Teacher training in the province of Quebec : a historical study (to 1857)

To understand the educational situation in any community, then, it w1ll be necessary, among other considerations, to know what sort of teachers they have, what training they require of them and what tests of character and scholarship they impose. And to fully appreciate the meaning of information on these subjects, it will be of real value to know something of the historical development that is back of the present requirements. In the Province of Quebec, where so much of the situation in regard to education presents quite unique features, a historical study of the development of teacher training will make its contribution to the understanding of the whole situation. It is with that in mind that this thesis has been written. It is my purpose to trace the evidences of teacher training in the French Regime in this Province; from that, to fo1low the various attempts to develop national schools after the conquest and to discover what traces there are of teacher training there. Towards the end of the period, we must note various training institutions, both of voluntary societies and of the government, which had varying degrees of success. This study will be brought to a conclusion with the opening of the three Normal Schools of 1857 which were the beginning of our present system