Adolphus Egerton Ryerson (24 March 1803 – 19 February 1882) was a Canadian educator, administrator, author, editor, and Methodist minister. He was a prominent contributor to the design of the Ontario public school system, for which he served as an administrator.
An advocate against Christian sectarianism and control of Upper Canada by the wealthy Anglican elite, Ryerson staunchly opposed Clergy reserves and promoted a system of free public education in Canada. Conversely, Ryerson was passionate about Christianization, favouring missionary work amongst the indigenous peoples and protesting the removal of the Bible from Ontario schools.
Following his time as a missionary to the Mississaugas of the Credit River, Ryerson became founding editor of The Christian Guardian, and the first principal of Victoria College in Cobourg. He was appointed as Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada by Governor General Sir Charles Metcalfe in 1844, where he supported reforms such as creating school boards, making textbooks more uniform, and making education free. His contributions to early education in Ontario led to him being memorialized with statues, and in the naming of several institutions and places in the province.
Ryerson was consulted by the founders of the Indian residential school system. However, he was not directly involved in founding or running of the residential school system, and predeceased its creation.
Early years
Ryerson was born on 24 March 1803 in Charlotteville Township, Upper Canada, to Joseph Ryerson (1761–1854), a United Empire Loyalist, a Lieutenant in the Prince of Wales' American Volunteers from Passaic County, New Jersey, and Sarah Mehetable Ryerson (née Stickney). He was one of six brothers – George, Samuel, William, John, and Edwy. Samuel was the only one of Egerton's brothers not to enter the Methodist ministry.
Methodist missionary
He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at 17, and was forced to leave home by his Anglican father. After briefly studying Latin and Greek, he became a circuit rider. His first post was the York region surrounding Yonge Street. The circuit took four weeks to complete on foot or horseback, as it encompassed areas with roads in extremely poor condition.
Ryerson was appointed as a missionary to the Mississaugas of the Credit in 1826, while still on probation as a Methodist missionary. His journal records his feelings on arrival: I have now arrived at my charge among the Indians. I feel an inexpressible joy in taking up my abode amongst them. I must now acquire a new language, to teach a new people. Ryerson learned Ojibwe, worked in the fields, and assisted them in building a church which doubled as a school. When burdened by the encroachment of settlers, Ryerson supported a protest to the Legislature for the Mississaugas' exclusive right to a salmon fishery. At a meeting that same week, Chief Ajetance addressed him: "Brother, as we are brothers, we will give you a name. My departed brother was named Cheehock; thou shalt be called Cheehock." It was during this time that Ryerson began his life-long friendship with future chief Kahkewaquonaby (Peter Jones).
At Port Credit, Ryerson helped the Mississaugas build a school, using his carpentry skills, which he passed along to people of the settlement, along with his agricultural knowledge. The school was staffed by Methodist missionaries and Mississauga teachers. It had 50 students and taught boys and girls separately. The children learned to read and write both English and Anishinaabemowin from primers and Scripture. Ryerson wrote to Upper Canada's Lieutenant Governor Maitland on the need for continued support of the school and other Methodist missionary schools: "The schools and religious instruction must be continued; and the Gospel must be sent to tribes still in a heathen state".
In 1826, sermons from John Strachan, Anglican Archdeacon of York, Upper Canada, were published asserting that the Anglican church was, by law, the established church of Upper Canada. Methodists were singled out as American and therefore disloyal. Ryerson emerged as an articulate defender in the public sphere by publishing articles (at first anonymously) and later books that argued against the views of Methodism's chief rival John Strachan and other members of the powerful Family Compact.
Ryerson was elected (by one vote) to serve as the founding editor of Canadian Methodism's weekly denominational newspaper, the Christian Guardian, established in York in 1829 and which was also Canada's first religious newspaper. He used the paper to argue for the rights of Methodists in the province and, later, to help convince rank-and-file Methodists that a merger with British Wesleyans (effected in 1833Victor Shepherd (2001), "The Methodist Tradition in Canada." Retrieved 17 July 2016.) was in their best interest. Ryerson was castigated by the reformist press at that time for apparently abandoning the cause of reform and becoming, at least as far as they were concerned, a Tory. Ryerson resigned the editorship in 1835 only to assume it again at his brother John's urging from 1838 to 1840. In 1840, Ryerson allowed his name to stand for re-election one last time but was soundly defeated by a vote of 50 to 1.
Educator In April 1831, Ryerson wrote in The Christian Guardian newspaper,
In 1836, Ryerson visited England to secure the charter for Upper Canada Academy. This was the first charter ever granted by the British Government to a Nonconformist body for an educational institution. When it was incorporated in 1841 under the name Victoria College Ryerson assumed the presidency. Victoria College continues to exist as part of the University of Toronto. Ryerson also fought for many secularization reforms, to keep power and influence away from any one church, particularly the Church of England in Upper Canada which had pretensions to establishment. His advocacy of Methodism contributed to the eventual sale of the Clergy Reserveslarge tracts of land that had been set aside for the "maintenance of the Protestant clergy" under the Constitutional Act of 1791. "In honour of his achievements on behalf of the Methodist Church, Egerton Ryerson received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and served as President of the Church in Canada from 1874 to 1878."
Such secularization also led to the widening of the school system into public hands. Governor General Sir Charles Metcalfe asked him to become Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada in 1844 and he remained in the position until 1876.Ingersoll Cheese and Agricultural Museum
The Normal School at St. James Square was founded in Toronto in 1847, and became the province's foremost teacher's academy. It also housed the Department of Education as well as the Museum of Natural History and Fine Arts, which became the Royal Ontario Museum. The school operated by the Ontario Society of Artists at the Normal School would become the Ontario College of Art & Design. An agricultural laboratory on the site led to the later founding of the Ontario Agricultural College and the University of Guelph. St. James Square went through various other educational uses before it eventually became part of Ryerson University.
Legislation
Common School Act of 1846 Ryerson's study of educational systems elsewhere in the Western world led to three school acts, which would revolutionize education in Canada. His major innovations included libraries in every school, an educational journal and professional development conventions for teachers, a central textbook press using Canadian authors, and securing land grants for universities.
The Common School Act of 1846, was an act that had established the First General School Board, where it would consist of Seven Members, that would each have their own responsibilities. Ryerson set the groundwork for compulsory education, which is what it has become today, he ensured that curriculums were made and that teaching and learning materials were provided and delivered to Schools, in the result of the best possible education. Ryerson did not believe that white and Aboriginal children should be taught in the same schools due to their different civilization and their upbringings.
Superintendent of Schools for Canada West Ryerson observed that previous educational legislation, most notably the Common School Act of 1843, was ineffective due to the limited powers of authority of the Superintendent of Schools. By comparing the office of the Superintendent to a corresponding office in New York State, namely the "State Superintendent", he noted that the 1843 Act allowed the Superintendent to draw up rules and responsibilities but no one was required to follow them. In his draft of the bill, he included several responsibilities of the Superintendent for Upper Canada: apportioning Legislature funds among the twenty district councils (in existence at that point in time), discouragement of unsuitable texts for classroom and school library usage (no common texts were the norm), provide direction for normal schools, prepare recommended plans for school houses and school libraries, dissemination of information, and annual reporting to the Governor General. This considerably expanded the role of Superintendent and placed significantly more responsibility upon the office.
Further, he established the first General Board of Education (the one established in 1823 was by order of the Lieutenant Governor not by legislation). The board consisted of the Superintendent and six other members nominated by the Governor General.
District superintendents The bill provided provision for a new office, that of the District Superintendent. Ryerson recommended, although it did not become part of the legislation that followed from the 1846 bill, that as a savings measure the offices of Clerk of the District and District Superintendent be combined.
The District Superintendents became important civil servants, apportioning District School Funds in proportion of the number of students, teacher payment, visit all schools in their district; reporting on progress, advising teachers on school management, examining teachers' qualifications, revoking unqualified teachers, and preventing the use of unauthorized textbooks.
Common textbooks Ryerson advocated for uniform school textbooks across Canada West. Again, benchmarking the New York system, he noted that an Act passed in 1843 gave the State Superintendent of Schools and county superintendents authority to reject any book in a school library. That system used University Regents to create a list of acceptable texts from which the schools purchased books. Ryerson did not propose absolute authority on book selection, rather, recommended that the Board of Education "make out a list of School Text Books, in each branch of learning that they would recommend, and another list they would not permit leaving Trustees to select from these lists."
Ryerson was also responsible for developing the first Ontario Readers for Canadian students to replace British, Irish and American textbooks.
Free schools With the intent of providing education for all Canadian children, Ryerson began lobbying for the idea of free schools in 1846. His convictions on the matter were strengthened after studying systems of education in New York State and Massachusetts where financial provision for education was a cardinal one. Ryerson pointed out that, in Toronto alone, less than half of the 4,450 children in the city were regular school attendees.
In his Circular to the County Municipalities, in 1846, he argued the following: