Moral Bases of Literacy

Educational reformers like Egerton Ryerson, the first Chief Superintendent of Education in Upper Canada, represented the avant-garde of the emerging capitalist class in urging the replacement of the prevailing informal and voluntary provisions for education by a centralized, compulsory, tax-supported school system which would respond to these social problems and smooth the way for the emerging industrial order.22 A principal theme of this ultimately successful campaign was the singling out of the "ignorance" and illiteracy of immigrant Irish labourers as the main cause of the crime, "pauperism" (not poverty--rather, dependence of public charity) and class conflict afflicting Upper Canada, and the efficacy of education, particularly literacy education, in eliminating them.23

The perspective on literacy which informed the efforts of educational reformers like Ryerson has been termed the "moral bases of literacy". 24 Literacy was not seen as significant in and of itself. Rather literacy instruction was seen as the vehicle for the inculcation of an approved moral code, one based on Christian values and emphasizing restrained and controlled behavior. 25 Literacy was seen as essential for a "respectable" mode of life. Prentice explains that "respectability" consisted of "refined manners and taste, respectable religion, proper speech and finally, the ability to read and write proper English".26

Conversely, the condition of illiteracy was an outward sign that the inculcation of this moral code had not taken place--the visible manifestation of an underlying ignorance and "want of respectability" that was the root of personal and social deviance. 27 According to Graff, Ryerson and other educational reformers saw a simple chain of causation:

Ignorance and illiteracy, as Ryerson argued, were the first causes of poverty and crime, the latter two in turn being inextricably linked. Each was seen to cause the other, particularly among immigrants and in cities. The result was a simple causal explanation or model of criminality: ignorance caused idleness, intemperance, and improvidence, which resulted in crime and poverty.28

Ryerson and his colleagues appealed to empirical evidence with regard to the problem of crime. They examined the educational records of prisoners, and found that more than 95% of the incarcerated:

had grown up without the advantages of a good common school education; and that less than 5 percent of the crimes committed, were committed by persons who could even read and write well.