The City Is the Classroom

by John O’Leary

In mid-February, 1899, a young Methodist minister boarded a train in Toronto accompanied by six university students. Almost twenty hours later, the train stopped in the middle of the night along a lonely stretch of track just north of Georgian Bay. The minister and his company hopped off the train with their snowshoes, camping gear, and a large sled piled high with books. As the train pulled away, the small party, huddled close against the cold, turned into the bush and, using a compass and the moonlight to guide them, set out to find a logging camp near the town of Nairn Centre. When they arrived, just after dawn, the camp was empty. The loggers were already at work. By the time the men returned that evening they found something new in their rough settlement, a tent. But it was not just any tent. A large banner on the tent proclaimed:

Reading Tent: All Welcome

The minister, Alfred Fitzpatrick, and his university volunteers sat in the tent at tables piled high with poetry, history, mathematics, and philosophy texts.

"Welcome, men," Fitzpatrick said, "welcome to Frontier College."

Thus began one of Canada’s boldest adventures in education. Fitzpatrick’s mission was simple – education for all. Every Canadian, not just a privileged few, must have access to basic education and the opportunity to study at the university level. The university belonged everywhere, not just within the comfortable halls of the academy. Fitzpatrick wrote:

Bring education to the people, not the people to education. Not only primary but secondary and university education should be placed within the reach of all.

Note his emphasis – not most, not many, but all.