116 Years and Counting!
Literacy is a Right, Not A Privilege
In 1899, Alfred Fitzpatrick, the founder of Frontier College, challenged university students from Queen's University to go out to logging camps, rail gangs, mining camps and other isolated areas to share their knowledge with the workers. He asked them to get out of their fine university attire and into overalls so that they could join in the manual work of Frontier College.Founded in 1899 as the Canadian Reading Camp Movement, Frontier College brought education to thousands of labourers in remote northern logging, mining and railway camps. Today, while educating migrant farm workers strengthens its country roots, Frontier College has also evolved into a powerful urban force for literacy.
Frontier College began as the brainchild of Presbyterian minister Alfred Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick brought education to adults in isolated regions of Canada. University-educated instructors established reading tents and used everyday items such as newspapers and magazines as instructional resources.
In 1903, with 24 reading rooms already in operation, Frontier College suddenly took on a more active role in adult education. Teacher Angus Gray grew restless waiting for men to drop in at the end of the day. Joining them in their work, he initiated the concept of the labourer-teacher.
On the eve of the First World War, 79 instructors were serving in eight provinces, and in 1919 the Reading Camp Association took on the name Frontier College. By 1922, Fitzpatrick had obtained degree-granting powers for his "university in overalls," but this concept was abandoned following Fitzpatrick's retirement in 1933. He died three years later.
The isolated unemployment-relief camps of the Great Depression and the flood of immigrants following World War II created fertile ground for Frontier College. Working the highways, mines and forests of the north again returned the College to its traditional role.
Today, with funding from government, federal agencies, foundations, and both corporate and individual donors, Frontier College continues its grass-roots literacy crusade in urban and rural settings across Canada.
- "A University in Overalls" short history borrowed from http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/collecting/stamps/archives/1999/1999_sep_frontier.jsf
"Education must be obtainable on the farm, in the bush, on the railway, and in the mine. We must educate the whole family wherever their work is, wherever they earn their living; teaching them how to earn, and at the same time how to grow physically, intellectually, and spiritually... This is the real education. This is the place of the true university."
- Alfred Fitzpatrick, University in Overalls, 1920
Mission Statement
Frontier College is a Canada-wide, volunteer based literacy organization. We teach people to read and write and we nurture an environment favorable to lifelong learning. Since 1899, we have been reaching out to people wherever they are and responding to their particular learning needs. We believe in literacy as a right and we work to achieve literacy for all.
Everyone can learn. Everyone has a right to Literacy. We go to where the people are, rather than expecting them to come to us. We value innovation. We encourage people to bring us new ideas about Learning.
Students decide WHAT they want to learn and HOW they want to learn it. The tutors are there to help them do this. We are committed to working with people who have been rejected or not given adequate learning opportunities elsewhere.
Literacy is a right, not a Privilege
