ABSTRACT
Rand, Theodore Harding (1835-1900). Canadian educator and poet. Born at Canard, Nova Scotia, where his father, Thomas, was deacon of First Cornwallis Baptist Church. Educated in local schools, Harding, returned to Nova Scotia after a period of employment in Boston in the USA, to attend the Horton Academy at Wolfville, proceeding then to Acadia College from which he graduated BA in 1860 and MA in 1863. Rand taught first at Horton Academy, and then in 1861 was appointed to the staff of the Normal School in Truro. In 1864 he was appointed superintendent of education in Nova Scotia at the age of 29. Between 1864 and 1866 a series of acts paved the way for the creation of a public school system financed from local taxes. Rand, who had toured the province’s schools in 1863, and who was well aware of the work of such pioneers as Horace Mann and Egerton Ryerson, set to work with a will. He recruited inspectors, supervised school building plans, encouraged teacher training and commissioned textbooks. His annual reports provided a record of progress, while in 1866 he founded the Journal of Education to disseminate information among teachers and others, and strongly supported the Provincial Education Association of Nova Scotia. Rand faced considerable opposition, both from parsimonious localities who were reluctant to provide sufficient funds, and from those like the Roman Catholics who sought public assistance for separate schools. In 1867 a new government came to power and in 1870 Rand was dismissed. Though several petitions were presented for his reinstatement, Rand used his enforced leisure to study educational systems in Britain. In 1871 he accepted the post of superintendent of education in New Brunswick, where he followed the same policy on public schools as in Nova Scotia, and once again found himself in conflict with taxpayers in general, and particularly with the Roman Catholics over their demand for aid for separate schools. In New Brunswick Rand produced an Educational Circular to promote educational improvement, and also prompted the establishment of a normal school in 1877. In 1883 Rand left his post as superintendent to pursue his growing interest in higher education. In that year he accepted a post of professor of the Principles and Practice of Education at Acadia College, the first of its type in Canada. Two years later he moved to Toronto Baptist College for a chair in apologetics, Christian ethics and didactics, and the following year became principal of Woodstock College. He also led the movement to establish a new Baptist university, named McMaster, which opened in 1890. Rand spent the year 1889-90 in Britain, returned to take up a chair at McMaster and within two years was appointed its chancellor, a post he held until ill health compelled him to resign in 1895. In his final years Rand returned to poetry, and achieved success with such publications as At Minas Basin and Other Poems (1897), and A Treasury of Canadian Verse (1900). Rand was a controversial figure and at the centre of many disputes, but he was a tireless worker in the cause of education in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario. See his own writings, particularly the annual reports as superintendent of education for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and Laidlaw, A., ‘Theodore Harding Rand’, Journal of Education, 15, 1994; the entry by Margaret Conrad in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol.XII.
