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Adolphus Egerton Ryerson (24 March 1803 – 19 February 1882) was a Canadian educator, author, editor, and Methodist minister who was a prominent contributor to the design of Canadian public school and indigenous residential school systems. Ryerson is considered to be the founder of the Ontario public school system.
An advocate against Christian sectarianism and control of Upper Canada by the wealthy Anglicanism elite, Ryerson staunchly opposed Clergy reserve and promoted a system of free Public Education in Canada. Conversely, Ryerson was passionate about Christianization, favouring missionary work and protesting the removal of the Bible from Ontario schools.
Following his time as a missionary to the Mississaugas of the Credit River, Ryerson became founding editor of The Christian Guardian, and the first principal of Victoria College. He was appointed as Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada by Governor General Sir Charles Metcalfe in 1844, where he supported reforms such as creating school boards, making textbooks more uniform, and making education free. His extensive contributions to early education in Ontario led to him being memorialized with statues, and in the naming of several institutions and places in Ontario.
Ryerson produced recommendations for the design and objectives of the Canadian Indian residential school system, which was implemented after his death. After the residential schools were abolished, and the outcome of the system on the indigenous peoples of Canada fully exposed, he became a controversial figure. This led to public protests and the removal of his name on a university in Toronto.
Ryerson was appointed as a missionary to the Mississaugas in 1826, while still on probation as a Methodist missionary. His journal records his feelings on arrival: "Sept. 16, 1826 —I have now arrived at my charge among the Indians. I feel an inexpressible joy in taking up my abode amongst them. I must now acquire a new language, to teach a new people." In an assembly, Ryerson explained to them his perceived source of their misery: "I explained to the assembled Indians, the cause of their poverty, misery and wretchedness as resulting from them offending the Great Being who created them but who still loved them so much as to send His Son to save them and give them new hearts, that they might forsake their bad ways, be sober and industrious; not quarrel, but love one another, etc." Ryerson assisted them in building a church which doubled as a school. He was experienced as a farmer and ostensibly taught them about crops and crop rotation, fencing, etc. They had decided that they had to learn farming and settle down, as their hunting and fishing grounds were depleted by white settlers.
On 16 December, he reported: "I have this week been trying to procure for the Indians the exclusive right of their salmon fishery, which I trust will be granted by the Legislature". At a meeting that same week an Ojibway chief addressed him: "Brother, as we are brothers, we will give you a name. My departed brother was named Cheehock; thou shalt be called Cheehock." Ryerson "returned him thanks in his own tongue, and so became initiated among them". The Legislature declined to support the Mississauga's claims to land and fishing grounds. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report of May 2015, and noted that "he even learned their language, worked in the fields with the people of the settlement and became a life-long friend of future chief Kahkewaquonaby (Sacred Feathers), known in English as Peter Jones".
In 1826, sermons from John Strachan, Anglican Archdeacon of York, Upper Canada, were published asserting that the Anglican church was, by law, the established church of Upper Canada. Methodists were singled out as American and therefore disloyal. Money was requested of the crown to allow the Anglican church to maintain ties to Great Britain. As Ryerson was the son of a Loyalist, this was an abomination. He emerged as Episcopal Methodism's most articulate defender in the public sphere by publishing articles (at first anonymously) and later books that argued against the views of Methodism's chief rival John Strachan and other members of the powerful Family Compact.
Ryerson was also elected (by one vote) to serve as the founding editor of Canadian Methodism's weekly denominational newspaper, the Christian Guardian, established in York in 1829 and which was also Canada's first religious newspaper. Ryerson used the paper to argue for the rights of Methodists in the province and, later, to help convince rank-and-file Methodists that a merger with British Wesleyans (effected in 1833 Victor Shepherd (2001), "The Methodist Tradition in Canada." Retrieved 17 July 2016.) was in their best interest. Ryerson was castigated by the reformist press at that time for apparently abandoning the cause of reform and becoming, at least as far as they were concerned, a Tory. Ryerson resigned the editorship in 1835 only to assume it again at his brother John's urging from 1838 to 1840. In 1840 Ryerson allowed his name to stand for re-election one last time but was soundly defeated by a vote of 50 to 1.
This quote is a fore-telling of Ryerson's contribution to education in Upper Canada.
In 1836, Ryerson visited England to secure the charter for Upper Canada Academy. This was the first charter ever granted by the British Government to a Nonconformist body for an educational institution. When it was incorporated in 1841 under the name Victoria College Ryerson assumed the presidency. Victoria College continues to exist as part of the University of Toronto. Ryerson also fought for many reforms, to keep power and influence away from any one church, particularly the Church of England in Upper Canada which had pretensions to establishment. His advocacy of Methodism contributed to the eventual sale of the tracts of land that had been set aside for the "maintenance of the Protestant clergy" under the Constitutional Act of 1791. "In honour of his achievements on behalf of the Methodist Church, Egerton Ryerson received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and served as President of the Church in Canada from 1874 to 1878."
Such secularization also led to the widening of the school system into public hands. Governor General Sir Charles Metcalfe asked him to become Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada in 1844 and remained in the position until 1876.Ingersoll Cheese and Agricultural Museum
The Normal School at St. James Square was founded in Toronto in 1847, and became the province's foremost teacher's academy. It also housed the Department of Education as well as the Museum of Natural History and Fine Arts, which became the Royal Ontario Museum. The school operated by the Ontario Society of Artists at the Normal School would become the OCAD University. An agricultural laboratory on the site led to the later founding of the Ontario Agricultural College and the University of Guelph. St. James Square went through various other educational uses before it eventually became part of Ryerson University.
Ryerson University (later renamed Toronto Metropolitan University), Ryerson Press (McGraw-Hill Ryerson), and the Township of Ryerson in the Parry Sound District, Ontario, were named after him, as well as the small park, Ryerson Park, in the city of Owen Sound, at the northeast corner of 8th Street East and 5th Avenue East. There is also an intersection of two small streets in Toronto, Egerton Lane and Ryerson Avenue, between Spadina Avenue and Bathurst north of Queen Street West.
In 2017 the university was urged to change its name in response to a campaign on social media, student organizations and petitions. A process of consultation was engaged in. The Standing Strong Task Force was appointed by the president. It held hearings, accepted briefs and letters and in 2021, reported with a recommendation to drop the name Ryerson and permanently remove his statue from the campus. This was promptly accepted by the University’s Board of Governors and further consultations were held to determine the new name. In April 2022, the university announced the new name would be Toronto Metropolitan University.
The Common School Act of 1846, was an act that had established the First General School Board, where it would consist of Seven Members, that would each have their own responsibilities. Ryerson set the groundwork for compulsory education, which is what it has become today, he ensured that curriculums were made and that teaching and learning materials were provided and delivered to Schools, in the result of the best possible education. Ryerson did not believe that white and Aboriginal children should be taught in the same schools due to their different civilization and their upbringings.
Further, he established the first General Board of Education (the one established in 1823 was by order of the Lieutenant Governor not by legislation). The board consisted of the Superintendent and six other members nominated by the Governor General.
The District Superintendents became important civil servants, apportioning District School Funds in proportion of the number of students, teacher payment, visit all schools in their district; reporting on progress, advising teachers on school management, examining teachers' qualifications, revoking unqualified teachers, and preventing the use of unauthorized textbooks.
Ryerson was also responsible for developing the first Ontario Readers for Canadian students to replace British, Irish and American textbooks.
In his Circular to the County Municipalities, in 1846, he argued the following:
Ryerson was also determined to provide education to those less privileged, as a means of improving the opportunities of all; or as he described it as the "only effectual remedy for the pernicious and pauperizing system which is at present. Many children are now kept from school on the alleged grounds of parental poverty." Ryerson was persuasive in his arguments such that principle for free education, in a permission form, was embodied into the School Law of 1850. Subsequent debate followed until 1871 when free school provision was included in the Comprehensive School Act of 1871.
Vardon was anxious about the project's prospect. Ryerson replied with a five-page handwritten letter, later printed in 1898 as an appendix to a report on residential schools by the Indian Affairs Department. Ryerson rejected the term "manual labour schools," and his recommendations include academic studies not needed for mere "manual labour." Ryerson foresaw a system that would assimilate indigenous youth into Canadian and Christian society. He said that "It would be a gratifying result to see graduates of our Indian industrial schools become overseers of some the largest farms in Canada, nor will it be less gratifying to see them industrious and prosperous farmers on their own account."Ryerson 1847 The academic subjects recommended were: reading, principles of the English language, arithmetic, elementary geometry, geography, history, natural history, agricultural chemistry, writing, drawing, vocal music, book keeping (especially farmers accounts), religion and morals. The schools were to be residential, involving eight to 12 hours a day of labour and two hours of instruction. The industrial schools should keep children from four to twelve years, be conducted in English, provide instruction in Christian religion and be run by Christian churches without government oversight.
The term “residential school” does not appear in any of the major scholarly works on Ryerson: the two-volume Life and Letters by Sissons, or the three regular biographies (Burwash, Thomas and Damania) nor in Ryerson’s own Story of My Life, edited by J. George Hodgins. Books such as Chaiton and N. McDonald’s Ryerson and His Times (1978) again do not mention the words, nor does a thesis on Ryerson’s political views (Pearce, 1986). Sources of Ryerson’s work in education, similarly, include no mention of residential schools (Putnam, 1912; Harris and Tremblay, 1960), nor the entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Gidney).
His recommendations were adopted by the Indian Affairs Department. By 1850, there were two major residential schools in Canada West: Alnwick, to serve northern and south-eastern bands in Alderville, and Mount Elgin, to serve south-western bands. Mount Elgin was to have been led by Peter Jones of the Mississaugas, but he was too ill to take up the task. The curriculum largely followed Ryerson's outline, which was itself in agreement with Methodists' plans to educate the indigenous. The daily schedule at Mount Elgin followed Ryerson's outline:
According to Hope MacLean, the purpose of the schools was "to eradicate Ojibwa Culture. Instruction in Christianity was considered a primary means of effecting change and consisted not only of daily prayers and attendance at church, but also the memorization of long passages of Scripture." The residential school system expanded geographically as federal policy extended into western and northern regions of Canada, with a growing number of institutions established. The Crown, and later Canada, often took on the obligation for the provision of education to First Nations youth in exchange for settlement lands under treaty. In the 21st century, the Government of Canada and the Pope of Rome officially apologized for the consequences of the school system.
Ryerson was not directly involved in the setup or running of the residential school system. He was involved in the Common Schools of Canada West and Ontario and the Normal School. Ryerson predeceased much of the residential school system's development. Any further communications by Ryerson on the subject of indigenous instruction and its schools is not known. Secondary literature on Ryerson focuses on his role in the development of the Ontario public school system. This includes a two-volume Life and Letters (Sissons,Sissons, C.B. Egerton Ryerson: His Life and Letters. 2 vols. Toronto: Clarke Irwin, 1937-47. 1937, 1947), and three biographies (Burwash,Burwash, Nathanael. Egerton Ryerson. Toronto: Morang, 1905. 1905; Thomas,Thomas, Clara. Ryerson of Upper Canada. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1969. 1969; and Damania,Damania, Laura. Egerton Ryerson. Don Mills ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1975. Damania, 1975. 1975). He had a direct role in the Ontario public education system, as described in several scholarly works on the subject (Putman,Putman, J. Harold. Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada, 1912. 1912; Curtis,Curtis, Bruce. Building the Educational State Canada West 1836-1871. Falmer Press 1989.; Curtis, Bruce. True Government by Choice Men: Inspection, Education and State Formation in Canada West. University of Toronto Press, 1992. 1989 and 1992; Pearce,Pearce, Colin D. Pearce Canadian Guardian: The Educational Statesmanship of Egerton Ryerson.” Vogelein View. (5 February 2020). 2020).
There are opposing views on the accusations against Ryerson and the decision to rename Ryerson University, and other places named after him (Smith, 2017 and 2021;Smith, Donald B. “Egerton Ryerson and the Mississauga, 1826-1856. An Appeal for Further Study,” Ontario History vol. 113 (Autumn 2021).
Stagg and Dutil, 2021;Stagg, Ronald and Patrice Dutil. ”The Imbecile Attack on Egerton Ryerson.” Dorchester Review (3 June 2021): The Imbecile Attack on Egerton Ryerson – The Dorchester Review Stagg, 2022;Stagg, Ronald. “Update on the Ryerson Fiasco.” Dorchester Review online 13 May 2022. McDonald, 2021 and 2023McDonald, Lynn. “How a ‘Maker of Canada’ was Framed: The unjust treatment of Egerton Ryerson.” The 1867 Project: Why Canada should be cherished—not cancelled, ed. Mark Milke. Aristotle Foundation, 2023, 108-18.
On 8 June 2021, the town of Owen Sound, Ontario removed the name plaque of Ryerson Park. The park, named for Egerton Ryerson, will be renamed at the request of 1,000 residents of Owen Sound. The town pre-emptively removed the plaque to prevent its defacement and damage. A school named for Ryerson in Owen Sound was closed in 1990.
In 1950, it was proposed to move the statue to Queen's Park by Keith Balfour, a Toronto mining company executive. The proposed move was opposed by the students of Ryerson Institute of Technology. The statue was cleaned annually by new students with toothbrushes as an initiation exercise.
On 18 July 2020, three people were arrested for splattering pink paint on the statue – in addition to two others of John A. Macdonald and King Edward VII at the Ontario Legislature – as part of a demand to tear down the monuments. Black Lives Matter Toronto claimed responsibility for the actions stating that "The action comes after the City of Toronto and the Province of Ontario have failed to take action against police violence against Black people." Three people were each charged with three counts of mischief under $5,000 and conspiracy to commit a summary offence; the charges were dropped the following year.
On 1 June 2021, following the discovery of soil disturbances at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, widely reported by the media as sites of 215 unmarked graves, the statue was vandalized again, this time with red paint. On 6 June, the statue was toppled, decapitated and thrown into Toronto Harbour; Ryerson University stated that the statue will not be restored or replaced. The head of the statue was subsequently placed on a pike at the Six Nations of the Grand River near Caledonia, Ontario.
After the events around the statue, on 8 June 2021, the town of Owen Sound, Ontario removed the name plaque of Ryerson Park. The park, named for Egerton Ryerson, will be renamed at the request of 1,000 residents of Owen Sound. The town pre-emptively removed the plaque to prevent its defacement and damage. A school named for Ryerson in Owen Sound was closed in 1990.
On 26 April 2022, Ryerson University announced its renaming to Toronto Metropolitan University. The statue's location has since been cleared and cleaned.
In 1833, Ryerson married Mary Armstrong in York (Toronto). Together they had two children, Sophia in 1836 and Charles Egerton in 1847:
Ryerson retired in 1876. His book The Loyalists of America and Their Times on the United Empire Loyalists was published in 1881. He died on 19 February 1882 after an extended illness. Schools were closed and flags were lowered to half-staff in his honour. His funeral at the Metropolitan Wesleyan Methodist Church was attended by the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario John Beverley Robinson, members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, officials of the Methodist Church and officials of Victoria College. He was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.
Ryerson lived nearby to the Normal School, at the-then 171 Victoria Street just north of today's Dundas Street. After his death, the building was used by his son's family and eventually sold. In 1923, the building was extensively modified to allow the connection of Dundas Street in front and also for commercial use. It is not known if any of the original residence survived. After sitting vacant, the building was demolished in 2024.
Selected works available online
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