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Elementary / Secondary
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Alberta’s first schools were Roman
Catholic and Protestant schools established by
missionaries in the 19th century. During
Alberta’s territorial period, from 1870 to 1905,
Alberta’s schools fell under the civil authorities of
the North-West Territories, who modeled the system after
public schooling in Ontario. In 1905, Alberta’s first
provincial government maintained the overall
organization framework of the school system, and besides
setting up a tax system for funding, largely left the
operation of the schools to each rural area. Small,
one-room schoolhouses were built around the countryside,
typically offering only grades one through eight, which
were all taught by one teacher. Teachers were usually
young women with a grade 11 education.
Until the 1930s, elementary education
was primarily a process of instilling the pupil with enough
of the "three r’s," reading, writing, and arithmetic, to
produce adequately effective citizens. Secondary school,
for the few students who continued past grade eight, was
a challenging academic pursuit geared towards
post-secondary studies. In the 30s, however, the
government instituted a new system that emphasized
active learning and emotional, physical and intellectual
development of the students. Junior high schools were
established, and more students were attending secondary
schools.
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