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Reviewing the data for use of the word ‘crisis’
There are five mentions of ‘crisis’ found in British Columbia’s 1925 commission report. The first use refers to the “Nootka Affair” a stand-off between Spain and Britain in 1789 over territory and fur trading around Nootka Sound. War was averted and Spain surrendered Nootka Sound. The next four refer to curriculum, crisis in adolescence, financial crisis.
The second mention of crisis expresses annoyance with the fickleness of school curriculum. The authors opine, “It is less clear, indeed very doubtful, whether the general public intelligence realizes or appreciates how much social progress in general in a democracy is dependent upon progress in public education," noting that any lack showing in a public domain will be brought to public education for solution: " If a war or some other national crisis reveals a low average of human physical health there is an immediate demand upon the schools for physical education."
According to Putnam and Weir for the third use, "The completion of the middle school course marks a crisis in the lives of many young people." The upper years at this time were grades seven and eight and following graduation earning a living was the main concern of "half our young people" (meaning 'boys') to concern themselves with earning a living.
Under the title "Effect of the great war on the cost of education," a problem of municipal finance is cited with a new condition of taxpayer resentment for the fourth usage:
Everywhere in Canada and the United States the problem of municipal finance including school finance is approaching a crisis. Forty years ago when an elementary teacher earned only $250 to $350 a year and taught fifty or sixty pupils in a building erected at a cost of $400 or $500, the annual school tax upon the average ratepayer was insignificant. Even up to 1914, while salaries and building costs had greatly increased and while the percentage of the total population enrolled in school had also greatly increased, there was no loud general protest from the Canadian taxpayer against taxes in general or the cost of education in particular.
This is followed by more discussion and the reason for requests for federal aid both in Ottawa and Washington with the fifth usage:
We started out by saying that municipal and educational finance in Canada and the United States is approaching a crisis. What are the signs of distress? They are to be read in nearly every municipal budget and every school report being issued by municipal councils or by school boards and school superintendents in America. They are to be read in editorial and news comments in Canadian and American newspapers. They are to be read in debates on provincial and state school budgets. They are even to be read in federal debates in Ottawa and Washington, where appeals have been entertained to aid education nominally through grants for some specific educational purpose, such as aid for agriculture or technical shops or aid to eliminate the illiteracy of the foreign born. But in reality aid is asked from federal sources because the burden on provincial or state or local authorities has reached a limit which in many cases cannot be exceeded.
In British Columbia’s 1945 commission report the cost of education to municipal budgets is cited. Things are looking good in 1945 but there is concern with growth exceeding what can be managed in terms of future recession, suggesting that school taxes on property should be reduced:
It has been shown in Chapter II that educational costs bulk large in most municipal budgets and very large in some. Also, educational costs have risen since the relevant statistics were gathered. We are now going through a period of good times. Tax collections are high and municipal finances are, with a few exceptions, in a fairly health condition. This happy situation can hardly be expected to persist indefinitely, however, and municipal councils are justified in worrying about the future. The support of education, being a heavy charge not easily controllable, gives municipal budgets an undesirable inelasticity. It makes it difficult for a municipality to adjust its finances to changing conditions, to cut a smaller suit when the supply of cloth is diminished. It may thus easily be a major factor in creating a future crisis. This is one of the most cogent reasons for a reduction of school taxes on local property.
Looking across British Columbia’s two early public education commission reports (1925 and 1945 reports) with a total of six mentions of ‘crisis’, it is interesting to note that three out of six of these mentions are concerned with financing -- rising educational costs and taxation levels on property.
In Manitoba’s 1947 commission report on adult education, the ‘war crisis’ is mentioned. In the same document it is noted that the “trade union movement is not a ‘people’s movement’ in the sense which it is in Great Britain,” and that as a consequence the motivations are different. “In the British movement, mass participation is accompanied by a strong political consciousness and concerted drive for education.” In Canada, by contrast, “the lack of active participation on the part of the majority of members is correlated with a lack of interest in self-education.” According to the 1947 commission, adult education meetings are not well attended except in times of ‘crisis.’
There is only one reference to crisis in the 1950 Ontario Hope Commission report. The reference is to the ‘war crisis’. The authors write,
Life without warmth of feeling would not be life as we know it. Moreover, because of our limitations, our irrational passions, and our mistakes, we are compelled frequently to face crises and tragedies in which only the strength of our faith will sustain us. A glorious illustration of faith is to be found in the qualities which enabled Churchill and Britain to save democracy when cold reason might have demonstrated that their cause was lost.
There is only one reference to crisis in the 1950 Ontario Minority Report -- a ‘crisis of invasion’ is referred to.
The 1954 Nova Scotia Commission uses the term ‘crisis’ four times. The first reference is to the ‘crisis’ of 1864 which compares to the current ‘crisis’ concerning assessments for school funding and how much should be paid. Additionally the same report refers to a crisis of funding through taxation and finding a reasonable solution. Further along under a heading “Supply and Demand” a crisis of shortage of teachers is also referred to.
The Commission does not have to deal with the propriety of raising revenue for educational services and facilities through taxation on real and personal property. That issue was decided in 1864. There is no doubt that property taxation works hardships at times – it takes little account of income or expenses. The facts are that in Nova Scotia money must be raised to pay for schools and one of the ways of raising some of the money in the past has been through property taxation. This cannot, at this stage of crisis, particularly with increasing costs, be abandoned. It is accepted everywhere as a source of revenue and Municipal units cannot escape this burden. The Municipal units have responsibilities to do their share in collecting revenue for necessary public services.
The staffing of the public schools in Nova Scotia with teachers is one of the greatest educational problems at hand. We are facing increasing enrolments and at the same time a decreasing number of qualified teachers. History shows that there have been few if any periods of oversupply of qualified teachers. Normally there has been a shortage which in some cases reached an acute stage. It is the opinion of the Commission that we have presently reached another crisis and that the shortage of qualified teachers is again acute.
Following 1954 Nova Scotia Commission, a block of references show up in Quebec’s Parent Report -- the highest number of references for all the transcribed documents. In Part one of the Parent Report the word ‘crisis’ is used six times, in Part two seven times, and in Part three one time. The first mention of crisis has to do with a withdrawal of government aid to schools in Quebec causing many schools to close in the years between1836 and 1841 when school legislation was updated. These years are characterized as years of ‘political crisis.’ This crisis was prompted by issues to do with funding and the development at a time of increasing educational independence and individualism. There was a state desire not to enforce a uniform state system, and an effort to keep educational control and state involvement at arms length. This condition is particularly Quebecois in terms of history and helped to create the circumstances leading to the Parent Report since the two ministries in Quebec operated with very little accountability to the state and this became a problem when educational costs began rising in the years of growth following WWII.
In a section entitled “Education and Contemporary Society,” an ‘educational crisis’ is cited. This crisis is characterized as a ‘crisis in civilization’:
Never before have the problems of education aroused such deep public concern. The underdeveloped countries and those in process of development are exploring every means to make basic instruction available to everyone and to provide higher education at least for an elite. The industrialized nations are re-assessing education in terms of new requirements. Courses of study as well as system of administration and teaching are under scrutiny. Experiments are being tried and new methods sought. It is universally understood that the society of today -- and ever more that of tomorrow -- make unprecedented demands on education. For modern civilization to progress, and progress is a condition of its survival, every citizen without exception must have adequate schooling, as a very considerable number must receive advanced instruction. Hence the educational crisis is one aspect of a far-reaching crisis in civilization. A new world is emerging and seeks to fix its own image in terms of the educational reforms urged from every quarter. In such a world education faces problems on four major fronts: the explosive increase in the number of students, the current scientific and technological revolution, changes in living conditions and an accelerating shift in intellectual attitudes. The purpose of this chapter is to make clear the nature of these problems and to show, in conclusion, how contemporary education is attempting to meet their challenge.
We cannot miss the key ‘problems’ the commission notes contribute to the ‘far-reaching crisis in civilization’: 1) increase in student enrolment; 2) scientific and technological revolution; 3) changing living conditions; and 4) a shift in intellectual attitudes. A fourth, fifth and sixth reference to the ‘educational crisis’ is no less compelling in content:
The educational crisis is world-wide. Everywhere administrative and pedagogical procedures are being questioned; everywhere more or less radical reforms are being prepared or applied. Modern man no longer dwells in the same universe as his ancestors. For him science and technology have opened hitherto unsuspected horizons; they are altering the conditions of his life, fostering in him new aspirations and new attitudes. Through his inventions and his labours, man is radically changing his physical and social environment, and in many ways he himself is undergoing no less radical a change. The natural and social sciences, as well as philosophical and theological thought, are revealing to him new points of view and a new perspective on the universe. As a result, he is changing his ways of thinking, and new moral and human needs are becoming apparent to him. Even his language is laden with new special vocabularies. Extensive as they may be, the economic and social results of the present scientific revolution will perhaps seem of little consequence to historians of the future, compared to the profound change which this revolution is causing in man himself. The teacher stands at the vital centre of this transformation. If he is to work out a new humanism, he must find, within the growing diversity of knowledge, a new cultural unity, but without ceasing to draw on tradition. Everywhere the desire to accomplish this inspires major educational reforms.
Quebec also must face this crisis. Any observer of current developments in our society, as much in discussions of national questions as in criticisms of the educational system, will surely observe that a reassessment of traditional culture is taking place. This questioning spirit is apparent in the differences among educators, especially between those who defend the classical humanities and those who champion the teaching of the sciences. Such debates will be more to the point if educational problems are situated in the universal context in which they belong. Though coloured, of course, by the specific conditions of our own environment, most of our educational problems may be stated in the same basis terms here as elsewhere. They are the problems of a society undergoing rapid change, with contemporary civilization as its general background. Hence we wish to devote this first chapter to a summary analysis of the cultural and educational crisis in the modern world. What will be said here applies to Quebec as fully as it does to all other industrialized countries. From this analysis of cultural pluralism, of the aims of education and of the contributions of modern pedagogy will emerge the central ideas needed to justify the reforms proposed in later chapters.
The reference to ‘cultural crisis’ shows up in another paragraph in Part two as well. Quebec was undergoing an extensive internal change in these years and following the production of the commission report perhaps some of the emphasis on global cultural crisis is provincial projection. The concerns of Quebec are underlined in the reference to what is termed a ‘cultural crisis.” During these years Quebec’s system of public education is rationalized with the English system. This is very important in terms of Quebec’s political, intellectual and cultural growth. It is necessary for stability and to integrate technical knowledge within the French-speaking public education system. In the post-war years education is considered one of the primary concerns of the province – “Education, in its turn, exercises a profound influence on the state of knowledge and on social conditions; it is itself a dynamic factor in civilization."
As we have pointed out, the history of education is intimately linked with that of science and of the human environment; the school has had to follow the course of knowledge in all its ramifications and has tried to meet the needs of industrial and technological society. But this is not a one-way street. Education, in its turn, exercises a profound influence on the state of knowledge and on social conditions; it is itself a dynamic factor in civilization. And here its responsibility becomes obvious. Hence the fundamental question facing educators, and all those concerned with education: in the present cultural crisis and in the social evolution of our civilization, what should be the goals of education, what direction should be given to pedagogical forms? In more concrete terms: what degree of diversity and of specialization should we seek in education? How large a part should continue to be allotted to general studies? As for these general studies, how should the term be understood? What should be their content? How and by what channels should we effect the transition from general studies to specialization? Behind these questions, the point at issue is the concept of a human ideal in the context of modern society. The replies to these questions will determine the role of education in the future, and its cultural and social mission.
There is a 'crisis' caused by a shortage of qualified teachers. Along these lines a whole paragraph in Part three covers the matter of birth rate discussed relative to the "years of economic crisis which preceded the last world war." Even though Quebec's population was declining from 1956 due to economic conditions after the war -- poverty and lack of educational infrastructure (the birth rate went down to 24.4 per 1000 in 1963 from a high of 30 per 1000 in 1956) -- Quebec's infant mortality rate dropped considerably and this factor with immigration increased demand on schools in the 15 years (approximately) between 1950 and 1965.
In 1959 Alberta's Cameron Commission makes one reference to 'crisis' but it is, for this research, superficial. Apparently there is a 'crisis' on the highways that is explained by lack of public driver education standards.
1968 Ontario's document (Hall-Dennis) refers to crisis four times with the first two insignificant. In the third usage the importance of careful policy planning rather than knee-jerk reaction is emphasized. Here again is a reference to the low birth rate before the First World War and a high birth rate following. A reference to qualifications for teachers is made here, the first reference linked with mention of crisis:
Only two observations will be made here regarding development, which is, of course, linked to research and planning. This first is that developments in education must be based on foresight, and must not, as too often in the past, be desperate and belated attempts to grapple with a crisis. One lamentable example of this kind was the last-minute resort in several provinces to short-term emergency courses to recruit and train teachers. From almost the beginning of the Second World War, educators at the annual conventions of the Canadian Education Association forecast the shortage of teachers that was coming. After the war, committees of the Association made two-year study and published a report to show how a supply of adequately prepared teachers could best be assured -- but to no avail. Admittedly, a low birth rate before the war and a high birth rate after, made the recruitment of teachers a difficult problem. Even so, it is no reason for pride that Ontario has been so slow in making the improvements in teacher education that would attract a larger number of capable applicants. The 1966 report of a committee on teacher education, recommending university education for all teachers, was widely endorsed but has not yet been implemented. It will continually be necessary to avoid other crises by planning with foresight.
In 1971 Alberta's Worth Report the Chinese word 'crisis' is cited. The Chinese definition is apparently made up of two characters representing both danger and opportunity. The document also refers to a "quality crisis." Apparently resources are not applied where they can be most efficiently used:
The threat of a quality crisis in schooling is as much a reflection of the way in which available resources are used as it is of the amount provided. Most of our institutions for schooling lack the capacity for self-renewal. The overpowering inertia of their structures and processes, fortified by selfish professionalization, slows adaptation to changing conditions, making them progressively more obsolete and wasteful. Thus, while the expansion and improvement of our educational system will take more money in the future, it will also demand a redeployment of our resources.
In Newfoundland in 1972 there is a 'crisis' in public education infrastructure. The delineation of the problem is quite thorough and specifically stated.
The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador is clearly faced with an educational facility development crisis. Many educational environments which were once considered to be acceptable are now of questionable utility. The numerous facets of this problem have been clearly defined in a number of studies. The impact of the physical environment in which educative processes are housed has been identified as a particularly crucial and limiting factor in the development of instructional programs adequate for the Province. A number of major factors point to the reasons for the school facility crisis:
1. Rapidly changing and increasingly stringent educational requirements being made upon educational systems to meet the needs of the youth of the Province as they enter the adult world and as barriers of provincialism, which heretofore existed, are lessened.
2. A partly actual, and partly projected, rapid increase in school population throughout the Province. This is particularly reflected in certain geographical areas containing higher than average population densities and in the upper three grades of current public school programs.
3. Factors involving mobility of students due to governmental policies and other changing demographic influences existing in, and unique to, the Province.
4. Situations which have existed for many years which have caused serious overcrowding and inappropriate utilization of classroom space.
5. Resource limitations which have fostered the use of outdated facilities that are unsafe, unhealthy, and ill-adapted for the mounting of a modern curriculum.
1972 Northwest Territories document cites crisis in maintenance of housing units reflecting, perhaps, the self-interest of the northern teachers and their administration -- "The Territorial Government must adopt a policy of preventative maintenance of housing units, rather than follow present policy which seems to be one of maintenance by crises. All too often maintenance on housing units is done only when a crisis arrives."
Finally, the use of the word 'crisis' appears in Nova Scotia's 1974 document. In this document the current 'crisis' is economic with the issue of how to pay for public schooling unresolved since a 1942 'crisis' that Pottier (who wrote Nova Scotia's 1957 report) didn't manage:
It is apparent, though, that the educational crisis of 1942 has not been fully solved. Judge Pottier postponed it for fifteen years, perhaps it would have been for longer if his views had been fully adhered to, but basic questions about both the educational system and how it is financed remain to be answered.
The response of the commission to the problem of rising costs of education during the 1970s years and the fear that it created is best articulated in this document:
The changes of the past hectic years, and the failure of the reforms of 1955 to provide for them, have resulted in a new crisis, a crisis with so many ramifications as almost to defy analysis. A few of the major factors are:
(1) The revolt of the taxpayer. So vast are the sums now spent on education, and so terrifying the projections of future costs, that education, so long protected by its hallowed image, is now the villain of the day in the minds of many of the taxpaying public. The cry is not only the old one for a fairer distribution of the burden, but also for a check, and if possible a reduction, in expenditures. To some, education, only a few years ago the hope of the nation, is now a threat to the solvency of governments and of individuals.
(2) The disillusionment of the hopeful. Having first decided that education could perform the impossible, many are now outraged to find that it cannot. These critics can be subdivided almost infinitely, but most fall into one of three classes:
(a) those who keep the faith, and believe that the obvious failure of the educational establishment to fulfill all the fond hopes of fifteen years ago is the result of the shortcomings of the educators. The best Canadian exposition of this point of view is probably to be found in the Hall-Dennis report, (fn25) which holds that education is still the hope of the world, and can lead us to the broad, sunlit uplands, if only we will eschew our bad habits, and do things the right way;
British Columbia's 1988 Sullivan Report uses the word 'crisis' five times, a fairly high representation. In the first usage, 'crisis' is considered inevitable unless cooperation exists among all the players in the public education system. Without cooperation, "schools will continue to lurch from one crisis to another." The first mention of teacher unions and 'membership minority' "disharmony," show up in this commission report: " … while there has been some obvious disharmony between the BCTF [British Columbia Teachers' Federation] and membership minorities in times of crisis, it is abundantly clear that teachers have rallied behind their provincial organization on most occasions when urged to do so." A third reference to 'crisis' covers 'facility crisis' as a consequence of decreases in funding for building new schools:
The government has announced approved funding in excess of $130 million for 1988-89. This represents a substantial increase over recent years, but remains well below average funding for the late 1970s and early 1980s. When inflation is taken into account, spending approvals in 1988-89 are 40% below the level they were ten years ago. The British Columbia School District Secretary-Treasurers Association summed up the situation this way: "The Province will face a facility crisis in the near future if attention is not paid to a basic component of the public education system -- the school."
Changes in policy without adequate notification has caused situations where ‘crisis management’ was necessary due to provincial fiscal changes that were not understood and implemented on time by district administrators. Legislative changes have also caused confusion. The Sullivan Report refers to ‘crisis management’ occurring where it shouldn’t:
In previous chapters of this report, we noted instances where changes were introduced into the school system by provincial authorities without adequately consulting or notifying district and school personnel responsible for implementing such changes. The introduction of new courses and topics, for example, or the rapid way in which curriculum change has occurred, has resulted in an 'over-crowded' curriculum. Similarly, unexpected changes to provincial-local sharing formulas and misunderstandings about the fiscal framework have caused concern among district administrators leading to instances of 'crisis management' in our schools. Within the life of the Commission itself, legislative changes resulted in confusion on the part of teachers and others. Such changes, when introduced without consultation and due regard for implementation, reflect a lack of clear direction and planning and help create feelings of acrimony and distrust.
The final reference to 'crisis' in British Columbia's 1988 Sullivan Report refers to identity crisis for Native students. This reference and the significance is indicative. It refers to an important Canadian issue, First Nations/Inuit/Metis relationship with the word itself as well as to the culture, practice and historical damage done by the system of "education" in Canada.
The history of Canadian education, however, illustrates the long-standing cultural difficulties Native youngsters have faced in school. Native children, we are told, arrive at school ill-equipped (with few exceptions) to bridge the gap between their home lives and traditional classroom expectations. For the most part, the school represents a new and strange cultural atmosphere to which they cannot easily adapt. In addition, many Native youngsters face a crisis in terms of their identity and must suffer the low esteem in which they are held by the majority of their classmates. Native parents frequently spoke of such circumstances to the Commission and claimed that their children are compelled to adapt to the culture of the school, with little evidence that the reverse occurs.
Conclusion, usage term “crisis”
Considering the usage of the term 'crisis' across the key education commission reports of the 20th century (the transcribed documents up to approximately 1994 before online internet access), what I have found is that there is no indiscriminate use of the term. When used the reference is important. In terms of the post-1970s documents it could be said that the diminishment of reference to 'crisis' in the documents following the final reference mentioned in Nova Scotia's 1974 document indicate a possible increase in the use of public education commissions to mediate political circumstances that are unfavourable, they are therefore an instrument of "legitimation."
Overall, the highest usage of the term 'crisis' can be attributed to Quebec's 1961-66 Parent Report and I think this is of note in terms of Canadian public education policy in the 20th century. It lends possible weight to one of the arguments put forth in an earlier section of this project, that the Parent Report is the most important public education policy document produced in Canada in the 20th century in respect of public education policy history. The urgency that this report addresses circumscribes one the main features of public education policy analysis for the 20th century in Canada, that of the rationalization of the English and French language education systems where the main integration occurs between the public French language system defined by provincial legislation in Quebec, and English language systems existing in Ontario and the rest of Canada. We may also wonder about the significance of the Parent Report, in terms of the foregoing, to the unity of Canada as we know it today, where perhaps without public education systems rationalization, Quebec sovereignty would have been the final outcome. Rationalization created a position from which an economic relationship with the rest of Canada (and the federal government) could be envisioned by French-speaking Canadians encouraging Quebec to stay connected with the federation. Without rationalization the 'two solitudes' would have been framed by a closed public education system and this could have created a situation of alienation of such degree that the quiet revolution would likely have created full conditions for separation. Certainly, the modernization of the Quebec public education system had ramification not only for Canadian public education policy history but also for Canadian history in total.
Finally, in the documents in which the term 'crisis' is used we see the term appearing in relation to approximately seven identifiable key concerns appearing in the 20th century:
- The war crisis
- The shortage of teachers and recruiting and training teachers
- Educational crisis covering integrating new methods and technological advances
- Cultural and educational crisis world-wide
- Infrastructure crisis
- Financing crisis
- Native identity crisis
- Adolescent crisis (re: 1925 British Columbia)
The following documents do not contain the word "crisis" in any section: CanEdPolDoc1913Canada Part 1, CanEdPolDoc1938Quebec, CanEdPolDoc1945Manitoba, CanEdPolDoc1959Manitoba, CanEdPolDoc1960Yukon, CanEdPolDoc1962NewBrunswick, CanEdPolDoc1971PEI, CanEdPolDoc1973NewBrunswick. A review of the use of the term "crisis" in 1990s electronic documents and a comparative with transcribed documents as reviewed is not available at this time. One of the questions summarized by Held on Habermas’ theory “Has the logic of crisis changed (from the path of crisis growth, unstable accumulation, to something fundamentally different)?” Perhaps, considering Nova Scotia’s 1974 commission report. It refers to a failure of the 1955 report (Pottier Report) and finds the current crisis to be greater than public education can counter: “The best Canadian exposition of this point of view is probably to be found in the Hall-Dennis report, (fn25) which holds that education is still the hope of the world, and can lead us to the broad, sunlit uplands, if only we will eschew our bad habits, and do things the right way…" The "logic of crisis" in Canadian public education policy has changed.
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