Education

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century Italy made steady progress in eradicating the high level of illiteracy (almost 70 percent) that had been inherited by the new state after unification. In 1951 the illiteracy rate stood at under 13 percent of the population over six years of age, though it was almost twice this in the south. The republic legislated compulsory schooling until age eleven, which in the early 1960s was increased to fourteen, thus extending to secondary education. By 1971 only 5 percent of the population remained unable to read or write, although again the rate was double in the south.

Widespread literacy had a profound effect on the educational aspirations, motivation, and performance of post-war immigrants and their children, tending towards the rapid integration of the latter into the Canadian education system. Despite the fact that most immigrants had only completed a few years of formal schooling, this was enough to convince them of the benefit of education for their children. Through the Italian-language media, literacy connected them to the wider world, giving them an increasingly better appreciation of the Canadian mainstream. Support for education increased throughout the post-war decades. Moreover, the traditional sex-specific distinction regarding the need for education had by the 1980s given way to fairly equal parental and community encouragement of both females and males.

The road to integration, however, was far from smooth, and the 1950s and 1960s witnessed considerable conflict over educational matters. First, immigrant children, as well as having to meet the ubiquitous challenge of language, had to face the general problem of stereotyping and discrimination that was directed towards non-preferred newcomers by the dominant society. During the 1950s immigrants encountered a pervasive cultural clash that was no less real for their children. Toronto, for example, the principal magnet for newcomers, was still characterized by a dour, provincial sense of public morality founded on Protestant, Anglo-Canadian domination of society and politics, summed up in the popular epithet “Toronto the Good.” A public opinion poll in the mid-1950s showed that less than 5 percent of Canadians welcomed immigration from southern Europe, compared to about 30 percent for northwestern Europe (including Britain). At school this attitude translated into harassment of Italian children by members of the mainstream, a lack of understanding on the part of teachers, an anglocentric curriculum that marginalized immigrant children, and anxious parents who tried to shield their young from an environment perceived as hostile.

A second level of conflict arose over different concepts of education between parents and the schools. While immigrant parents welcomed the stress placed on the traditional skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, they were critical of some major values being conveyed to their children. Many believed that the school undermined the children’s Italian cultural identity and, more specifically, their identification with their parents and family. Immigrants became aware of the anglocentrism of the curriculum, which contradicted their ideal of Canada as an independent country. The display of the Union Jack in classrooms, the singing of “God Save the Queen” during morning ceremonies, and atlases showing Canada as part of the British Empire carried a clear message that anglo-conformity was expected. In English-speaking Canada everything anglophone seemed Canadian and superior; everything immigrant, foreign and inferior. Parents protested that such an environment made children ashamed of their own culture and families and that it subverted the sense of respect that the young owed to their elders and relatives.

This conflict was aggravated by a related powerful message based on class. While family-oriented values were extensively incorporated into the curriculum, the ideal depicted was distinctly middle class and suburban. The father wore a suit and tie to work, the mother had plenty of spare time to bake and prepare for parties, and every year the parents and their two children went away on exciting vacations. For Italian children this picture of the nuclear family bore little resemblance to their own immigrant reality, it further undermined the respect assumed by parents, and it reinforced the latter’s suspicion of the system. In short, the school system, reflecting the tenor of the times, was advocating assimilation; Italian parents were resisting it.

A third major problem involved the issues of immigrant childhood education and streaming at the secondary level. Boards of education were ill-equipped to deal effectively with the large numbers of immigrant children who entered the system throughout the 1950s. English-language acquisition was the first priority of the school and the immigrants themselves. But the system did little to motivate children to academic accomplishment. Those who lacked English were segregated in special language classes for part of the day or placed behind their age group in lower grades. In both cases, Italian children felt stigmatized, and in the latter, they were embarrassed at being forced into classes with younger children. Predictably, the assimilationist and poor language policies of the educational system resulted in discouragement for many immigrant children, who left school at the earliest opportunity, often upon completing the compulsory level of education at age fifteen or sixteen.

As most young Italians moved into secondary schools at around age fourteen, the problem became one of streaming. When they left the elementary system, guidance officers placed children in vocational, techni cal-commercial, or academic high schools. While there was some variation among the provinces, most Italians faced a system where the first stream consisted of two or three years of training for low-skill jobs, the second was made up of four-year programs for skilled occupations, and the collegiates offered five-year programs in preparation for college or university (which in the late 1960s was limited to 13 percent of all graduates). Placement decisions were made on the basis of scholastic performance and the supposed fit between the student’s background and the secondary stream. The latter consideration left room for considerable discretionary power on the part of school officials, who often placed promising children from immigrant families in the non-academic streams since their working-class backgrounds were perceived as unsupportive of higher education. Although pupils did not necessarily have to abide by their placement, few immigrant children or parents had the confidence or knowledge of the system to protest. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s a large number of the post-war generation of Italian children were streamed into terminal programs; in Toronto the proportion was well over half. Generally, the boys were directed into technical trades and the girls into commercial fields.

As late as 1970 a survey conducted by the Toronto Board of Education showed Italian-born children overrepresented in non-academic programs. Only 40 percent were in full five-year streams, compared to over 57 percent for students born in Canada. Of the Italian teenagers, 32 percent were in four-year programs, compared to less than 28 percent for the Canadian-born; 15 percent were in the two-year stream, whereas about 8 percent or less of the latter followed this route; and 12 percent of Italians were in special vocational classes, compared to less than 7 percent of the native-born. While it is clear that Italian immigrant children were adversely affected by the structure of formal education, those born in Canada – the second generation – underwent a different experience. Having learned from infancy to deal with bilingualism and biculturalism, they developed an intellectual agility that allowed them to perform relatively well scholastically. Indeed, their representation in the academic stream was slightly better than that for the native Canadian-born (59 percent), and their proportions in the vocational streams were more or less the same.

The 1970s ushered in a sea change in educational policies, which helped to enhance the performance of Italian-Canadian students. In the previous decade the growing demographic and political clout of third-force Canadians, the increasing sense of distinctive nationalism under Trudeau, and the related development of a multicultural policy laid the foundation for educational reform. In 1969 the report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, which led to Canada’s adoption of official multiculturalism, had specifically recommended the teaching of third languages and related cultural studies in elementary schools where sufficient demand existed.

One of the most vigorous responses to this call for more culturally inclusive education took place in polyglot Toronto, particularly through the Metropolitan Separate School Board. In the post-war decades, the Catholic Church and school system, in an effort to win the allegiance of the increasing numbers of Catholic immigrants, became more responsive to their needs. New schools in heavily ethnic areas, the opening of a department for new Canadians in 1967, the launching of bilingual education in the early 1970s – especially for Italian children – and, most significantly, the establishment of courses in Italian language and culture at ten schools, involving almost 4,500 children, in 1974 were all initiatives that won widespread support from parents for the separate system. Moreover, the board’s emphasis on structured learning, family values, and traditional morality were much more consonant with the position of Italian Canadians than that of the public system, which was viewed as having become too permissive. In 1977 Ontario introduced its progressive heritage-language program, and during the academic year forty-two boards across the province implemented classes (with a minimum of ten students) in thirty languages. Of the 52,713 students enrolled, almost 53 percent were with the Metropolitan Separate School Board in Toronto. It offered instruction in forty-four schools, of which Italian courses were the most heavily enrolled.

Bilingual education, by which Italian immigrant children were taught in both their mother tongue and English until they had mastered the latter, did much to promote their confidence and motivation. With the end of large-scale immigration around 1970, foreign-born Italian children were increasingly becoming a minority vis-à-vis their Canadian-born counterparts. For the latter, the situation was quite distinctive. As noted, bilingualism and biculturalism had equipped many to excel academically, often beyond the mainstream norm. Bicultural identity was associated with behavioural and cognitive flexibility and high self-esteem and achievement. Fortuitously, just as the cohort of Canadian-born children was replacing the foreign-born, multiculturalism came to the fore in the national polity and psyche. At the level of education, this change was translated primarily as programs in heritage language and culture. Hence, what was an indigenous strength on the part of the Canadian-born – biculturalism – was recognized and channelled into positive growth by the advent of multicultural education, rather than being ignored.

Parents, too, benefited greatly from the new attitudes. They now felt more welcome communicating with teachers and school officials, many became active in teacher-parent organizations, and their own cultures were treated with new respect. Most important, multicultural education did much to bridge the gap that had existed between the generations in immigrant families. Children now felt free to take pride in their culture and background. Inclusive childhood education bolstered confidence and ultimately facilitated adult inclusion within the mainstream.

In addition, the 1970s and, even more, the 1980s witnessed a significant entry of Italian Canadians into the teaching profession, and these individuals provided important role models for children. By the mid-1980s, Italian Canadians in positions ranging from kindergarten teachers to university presidents provided positive sources of identification for young people and concrete examples of what was possible with motivation and study. These years also saw greater participation by Italian Canadians as trustees on school boards, placing them in positions of influence sympathetic to their constituents.

In the early 1980s two institutions were established in Metropolitan Toronto of importance to the Italian community. The first was the Da Vinci Academy in the heavily Italian northwest, which gave parents the opportunity to provide their children with a school curriculum focused on the Italian culture and language. Since it was a private school, enrolment was limited; nevertheless, a choice was now available. Secondly, in 1983 York University, whose student population was around 20 percent Italian, established a chair in Italian-Canadian studies through a combination of a private endowment and funds from the ethnic studies program of the Multiculturalism Branch of the federal government. Through teaching, research, and community activity, the program has played an important role in promoting Italian-Canadian studies. Most recently, the Canadian College in Italy was established to provide upper-level high school education and preparation for Canadian university attendance. Italian Canadians also have the opportunity to study in their ancestral homeland through language programs, such as those run by York in Florence and the University of Toronto in Siena.

Change in the educational status of Italian Canadians was reflected in census data on school attendance. In 1971, of all young people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four, only 46 percent of Italians were still in school, compared to 51 percent generally. Ten years later, however, the Italian-Canadian proportion had reached 55 percent and surpassed the average attendance rate. Regionally, it is interesting to note that in both Ontario and Quebec, where strong heritage-language programs were implemented, the Italian-Canadian attendance was about 5 percent above the overall record, whereas in British Columbia, where there was less emphasis on such instruction, Italian Canadians were less in attendance than the average.

By the mid-1980s great strides had been made by Italian Canadians in educational achievement, which were reflected in post-secondary statistics. In 1986 over 11 percent of Canadian-educated Italians (Canadian-born and those who had emigrated before age fifteen) had a university degree, compared to almost 10 percent for the population as a whole, and a further 27 percent had a community college education, compared to 24 percent overall. In both sectors of higher education, Italian-Canadian men were slightly ahead of women (by about 2 percent). Interestingly, however, at the university level Italian-Canadian women did better vis-à-vis their mainstream counterparts (over 10 percent graduated, compared to 8 percent overall) than was the case for males (over 12 percent, compared to 11 percent generally).

Post-secondary fields of study for Italian Canadians generally corresponded to patterns for the population as a whole, with distinct sex differences. Out of twelve areas, the six most subscribed to by Italian-Canadian males were technology and trades (38 percent of students), commerce and business administration (20 percent), social sciences (9 percent), engineering and applied science (7 percent), humanities (6 percent), and fine and applied arts (5 percent). Interestingly, for Italian Canadians of mixed parentage, the same ranking obtained, except for the last category, which was edged out by mathematics and physical sciences (6 percent). Again, for all Canadian males the preferences remained the same except for the last, which consisted of agricultural and biological sciences (5 percent).

In contrast, the major preferences for Italian-Canadian women were less concentrated: secretarial science (19 percent), commerce and business administration (15 percent), education, recreation, and counselling (14 percent), fine and applied arts (12 percent), social sciences (11 percent), and humanities (10 percent). Among women of multiple ethnic origin, the top two choices remained the same, with minor variations in the other fields. One notable difference, however, was that nursing (11 percent) replaced humanities for the women of mixed background. In the population as a whole, the same proportion of Canadian women enrolled in the top-ranking secretarial field as did single-origin Italian Canadians. Although the rest of the rankings varied between the two groups, the percentage difference in preferences was not great, except once again in the field of nursing (15 percent of all females).

A study conducted by the Multiculturalism Branch of the federal government in the early 1980s attempted to compare post-secondary education among specific ethnic groups. Distinguishing between university and community college education, the survey revealed that, although over 57 percent of Italians had enrolled in the former, a number of groups had significantly greater proportions, especially Jews, eastern Europeans, Germans, and Chinese. Moreover, these groups had considerably greater proportions of university students who studied full-time rather than part-time, the full-time figure for Italians being 71 percent. A major determining factor behind these differences was parental socio-economic position. Except for the Chinese, the parental income for all the other groups was higher than for the Italians. Whereas only 14 percent of Italian students had parents who were very well-off (earning $45,000 or more in 1983–84), the proportions in other groups ranged from 36 to 57 percent. Likewise, significantly more fathers of students in the other ethnic groups had themselves completed a university education. While almost 9 percent of the Italians came from such families, the rate ranged from 18 percent (Chinese) to 47 percent (Jews).

Despite their class disadvantage, Italian-Canadian university students appeared to take full advantage of their opportunities. Over 7 percent of males were enrolled in the professional fields of law, dentistry, and medicine (the female proportion was half), which was on a par with the general average, but slightly higher than for Chinese and German students and lower than for the eastern European and Jewish groups. Furthermore, a surprisingly high proportion of Italian-Canadian males, 20 percent, were engaged in graduate studies (again the proportion for women was about half). This level was higher than that for the other ethnic groups, except the Jews (33 percent). In sum, despite their recent arrival, low levels of parental education, and average incomes, Italian Canadians within two generations have reached a level of educational accomplishment on a par with other Canadians. While within the university student body some ethnic groups have a relatively greater presence, Italian Canadians – for the moment mainly males – are pursuing professional and advanced studies to a degree commensurate with Canadians generally.

For the Italian ethnic group as a whole, both immigrant and Canadian-born, it is clear that major changes have occurred since 1970. The end of large-scale immigration, because of both the introduction of the point system and greater prosperity in the homeland, stabilized the number of Italian-born (generally with elementary education), while the proportion comprised of their children and grandchildren steadily increased. This fact, together with the introduction of progressive, multicultural education, has resulted in a major increase in the group’s overall educational achievement. Moreover, the rate of change has been greater for Italians than for the population as a whole. Between 1971 and 1986 the proportion of Canadians who had only an elementary education dropped by 20 percent; for the Italian ethnic group it was reduced by 35 percent. Of the three most heavily Italian provinces, improvement was most accentuated in Ontario, followed by Quebec and British Columbia. At the other end of the system, the proportion of all Canadians who had received a post-secondary education increased just over one and a half times, while that of the Italian ethnic group grew to more than three times. Provincially, the ranking in the degree of improvement remained the same. Should the rate of educational achievement continue, Italian Canadians will soon join other groups whose formal education and qualifications are considerably higher than the norm.

Recent research on the education of Italian Canadians contradicts worn stereotypes current in the immediate post-war decades and largely borrowed from American observations based on turn-of-the-century immigration, which was characterized by virtually no formal schooling and heavily temporary. Contrary to the opinions of post-war social scientists, most Italian parents did not discourage their children from pursuing education; daughters were not simply expected to raise families; and on the whole, immigrants had no intention of resigning themselves to their entrance status as lower-level, manual labourers. What many academic observers failed to realize was fundamental: that status is not the same as aspiration. Although Italian immigrants werein the working class, most were notof it. For the majority, their small-propertied position in Italy was translated into ambitions that in the New World were middle class not proletarian. With regard to their children, they realized that such aspirations required education.

The encounter between Italians and the school system during the first two decades of the post-war era mirrored that between immigrants and the dominant society generally: it was decidedly stormy. However, as anglo-based assimilation gave way to more inclusive multicultural attitudes and policies after 1970, Italian-Canadian schoolchildren were increasingly able to utilize their bicultural reality as a strength, rather than experience it as a burden. By the mid-1980s it had become clear that Italian Canadians educated in this country had caught up with, if not surpassed, national educational levels. This mobility, then, was the result of factors both internal to the ethnic group – in particular, its values and aspirations – and in the mainstream, especially the adoption of multiculturalism as part of the national identity. To its credit, the world of education generally proved enlightened enough to provide equality of opportunity and outcome. In the case of Italian Canadians, education has provided them with a reasonable capacity to survive adjustments to a post-industrial economy and society, and in so doing, to contribute to the common weal.