Gender Equity
by Gordon Lloyd
From the time that public education came to Kamloops until the present, progress has been made towards equality between males and females.
Teacher’s Examinations
In the early years of Kamloops High School, many of the senior students aspired to the teaching profession, and thus wrote the Government qualifying examinations- as had their own teachers a few years earlier. In format these tests were not unlike the high school entrance exams which students wrote at the end of grade eight then the last year of elementary or “public school”. The content of teacher qualifying exams was more challenging. Less gifted students might spend as long as five or six years preparing for the ordeal though the norm for brighter boys and girls seems to have been three or four years.
Teacher examinations were written in many subjects, such as: Reading (50 points), Writing (100 points), Spelling (100 points), English Grammar (200 points), Mensuration (200 points), Anatomy (200 points), Mental Arithmetic (100 points) etcetera, with the total examinations package being based on 3,050 points in 1893. Examinations were meticulously marked down to fractions of a point. The mark 64 and 22/35 % was achieved by one student.
In an article published for the centennial celebration of the Victoria High School, Come Give a Cheer by Peter L. Smith the following quotations from teacher examination questions are noted:
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Spelling questions were particularly exotic, since they demanded the correction of preposterous misspellings. Merely to identify the word in question was a major challenge. Here is the delicious list for July, 1885 (100 marks; two marks will be deleted for each word incorrectly spelled or omitted.)
1. abayanse
2. taboo
3. fushea
4. izuyah
5. vassilate
6. koalless
7. sinister
8. kerosene
9. poinnant
10. assrerbitee
11. porfery
12. poriffery
13. ammythist
14. enskonse
15. supersede
16. tizzic
17. knewrlgea
18. wrnkkorrus
19. arkkeollogy
20. ure |
21. ekkleziatez
22. wrettorishon
23. benefited
24. assphphalyst
25. veraselly
26. kneshshense
27. hemmorrage
28. spermacetee
29. errsyppelass
30. remminisnissence
31. pusillanimity
32. sinsinnattee
33. argillaceous
34. sursingle
35. ploro-knumonea
36. phantazea
37. finale
38. wrecoshay
39. eshelong
40. o-de-kalone |
41. idiosyncrasy
42. posthumous
43. sighnee dyee
44. apothem
45. pomelling
46. farmasutical
47. phantazmagorea
48. polyglot
49. et setterra
50. dillettanta |
A startling feature of the Teachers’ Examinations, at least in early years, was the practice of sex discrimination. On the 1875 Arithmetic exam, there is a note that “Gentlemen are to omit the first six questions” – because they were simply too routine? In the English Composition papers, essay topics were assigned by sex, in keeping with public propriety. For 1874, “Gentlemen” wrote on “Science and Peace”; “Ladies: on “Water as an element of beauty in nature”. For 1875, there was a more complex separation of assignments:
Gentlemen. – What influence has the discovery of gold, in California and Australia, exerted upon existing civilization?
Ladies. – Give your opinion as to the good results which may follow the present agitation on the subject of “Women’s Rights”.
The 1876 English Composition exam was the ultimate in brevity and simplicity:
Time, 2 hours. Total marks, 100.
Gentlemen. – Politics.
Ladies. – Manners.
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Kamloops High School provided extra status for girls through Kajinkas, a special club or association of female students and teachers. This organization existed during the late 1940’s until the mid 1960’s. One of the annual highlights of Kajinkas was a fun night during which female teachers “let down their hair” and put on a fun skit for the female students of Kam. High” The 1951 Yearbook describes a Kajinka’s party.
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Girls Raise Cain at Kajinkas
On the late afternoon of March 8 the Senior High girls cleared the school of its male population and “Began the Music” for their 1951 Kajinkas party. The disguised girls, dressed in a motley of outfits, first played a game of choosing the correct tune to the pictures pasted on the desks, before converging onto the Home Ec. lab to eat a very delicious supper of spaghetti, cole slaw, rolls and ice cream.
After we had filled “the hollow cavers and belly” (courtesy of Virgil), we returned to the auditorium to enjoy skits by the teachers and Grades.
In the skit presented by the teachers, the locale was the Hills of the Ozarks. Suitably dressed teachers were languidly lying on the ground while Pa (Miss Harrison, complete with a lighted corn cob pipe) was engaged in some so-called luxury building according to Ma (Miss Ireland). Actually, Pa was only building a privy. A rousing square dance, performed with agility which we didn’t know the teachers possessed, closed the Teacher’s hilarious skit. The Grade 10s were responsible for the next item on the program. Their skit consisted of acting out the popular song “Nevertheless” This was successful as many of the Grade 10’s took part.
“I’m a Lonely Little Petunia; in an Onion Patch” was the theme of the Grade 11s. In this skit, the Little Petunia, Arlene Knowles, shed copious tears as she related her tale of woe. Arlene’s heart-rending performance was a hit of the evening.
The Grade 12’s presented their deranged version of “Romeo and Juliet” to various singing commercials. Juliet (Irene Schuler), spurned Romeo (Colleen Gibbon) with these words “Vel, Vel, go to …”. However, in the end, all was well as Romeo bathed in Lifebuoy, and in the final scene, we saw the happy family,. complete with Toni Twins.
Prizes were awarded to the best dressed girl, Dolena Camp, who came as an Onion, the most original, Shirley Evans, who dressed as “The Thing”, and the cutest couple, Ann Willoughby and Barbara Webber, the Toni Twins, by the capable M.C.s Peggy Robertson and Nonie Rebagliatti. A distinctive cup was presented to the Grade 11 girls for their skit.
All agreed that the Kajinkas was a good idea for the girls and the feminine teachers to let their hair down once in a while.
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An understood code kept knowledge of Kajinkas activities from the boys.
As recently as 1952 a serious item included during salary negotiations between the Board of School Trustees and Kamloops teachers was; “Equal pay for equal work”. Until that time, female teachers were paid on a lower scale than male teachers.
It wasn’t until the mid 1970’s that boys were allowed to take Home Economics courses and girls were allowed to take Industrial Education courses.
By the 1980 boys and girls physical education classes and Community Recreation classes were mixed as were guidance classes, except for units dealing with sexuality.
In formal school athletic activities such as those held in Physical Education classes and Indoor Track meets boys and girls now participate together. In 2003 the occasional girl is allowed to participate on what traditionally have been male teams in community leagues; however, extra curricular school athletic leagues are still separate for girls and boys.
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