In their view, this clinched the causal argument. However, as Graff points out:

Their notions of causality may be questioned, for they were unable to recognize poverty as a structural feature of capitalist society. To them pauperism and idleness stemmed from ignorance; economic failure and social deviance derived from moral weakness, and many were considered paupers by choice, not by chance or structural inequality.30

Elite Interests

In their campaign for common schools, Ryerson and his colleagues made use of this perspective as one means of appealing to self-interests of elites faced with the consequences of rapid disruptive social change. To the petit bourgeoisie, (i.e. made up of subordinate elements of the entrepreneurial class like merchants small manufacturers, the certain segments of the propertied artisan class) who feared the loss of their privileged status with destruction of traditional craft production and the accelerated development of the industrial base, Ryerson stressed the necessity of literacy-as gained through schooling, in preventing downward mobility.31 -He wrote:

I have known many persons rise to wealth and respectability by their industry, virtues and self-taught skill; but from their utter want of training in the proper mode of writing, or speaking, or reading their native tongue, they are unable to fill the situations to which their circumstances and talents and characteristics entitle them, and in which they might confer great benefits upon society.32

Ryerson asserted that the man who left his -son uneducated risked living to see him become one of the underdogs, the "dregs", of Upper Canadian society. 33

To the emerging manufacturing class who depended on the Irish as the pool of labour from which they would draw the unskilled "mechanics" for their enterprises, Ryerson emphasized the efficacy of schooling for moulding a 'safe' and disciplined working class. He asserted that "educated labour is more productive than uneducated labour.34 Prentice observes that: "By 'productive' he meant a variety of related qualities: less disruptive, more skilled, orderly and disciplined, punctual, and moral."35 The transmission of cognitive skills was secondary; more important was the moral instruction that would accompany the transmission of literacy--it would help regularize and discipline the behavior of workers among whom pre-industrial habits and rhythms persisted.36 It would be a more effective means than overt coercion in the workplace. Ryerson states:

And if the intended mechanic should be trained to a mastery of his native tongue, he should, on still stronger grounds, be instructed in the nature of his social relations and duties. If he should be taught to speak correctly, he should be taught to act uprightly. He should be correct in his actions as well as his words.37