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Child Welfare Services
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One of the attitudes that changed at the end of the 19th century
was the view of childhood. Until then, they were treated much
like small adults. There was no sense of childhood as a period
of physical, and more important, intellectual and emotional
growth. Education was not widespread. Although there was
a form of compulsory education in Upper Canada from the
mid-nineteenth century, it was organized around the
growing season ( as it remains today).
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Boys earning a living working on the streets, 1900-1910,
National Archives Neg. no. 4239.
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Under the
British Poor Law, local magistrates could apprentice
needy children. That was the root of the present-day
child welfare. At the turn of the century, there was
a new acceptance of the concept of childhood. Compulsory
education was expanded; there was special treatment for
child offenders, and there was a greater acceptance of a broader,
public role in the care of neglected and abused children.
This was partly due to the increase in the number of homeless
children, many of whom were known as "Home Children"
and had been transplanted from the streets of Britain
to the streets of Toronto and Montreal. Another reason
for the increase was the intensification of industrial
development and, therefore, poverty in Canada.
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