propelling the citizenry into universities.