No single model can adequately describe the process whereby schools and colleges in eastern, nineteenth-century Canada were gradually sifted and sorted into institutions of "elementary," "secondary" or "higher" learning. Of those colleges, academies or seminaries that managed to survive the competition from the growing public school systems, some eventually settled into a somewhat insular existence as entirely privately supported institutions for secondary or "preparatory" education. Others, like King's College, New Brunswick illustrated here, increased their assistance from government and became essentially public institutions of higher learning. In many cases, whether academy, college, seminary or university, elite institutions like King's attempted to preserve an idealized rural setting. This was partly, perhaps, out of nostalgia, but it also reflected concern to counteract the evils that were associated with the urban environment that was so quickly coming to dominate the lives of many Canadians.
