Alex Lord's British Columbia
Recollections of a Rural School Inspector, 1915-1936
These memoirs invite the reader to experience the British Columbia that
Alex Lord knew. Through his words, we endure the difficulties of travel
in this mountainous province.
Description
Alex Lord, a pioneer inspector of rural British Columbia schools,
shares in these recollections his experiences in a province barely out
of the stage coach era. Travelling through vast northern territory,
utilizing unreliable transportation and enduring climatic extremes,
Lord became familiar with the aspirations of remote communities and
their faith in the humanizing effects of tiny assisted schools. En
route, he performed in resolute yet imaginative fashion the supervisory
functions of a top government educator developing an educational
philosophy of his own based on an understanding of the provincial
geography, a reverence for citizenship, and a work ethic tuned to
challenge and accomplishment.
Reviews
Lord's strength is that he delightfully conveys a sense of rural life in B.C. and explains the problems associated with establishing an effective educational system in a sparsely settled resource-based frontier. Alex Lord's British Columbia should be of interest to educators and local history buffs; the extensive notes provide a rich source of primary and secondary references for the academic historian.
- Tim Dunn
This book succeeds both as a slice of rural conditions in the past and as a solid contribution to the history of education in British Columbia, and as a result bears the unique attribute of appealing to the casual reader and serious scholar alike.
- Paul J. Stortz