Exceptional Educators: Canada’s First Special Education Teachers, 1910–45

The article examines the personal backgrounds and professional lives of Canada’s earliest special education teachers. It considers the approximately 340 women and men who, between 1910 and 1945, taught special education classes in the public elementary schools of Toronto and Vancouver—the first two systems in the country to offer special education programs. Twelve selected special educators are discussed in more depth based on traces of their lives found in an eclectic array of sources, including school reports, the census, and vital records. The article considers early special educators’ gender; teacher training, certification, extra qualifications, and length of service; and their relationship as non-disabled adults to children with disabilities. It discusses each of these factors in light of what it can tell us about the uniqueness of early special educators and what in turn the personal and professional stories of these individuals can tell us about the history of special education.ResumeCet article explore les antecedents personnels et la vie professionnelle des premiers enseignants en education specialisee au Canada. Il prend en compte les quelque 340 femmes et hommes qui, entre 1910 et 1945, ont donne des cours d’education specialises dans les ecoles primaires publiques de Toronto et de Vancouver — les deux premiers systemes scolaires au pays a offrir des programmes d’education specialisee. Cet article s’interesse particulierement au profil de douze educateurs specialises dont il est possible de suivre la trace a partir d’un ensemble de sources eclectiques incluant les rapports scolaires, les recensements, et les registres d’etat civil. Il prend en compte le genre des premiers educateurs specialises, la formation des enseignants, la certification, les qualifications supplementaires, le nombre d’annees de service, ainsi que la relation de ces adultes non handicapes avec des enfants ayant une limitation fonctionnelle. Chacun de ces facteurs est analyse a la lumiere de ce qu’ils peuvent reveler a propos du caractere unique des premiers educateurs specialises, de meme que ce que leurs histoires personnelles et professionnelles revelent sur l’histoire de l’education specialisee.