Frontier College

Frontier College (french: Collège Frontière) is the former name of
United for Literacy
'. It is a Canadian literacy organization established in 1899 by Alfred Fitzpatrick. It was founded as the Reading Camp Association and was renamed Frontier College in 1919. In 2022, Frontier College changed its name to ''United for Literacy''.

The organization's aim is to improve literacy levels in Canada by providing education to those who seek assistance with their learning and have been overlooked or left behind by the formal educational system. Frontier College runs a wide variety of English-language and French-language literacy programs for children, youth and adults in many places across Canada such as community centres, shelters, farms and prisons.

Since 1986, its national headquarters has been located at Gzowski House (named for the celebrated Canadian journalist, the late Peter Gzowski) at 35 Jackes Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. It has a strong, widespread presence in Ontario and Quebec, and maintains staff and regional offices in other parts of Canada. It also maintains a large volunteer tutor base utilizing programs located at many universities across Canada, which recruit university students to volunteer as tutors in its programs.

History

In 1899, the Canadian Shield in northern Ontario was dotted with isolated lumber camps that were cut off from larger society. Alfred Fitzpatrick, a 37-year-old Nova Scotian, who was then a young minister of a Presbyterian Church at Nairn Centre (located west of Sudbury, Ontario), saw that many of the young men - who were largely new immigrants - who worked at these camps were denied the benefits of culture, education and enlightenment. Influenced by the notions of the Social Gospel movement and the teachings of Professor George Grant at his alma mater ( Queen's University), Fitzpatrick recognized that these men deserved "not charity but social justice." His prescription was straightforward: after securing the goodwill of the lumber magnates, he would go about from lumber camp to lumber camp, and in each he would erect large tents called "Reading Tents." Each tent was then outfitted with books and stationed by Labourer-Teachers who were university students recruited to volunteer at the tents to teach the workers to read and write. Outside each tent was a sign that said "Reading Tent. All Welcome." Thus, the Reading Tent Association was born. It was later renamed Frontier College.

Over the years, with the changing face of Canada and the nature of its society and industries, Frontier College too adapted its programs in order to meet the learning needs of Canadians everywhere. In 1932, Frontier College began serving in British Columbia 'relief camps'. The range of its programs grew from serving labourers in isolated logging and mining camps or rail gangs to assisting all constituents of Canadian society from adults working in factories and workshops to children from low-income families needing help with their homework, street-involved youth determined to overcome their circumstances, and Aboriginal learners and communities.

Legacy

On 24 September 1999 Canada Post issued a stamp,'Frontier College, 1899-1999, Education for all,' based on a design by Renata Chubb, Glenda Rissman, and Peter D.K. Scott, based on an illustration by Alain Massicotte. The 46¢ stamps are perforated 13 x 13.5 and were printed by Canadian Bank Note Company, Limited.

Educational Philosophy

True to its founding belief in universal rights to learning and education, Frontier College adheres to the principle of S.C.I.L. or Student-Centred Individualized Learning (also known as Student-centred learning) in organizing its tutoring programs. This approach places the student or learner at the centre of the relationship where the learner, instead of the tutor/teacher, determines the goals or objectives that are to be achieved. In turn, the challenge is for the tutor/teacher to locate, organize or create and present learning material that is relevant to the student's/learner's goals, interests and experience. This relationship helps ensure that both learner and tutor are responsible partners in the learning-tutoring process.

Programs

Labourer-Teachers

The Labourer-Teacher program is Frontier College's historical program. It began in 1902 and aimed to extend the rights to learning and education to labourers working in Canada's early mines, rail gangs and lumber camps, where the need was felt most sharply. Early Labourer-Teachers were mostly young men recruited from universities in Canada, who took up the challenge to work alongside the labourers by day and then teach them to read and write at night.

Founder Alfred Fitzpatrick captured the spirit of Frontier College with the following words:
"''Whenever and wherever people shall have the occasion to congregate, then and there shall be the time, place and means of their education."''

Canadian National Railway (CN) recruited as many as forty college students each year to serve as Labourer-Teachers while working as section hands. Each Laborer-Teacher was expected to work as hard as his track crew to "become one of the boys." After sounding out the crew to determine their interests, the Labourer-Teacher would hold evening classes when the work day was over. Depending upon the interests of the crew, classes might focus on spoken or written French or English, or such diverse subjects as mathematics, farming, or poetry. As many as three-thousand railway workers received instruction through the construction season, and the educational opportunity improved worker retention by providing a constructive activity to reduce mischief during the idle hours.

With the Labourer-Teacher program firmly established, Frontier College Labourer-Teachers went on to work in pioneer settlements in Northern Ontario and relief camps during the 1930s. Labourer-Teachers helped construct the Alaska Highway