Many reformers came to believe that some poor children could never fit into regular common or parish schools. Since the beginning of the century, in fact, there had existed in many localities special charity schools for their instruction. Some of these schools were absorbed into public school systems; some no doubt disappeared; others may have remained charitable institutions. By the end of the century, however, there were also "industrial" day schools that were financed by government, as well as a number of residential institutions for children newly defined as "delinquent" or "incorrigible" by the courts, because they would not work or attend school, or had been involved in crime. In some places, similar residential schools were founded for Indian children. In all cases, the goals were similar: to provide some of the elements, such as discipline and the motivation to work, that were believed to be lacking in the children's home environment and to train them for some kind of labour. As in all kinds of schooling, these institutions had great difficulty achieving their more idealistic goals and often seemed like prisons to those that they attempted to educate, train or restrain. The Acadian School, Halifax, was a day school that dated back to the early nineteenth century. The boys in this photograph attended the school in 1893.
