Minerva's Diary - A History of Jarvis Collegiate Institute

wood, innocent of paint, but wonderfully carved
with the names or initials of more than one
generation of boys, and artistically or otherwise
elaborately ornamented with scrolls and caricatures
wrought by the industrious hands of the boys
aforesaid and blotched with ink, blue, black and
red, though the softening influence of time had
mezzotinted them to a rusty brown. The rest of the
paraphernalia was a small table with a hand bell and
ferule upon it for the rector's use and a tarnished
terrestrial globe. *9
The new headmaster, Dr. Michael Howe, was a tall, spare
man crowned with thin, iron-grey hair, and adorned with a
rubicund nose (the result of many years of snuffing) which was
"surmounted by a pair of gold spectacles, that did not prevent
him from holding his book too close to his After
graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, he was appointed
principal of the Belfast Academic Institution. In July, 1851 he
came to Canada and resumed his career as headmaster o/ the
Cayuga Grammar School, and later, the Galt Grammar School.
He took up his post at "Old Blue" in 1853.
Although Dr. Howe was basically kind-hearted and
"willing to coach a promising boy in his study after hours, there
were times when he was irritable, especially if the class was illprepared
or more than usually dense, when the strokes of the
bamboo on the outstretched legs before him were as continuous
as the questions asked. It is said that at one time, after
administering the stick once round the class, he pitched his book
at them, telling them that they were a set of ignorant dolts, and
left them in disgust.
His assistants usually moved on to other endeavours after
spending only a few years in the school. One of them, Mr.
Drinkwater, who was a Cambridge man and English master,
"had an abundance of straight hair overhanging a face deeply
pitted but marked with resolution ... The very sound of his
English boots announced the master, and woe betide the boy
who trifled after his entrance." *12 He later resigned to enter the
ministry. Another instructor, Dr. Archibald MacMurchy, who
joined the staff in 1857, ultimately served as rector of the school
for twenty-eight years.
The teacher who created the most controversy was Mr.
C.R. Brooke, an English and history master. In August, 1855, the
Board heard a letter from a parent, Dr. Lett, bringing a charge
against Mr. Brooke "for teaching the Boys opinions on Scripture
History tending to throw discredit on His Scriptures. 13
After its enquiry, the Board passed the following resolution:
Having investigated the charges, the trustees are
pained to find from the evidence addressed, that in
teaching the history class, Mr. Brooke has indulged
in a strain of remarks highly unbecoming in itself
and fitted to be prejudicial to the pupils as tending
to weaken their reverence for the teaching of the
Old Testimonial Scriptures as a divine inspired
record; and that allusions were made by him of an
improper kind and expressions employed calculated
to familiarize the minds of his pupils with
improper thoughts. In consequence of this conduct
on the part of Mr. Brooke, he has forfeited the
confidence of the Board, and it is with no small
difficulty they can refrain from visiting such
conduct with the penalty of his immediate dismissal
from the school. They resolve and hereby notify to
him that his connexion with the school shall cease
and determine at the expiration of six months from
this date.
The oldest possession in the Jarvis Collegiate Archives is
the stained, but elegant 1855 County Grammar School
Programme which was illustrated by the aforementioned,
blasphemous Mr. Brooke a few months before he was dismissed
by the Board. The colours have faded from its beautiful border,
but the ornate quill-pen designs are still impressive. They include
mythical characters, cherubs and a beehive. The actual timetable
in it shows five one-hour periods per day with an hour and a half
for lunch. The first and second divisions of form I took grammar
and composition, reading and spelling, writing, Latin, natural
history, geography and arithmetic. Algebra and geometry were
added to the curriculum in form Il. The form Ill course included
Greek, elocution, and geology. Students in the "university
grade" studied Latin for two hours each day and natural
philosophy or mathematics in the third hour. They did not attend
school in the afternoon. Beneath the program's lower border is
the signature, "C.R. Brooke fecit Sep yr. 1855."
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