Frontier College began through the work of Reverend Alfred Fitzpatrick. He was born in Millsville, Nova Scotia. Two of his brothers had gone to work in the Redwood lumber camps in California. His brother Lee had died there and they had not heard from Isaac since he left. Young Alfred became a minister and decided to serve the workers in the Redwood forest lumber camps. He wanted to search for one lost brother and find the gravesite of the other.
The legend says that Alfred met his brother Isaac when he offered him a ride in his horse-drawn wagon. During the ride Isaac learned Alfred was his little brother. Isaac thought Alfred was some 4,000 miles away. He was surprised and very happy. Alfred then heard about the hard life men had in the lumber camps. Many died through accidents on the job. Alfred decided to spend his life helping those who worked in the camps.
Many workers in the camps were from other countries. Alfred was driven by a spiritual desire to help them. He believed everyone had the right to knowledge and that knowledge for life began with adult literacy.
Alfred went to a lumber camp near Nairn Centre in Northern Ontario in 1899. He started his first Reading Camp in October 1900. Young university graduates followed and started 24 reading rooms. They met in log buildings or tents throughout that northern region. These graduates were supported by church donations, as well as private, commercial, and some governmental finances but they were then—as they are now–volunteer workers.
These “labourer-teachers” worked alongside the miners, railway workers, or those working in the lumber mills. In the evening, tired and hurting from hard work, they set up their blackboards and taught basic literacy skills to their fellow workers. They often used a reading tent or pulled open the door of an empty boxcar. Pain, tiredness, lots of mosquitoes and very few books were all part of literacy for both teachers and learners.
Little has changed since 1899. Labourer-teachers still work for the same wages as their co-workers. They still teach literacy in the evenings. They will teach whenever and wherever there is space and time for learning.
The Canadian government liked what Alfred was doing. With thousands of immigrants entering Canada in the 20th century, the government started giving Frontier College funds for citizenship education classes. By 1920, the number of labourer-teachers had grown to 46 men and 3 women. Alfred wrote the Handbook for New Canadians in 1919. This handbook was given to each volunteer to teach from.
By 1920, some 100,000 workmen had been taught by over 500 labourer-teachers.
One of Alfred’s struggles was with the college and university education system. Alfred had been given degree-granting authority for Frontier College. This was given by the federal government in 1919. However, this charter was never fulfilled. Many of the universities, colleges, and provincial departments of education across Canada would not accept the idea of a “national college.” Alfred Fitzpatrick died along with his dream of a degree-granting institution in 1925.
Edwin Bradwin became the second president of Frontier College. He worked hard to be sure that Frontier College kept placing labourer-teachers throughout Canada as volunteers in non-credit teaching. Today, labourer-teachers work alongside migrant workers on farms and in market gardens.
Frontier College is now also
- reaching the physically and mentally challenged in literacy
- building learning partnerships with Canada’s First Nations Peoples
- teaching literacy in prisons
- promoting reading with young people.
Some have questioned if Frontier College reached out to everyone in its earliest days. They did not work with many First Nations and women in the earliest years. Some have said that teaching citizenship did not respect immigrants’ backgrounds. This is not said about today’s Frontier College.
Today Frontier College is working with learners, hearing their voice, and, at times, helping to fight for them in the face of injustice.
Religious, social and economic purposes have often formed the basis of literacy content and funding. Learner voice in literacy is a recent chapter in the long history of our field.
If we can learn one thing from our history, it is to begin to ask: “Literacy for what purpose, as decided by whom, and for whose benefit?” Today, we could ask, “What is the purpose of my program now?” “What was its purpose when it first began?” “What model would be best if we are to be truly authentic, effective, literacy educators into the 21st century?” What can we learn from our own history for today and tomorrow?
