Daphne Yoner

October 22, 2019

World War two. For example in schools today we no longer have corporal punishment

and studnet’s desks are not nailed to the floor. We see the ever changing dynamic in

classrooms such as flexible classrooms, teachers have autonomy over how they teach,

and students are allowed to express themselves in the classroom. These attributes are

not completely new to our school system but rather have been adapted to fit the

changing times. These elements in classrooms started as early as the 1930’s when the

enterprise system was being developed and tested in Alberta. Teachers started straying

away from the teachers lecturing and students listening approach and began working

towards project based learning in the classrooms. This contributed to teachers

becoming more autonomous in the classroom and granted students more individualism

when it comes to creating their own projects. This new way of thinking was known as

the enterprise system and it has greatly influenced schooling in the 21st century. .

The enterprise system lasted for quite a lengthy amount of time in Alberta, and

after 7 years using this system there was an article written by Lorne A. Walker, the

Superintendent of Public schools in Medicine Hat, that covers the overarching theories

behind the enterprise system. This article reflects different views people have of the

system and the results from implementing the system. This document was made

primarily for the public in order for them to understand what the system is and what the

results seem to be after 7 years. “The School” is a magazine that this document
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appears in which it comes across as informative of education in Alberta, and this brings

to light what it is actually like in classrooms working with the enterprise system. This

perspective is well rounded in the sense that it encompasses perspectives from many

different schools and many different teachers however the challenge with this article

then becomes that it does not have another perspective such as students, parents or

possibly principles. This document also lacks any physical proof of the enterprise

working as well; it is mainly consists of teachers opinions. Lorne A. Walker states that

this system is not supposed to be the utopian pattern for learning but rather is a guide

for teachers so that they can implement this new way of learning. Parents seemed

generally opposed to this system because it was not traditional. This idea of staying

traditional is complementary to Sutherlands chapter on “Children in ‘Formalsist’

Schools”; the common opinion of parents and teachers being that a strict structure in

schools will create “good” citizens. Although with creation of the enterprise system most

teachers slowly started to understand the merit behind students being individualistic

rather than a clone of a “good” citizen. In the enterprise system the successful teachers

generally excelled at keeping activities moving, keep the main focus of the lesson in

mind and created appropriate planning for the activity. On the other hand the teachers

that only followed the guidelines of the activity and did not bother to adapt it for their

class did not implement the system well. This document highlights that the enterprise

system made more autonomy for both teachers and students, which we still strive for

today in education. This time period was not particularly focused on individualism for

students or allowing children to be creative, however this system was the foundation for
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October 22, 2019
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these ideas of learning. Another value we hold today is that students should be able to

problem-solve and discover a conclusion that satisfies their question, which this system

exemplifies. Therefore autonomy, creativity and problem-solving skills are attributes of

this system we still use in the 21st century teaching.

The next piece of documentation is a photograph from 1954, that shows a grade

three class with their jungle enterprise project. This picture is from the EPS Archives

and Museum, this type of document is available to the public today for historical

purposes and back in the 1950’s it most likely would have been a photograph taken to

show off the benefits of the enterprise system to the public as well. Of course with this

type of document we can analyse that the students all appear to be relatively happy with

the end product of their jungle project and that beyond that there are lots of other

projects on the wall that also show off what else these students have been learning

throughout the year. However since this most likely was a photograph taken for the

public this requires the interpreter of the photograph to think critically about this piece. A

challenge with early photographs (especially in the 1950’s) was that this particular class

was picked to show off their enterprise project. This class picture could be considered

staged because all the students have smiles on their faces, everyone is looking at the

camera and the background is very neat and tidy with beautiful projects covering the

walls. Therefore when we analyse this type of document we have to be wary that this

class was chosen for a reason; which would be that these students have made an

amazing project which could allude to the system being successful. This photograph is

a positive reflection of what the enterprise system is trying to create in schools. This
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October 22, 2019
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piece shows that students take pride in their projects, that the projects are well

developed and that students are learning something based on all the projects around

them. This idea was reinforced by Amy von Heyking in her article “Implementing

Progressive Education in Alberta’s Rural Schools”; she stated that the idea of this

system was to “enhance student’s independence while still ensuring that the teacher

provide direction for the students’ investigation” (page 97). Independence was the

backbone for these projects, that anchored ideas of pride, creativity, and some

cooperation among the students. Although the element of independence was important,

another important aspect was collaboration. In this photo there is one project that the

entire class worked on; this develops skills such as collaboration, working well with

others and expressing your own ideas in an appropriate manner. In today's schools we

still see elements of proud students showing off their projects, for example in year

books we collect photographs that show off the really exciting projects that students

have done throughout the year (together or independently) or hanging students projects

on bulletin boards for the whole school to see. Therefore in the 21st century we still see

elements of students getting to exhibit their creativeness, their perseverance and

collaborative skills that were all present in the enterprise system.

The next piece is a report that was created by the chief superintendent of schools

in 1946 for the province of Alberta. This document differs from the other two documents

because this piece is not meant for the public but for the department of education. The

purpose of this document was to reflect on the enterprise system in schools, primarily

the examination of activity and discussion group techniques. This is an official document
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October 22, 2019
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that was created to evaluate how the enterprise system was working in schools, thus

this document is very reliable however a challenge that this document possesses is that

this document is from the superintendents view. In the school system teachers are the

ones implementing this system, they are the people that see the benefits and

disadvantages to the system on a day to day basis. So then the challenge becomes that

the superintendent is creating an evaluation based on one visit therefore he would not

be able to see the long term effects of the system, compared to the teachers that

observe this long term progress. Overall in this enterprise report the superintendent can

see the benefits to this system such as students having good initiative, confidence and

examinations which show that the students are learning something from this system.

This report is the only document of the four that displays concrete evidence that this

system is moderately successful. Although the superintendent notes that this system

requires competent teachers that are imaginative because the less competent teachers

do not adapt projects for their class which is a major issue in the enterprise system. For

example, in the article “Maisie Emery Goes to Normal”by Robert M. Stamp, Maisie

notes that some students that went to normal school only got a teacher education

because it was a possible gateway to getting a better job with higher pay, such as a

lawyer or a doctor. We see these students would teach purley to get enough money to

go back to school, hence these teachers would be an example of the less competent

teachers that follow lesson plans word for word. These students in the enterprise

system show initiative and confidence in their work which are still reflected in schooling

in the 21st century, especially in montessori schools were the students lead their own
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October 22, 2019
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learning and teachers are mostly their as facilitators. Teachers today still strive for their

students to gain these types of skills in the 21st century.

Finally the last document is about possible suggestions for planning in the

primary grades for the enterprise. This document is different from the other three

because it is planning made by Edmonton teachers for other teachers in the province.

This booklet covers what works best for the enterprise system and how to implement it

properly into the classroom. There is also an example of an enterprise project in the

booklet that explains step-by-step what the teacher should be doing as well as what the

students should be doing. This document is made for teachers in order to interpret the

information appropriately, and the audience (teachers) should have a bit of background

on how the enterprise system works. A challenge that we face with this particular

document is with the audience, if it is the public that is reading the document then the

audience may not have enough context to fully understand the purpose of these

assignments. This may cause a backlash from the public for many different reasons

such as the structure is not universal, the students have too much fun and not enough

stress on the information being taught. As mentioned in the superintendent report

another issue with this system is the less competent teachers do not have enough

structure with these lesson plans, these teachers are generally more competent with a

formalist approach to teaching. These teachers have an issue with the freedom of these

projects, which then teachers follow the projects but forget to highlight the important

lesson behind them. This means that the information behind the project is not being

taught. Therefore this document overall seems like a very exciting project with many
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October 22, 2019
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different lessons entwined, however this document would only be considered beneficial

to the enterprise system if it was competent teachers that were preparing this lesson.

This creative type of lesson plan is still very common in today's teaching; teachers tend

to understand that if students are having fun and making their own discoveries then the

students absorb a lot more information than just memorizing.

In conclusion the enterprise system had excellent ideals and motives for

proceeding forward, some of the qualities that this system produced is still seen in

today's schools. All of these documents highlighted that generally people thought that

this system would be beneficial to the students overall; it created creativity, initiative and

confidence within these students. However there is always consequences to every

action both documents one and three share the same view that this system worked well

with competent teachers that put in the effort, however it becomes an issue when less

competent teachers followed lesson plans strictly without adaptation. In the end we are

left asking ourselves if the enterprise system truly worked as an education system? Our

answer is unclear, whether it was a sufficient teaching method or did it purely just get

students to be more creative? With this system it might never be clear however most

teachers pedagogy today does reflect a lot of the attributes that the enterprise system

created, therefore there must be a certain amount of merit in this system since teachers

still use these methods in the 21st century. Education will never be perfect, but if we

take good ideas from our past and implement them into our future teachings, then we

become one step closer to creating our best possible education system.
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October 22, 2019
Ed 4361
Bibliography:

● Frame, W. E. (1946). Report of the Chief Superintendent of Schools. Report of the Chief
Superintendent of Schools (pp. 25–26). Order of Legislative Assembly.
● Heyking, A. von. Implementing Progressive Education in Alberta's Rural Schools.
Historical Studies in Education, 24(1), 93–111.
● Our Jungle Enterprise, Grade 3, Nov. 10, 1954. photograph, Strathearn School.
● Stamp, Robert M. “Maisie Emery Goes to Normal. “In Coming of Age:100 Years of
Educating Alberta Girls and Women, edition by E. Lisbeth Donaldson, ‘49-61. Calgary:
Detselig Enterprises Ltd. 2004.
● Sutherland, N. (1997). Children in ‘formalist’ schools. In Growing Up: Childhood in
English Canada from the Great Wa to the age of television (pp. 186-219). Toronto, ON:
University of Toronto Press.
● The Enterprise in the Primary Grades. (1948-1950). Suggestions for Planning the
Enterprise Grades 1,2, and 3, pg. 1–12.
● Walker, L. A. (1946, February). The Enterprise After 7 years. The School,pg.492–496.