This text is part of the special Private Education notebook
Attending music lessons in a room where a community of nuns once lived, being introduced to poetry in the same college that Émile Nelligan attended, starting kindergarten in a 385-year-old building… Some private schools have an impressive cultural heritage, a wealth that management strive to transmit to their students, but also to the surrounding community.
Located in the heart of Old Quebec, the Ursuline School of Quebec, which has just experienced its 385e rentrée, is one of the oldest educational institutions in North America. This elementary school, which was until 2010 an institution for girls only, is located in the monastery, which the last nuns of the Ursuline community left just two years ago.
The building, which the school rents, has been listed as a heritage site since 2011. For the general director, Marie-Josée Savard, who is starting her third year at the Ursuline school, it is essential to protect the premises, but also to make students appreciate the heritage.
“With my team, what we are trying to do is to raise awareness among our young people. It is not just telling them: “you are in a heritage building”, but making them experience tangible and intangible heritage.”
Mme Savard and his team have also set up a program called “My school, from yesterday to today,” which aims to raise awareness among students from kindergarten to 6th gradee year to the heritage value of what surrounds them through various workshops: development of an audio capsule linked to an object from the Ursulines Museum, introduction to research, archiving, etc.
“The goal is to take advantage of our places to give this sensitivity to our students, to try to make them adults who will have developed this sensitivity to heritage.”
This is also a mission that the Collège de L’Assomption, a secondary school located in Lanaudière, has given itself.
“It’s certain that from 12 to 17 years old, young people have more of the reflex to think: “ah, me, my college, it’s old stuff!” jokes the general director, Étienne Pellerin. But when they return to the conventum, they are amazed by the things that have remained the same, over time.”
Beyond the walls
The Collège de L’Assomption was the tenth classical college founded in Quebec and the first to be founded on the initiative of lay people. Its mission, when it was founded in 1832, was to educate rural people.
“I wouldn’t even hesitate to say that the town of L’Assomption was built around the college,” illustrates Étienne Pellerin. “The village was founded in 1720, but later, the town was organized around the college. People from the region came to settle in L’Assomption to educate their boys. When there was a bus, a terminus was set up here, because of the college.”
On the metropolitan side, Patricia Steben, the general director of the Collège de Montréal, still remembers the first time she set foot in the establishment located in the city centre, 27 years ago.
“I was driving on Sherbrooke West, and I didn’t really know where it was. When I got to the stone wall and saw the roundabout, the feeling that came over me was, ‘My God, is this here? This is incredible!’ The story transcended the walls of the college.”
On the heritage site of the Fort de la Montagne estate, of which the Collège de Montréal is a part, we also find the Sulpician towers, one of which housed the school of Marguerite Bourgeoys, a very powerful symbol of the cradle of education in Montreal, underlines Mme Step.
The director is proud to offer every year to new students of the Collège de Montréal, which this year celebrates its 258the anniversary, a visit to the campus and the grounds of the Brothers of Saint-Sulpice.
“Not only is it beautiful, but it comes with a history. And I think it’s the combination of the two that is so rich. To know that Louis-Joseph Papineau, Louis Riel, Émile Nelligan, Georges-Étienne Cartier, that all these people of capital importance for Montreal, for Quebec, for Canada, studied here… that’s something!”
Heritage, a responsibility
Running a school in such symbolic and historically charged locations also comes with a certain amount of responsibility, says Étienne Pellerin: that of providing access to its buildings to surrounding residents and the community.
Thus, the Collège de L’Assomption hosts various activities on its grounds each year, including the Christmas market, the Cultura agricultural festival and the city’s Halloween party. “The haunted college is the highlight of the event!” exclaims the director.
“It is a duty to be open to the community and to make this site known to people. Visitors trippent both when they see the old chapel – an auditorium where many shows take place – and when they see the arena, and [découvrent] the cohabitation between the very old and the very new.”
In Quebec City, the Pôle culturel du moine des Ursulines, a museum adjacent to the school, organizes guided tours of the former monastery during the summer, as well as concerts in the reception hall.
But the greatest responsibility of teaching in this type of environment is probably having to renovate and maintain the buildings while respecting their heritage character, according to the principals interviewed.
“Every time we do work, there must be archaeological monitoring,” cites Étienne Pellerin as an example.
At the Ursuline school, it was impossible to knock down walls to enlarge the classrooms. So they opted to add built-in furniture for storage, in order to lighten the furniture and maximize space. “Our heritage nod is that we recovered the green boards from each classroom and integrated them into the back of the storage unit,” explains Marie-Josée Savard. In each built-in piece of furniture, we find the authentic board from that same class.”
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