All kinds of new and better products were designed and manufactured for the schools and their scholars and promoted in educational journals. School trustees were urged to buy the latest models in school furniture, as well as the most approved scientific apparatus and blackboards. Educators and scholars were pressed to consider new books and maps. Even hats and rain apparel for the long walk to school and stomach pills found their place in educational advertising. Education was becoming a business and continual innovation fostered its growth. School boards, teachers, parents, and pupils were increasingly encouraged to become consumers not only of education, but also of the special new products designed for their improvement or the improvement of the schools. Clearly, consumerism was one of the latent values of schooling in Canada's developing capitalist and industrial society. As an advertisement in the Nova Scotia Education Association Report announced in 1905, "Educated People Buy the Best Goods." Illustrated are some of the products used in the classroom: slates, pens, inkwells, and notebooks.
Courtesy: National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada
