emote locations, incompetent teachers, sporadic attendance and severe weather hampered pupils' progress in rural locations. Rural schools could not accommodate students adequately in basic education and therefore, were lacking equal academic levels as their urban counterparts, which concerned educators. Complaints from rural teachers and school inspector reports launched the Survey of the School System by J.H. Putman and G.M. Weir in 1925, which gave progressivism the jump-start needed to allow revisions possible. Harold Putman was the Inspector of Schools for the City of Ottawa, when he was appointed to take on this study with George Weir. Weir had recently been appointed as the first professor of education at the University of British Columbia when he agreed to take on the study. Influenced by Dewey, both men embraced the child-centered type of instruction that would later become the foundation of the revised school curricula.
             A new educational approach was utilized in elementary schools: an emphasis on child centered schooling, individual differences, activity programs, program testing, and teacher guidance. All portions of the philosophy had equal importance; however the core theory aimed toward child-centeredness; that is, the child's growth is heavily dependent upon his/her reactions and experiences within his/her surrounding environment. The Progressive Movement initiated the concept that students should be independent thinkers, creative beings, and expressive about their feelings. This was a sharp contrast from the prevalent educational approaches rooted in social efficiency in the early 1900s in Canada. Such approaches did not foster the importance of individualism and creativity, and instead emphasized classroom control, management and a structured curriculum that focused on basic skills. The classroom agenda was to meet the needs of children and cater to them through variety of programs suited for in...