Mariah Bouchard
Reading Analysis Week 3
September 24th 2017
Why have young people been compelled to attend school and should this still be the law?
Article 7: Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto (pg 115-126)
When the attendance of public school became mandatory and strict for the city of Toronto it changed the way families had to live their lives. Children were now having to work two jobs, one being all the work they had to do at home for their parents and the second being their mandatory attendance of school. In early Victorian Toronto the attendance of school was incredibly more strict then it is now in 2017. In the past they had actual Truant Officers who would patrol looking for kids who were late or skipping school. In our society now children skip class so often and it usually comes with little or no consequences. This proves that the attendance of school was taken more seriously in the past as they believed school was a necessity to a child’s life. However for the kids that had no choice to miss school due to the need to work for their family having a form of law come after them could have been seen as a way of negative reinforcement and only ended up discouraging the child’s desire to attend school even more. In this historical time in Toronto the need to attend school was societies form of bettering their people for the future. With a whole new generation capable of reading and writing and basic arithmetic it enabled the society to get away from the poverty stricken families they had. These children would eventually be able to get good jobs and work and provide for their families better than how their parents were doing it. With this being the main reason behind school I think it is still relevant today. Now we have a society that does need high school to succeed but instead needs university or college to get a good paying job and provide for their families.
Article 8: The Boy’s in the Nova Scotia Coal Mines (Pg.126-139)
Working in the mines from childhood to adulthood raised the question on why go to school at all? You already have a form of employment at just 8 years old. The incredible need for the children to work and help provide income to their families made the need to go to school more of a nuisance than anything else. These boys had work in the mines and already had a way of making money so going to school to make no money and be of no help to your family didn’t seem like a logical thing for a lot of families at the time. In our society now we have made school a necessity more than a choice, you will never be able to find work without having at least your grade 12. Our society has made school a must have rather than just a desire. The main difference from the past and the present is the mandatory use of children in the workforce. In a time where children were not just supposed to help but it was a necessity, it was much harder for them to want to attend school. Compare that to where we are now, where children are not allowed to join the workforce until 15 unless parents and strict rules permit them to work at a younger age. A parent’s main focus now is for their child to go to school and to succeed in school so that they can eventually get a good job and begin working.