Mary Ashworth, The Forces Which Shaped Them: A History of the Education of Minority Group Children in British Columbia. Vancouver: New Star Books, 1979, pp 238: ills.
The Forces Which Shaped Them by Mary Ashworth is a historical survey which looks at the forces – such as parents’ and ethnic groups’ ignorance and inability to invoke change; government legislation; professional organizations which both aided and impaired the fight against racism; school administrators’, trustees’ and teachers’ actions and beliefs; and churches’ desire to dominate populations – that controlled the education and often the lives of minority children in British Columbia. Ashworth argues that all the forces surrounding non-white children created an environment of racial segregation and disadvantage. Before going on to discuss each of five minority groups – Native Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Doukhobors, and East Indians – individually, Ashworth declares thoughtfully that her hope for writing about minority education "is that by understanding the past we can do better for the children of the present and the future" (p. 2).
Mary Ashworth has an extensive history in second language instruction, and obviously has a vested interest in the education of minority groups in British Columbia. She practised her knowledge as an ‘English as a Second Language’ educator at the University of British Columbia for twenty years and no doubt encountered many students who aided her research. In addition to her work at the university, Ashworth has written a number of books about second language instruction including Immigrant Children and Canadian Schools, published four years prior to The Forces Which Shaped Them. The publisher, New Star Books, has a leftist perspective and not only publishes books on local history and culture, but also books about politics, social issues, poetry, prose fiction and non-fiction.
Among every minority group discussed in Ashworth’s book, mistrust and misunderstanding of the culture and of the beliefs of the group is a common theme. For the Natives, the biggest threat they faced in attending school set up by white missionaries was that to their culture, language and family relations. Similarly, Ashworth argues that the Chinese and Japanese faced segregation because white citizens thought they were unclean and a threat to the economy and well-being of white Canadians. Furthermore, virtually all of the minority group children exhibited “age-grade retardation” because “they lacked facility in the English language (p. 190).” Sadly, the residential schools, segregation, exclusion policies, evacuation, and forced assimilation that Ashworth attributes to the difficulties students experienced only added to the extreme disadvantage many youths faced because of their unique culture and the language they spoke at home.
Given the broad subject area, Ashworth was required to use a wide range of sources to support her theory that racism affected the education of minority group children in British Columbia. The most effective evidence used was the personal accounts and letters given in diaries, interviews, newspapers, and City Council and School Board meeting minutes. Ashworth also acknowledges that many politicians and citizens did not think they were doing anything wrong in their racist acts. Expertly, the author is able to counteract the supposed positive ambitions with personal accounts of racism by minority group members. The evidence and incidents considered in Ashworth’s survey are of high quality and contribute agreeably to the argument presented.
Most Canadians know at least a small portion of the racism that has existed in British Columbia, but not the full story. In Ashworth’s survey, the organization of a number of dismal incidences back to back causes the reader to really take notice. In many cases discussed, for no reason at all children were forced into a far inferior education than they deserved. Although the author does not infuse her opinions into her writing, she does a remarkable job of delivering the history to her readers so that they may feel their own emotions. Readers will find themselves wanting to boycott Vancouver public schools along with the Chinese students and readers will understand the confusion and frustration of the Doukhobors. In order to assist her readers in imagining the situations of the young students, the author included a number of photos of minority group children into the publication. It is impossible not to feel terrible about the racism one is reading in the book when one has fresh-faced, Japanese boys smiling up at the camera and an East Indian brother and sister shyly heading to school. Furthermore, the map at the start of the book allows readers to grasp the long journeys young children had to make, with and without their parents, because of the racism that existed. Each chapter contains too many touching stories to mention, but the care that went into researching the situations is evident in the day-by-day account of each group’s journey toward the education they deserved.
The emotions and events described by Ashworth in The Forces Which Shaped Them are in keeping with works written about similar topics. For example, Obasan by Joy Kogawa depicts the same feelings of mistrust of the Japanese as a result of the Second World War. Given that Joy Kogawa wrote her novel based on her own experiences, she touches much of the same anger that is present in the personal accounts in Ashworth’s survey. Similarly, the Natives’ stories that Ashworth tells are in line with the perceptions of white missionaries and their residential schools in articles such as ‘Schooled for Inequality’ by Jean Barman, as well as other histories of Native experiences. Undoubtedly, further research of Doukhobors, Chinese, and East Indian encounters in British Columbia would produce the same sentiments as were found in Ashworth’s book.
The Forces Which Shaped Them provides a very useful glimpse at how minority groups were treated in British Columbia. Above all, the information that Ashworth presents regarding racist acts that affected the education of minority group children is very important for present day educators. With the history that is present in this survey, educators will be able to be fair to all students and ensure that we don’t repeat history or, more specifically, the gloomy history of racism.
Written by Samantha Keller
History 349 (Fall 2007)