A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
History
A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time: A Collection of Persons Distinguished in Professional and Political Life, Leaders in the Commerce and Industry of Canada, and Successful Pioneers
township (the title was subsequently changed to School Trustee); at the
expiration of his term he was re-elected, and has been so re-elected
ever since. A good stone school building with a teacher as good as in
those days could be obtained was the result of his early work in the
cause of education. He next succeeded in getting permission from the
District Council to have all property in the Preston school section
taxed for a free school, and that school has been free ever since,
although in former years it was optional with the rate-payers whether
their school should be free or supported by a rate bill per pupil
attending school. After Preston became incorporated, he was appointed
local superintendent of schools, and in that capacity he was seventeen
years a member of the County Board of Examiners of Teachers. The
scarcity of good teachers was often severely felt, while at present they
are plentiful, and Mr. Klotz obtained permission for German teachers to
be examined in German, and he had charge of preparing the questions for
such examinations. At the insistance of several teachers, he prepared
and published a German grammar for use of German pupils and others
studying German. In 1853, he agitated a public examination of all the
schools in the county; in this move he was ably assisted by the late Dr.
Scott, who was then the warden of the county. The county council granted
$100 for the purchase of prizes to be distributed among the successful
competitors, and appointed Mr. Klotz to make the requisite arrangements,
which were successfully carried out. In 1865, Mr. Klotz, assisted by two
of the teachers of the Preston school, prepared an _exposé_ of “The
Irish National Readers,” which at that time were the authorized readers
for the common schools. In that _exposé_ the writer criticised the
spelling, grammatical construction, historical blunders, unsuitable
words and expressions for children, unfitness of the books for Canadian
schools, and the entire absence therein of any article which might tend
to cultivate in the minds of the pupils a patriotic feeling. A lengthy
and animated correspondence between the chief superintendent, the Rev.
Dr. Ryerson, and Mr. Klotz was the result; but notwithstanding the same,
Mr. Klotz had the gratification of seeing “The Irish National Readers”
superseded by a Canadian series of Readers. As president of the
Mechanics’ Institute, Mr. Klotz has been indefatigable in providing for
the inhabitants of Preston and neighbourhood a large library of well
selected books, numbering in 1886 4,000 volumes, of which 2,800 are
English, and 1,200 German. In politics Mr. Klotz commenced as early as
1838, then hardly a year in Canada, to take an active part, having been
required to shoulder a gun and to stand guard at the Grand River bridge,
upon a report that a band of rebels under lead of one Duncan, was coming
from London to invade Waterloo, which, however, afterwards proved a
false report.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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