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Education in Acadia
 

During the period the French were in Canada (1534 - 1763) in the area known as Acadia, (the Maritimes, parts of the Gaspe and Maine), the process of learning was integrated into everyday Acadian life. While the French government supported the responsibility of the Catholic Church for teaching religion, mathematics, history, natural science, and French, this unfortunately did not extend to the typical Acadian family. The reality for these colonists was that the church's responsibility was limited to administering to their spiritual needs, and not to their further education. Most of the church's effort went into the missionary work of converting and educating the indigenous people of the region.

 

The requirements to clear land, establish and maintain farms was labour-intensive. The very survival of the family required that all hands, both large and small, participate in farm work. Therefore, the children's education was limited to practical skills such as planting and harvesting crops, building dykes, gardening, spinning, weaving, and sewing. These were skills passed on from family members

 

The population of Acadia was small and dispersed, and it was usually the family that provided religious instruction and, in some cases, instruction in reading and writing. However, most of the Acadians in the rural areas could not read and write. In the early 1600s, about one in four colonists were literate, but by the turn of the 1700s, the preoccupation with survival had taken its toll on the literacy rate and only one person in seven could sign his or her name.

 

 

Adapted from www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca

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