Canada 150 Edmonton Trivia Contest – Education

This post has the answers for last week’s trivia questions on Education. The next set of questions on Law & Order in Edmonton are now available!

One of the first things new settlers in an area did was start a school board to make sure their children received an education. Part of the attraction in coming and starting a new life on the frontier was to give the next generation more opportunities and schooling was a priority to ensure that.  

There was a school at Fort Edmonton, taught by the missionaries first, and then as the settlement grew outside the walls of the Fort, there were both church schools, private schools and, by 1880, a Public School Board. Higher education also came to Edmonton fairly early. The Alberta College was established in 1903/04 and by 1908 the University of Alberta was established as well. The growth of the City meant that schools appeared in new neighbourhoods as they developed and the schools often became the community hub.

EA-600-1197 School out for summer June 30, 1948
EA-600-1197 School out for summer June 30, 1948

1. Dr. Anne Anderson Park is located at 10515 – 162 Street. What language was she well know for teaching and preserving?

A. Dutch
B. French
C. German
D. Cree

While the large and vocal francophone community in the west ensured that French language education would be offered in Alberta (though not enshrined until the 1980s, there was nothing to protect the Indigenous languages which were spoken in the province prior to the entrance of the western provinces into Confederation. In fact many would say that most of the national educational policies were enacted to eradicate Indigenous languages. Work began among linguists, sociologists, and archaeologists in the 1970s and 1980s to both document and teach Indigenous languages before they became extinct.

2. The University of Alberta founded largely out of a partnership between which two men?

A. Frank Oliver and Alexander Rutherford
B. Frank Oliver and William Griesbach
C. James Marshall Tory and William Griesbach
D. Alexander Rutherford and James Marshall Tory

Rutherford was the first Premier of Alberta and when Edmonton was made the capital city in 1906 he promised that the proposed new university would be “south of the North Saskatchewan”. The Calgary and southern Alberta voters thought he meant it would be located in Calgary – but forgot that Rutherford’s riding was the City of Strathcona – on the south side of the river.

3. What early Methodist post-secondary school was absorbed by MacEwan University in 2002?

A. Strathcona School of Telephone Repair
B. Alberta College
C. Edmonton College
D. John Wesley Academy

EA-10-664 Alberta College - McDonald Drive looking north  Part of the Methodist Church’s tower is visible on the right side of the college
EA-10-664 Alberta College – McDonald Drive looking north
Part of the Methodist Church’s tower is visible on the right side of the college

4. What Edmonton Public School is reportedly haunted by a former teacher?

A. Oliver School
B. Boyle Street School
C. Scona School
D. Westmount School

5. What was Edmonton’s first private school for girls?

A. Edmonton School for Girls
B. Whyte Academy
C. Llanarthany School for Girls
D. Athabasca Hall

6. What was Edmonton’s first private school for boys?

A. Westward Ho!
B. Edmonton School for Boys
C. Jasper Academy
D. Strathcona Hall

These two private schools were set up to teach British values and curriculum to Edmonton’s middle class children in the early 1900s. Both were established in the neighbourhood of Oliver – just west of downtown.

7. Which historic building houses the Edmonton Public School Museum and Archives?

A. 1881 Schoolhouse
B. Prince of Wales Armouries
C. McKay Avenue School
D. Fort Edmonton

EA-10-868 McKay Avenue School - early 1900s
EA-10-868 McKay Avenue School – early 1900s

8. According to historian J.G. MacGregor, the first classes were offered at Fort Edmonton by Brother Scollen at the insistence of Father Lacombe. When did these classes begin?

A. 1842
B. 1852
C. 1862
D. 1872

9. When did registration begin for the first classes at the University of Alberta?

A. 1905
B. 1908
C. 1910
D. 1912

10. What school was once located just east of CN Tower on 103A Avenue?

A. Queen’s Avenue School
B. Railroad Academy
C. Boyle School
D. Victoria School

 

 

EA-10-931 Canadian National Railway Station/Queen’s Avenue School
EA-10-931 Canadian National Railway Station/Queen’s Avenue School

This beautiful school was part of the Edmonton Downtown only for a few years. Most people don’t realize how many people used to have houses right in the centre of the city. The School and the next door Canadian National Railway depot are on the site of today’s new Royal Alberta Museum and the park in front is where City Hall stands.

Good luck with the next batch of questions about Law & Order in Edmonton, you have until Thursday, May 4 at midnight to answer them and be entered in the contest!