Across the Prairie in a Motor Caravan: A 3,000 Mile Tour by Two Englishwomen on Behalf of Religious EducationHasell, Frances Hatton Eva
Religion
Across the Prairie in a Motor Caravan: A 3,000 Mile Tour by Two Englishwomen on Behalf of Religious Education
Hasell, Frances Hatton Eva
Missions -- Canada
In Regina I met some very nice girls who had come out under the
Fellowship of the Maple Leaf.[3] They had come to teach in the prairie
schools, and a good many were now in training at the Normal School. I
gave a tea-party for them, and they told me a good deal about their
work, and in return showed great interest in our caravan scheme. Those
of them who were going out to the prairie that summer said that they
hoped we would visit them. I was very glad of this opportunity of
explaining our hopes and aims to these teachers, for I knew it had been
suggested that they should help with religious education, either by
starting Sunday Schools or by giving instruction after school hours
during the week. I foresaw that our great difficulty would be to make
our work permanent in districts where there were no clergy, and I
realised the enormous value of the help of these trained women. They
would already have some knowledge of teaching methods, and some
acquaintance with the Bible and Church doctrine. It would be a simple
matter to show them how to apply psychological methods to religious
education, and, helped with lesson courses and pictures, they could
easily carry on any Sunday Schools we might be able to start in their
neighbourhood.
We did not talk shop all the time; the "green Englishwomen" were put
through a severe catechism on Canadian as it is spoken. But the W.
family having instructed me carefully, I came off better than might have
been expected.
I saw a good deal of the deaconess in charge of the Maple Leafs. She
found them comfortable lodgings, and befriended them in every possible
way. She asked us to look up any of them whom we came across in the
out-of-the-way prairie schools. Her only way of visiting was by train,
and some of these schools were far from any "track." She was very kind
to us and helped us in many ways.
Whilst I was in Regina I had to plan out the organisation of the caravan
tour. I was given the names of a large number of places to visit and the
routes we were to follow, but no names of the clergy in the different
"districts" (parishes). I had no idea how far apart these places were,
or how long it would take to get from place to place in the caravan. I
therefore got a map and worked out the mileage between the places. On
the earth trails outside Regina I had often seen motor-cars stuck in
mud-holes, and I had noticed the deep ruts of these unmetalled roads, so
I concluded that we could not make more than ten miles an hour at most
in the caravan. On these two calculations I based the mileage we might
hope to cover.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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