DCHP-1 Online

separate school

• 1 Que., Obs. a school for girls.

  • 1835  When the Assembly passed this most important law . . . they seemed to consider us, for having (may I say?) the misfortune of being protestants and of another descent, as beneath those of their own origin and religion, and therefore unworthy of having a separate school, like those for our sisters and daughters.
  • 1835  In some of the seigniories there are separate schools for girls.

• 2 Hist. a segregated school for Negroes.

  • 1857  (1963)  Separate schools and churches are nuisances that should be abated as soon as possible, they are dark and hateful relics of Yankee Negrophobia. . . .
  • 1857  (1963)  Protestant and coloured separate schools may be authorized by the council of a township, town or village, upon the application of five or more heads of families.
  • 1963  In 1927, the legislature created a separate school district in the area for "all residents other than white persons in the district"--and did not repeal the legislation until 1960.

• 3a a school for children belonging to a religious minority in a particular district, operated by a school board elected by the minority ratepayers and financed by taxes imposed on them by the board as well as by grants from the provincial Department of Education. Such schools are under the jurisdiction of the Department and follow the same basic curriculum as that laid down for public schools.

  See also: parochial school  separate church school  separate high-school  separate parish school  

  • This situation obtains substantially in Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Territories at the present time. Except in Quebec, separate school has come to refer almost exclusively to schools for Roman Catholics. See def. 3b and note.

  • 1852  The law makes provision for Separate Schools, to meet an exigency--namely, the anticipated intrusion of the religious dogmas of a majority upon a minority.
  • 1895  The term "separate school" applies also to Protestants and coloured persons, but as a matter of practice the exception to the general principle of the [Ontario] common school system is confined chiefly to Roman Catholics.
  • 1902  (1957)  Catholics may have separate schools, which receive the same financial subsidies as the public schools, provided they employ teachers with certificates and conform with the prescribed curriculum of studies.
  • 1958  In Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta, separate schools and public schools alike are under the provincial control of a single department of education.
  • 1966  There are 54,128 Roman Catholic children in public schools in Metropolitan Toronto despite the existence of 107 separate schools in Toronto and the suburban municipalities.

• 3b a denominational school, especially one operated for and by Roman Catholics.

  • Although separate school is not an official designation in six of Canada's provinces, either because such schools as defined in def. 3a have never existed or because they have been discontinued, the term is widely used in the general sense of the above definition, and has been for over a century.

  • 1872  The Roman Catholics spoke frankly and sincerely for their separate schools, the New Brunswickers for their local liberties; in all other quarters strategical considerations manifestly prevailed.
  • 1873  The religion of the majority of ratepayers in any School District shall determine the designation of the District as Protestant or Roman Catholic, and any School dissenting from this shall be termed a Separate School.
  • 1891  St. John has outgrown the wretched Separate school system, having abolished it fifteen years ago . . . with the happiest result to all, and especially to the Catholic people.
  • 1909  One of the most important measures passed in the first session of the Manitoba Legislature was "The School Act," being an Act to establish a system of education in the Province, and establishing Public Schools; the dual system having been inaugurated--Catholic and Protestant, not separate schools as they have generally been called.
  • 1949  The Roman Catholics still [in 1872] wanted to have separate schools, and they were willing to pay for these themselves, but they objected to paying in addition the taxes to support the common schools.
  • 1955  Added to this, of course, is the fact that numerous children are educated at the Separate School, without charge to the ratepayers.
  • 1964  Rejecting the idea of tax-supported separate schools which exist in every other province except British Columbia, Roblin suggested instead [for Manitoba] what he called a "program of shared services." Under his plan, separate schools would affiliate themselves loosely with the public school system.