Early Life and Education
Angus Lewis Macdonald was born August 10, 1890, on a small family farm at Dunvegan, Inverness County, on Cape Breton Island. He was the ninth child in a family of 14. His mother was from a prominent Acadian family on Prince Edward Island while his father's family had emigrated to Cape Breton from the Scottish Highlands in 1810. The Macdonalds were devout Roman Catholics as well as ardent Liberal Party supporters.
In 1905, when Macdonald was 15, the family moved to the town of Port Hood, Cape Breton. Macdonald attended the Port Hood Academy. He hoped to enroll next in the Bachelor of Arts program at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, but his family couldn't afford to pay for a university education so Macdonald obtained a teaching licence and taught for two years to finance his education. Midway through his university studies, he took another year off to earn money teaching. He completed his final term on credit and was required to teach in the university's high school during 1914–15 to pay off his debt. Macdonald did well at St. FX. He played rugby, joined the debating team, edited the student newspaper and, in his graduating year, won the gold medal in seven of his eight courses. He was also class valedictorian.
Read more about this topic: Angus Lewis Macdonald
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:
“In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret’s nose. Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)
“To see self-sufficiency as the hallmark of maturity conveys a view of adult life that is at odds with the human condition, a view that cannot sustain the kinds of long-term commitments and involvements with other people that are necessary for raising and educating a child or for citizenship in a democratic society.”
—Carol Gilligan (20th century)
“A President must call on many persons—some to man the ramparts and to watch the far away, distant posts; others to lead us in science, medicine, education and social progress here at home.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)