CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — As part of UPEI’s 50th anniversary, the Robertson Library is presenting a lecture series to celebrate the historical roots of higher education on P.E.I. and its future.
The series is named after educator Frank Pigot, honoured as a UPEI founder for his work building the library’s P.E.I. collection and university archives.
Ed MacDonald will deliver the first lecture of the series on Tuesday, March 26, 7-8:30 p.m., in the faculty lounge of UPEI’s Main Building.
MacDonald’s presentation is titled “The School of Experience: A Patchwork Quilt of Informal Island Education, 1825-1965”.
Refreshments will be provided. Everyone is welcome.
While the Island’s formal education system evolved slowly and painfully across the 19th and 20th centuries, other, more informal modes of teaching and learning developed to answer Islanders’ educational needs.
From the agricultural societies and mechanics’ institutes of the first half of the 20th century, through the farmer’s institutes that followed to the adult education underpinning of the Antigonish Movement and the DIY ethos of community schools in the 1960s, these informal systems of education shared one characteristic: they emphasized various kinds of practical, applied learning for Islanders who found themselves outside the province’s structured educational system.
