The growth of the schools under the fitful system which prevailed in Upper Canada from 1816 to 1842 was painfully slow. The number of what was called "schools" was small, and the quality of them, with rare exceptions, was exceedingly inferior. Anything beyond the three R's was generally taught by itinerants. Dr. Ryerson mentions in an autobiographical letter, as an example, that his knowledge of English grammar was derived entirely from the "lectures" of a peripatetic teacher of that subject. He also mentions several of his after contemporaries who acquired a knowledge of grammar and other special subjects in the same way. No one, as he said to me, ever heard in these days of the possibility of a "royal road to learning." It was hard work, of the hardest kind, and few ever dreamt of reaching a higher eminence than that of mastering the first two R's--Reading and 'Riting. Arithmetic was approached with caution, and its higher "developments" with consternation. How could such a state of things be otherwise when "transient persons" and "common idlers" were with rare exceptions, the kind of "teachers" employed. Education had no money value then, except in so far as it receded from a rate of payment to that of a day laborer or a pensioner. The following are the extracts from the official reports:-- INFLUENCES BY AMERICAN TEACHERS AND SCHOOL BOOKS DEPRECATED. _Schools in the Home District--No United States books permitted._--The schoolmasters, with the exception of two Americans who have been long in the Province, are all British subjects--that they have all taken the oath of allegiance--that during the last year the salary allowed was £10 (ten pounds each), and no books from the United States are permitted to be used in the schools.--_John Strachan, Wm. Allan, Toronto, 8th March, 1839._ _Schools in the Eastern District--Transitory Teachers._--Were the allowance to be increased teachers would come forward better prepared and be induced to remain. Many at present seem to continue for a few months, as a matter of convenience, and to assist themselves in following other occupations, which greatly retards the improvement of the children.--_Joseph Aderson, D. McDonell, Cornwall, 9th May, 1839._ _Schools in the Western District: Their State and Suggestions for Improvement._--The situation of the school houses is not always judiciously chosen, it being situated often more for the convenience of some one influential person than for that of the inhabitants generally of the settlement. The school-house is often a wretched log hut, or a ruinous building altogether unfit for the purpose--especially in the winter season. In too many cases the teachers are badly qualified for the task which they undertake; and some of them having taken up the profession more from necessity than choice are seldom permanent, and consequently very ineffectual teachers.