Tool of Acculturation, Outil de Survivance : Education of French Canadians in Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1880-1920

Fliss, Susan

From Fliss: "Motivated to ensure 'la survivance,' the survival of their religion, language, and culture, French-Canadian immigrants established an extensive private Catholic education system ranging from parish elementary and high schools to boarding schools and colleges in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century New England. Of these education levels, parish schools reached the largest number of French-Canadian children. In Holyoke, Massachusetts, French-Canadian survivance efforts centered on the education of their children in French-Canadian parish schools however, the parish school performed a dual role for the French Canadians in the context of their cultural transition in New England. French-Canadian culture pervaded the school day with French as a language of instruction, sisters from French-Canadian orders as teachers, religion and Canadian history in the curriculum, and the observance of traditional cultural customs and celebrations. The French-Canadian immigrant community did not anticipate the schools' second role, that of aiding the acculturation of their children into American society. Although these roles seem to be at cross-purposes, they co-existed in New England until the second half of the twentieth century with the weakening of French-Canadian identity, the shortage of teaching sisters, and the closing of ethnic parish schools. The bilingual and bicultural character of the school day, influenced by both assimilation and survivance strategies, contributed to the development of a Franco-American population in Holyoke...."

Orono, Maine

2007

en

Thesis/Dissertation

1880-1920; Holyoke, Massachusetts