Career
In 1899, Reverend Fitzpatrick began teaching labourers from lumber, mining, and railway camps out of a log cabin in Nairn, Ontario although he had no staff, some parish assistance, and little money. He founded the Frontier College in 1899 with and his colleagues at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Fitzpatrick developed the idea of the Labourer-Teacher who work alongside the labourers during the day and teaches them in the evenings.
In 1920, Reverend Alfred Fitzpatrick said, "Whenever and wherever people shall have occasion to congregate, then and there shall be the time, place and means of their education." The College's purpose was to teach frontiersmen how to read. He promoted education as a right for all. He challenged Canadian universities to recognize the balance of intellectual, spiritual and physical qualities every individual embodies, no matter their station in life. Alfred Fitzpatrick wrote books which argued for literacy and explained why new immigrants should receive language and cultural training. He objected to the conditions imposed on a transient, peripheral working class. He challenged Canadians, its universities and its government and businesses to take education and literacy to labourers, remote communities, ex-convicts, people with learning disabilities, and street people.
After World War II, the Frontier College began working with teens, children, and families in urban centers. It established literacy programs to promote reading among the young, in remote communities, ex-convicts, people with learning disabilities, and street people.
Frontier College continues to this day helping to combat illiteracy in Canada with program of basic literacy, secondary and university education. The organization, which celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 1999, was founded on the principle of "literacy for all".
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