Doukhobor Daze

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

A posting to a one-room rural school is an experience many teachers have
captured in print. Usually the position was characterized by personal
hardship, adventure, and respect for a way of life different from their
own. Often the remote school with minimal resources was the first
assignment for a normal-school graduate, a place to learn self-reliance
and develop a sense of humor.

O’Neail followed in this Canadian tradition but added a few wrinkles.
Her first job as schoolteacher, in the 1930s, was not only rural,
remote, and resourceless, it was also in a Doukhobor community in
British Columbia. Most of the families were law-abiding Orthodox
Doukhobors, but a scattering of the Sons of Freedom sect added an
element of danger to her posting. Her school was bombed twice, and homes
in the area were set on fire.

Another difference is that the respect for students and community that
is so prominent in most my-life-as-a-teacher reminiscences is missing in
O’Neail’s work. Her contempt for the Doukhobors and her disgust with
every aspect of their lives make the book a very negative, depressing
read. The anticipated humor is there, but this time most of it comes
from the author laughing at her students and their families, seldom from
reactions to her own situation.

O’Neail makes extensive use of warped spelling to convey the
Doukhobors’ pronunciations (“Wyell, you stawpit doing like dot ...
and how moch dos eet cost like dis jawg?”). While a bit of dialect can
strengthen the setting, here persistent usage serves only to punish the
reader and reinforce the author’s aloofness from her community.

The work is well paced, and its good use of specific detail makes it an
interesting, if one-sided, look at a Doukhobor community during the
Depression.