A Meeting of the People: School Boards and Protestant Communities in Quebec, 1801-1998 is a non-fiction book by Mary A. Poutanen and Roderick MacLeod. It was published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2004. It chronicles the history of the education of Protestant Christians in Quebec. Additionally, it covers English medium schooling in the province. [1]
Prior to 1998, public schools in Quebec were divided among religious lines, with Catholics having their school districts and Protestants having their own. [1] J. Donald Wilson of the University of British Columbia wrote that in the 1800s, "religion was more important than the language of instruction in public education." [2] Wilson added that this Protestant school system shifted into becoming "an inclusive, mainly English-language institution that increasingly resembled public schooling across North America." [3] In 1998 the schools were reorganized into language-based systems. [4]
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A portion of the book discusses the education of Jewish students, who generally attended Protestant schools. Other portions discuss the education of aboriginal Canadians in the province. [1]
Wilson wrote that "This book is an important contribution to" its subject area, and that the book "is remarkably error-free". [4]