The London Normal School and Rural Education in Southwestern Ontario

For nearly 60 years the London Normal School, constructed in 1898-1899, was one of the major facilities for the training of teachers who taught in the rural communities of southwestern Ontario. The purpose of this booklet is to provide an overview of the changes in teaching style, teacher training and rural schooling that took place prior to and during the early years following the opening of this facility. We begin with a discussion of the status of elementary education preceding the emergence of the Ontario normal school system. Here the focus is on the pioneer period where rural school "instructors were essentially school keepers rather than school teachers...(and their success)...depended mainly upon their qualifications as disciplinarians" (McCutcheson, 1941, p. 25).

Next, we describe the events that led to the development of the Ontario normal school system and the nature of teacher training in Ontario during the mid-to-late 1800s. We then focus on the London Normal School to illustrate how the philosophy of early childhood education had changed around the turn of the last century, how these changes manifested themselves in a new child-centered curriculum, and how this new curriculum was implemented in the rural areas during the early years of the 20th century.