1913; Domestic science class at the Alberta Ladies' College. Miss Frederica Campbell is teaching. (Red Deer Digital Archives/George Fleming/P3937)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

co-authored by six

Book, Pathways to Education in Red Deer, gets relaunch this Saturday

Sep 21, 2023 | 11:37 AM

A book, several years in the making, delves into what the landscape of Red Deer schools looked like from the city’s early years onward.

Pathways to Education in Red Deer was co-authored by City Councillor and historian Michael Dawe, Mary Gardiner, Dr. Robert Lampard, retired teacher and history writer Henry Lee Wostenberg, retired teacher/administrator Paul Gowans and the late Don Hepburn, also a former teacher and Historical Society volunteer.

It released last year, but a re-launch for Pathways is happening from 1-4 p.m. on Sept. 23, 2023 at Chapters/Indigo Red Deer.

“There are a lot of retired teachers in this area, for one. When I talk to friends about the book, they’ll say ‘My kids went here or there, I want that book.’ There are people who’ve been around here a long time and are pretty keen to learn about the early history. Some of these schools began before Alberta was even a province.”

The schools which get a spotlight include:

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• Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School (still standing)
• St. Mary’s Apostolic College (built for boys and young men who wished to consider becoming a priest)
• Provincial Training School (located at Michener Hill)
• Canadian Nazarene College (formerly the Alberta School of Evangelism, later Ambrose University in Calgary)
• Berkhamsted School in West Park (Once attended by George Pearkes, a Major-General at the Battle of Passchendaele, and 20th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia; and by Lionel Page, a veteran of both World Wars, including as a Major-General in WWII)
• Alberta Ladies’ College of Red Deer (founded in 1910, later relocated to the University of Alberta)
• St. Joseph Convent (opened in 1908, led to creation of separate Catholic school division in north Red Deer; Father Henri Voisin, who now has an elementary school named after him in Red Deer, was involved in getting the school started along with the Filles de la Sagesse)
• Red Deer Indian Industrial School (operated 1893-1919; once attended by The Honourable Ralph Steinhauer, who was Lieutenant Governor of Alberta from July 1974 to October 1979)
  1923 or 1924; Portrait of male students from St. Joseph’s Convent school, Red Deer, Alberta, wearing school uniforms. Back row (right to left): Ovide Landry, Donalo Emond, Jim Jutras, Joseph Jutras, Milton Martin. Middle row (right to left): Andre Landry, Jack Tarlton, Rene Curial, Ballie Iroin, Ernest Jutras, Lawrence Martin. Front row (right to left): Peter Schollen, George Langeuin, Paul Rentiers, Marcel Langevin, Alberta Moreau. (Red Deer Digital Archives/George Fleming/P8792)

This is not the first book written about Red Deer’s history of schools, says Dr. Robert Lampard, the first being written in 1967 by a local Centennial committee. Harold Dawe also wrote one in 1982.

“The book highlights the fact — it being between Calgary and Edmonton, and easier to get to — that a number of schools started here before relocating. Additionally, the city was conveniently along the CPR rail line,” says Lampard. “Red Deer became an interesting, perhaps not experiment, but place to see if you could locally generate enough students, or attract them also through referrals.”

The book touches on how later, one-room schools evolved with the educational divisionalization which happened across the province in the 1930s.

Then came Lindsay Thurber, who had the school that stands today named after him when it was built in 1947. A couple years later, Thurber aided in the implementation of the innovative trimester system.

This allowed students two terms to do their schooling, and a third to help on the family farm, subsequently raising overall marks and lowering the dropout rate.

“Thurber was a very cosmopolitan school, with more than half the student body from outside the city, even from across Alberta. It also wasn’t just the quality of teachers there, but the students whose average marks were substantially higher than the rest of the province,” says Dr. Lampard.

Lampard says Pathways’ story about Thurber compliments another book written in 1997 to commemorate the school’s 50th anniversary.

Councillor Dawe, meantime, wrote primarily on the ladies’ college.

“Education is a fundamental piece of society, as we all go through it. It’s what we build our future on, so it’s very important. We’ve documented quite a few unique things about education in this area,” says Dawe. “The women’s’ college was quite unique; there were three of them across Canada, one in Quebec, one in Ontario, and western Canada’s was in Red Deer. It provided educational opportunities for women at a time when there weren’t many of those opportunities available.”

The college had a large focus on home economics, languages and music.

The book’s co-author, Don Hepburn, passed away in 2018.

Copies are available at Chapters/Indigo, Red Deer Arts Council and the Red Deer Museum.

The cover of Pathways to Education in Red Deer. (Supplied)