Education

To the matter of education for their children the early settlers of Blanshard contributed liberally of their means for its dissemination and support.   Wherever a few pioneers had located, their first great efforts was to erect a schoolhouse for the training of their families.   Humble little places they were, and destitute of all the conveniences and comforts of the fine buildings erected for educational purposes at the present day.   In the centre of the little settlement, land usually at a cross-road, the old log school-house was built.   Unpretentious it was, and in the summer months the boys made sad havoc with the chinking between the logs, for the purpose of letting in plenty of air to the little chamber.  The furniture was of the most primitive kind.   Around the walls on both sides were arranged the desks for the more advanced scholars.   These desks were composed of a couple of boards laid on pins, which had been driven into auger holes made in the logs that formed the wall.   In front of these desks were benches made from plank, and in these at each end were auger holes in which were inserted pins for their support.   For the smaller children, benches of the same description were set across the building, on which, day after day, they spent in listless weariness the hours prescribed for receiving their mental training.   The door was always in the end of the little low building, and on the floor in front of it sat a great box stove which in the winter was kept at a glowing heat.   At the farther end was placed the master's chair.   The walls were uneven, and ornamented here and there with a lonely map, which seemed as if it had lost its way and had been stuck upon the rough logs by mistake.   In those little log schoolhouses on the corner some of Canada's great men received the rudiments of their education.

But the whirligig of time brought its changes.   The settlements grew and prospered, and with prosperity came the desire for better school accommodation for the education of the young and rising generation.   That affectionate solicitude which is ever wakeful and watchful in the bosom of parents for the protection of their children, was soon productive of better things.   Indeed, the improvement in the school premises in many instances was far in advance of the improvements in church edifices or the private dwellings of the people.   It is now many years since the last log schoolhouse in Blanshard passed out of existence.   In every one of the fourteen sections into which the township is divided, comfortable and substantial buildings of brick or stone have been erected.   In all of the schools the most elaborate and modern equipment, under an advanced system of education, is to be found. The school property and the committees in connection therewith are under the most careful inspection of officers appointed by the municipality.   Every precaution is taken to insure the most perfect sanitary conditions on the premises and for the promotion of the health and comfort of the children.

At what precise period of time many of the first school sections in the township were formed it would be impossible for me to say, as no record is to be found in the archives of the municipality regarding the formation of the first section.   In 1851 a motion was passed by the Council adopting certain by-laws then in force, "and that the said by-laws remain in full force viirtue until repealed."   By-law No. 8 of this code relates to the division of the municipality into school sections.   It is therefore clear that the division had been made for school purposes previous to the passing of the Municipal Act. This bylaw together with several papers in connection with the early history of Blanshard, I have been unable to discover.

The Council of 1851, being the first Council acting under the new municipal law, was singularly fortunate in being able to dispose of school matters in such a summary way. The lines of their successors did not all fall in such pleasant places. The conflict over the existing boundaries and the formation of new school sections soon began, and continued to rage with almost unabated fury, in some parts of the municipality, till the year 1881, when union section No. 14 was brought into existence. This was the last section formed in the township, after an almost uninterrupted conflict of nearly thirty years. The question of school sections was one on which were wrecked the hopes of many an aspirant after municipal honors. At the Board, for nearly the whole period from 1852 up till 1870, the question of schools seems to have been kept up with great energy and determination. At one meeting a deputation would appear, and after giving certain explanations, the Board would place on record a motion giving effect to the desired scheme of the applicants. At the next meeting the opposing party would appear in force, and having given their views in language more forcible than elegant, the former motion would be rescinded and the whole affair be allowed to remain, as it is recorded, "in status quo."

This state of affairs, to say the least, was not creditable to the Board.   It appears to us, notwithstanding our high appreciation of municipal men, that the action of Council must have been founded to a great extent on the number and influence of the deputation with which they were dealing for the time being, rather than on the justice or fairness of the principles propounded by parties. The pledges which had been made by some of the legislators to their constituents, previous to their election, in the matter in dispute, were now openly and in rude and emphatic language thrown back. In extreme cases, if the councillor was not able by his intellectual superiority or by an exhaustive explanation of the fairness of the course he was pursuing, to satisfy the irate electors, recourse to physical arguments of the most convincing kind on more than one occasion settled the question.

It may fairly be said now, however, that out of the thirty years' war of the school sections an order of things has been evolved that seems to give satisfaction to the great mass of the people. Indeed it is doubtful if better agreements could be made regarding school boundaries than at present exist in the township. And such seems to be the feeling of the people, as since 1881 no legislation of any importance has been asked for by that Board in connection with the schools.