The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2009, Qupperneq 28

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 62 #3
1 18
tem was in place, Icelandic women began
to pursue their teaching careers. In 1888,
three Icelanders received their 3rd class cer-
tificates, and two of the three were women.
In 1889, one of these women, Salina
Peturson, completed her training at The
Normal School and received her 2nd class
certificate. One year later, the other
woman, Bjorg Jonsdottir Thorkelson, did
the same, just seven years after emigrating
from Iceland (Lundar and District
Historical Society, 1980, p. 731). By 1892
there were fourteen Icelandic teachers in
Manitoba, seven with 3rd class certificates
and seven with 2nd class certificates.
At first, all teachers of Icelandic
descent taught in the rural areas of
Manitoba. It was not until 1904 that any
Icelanders received teaching positions in
the urban centre of Winnipeg. In 1904,
Miss Kristin Herman began teaching at
Pinkham School and Miss Ingiridur
Johnson began teaching at Aberdeen
School (Ruth, 1964, p. 54). For teachers in
the rural school districts, it meant teaching
in a multigrade one-room schoolhouse.
These schoolhouses were located through-
out the Icelandic communities, and the
names of the teachers in the histories are
predominantly Icelandic. These were some
of the Icelandic women who taught at
Baldur School in Breidavik (New Iceland);
1895: Solveig Svensdottir
1896: Gudrun Johannson
1898: Mrs. Nordal
1899: Jona Vopni
1903: Solveig Swinford
1906: Christiana Sveinsson (Hnausa
History Book Committee, 2004, p. 26)
It seemed from the research that the
Icelandic women moved around to various
schools in the same district. Rosa
Christopherson for example moved around
Argyle teaching at Mimir, Hola and Thor
School before moving to Saskatchewan to
teach (Rural Municipality of Argyle, 1981,
p. 222, 236, 255). Jona Vopni taught at var-
ious New Iceland schools and served as the
secretary treasurer of the governing
Education Association of Lake Winnipeg
in 1902 (Gimli Women’s Institute, 1973, p.
171).
There was one obstacle for all
Manitoba women pursuing a long career in
teaching at this time: marriage. This was a
time when “no (school) board would
employ a married woman ....unless her
husband was incapacitated” (Shack, 1973,
p. 54) If the woman was pregnant or had a
family, it was completely out of the ques-
tion. Pioneer society could not imagine,
much less accommodate motherhood and
full-time paid work (Kinnear, 1998, p. 61).
Women such as Bjorg Jonsdottir
Thorkelson, who was a much loved and
highly respected teacher, went on to have a
30 year teaching career that was available to
her only because she was single. It is dis-
heartening to imagine how many other tal-
ented Icelandic women could have realized
the same had they been born later in
Manitoba’s history. It is probably, howev-
er, that these former teachers found other
ways to use their many educational and
leadership skills within their families and
their communities. For the Icelandic
women with formal teachers training and
experience there would have been many
opportunities for them to use their skills.
The historical narratives that follow
describe a variety of these opportunities.
This section has referred to the value
that the Icelandic people placed on educa-
tion. One example that illustrates this value
is Lord Dufferin’s observation of small
libraries in the homes of the Icelandic pio-
neers. Another indicator of the Icelandic
belief in the value of education is evident
through the community libraries that
Icelanders established in almost every set-
tlement soon after they arrived. Icelanders,
like adult educator J. Roby Kidd, believed
libraries to be a “foundation stone” of
learning (1950, p. 88). The best way to
illustrate this unique feature of Icelandic
settlements is to list the communities and
the names that were chosen for the
libraries. The names are listed with their
English translations because it is interesting
how the names chosen reveal the attitude of
the pioneers. Ardal’s choice of Incentive to
Learning as a name reveals their faith in
education. Arnes’ choice of Forward
implies optimism for the future. These