Alberta Catholic Schools...A Social History

P.J. Hammel is a professor of Education at the University of
Saskatchewan.

Into the tapestry of the history of Alberta — its native peoples; its exploration and settlement; its political, economic, population and sociocultural developments — Nicholas Tkach weaves the story of Catholic Separate Schools in Alberta. And, what more natural way to do so, since it is as a result of the unique development of Canada and its provinces (in this case, specifically, Alberta) that the singularly Canadian phenomenon of Catholic Separate Schools was initiated and flourished, protected by Constitutional guarantees and nurtured by Catholic parents committed to an education permeated by the spiritual and the moral.

After treating briefly the history of the natives, of exploration, of the fur-trade and early settlement, Tkach introduces personal sketches of prominent missionaries and nuns who gave to Alberta an educational base founded in Christianity. With the formation of the province of Alberta in 1905, he examines in detail the political, economic, demographic, and sociocultural developments in three periods: 1905-1912, 1912-1936, 1936-1957. In each case he analyzes the implications for both Alberta education in general and Catholic Separate Schools in particular.

To bring his historical survey to the present, the author presents in detail the history, development, and major activities of the Alberta Catholic Education Association (a lay organization dedicated to the support of Catholic Separate Schools, which predated by 14 years the formal association of Catholic trustees). He then does the same for the Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association, organized in 1958, which, as a part of the larger Alberta School Trustees Association and yet independent in matters peculiar to the Catholic Separate Schools, provided a vehicle for unifying Catholic trustees and providing province-wide support to their needs. Achievements in the areas of curriculum, boundaries, corporate assessment, and teacher education are discussed in detail.

Writing in the Foreword, J. Kevin McKinney, Executive Director of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association, says, “No single work, short of a comprehensive provincial encyclopedia, could adequately record the rich heritage of all Alberta Catholic Schools. With a much more restricted purpose, Dr. Nicholas Tkach’s ‘Alberta Catholic Schools: A Social History’ sets a most enviable standard....” This reviewer can only agree. This is an especially thorough and comprehensive work, bordering on the extreme in its detail and abounding in quotations, facsimiles of documents, and statistical tables. It would have been much simpler to cite chronologically, and in isolation, the major events in the history of Catholic Separate Schools in Alberta, but Tkach has chosen (to continue the metaphor of the tapestry) to trace through the complicated history of Alberta the often fragile yet lasting strand of Catholic education, which has its origins in and development from the very fabric of Alberta life. In the process, Tkach has, however, not written a book to be read for light entertainment purposes. This is a work of major significance; only the serious reader should attempt it. But then, any worthwhile work always requires the serious effort of both author and reader.