Socio-Economic Influences on School Attendance: A Study of a Canadian County in 1871

A RECENT SPECIAL ISSUE of the Quarterly (1) was devoted to “Education and Social Change in English-Speaking Canada”. In his interesting and impressive contribution to this issue, Michael B. Katz suggested that many hypotheses (2) concerning the determinants of school attendance may be tested by employing data relating to “the status and structure of the family and household” contained in the manuscript census. “By starting with the census one may study the gross patterns of attendance among the children of any group, religious, ethnic, occupational, or any other into which the census material can be arranged.” (3)