Nineteenth-century educational reformers were fond of an agricultural metaphor when it came to the provision of more and better schooling: even good land, they argued, had to be cultiated; othersie noxious weeds sprang up. In this study of education in Ontario from the establishment of Upper Canada to the end of Egerton Ryerson's career as chief superintendent of schools in 1876, Susan Houston and Alison Prentice explore the roots of the provincial public school system, set up to instill a work ethic and moral discipline appropriate to the new society, as well as the beginnings of separate schools.

today the Ontario school system is once again the subject of intense and often bitter deabte. Many of the most contentious issues have deep and complex roots that go back to this era. Houston and Prentice tell the story of how Ontario came to have a universal school system of exceptional quality and shed valuable light on an area of current concern.