The exact date unkown, it has been commented by a number of individuals that teachers were never seen smoking or drinking alcohol in public.
In 1945, a teacher with a Bachelor's Degree and a Degree in Education had a starting salary of $2,000 per year, paid over a ten month period. This was a better salary than most other teachers earned, as many teachers had not earned a university degree. Even this salary was not sufficient and teachers often sought other employment during the summer months.
It was expected that teachers would involve themselves in community affairs and extra-curricular school activities without any financial reimbursement.
Teachers were not granted preparation periods during the day. They taught eight forty minute periods a day. The school day started at 9:00 am and continued until 12 noon. There was a long hour and half for lunch, with the afternoon session lasting from 1:30 pm until 4:00 pm.
In 1949, students were bussed from Vermillion Bay to the school. In order to accommodate these students, the lunch hour was shortened to 40 minutes in length, and the students were dismissed at 3:20 pm.
In the late 1940s and the early 1950s, the Ontario Teacher's Federation tried to organize and improve the working conditions for teachers. Though Dryden was remote and removed from the main Federation activities, there was some agitation on the part of teachers in an effort to improve their working conditions and pay.
Harry McMaster recalls attending a Teacher's Federation meeting in 1951. As the 1950s progressed, teachers were granted two forty minute preparation periods a week. Eventually the improvement in working conditions allowed secondary school teachers a 40 minute preparation period every day.
Though the emphasis of this study is of secondary education in Dryden, an elementary school teacher's perspective of the working conditions for teachers will give us a better understanding of those times.
As exists today, there is a slight rift between high school teachers and elementary teachers. In those days, high school teachers were considered to be "uppity" towards their elementary counterparts.
Elementary teachers did not need a degree to teach. In 1941 the salary for an elementary school teacher was about $900. During the summer months, many teachers went to Toronto and worked in the factories to augment their salary.
Betty (Brown) Hawke recalls an interesting anecdote that sheds light on the nature of salary negotiations between teachers and the board at that time. During the early 1940s, each teacher negotiated their own salary with the School Board. The chairman of the board (name cannot be recalled) did not speak English very well. He offered Betty an annual salary of $900. Betty, not understanding him, replied "I beg your pardon?". The chairman misunderstood her reply as an expression of indignation over a low salary offer, increased his offer to $950 a year.
Not only was there a rift between high school teachers and elementary school teachers, but there existed a division between male and female teachers. Among the male teachers, the idea existed that they should be paid more than their female counterparts. Since most female teachers were married to working husbands, it was believed that they did not need to earn as much money as their male coworkers.
For every grade in elementary school, the ministry of education provided a course outline that specified exactly the curriculum to be covered by the teacher. This course outline was called the "grey book" and was considered to be the "holy bible" of education. As Betty (Brown) Hawke explains, "the grey book told you what you were to do in the classroom, when you were to do it and how you were to do it"
Last updated on April 9, 2005