It was at this same time that the term "New Canadians" came into the lexicon and that in literature and speeches teachers were sometimes referred to as "cultural missionaries" (Jaesen).

In Multiculturalism: A Handbook for Teachers, a text co-printed by the Canadian Secretary of State and the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, the encoding of Lady Bountiful and minority students is particularly salient: "In a multicultural, multi-social, multi-ethnic society such as ours, it is essential that those who presume to teach should know and understand adequately the cultures of those they are likely to teach... Quite often, a major cause of difficulty for teachers in understanding children of culturally different backgrounds is that they are in ignorance of the life these children lead outside school - except insofar as they may read or hear about it in its more sordid aspects through press reports of local crime and delinquency... The knowledge of students and their environment, their aspirations, their frustrations, and their dreams, is the first requisite of the teacher... All the students need support, security, understanding, and empathy, but those who are different culturally need them most of all" (McCreath 59-60). Lady Bountiful is produced in this appeal. In her "bountifulness" she will emphatically get to know her minority/immigrant students - to hear their frustration and their dreams, to sympathize with and support these "more needy" children.

In Teaching to Diversity, a 1993 text that earned an award from the Federation of Women Teacher's Association of Ontario, Mary Meyers offers a construct of Lady Bountiful. In this case she is rather inadequate. As depicted in an illustration taken from the book, a confused and frazzled looking white woman is surrounded by a series of ethnic categories: Greek, Portuguese, Korean, Hindustani, Italian, Spanish, Farsi, Bengali, Egyptian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Somali, Latvian, Vietnamese, and Russian. Beside the picture the following question is posed: "Am I supposed to speak all these languages???" The white woman teacher is graphically represented outside of race, ethnicity, and culture. Evidently she does not have a personal history of immigration. She does not know how to manage the ethnic identities emerging in the context of her classroom and so is in need of support and guidance.

Meyers argues that the white woman teacher must collect information about culture. She must learn "facts" about "immigrant" culture such as "your students' special days, religions, and cultures" (Meyers 3) and languages. The teacher must learn basic facts about the immigrant child's personal history including information about geography, culture, family situation, skills in the first language, personality, etc.

Under the category Family Situation, the following questions are suggested: "Are parents alive and are they together with the children? Are or have the siblings been separated? How long and where? Have all the siblings had schooling? In which languages? Has the family joined friends or relatives in the new country? What is the family's immigration status? Is there someone in the home who can speak English? Is anyone in the house employed? Does the family have knowledge of its ethnic associations in our city? Has the child witnessed or been the victim of any trauma before or during the move to our country? Is the family here for business, for example, a three-year term? Has a parent or family member had previous experience with North American culture?" (Meyers 4-5).

The production of knowledge about a child's family situation is important for considering the child's personal history, but lends itself to a form of disciplinary practice which resembles the traditional work of white Canadian women in the area of social and moral reform. In the early twentieth century reform was organized around a series of issues which included attention to prostitution, prohibition, divorce, illegitimacy, poverty, and the "Indians and the Chinese" (Valverde). English-Canadian women worked to "raise the moral tone" of society, to purify the nation state of Canada (Valverde 17). Constructions of Lady Bountiful intersect with ideas about white women and social and moral reform. Lady Bountiful "collects" culture in the form of facts about immigrants. Social and moral reformers also collect "facts" about immigrants to Canadianize the foreign other.