Becoming a Teacher

While looking through my father’s papers I found a newspaper clipping from the Globe and Mail dated June 28th 1951. It was entitled  “Results of 1951 Examinations of Ontario of Education Are Announced. In the first paragraph was a familiar name: Gordon Russell Brooks, who was a successful candidate in the High School Assistants, Type A, Intramural examinations for Vocal and Instrumental Music. Interesting, I thought. Obviously I knew that my father was a teacher but what exactly was a High School Assistant, Type A and how did one become one?

My dad’s journey to becoming a teacher started much earlier. I had written earlier about how he obtained his Bachelor of Music degree thanks to the Veteran’s Charter. Russ loved music and had always dreamed of becoming a teacher. He enrolled in the new School Music program at the University of Toronto in 1947 after returning from service in Europe in 1946. 

The class was a small, select group of 21 students with 5 professors and 3 lecturers. The program was rigorous. In his 3rd year Russ would have studied the History of Music, Keyboard Harmony. Arranging, Choral Technique, Band and Orchestral Technique, Conducting and more. Students were also given “general instruction in programme planning and musical aptitude and achievement testing” to prepare them for their future teaching career. English and Physics were also required, the latter for acoustics. Fees of $210 were charged with an incidental fee of $39 which covered Hart House access, health services and the cost of the degree itself.

By the time he entered the Ontario College of Education in the fall of 1950 Russ was well positioned to become a teacher. He had met the qualifications for admission to the music teacher’s program by completing his Bachelor of Music degree. The fees for the year program were $125 for academic including the examination and $26 for incidentals including Hart House access, health service and the medical examination for admission to the College. The Faculty of Education was located in the building that now house UTS on Bloor Street West between Spadina and Huron. 

City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 3256

There were two streams for the Interim High School Assistant Type A certificate. the first covered Agriculture, Classics, English and French, English and Latin, English, Geography, History, French and German, French and Italian, French and Spanish, Latin and French, Latin and Greek, Mathematics, Mathematics and Physics, Science,  Physics and Chemistry, Physics and Biology, Chemistry and Biology, and Home Economics. The second stream including Physical Education, Arts and Crafts, Instrumental Music and Vocal music. This is the stream that my dad entered.  Examinations for the music stream were to be held as follows: 

Russ was successful in his studies and quickly obtained a job at Uxbridge and Port Perry High Schools

Schools and teachers in the Province of Ontario. Ontario Department of Education 1951. Internet Archive  

Interesting how the directory lists the teachers’ salaries. Russ earned the princely sum of $2,800 which works out to $29,000 in today’s money. Teachers did not earn high salaries in those pre union days. My parents rented an apartment on Brock Street in Uxbridge, a 5 minute drive to Uxbridge Secondary School on Planks Lane

and a 15 minute drive to Port Perry High School on Rosa Street in Port Perry.

Both schools had been erected in the 1920s and would soon have additions built to accommodate the baby boomer generation. But in 1951 the student body was a modest size, both around 200, and the faculty small. Both schools had 11 teachers including the principal.

Uxbridge staff 1951-52

It was at the Port Perry High School that my dad first staged one of his beloved Gilbert and Sullivan operettas starting a tradition that lasted throughout his career.

   

Russ worked at the two schools for 3 years until 1954 when he moved to Oakville to teach at Oakville Trafalgar High School. He then moved on to Newmarket High School where he finished his career as a music teacher.

So what was a High School Assistant, Type A, Intramural? The difference between Intramural and extramural isn’t defined in the calendar but it appears to refer to students completing their studies in class at U of T and those studying off campus. The definition of the certificates is noted here:

Sure enough, when I next find Russ in a teacher directory he is teaching at Oakville Trafalgar High School in 1956. He is described at a HSS (High School Specialist) with special certificate in Interim and Art and earning $4,800.

Mystery solved and congratulations to my dad on this major achievement, 70 years ago!