HISTORY
SYNOPSIS OF CHSF HISTORY
THE
CANADIAN HOME AND SCHOOL
AND PARENT-TEACHER FEDERATION
"Working for the well-being of youth - 100 Years of Parent
Involvement"
THE FIRST 'HOME AND SCHOOL'
In 1885, Mabel Hubbard Bell and her husband, Alexander Graham
Bell, established a summer home at Baddeck in Cape Breton, Nova
Scotia. A resourceful and energetic person, she would make lasting
contributions to that community in helping found the public
library, the Young Ladies Club of Baddeck (now the Alexander
Graham Bell Club) and, in 1895, the 'parents' association for
the Baddeck schools. In Washington, D.C., where the Bell family
lived during the winter, Mrs. Bell was in contact with several
groups concerned with the education and welfare of children
who were planning the first National Congress of Mothers for
1897, the forerunner of the National Congress of Parents and
Teachers, and the US National PTA. Mabel Bell encouraged the
Baddeck parents to establish a formal association, the first
recorded Home and School association in Canada.
AND THE FIRST 'FOYER-ECOLE'
Around the time that the Baddeck parents were forming their
association, meetings of parents and teachers of the district
were being organized in the Acadian parishes of the French-speaking
community of Prince Edward Island. Called assemblees d'arrondissements,
these meetings would continue to 1952, when their name was changed
to Foyer-Ecole.
HOME
AND SCHOOL IN ONTARIO
Ontario's first Home and School associations were formed in
Guelph and London in 1905, developing from mothers' clubs, art
clubs, parents clubs, and then parent-teacher clubs. It was
1916 when the first Council was formed in Toronto by nine associations
with Mrs. A.C. Courtice as its president. Mrs. Courtice, as
convenor of the educational committee of the local Council of
Women, had called local groups to a public meeting to discuss
the need for more cooperation between parents and teachers.
Three years later, the Toronto Council brought together delegates
from mothers' clubs and parents' and teachers' organizations,
as well as the members of the London and the Peterborough Home
and School Councils, to consider the formation of a provincial
association. The Ontario Federation of Home and School Associations
was the first provincial Home and School federation in Canada.
In 1920, there were 150 associations affiliated with the Ontario
federation, comprising some 10,000 members.
A NOVA SCOTIA FEDERATION
In 1914, L.A. DeWolfe, an instructor at Truro Normal College,
Nova Scotia, began to promote parent-teacher groups in school,
to link the home with the school and improve the community in
general. A Home and School Committee was formed by the province's
Women's Institutes, with Dora Baker as convenor. When Dr. DeWolfe
was appointed Rural Science Director in 1927, Dora Baker and
Mattie Harris became his assistants. Together they set up a
network of 'travelling teachers' who organized 'community clubs'.
A Home and School Council of 148 associations was the precursor
of the Nova Scotia Federation of Home and School Associations
founded in 1936 with Dora Baker as president. In 1938, Dr. DeWolfe
succeeded Dr. W.G. Kerby of Alberta as president of the Canadian
National Federation of Home and School, a post he would hold
for seven years. During the war years, he kept in touch with
the members of his executive committee through his Circular
Letters and visits to the different provinces at his own expense.
AND IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
A parent-teacher association, along the lines of parent-teacher
organizations in California and Washington, was organized in
1915 in the Craigflower School District, the oldest school district
in British Columbia. In 1922, a federation of associations throughout
the province to form the British Columbia Parent-Teacher Federation,
with Mrs. James Muirhead as its first president.
ALBERTA
The Connaught Mothers' Club and Art League was the first Home
and School association in Alberta in 1914, inspired by the mothers'
clubs being formed in Ontario. In 1922, seventeen associations
attended a parent-teacher conference in Calgary which was the
forerunner of the Calgary Council. The Alberta Federation of
Home and School Associations was organized in 1929 with Dr.
W.G. Kerby, principal of Mount Royal College in Calgary, as
its president.
SASKATCHEWAN
In Saskatchewan, Buena Vista School was the site of the first
Home and School association in 1926. By 1929, with the active
support of educational psychologist Dr. S.R. Laycock of the
University of Saskatoon, a Home and School Council was in operation
in Saskatoon. Dr. Laycock became the first president of the
Saskatchewan Federation of Home and School Associations in 1938,
and in 1945 was elected president of Canadian Home and School.
MANITOBA
Although there are references in newspapers to home and school
activities in Brandon in 1912, St. Vital's Norberry School (1924)
and Windsor School (1926) seem to be the first Home and School
associations in Manitoba. The provincial Home and School federation
was not established until 1943, with A.E.G. Parker as president.
In 1953, the federation was incorporated as the Home and School
and Parent-Teacher Federation of Manitoba, Inc.
QUEBEC
Dr. W.P. Percival was principal of the high school attached
to Macdonald College's teacher training institute at Ste. Anne
de Bellevue, when he organized the first Home and School association
in Quebec in 1919. A provincial council was organized by 16
associations in 1940 and a federation of Montreal area associations
in 1941. In 1944 these two organizations established the Quebec
Federation of Home and School Associations and the first president
was Gordon Patterson.
NEW BRUNSWICK
From five associations in 1938, the Home and School movement
in New Brunswick grew to seventy-three active associations (most
of them French-speaking) by 1948 when the New Brunswick Federation
of Home and School Associations was organized. The first provincial
president was Dr. Katharine M. Connell.
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
The first association in Prince Edward Island under the name
"Home and School" was founded at Queen Square School
in Charlottetown in 1933. In 1953, 32 active associations on
the Island founded the provincial federation, with Mrs. Gordon
MacDonald as its president.
YUKON and the N.W.T.
Home and School associations in the Yukon and Northwest Territories
were affiliated with the Alberta or the British Columbia federations
until 1963, when the Yukon associations joined the Canadian
Federation, as the Yukon Federation of Home and School Associations.
The federation became inactive in the 1970s.
NEWFOUNDLAND and LABRADOR
Although parent associations had been in existence for many
years, it was not until 1980 that the Newfoundland and Labrador
Federation of Home and School and Parent-Teacher Associations
was formed, with Lloyd Horlick as its first president.
A NATIONAL HOME AND SCHOOL
In 1927, the leaders of the provincial Home and School federations
of Ontario and British Columbia, and representatives from Alberta,
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and
Prince Edward Island, attended a conference in Toronto. There
they held a meeting to found a national Home and School organization,
the Canadian National Federation of Home and School. President
of the new federation was Dr. W.G. Kerby of Calgary and the
executive committee included teachers and representatives of
provincial departments of education. In 1951, the renamed Canadian
Home and School and Parent-Teacher Federation was incorporated
as a non-profit organization. The aims and objectives which
it adopted were inspired by those of the National Congress of
Parents and Teachers in the USA.
A NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
Canadian Home and School saw steady growth in membership in
provincial and local associations. By 1961, there were over
300,000 members, making the Home and School movement the largest
voluntary organization in Canada. Representatives from nine
provinces and territories were representing parents of some
4 million school-aged children from Home and School's national
headquarters at 370 Dundas Street West in Toronto. The purchase
in 1954 of the building on Dundas Street was funded through
a campaign with the slogan Quarters for Headquarters. A ready
response from all provincial federations made it possible to
repay the mortgage in full within two years. One night in December
1967, someone forced an entry into Home and School headquarters
and set fire to furniture and records. Insurance covered the
resulting smoke and water damage but the rising value of property
in the area and concern about revenues persuaded the leadership
that the building be sold. The national office was reopened
on St. Clair Avenue West. In 1984, the head office of the Canadian
Home and School and Parent-Teacher Federation was moved to Ottawa.
THE
TRANSITION TO PARENT ADVISORY COUNCILS
The Province of Quebec was the first to realize that the involvement
of parents in the schools and the education system was essential
to quality. In 1971, legislation required each school and school
board to organize a school committee and a parent's committee
(at the level of the board). In Ontario, grants were offered
to school systems to implement Parent Advisory Councils. A few
years later, Manitoba's education department recommended advisory
councils of parents at each school. British Columbia now has
a network of publicly funded parent advisory councils affiliated
with the national Home and School federation. It is likely that
Prince Edward Island will have mandated Home and School Councils
in place in the near future.
INTERNATIONAL
HOME AND SCHOOL
The conference which provided the opportunity to form a national
Home and School federation was the 1927 world conference of
education associations. Parent-teacher organizations from several
countries were present and formed the International Federation
of Home and School, of which the new Canadian federation immediately
became a member. The International Home and School organization
lapsed during the Second World War. Efforts to revive it in
1952 at an international conference of the Canadian National
Federation of Home and School and the US National Congress of
Parents and Teachers, were unsuccessful.
In 1931, the Canadian Federation of Home and School studied
ways to finance the national federation. Until then, one cent
had been the membership fee collected by the provincial federations
for the national organization, with a provincial minimum of
twenty-five dollars. In 1933, the national fee went up to two
cents, until 1947 when it was increased to five cents. In 1951
the fee went up to six cents and in 1956 to eight cents, with
a further increase in 1962 to ten cents. Revenues were not adequate
for the tasks set by the provincial federations and the board
of directors for their national leadership and its office. But
to keep local membership accessible to every family or individual
parent, provincial federations thought it desirable to keep
the national assessment very low. An assessment based on the
student population of each province, including separate or French-language
school systems, was considered in 1971 and again in 1984, but
lacking agreement, fees continued to be based on individual
or family memberships, or in some provinces on 'block' fees
levied on affiliated schools.
During her presidency (1972-4), Dr. Blanche Bourgeois led Canadian
Home and School to produce constitutional and policy documents
in French, and a revised edition of the French Handbook was
published. At a Special Meeting held in 1984, the French name
of the Federation (La Federation canadienne des associations
foyer-ecole) and other amendments to the Letters Patent were
formally adopted.
CHILDREN'S READING and LIBRARIES
In the 1940s, Canadian Home and School had been asked to take
up the subject of crime and horror comics with the federal Minister
of Justice and had petitioned the government to restrict their
sale. In 1951, the children's reading committee decided to turn
the attention of parents to the value of good literature and
to the need to extend library services for children. As a national
project on libraries in 1960, provincial Home and School federations
were asked to report on library facilities and to survey regulations
on school and community library services in their area, with
a view to action.
1967 CENTENNIAL READING PROJECT
In 1966, the Centennial Reading Project took up these issues.
It had several objectives: to encourage parents to take responsibility
for interesting pre-school children in pre-reading activities,
for providing a 'home bookshelf' for helping to establish school
and public libraries, for developing a 'reading army' of people
to read to pre-schoolers or other groups, and for disseminating
information on children's reading. A Children's Reading Kit
was mailed to local associations in the fall of 1966. It included
What Every Parent Should Know About the Teaching of Reading,
by Dr. A.F. Deverell of the University of Saskatchewan, and
two pamphlets on the importance of reading aloud to children.
Two other brochures were also produced and distributed as part
of the project. They were Books for a Family Bookshelf by Helen
Robertson, coordinator of children's services in the Winnipeg
Public Library, and What Every Parent Should Know About Early
Childhood Influences by Professor Alice Borden of the University
of British Columbia. 2,000 posters were printed by IBM Canada,
and Canadian educational reference-book publishers sponsored
the printing of 900,000 copies of the brochure, Place a Book
in the Hands of your Child.
Provincial Home and School and Parent-Teacher federations agreed
to assess the effectiveness of library services in their area
an promote school and public libraries where these were inadequate.
Twenty-eight years later, Home and School associations continue
to support school libraries, raising funds to enlarge collections
in print and other media, and providing volunteers who make
it possible for young readers to have greater access to library
books during and after school hours, and in some cases during
vacations.
READING IN THE INFORMATION AGE
The arrival of the Information Society put reading once again
in the spotlight. The Home and School National Literacy Project
developed by Maybelle Durkin in 1989 focused on the importance
of reading in all branches of children's education. Born to
Read projects, reading circles, reading contests and book sales
are activities of Home and School organizations in all parts
of Canada. In the Maritimes, the National Literacy Project has
led to successful local initiatives in family literacy and improving
the learning environment of their young people. With the Learning
Support Council of Canada, technology centres using recycled
computers are being organized by the Richmond Country Intercommunity
Literacy Exchange.
MEDIA LITERACY IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
To be able to distinguish bias, misrepresentation or manipulation
in the media, today's young people and their parents need to
acquire media literacy. Canadian Home and School believes that
the inclusion of media literacy in the school curriculum at
elementary and secondary levels will lessen the impact of the
images and values of television, film and photo on the lives
of children and their families.
THE PARENT RESOURCE KIT (P.A.L.S.)
Parents Assist Learning and Schooling. The Parents Assist Learning
and Schooling project offers a training program to encourage
parents to play an active role in their child's education. The
program is based on research by Dr. Janet M. Eaton of Dalhousie
University, Halifax, and was funded by Human Resources Development
Canada as part of the federal Stay in School Initiative. In
1994, the Canadian Home and School and Parent-Teacher Federation
was contracted to implement the PALS training and materials
to both official-language communities across Canada as part
of a Parent Resource Kit of some twenty information materials
supporting parent involvement in education. To carry out this
project, Home and School volunteers are working with their local
parents' associations and groups in the public school system,
the English Catholic and French-speaking community in Ontario
and aboriginal parents in the western provinces and territories.
The French-language version of the PALS (COPAIN) program is
now being implemented.
THE IMPACT OF TELEVISION
In the 1940s, Canadian Home and School first foresaw the impact
on education of radio and film. Because of its consistent interest
and support, its representatives were appointed to the advisory
committees of the National Film Board and the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation until these were discontinued in 1969. In 1965,
Canadian Home and School proposed a nation-wide study by Home
and School of children's television programs. Ten groups in
four provinces met to discuss the booklet Children and TV -
The Moral Concern by Dr. F.B. Rainberry of the CBC. The results
indicated that few parents watched television programs along
with their children, that family viewing was likely to be unselective,
and that the public had a responsibility to demand high quality.
In January 1970, a national Home and School brief to Senator
Keith Davey's special Senate committee on the mass media urged
that research be undertaken into the effects of television on
children. The senators suggested that the Federation undertake
a survey of high school students and parents on the subject
of a code of ethics for radio and television programming, as
well as for the print media. The following year a Home and School
survey of parents and teenagers showed support for programming
appropriate to children during morning and after-school viewing
hours. Parents and teenagers disagreed on whether there was
undue emphasis on sex in television programs, but both groups
tended to agree that there was undesirable emphasis on violence.
A code of ethics for radio and television, both groups felt,
should not be determined solely by the media. Home and School
voiced objections to the nature of television advertising directed
at children. In 1972, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters
adopted a voluntary advertising code for children, but little
improvement was evident. By 1975, Canadian Home and School was
calling for an end to all commercial advertising directed at
children, now a fact in some areas of Canada.
TELEVISION VIOLENCE
Concern at the increasing violent content of television program
during family viewing hours continued to grow throughout succeeding
years. Parent awareness workshops on the topic of television
and children were offered by the Children's Broadcast Institute,
now the Alliance for Children's Television, of which Canadian
Home and School is a longtime member. In a 1980 CBC series,
a group of Toronto Home and Schoolers discussed with a team
of experts the effects on children of television and other media.
It was not until 1993, following a conference on television
violence, that the Canadian Association of Broadcasters adopted
a more stringent, but voluntary, code regarding violence in
television programming.
FITNESS and NUTRITION
By the 1980s, the fitness of Canadians as compared to citizens
of other countries had become a concern of the government of
Canada. A workshop on the issue was held at the 1981 Annual
Meeting of the Canadian Home and School and Parent-Teacher Federation.
It was decided to produce a pamphlet on fitness and nutrition
for the parents of elementary school children.No Way to Treat
Your Kids! was drafted by a fitness and nutrition committee
and was followed up the next year with a set of audio-visual
materials for a parent education workshop, Have I Got a Deal
for You ! highlighted the importance of the child's breakfast
and need for exercise. To promote these materials to Home and
School and other parent groups, audiotaped public service announcements
were distributed to radio stations across the country. More
than 300,000 copies of No Way to Treat Your Kids! were distributed.
n 1987, Canadian Home and School supported the position of physical
education associations that children and youth needed daily
physical activity as part of the school program. Fitness Canada
approached the Federation to take part in the production of
a brochure for parents entitled Let's Go Play to distribute
some 200,000 copies of the material to parents.
A LIFESTYLE FOR LEARNING
The 1994-5 project in fitness and nutrition has been an information
pamphlet for parents on the role of physical activity and nutrition
in cognitive development and the learning of elementary school
children. A Lifestyle for Learning is distributed through Home
and School organizations and cooperating groups.
CHILDREN and SMOKING
In 1968, the department of National Health and Welfare had approached
Canadian Home and School to participate in its campaign 'to
combat cigarette addiction among school-age children'. National
Home and School president Gwen Rorke appointed a smoking and
health committee of parents and educators, with professionals
concerned with respiratory and cardiac diseases as resource
people. In 1969, the national Home and School smoking and health
committee presented a brief to the House of Commons Committee
on Health, Welfare and Social Affairs, the only brief originating
with parents. It suggested regulations to control advertising
by tobacco companies aimed at young people and supported the
idea of a national association of smoking and health organizations
to coordinate political action on the tobacco issue. The brief
led to the adoption by the 1969 annual meeting of a resolution
asking the federal government to divert the funds used to support
the tobacco industry to research, information and promotion
of alternate crops. With a Department of National Health and
Welfare grant, a handbook of ideas and suggestions for parents'
meetings on the topic of children and smoking was produced by
the national Home and School smoking and health committee. It
was sent to 2,500 Home and School and PTA organizations and
other local public service groups. Fifty-eight associations
held smoking and health programs during 1968-69; 77 associations
took other action, and over 300 signified their intention to
participate in the campaign.
STUDENT SURVEY
A survey of the smoking habits of Canadian children was undertaken
with funding provided by the department of National Health and
Welfare. The survey questionnaire was designed by the department
in collaboration with the department of statistics of the University
of Waterloo and administered by provincial Home and School federations
and departments of education, in cooperation. Between November
1971 and May 1972, 90,000 school children aged eight and over
completed an unsigned questionnaire about smoking, administered
by their classroom teachers.
SURVEY RESULTS
When the survey results were analyzed by the University of Waterloo,
they showed that more boys than girls started to smoke before
the age of eleven. Twenty-six percent or more of both boys and
girls were smoking regularly (two or more cigarettes per week)
by early adolescence, and by the age of sixteen and over, nearly
53% of boys and 47% of girls smoked regularly, most of them
smoking considerably more than one pack of cigarettes per week.
The answers about parents' smoking habits indicated that a child
was more likely to smoke if the parents, particularly the mother,
smoked. The Canadian Home and School smoking and health committee
published a new Home and School pamphlet, Really Now, Do You
Want Your Child to Smoke?, in English and French, in 1975. Canadian
Home and School asked the government to increase the penalties
under the Tobacco Restraint Act for selling cigarettes to children
under sixteen years, and to legislate separate non-smoking areas
in public transportation and theatres. Canadian tobacco growers
should turn to alternative crops. School systems, it said, should
make anti-smoking education a priority.
PAL and SMOKE-FREE SPACES
In 1986, as part of the national Break Free campaign, Canadian
Home and School was contracted to prepare a brochure and meeting
guide for parents. They would complement the PAL (peer assisted
learning) program being developed by Health and Welfare Canada
for the use of elementary school teachers. -- At home and at
school let's help the next generation to be SMOKE-FREE! -- Canadian
Home and School also collaborated with the Canadian Heart Foundation
on its campaign to promote Smoke Free Spaces for Kids. Through
education materials and incentives to schools and community
facilities in the form of flags, plaques, certificates and posters,
the campaign succeeded in reducing number of smoking spaces
sending the message to young people that smoking is OK.
TOBACCO DEMAND REDUCTION STRATEGY 1995
Young people are continuing to take up smoking and at younger
ages, particularly girls. New evidence highlights the toxicity
of environmental tobacco smoke for infants and young children,
as well as adults. The Home and School, like other organizations
concerned with youth, provides a network through which families,
school and communities can be motivated to make new efforts
to reduce tobacco use among school children, as part of Health
Canada's tobacco reduction strategy.
Let's Talk About Drugs -- Drug Use and Abuse
The use of drugs and alcohol by young people was the subject
of a study undertaken by the family life committee in 1967.
Since there were no research data about the number of young
people taking drugs in Canada, a team of parents, students and
medical and social service professionals based in Montreal developed
a survey questionnaire. In the fall of 1968, Canadian Home and
School surveyed high school students on their use of drugs and
alcohol, as an outcome of its focus on child development and
family life. Over 4,272 copies of a questionnaire with 54 items
were distributed to high schools across Canada on the basis
of population figures. The survey results prepared by Dr. W.L.
Gardiner of Sir George Williams University, Montreal, indicated
that 9.52% of students used drugs or alcohol. The national survey
on students' attitudes to drugs and alcohol was the centrepiece
of the Federation's brief to the Royal Commission into the Non-Medical
Use of Drugs in the fall of 1969. The following year Canadian
Home and School asked the government of Canada for more research
into the effects of using marijuana and hashish, and that drug
users be treated and rehabilitated rather than convicted. It
also asked school authorities to provide drug education as early
as elementary school. Parents were also in need of education
about illegal drugs. As the first step in a parent awareness
program, President Tom Wilkinson secured the financial support
of Health and Welfare Canada to hold a Drug Use and Abuse Awareness
conference in conjunction with Canadian Home and School's mid-term
executive committee meeting in February 1980. One outcome of
the conference was a kit, "Let's Talk About Drugs",
prepared under contract for Home and School use in parent drug
awareness programs, in both English and French. The same year,
it was announced that the federal government would remove possession
of marijuana from the Criminal Code for first offenders. Canadian
Home and School protested that no consideration had been given
to education about the impact of such decriminalization on youth.
A Parental Viewpoint of Guidance Services
In 1979, a comparative study of school guidance services was
published by Carl Bedal of the Ontario Ministry of Education.
The following year, the board of directors of Canadian Home
and School mandated a survey of the opinions of its members
on school guidance services, as a corollary to the Bedal study.
One thousand questionnaires were distributed through the provincial
Home and School federations and the 612 returns were tabulated.
A Parental Viewpoint of Guidance Services in Canadian Schools
showed that parents gave guidance services a high priority,
especially in secondary schools. There was strong support for
academic, personal and career counselling. There was general
dissatisfaction with the lack of achievement and learning ability
testing, with the results made available to the parents. Parent
respondents said that school should make more effort to communicate
to parents the guidance services available in schools.
Child Abuse and Neglect
The problem of 'battered babies' drew the attention of the national
Home and School family life committee in 1971 and a conference
on child abuse was held by Canadian Home and School in 1979
with the support and participation of Health and Welfare Canada.
-- Preventing Child Abuse -- Everybody's Responsibility -- Home
and School affiliates were urged to raise public awareness of
the nature and incidence of child abuse. It asked the National
Film Board of Canada to make a film on the subject for use in
public awareness programs. In 1977, Canadian Home and School
published a pamphlet on child abuse prevention for parents and
a conference on parent awareness of child abuse was called for
1979. It was agreed that, for Home and School to discuss the
topic of child abuse in local communities, there was need for
a kit on issues in child abuse. A kit with a meeting outline
and information materials was developed. Production of the kit,
Child Abuse and Prevention: Everybody's Responsibility, in both
languages, was supported by the federal justice department.
The child abuse kit was reprinted in 1980, and then revised
and reprinted in September 1985, updating the section on sexual
abuse. The World Congress on Child Abuse was held in Montreal,
1984. Child abuse prevention chairman Eleanor Davies (P.E.I)
presented a poster session on Canadian Home and School's work
on this issue. In 1985, The Home and School pamphlet on child
abuse prevention was revised, redesigned and reprinted.
Teacher Appreciation Week
At the 1988 Annual Meeting of Canadian Home and School, the
decision was made to undertake the promotion of Teacher Appreciation
Week each year, using the model developed by the US National
PTA, Saskatchewan Home and School offered its office's assistance
in the mechanics of the program, since the National Office did
not have the resources. A poster and button were designed and
produced in both English and French. An 'idea file' was made
available to local associations and groups which wished to participate
in the Week. Since then Teacher Appreciation Week has expanded
to Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week and the program has been
adopted by hundreds of schools within and without the Home and
School network, for instance, in Quebec by the ministere de
l'Education which has been given permission by Canadian Home
and School to replicate materials for distribution to all the
schools in the province. In his address on the occasion of the
presentation of his Awards for Teaching Excellence, Prime Minister
Jean Chretien added his thanks to teachers and school personnel
on the occasion of Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week, 1995.
Improving Social Security in Canada
In December 1994, Canadian Home and School presented its point
of view on the federal discussion paper Agenda: Jobs and Growth
to the minister of Human Resource Development. The Home and
School response was based on feedback from focus groups of Home
and School members in each province. In its brief, Canadian
Home and School recommended community-based family resource
centres, increased child tax benefits, flexible income arrangements
to allow parents the option of remaining at home with young
children, a working income supplement, promotion of a learning
environment and the achievement of a decline in the annual dropout
rate of 1% per year until the year 2000.To assist in the transition
of young people from school to the world of work, literacy and
learning should be promoted, skills and job training for the
Information Age improved, work opportunities be widened to create
real jobs and guaranteed, equitable access to post-secondary
education for low-income youth.
The Young Offenders Act
In Bill C-37, the federal government proposed amendments to
the Young Offenders Act. In a combined brief to the House standing
committee on justice and legal affairs, four education organizations
gave their opinion in support of the proposed changes. Access
to information on young offenders was needed by school board
jurisdictions across Canada, said the brief, and the organizations
support amendments to the Act which provide such information
to school boards. School boards recognize and accept the responsibilities
of confidentiality that go with disclosure and support the need
for penalties for misuse. The brief recommended that the proposed
amendments be enacted as expeditiously as possible.
Canadian Conference on the Family, 1964
The Canadian Conference on the Family at Rideau Hall in June
1964, led to the formation of the Vanier Institute of the Family.
Canadian Home and School's family life committee chairman, Marjorie
Hallman of Nova Scotia, sat on the committee organizing this
conference for professionals in the field of family life. Impressed
with the importance given to the first five years of a child's
life, the family life committee encouraged local Home and School
associations to become aware of the needs of pre-school children
and their families.
Spotlight on Home and School
On the evening of March 17th, 1960, the largest-ever meeting
of Home and School members organized by Canadian Home and School
took place in Massey Hall, Toronto. Encyclopedia Britannica
of Canada was the sponsor of the event, which was the brainchild
of the Canadian Home and School public relations committee.
Some 2,000 supporters and friends heard a panel of the television,
radio and print journalists debate the purpose of the Home and
School movement and parent involvement with the leadership of
the Canadian Home and School and Parent-Teacher Federation.
The meeting was moderated by Arnold Edinborough, editor of Saturday
Night magazine and recorded on tape for the use of local associations.
A television interviewer, a radio host and three members of
the Toronto press asked about the role of the Home and School
association in the local school, mixed ability classes, discipline,
religious education, sex education and driving training.
Published by the Canadian Home and School and Parent-Teacher
Federation
858 Bank Street, Suite 104 Ottawa, Ontario K1S 3W3
