Children, Schooling and Family Reproduction in Nineteenth-Century Ontario

Abstract

Why did children go to school in increasingly proportions during the nineteenth-century? This essay examines research findings as a foundation for re-interpreting how schooling became a characteristic experience of growing-up in Ontario. By connecting inheritance patterns, fertility trends and economic changes, this re-interpretation reconciles the changing diversity of individual and family life with the overall trajectory of schooling during decades of deep social, cultural and economic transformations.