The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Page 6 D U N D A S M U SE U M & A RC H IV ES Vo i c es from t h e Pa st: Schoo l Day s! Ontario were subjected to a course in Temperance. This was in compliance with an Act to provide for the teaching of TemperSeptember ance in the Public Schools. brought with it a This act was unanimously new school year. approved by the Legislature The excitement of of Ontario, its members new classrooms, FRQFHUQHGWKDW´PDQ\ new teachers, new contract the habit of using friends has intoxicating liquors through dimmed in the ignorance, and that even the face of daily best education imparted in lessons and, of course, homework as the students settle our Public Schools is not an offset into the school year. The Museum has to the ruin which frequently in its collection a wonderful selection of UHVXOWV«µ school books, both texts and exercise, 6WXGHQWV·LQGLYLGXDOH[HUFLVHERRNV and art projects offer a view of the expectations and skills of children. We see the neat rows of Jeannie $QGHUVRQ·VFXUVLYHZULWLQJDQGWKH fountain pen scratchings as John -HZHWWPDVWHUV´UHGXFWLRQµ :HVHH%HDWULFH%UHPQHU·VLQWULFDWH paper art projects and her brother )UHGGLH·VFKDUPLQJDUWSURMHFW These documents are delightful, but they are also vital to our understanding of the classroom and how it has evolved over time. dating from the 1860s to the 1930s. We are also privileged to have the school books belonging to Mary and Helen Bain, the children of the Hon. Thomas Bain and his wife Helen. All offer a glimpse of what Canadian children were required to learn over time. It is interesting that, in addition to reading, history, civics, grammar, physical science, chemistry, geography, French, and Latin, in 1887 students in Sandra Kiemele Archivist My st eri es from H ist or y Last newsletter our mystery involved a toppled tree and a crumpled cabin. Well, mystery solved! The image was taken in 1927 after a violent windstorm felled a tree on the Lawn Bowling Club headquarters in the Driving Park next to the wading pool.