The Dominion of Youth: Adolescence and the Making of Modern Canada, 1920 to 1950

313 Pages·2008·5.022 MB·English

by  Cynthia Comacchio

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The Dominion of Youth
Adolescence and the Making of
a Modern Canada
1920–1950
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Studies in Childhood and Family in Canada
Studies in Childhood and Family in Canada is a multidisciplinary
series devoted to new perspectives on these subjects as they evolve. The
series features studies that focus on the intersections of age, class, race,
gender, and region as they contribute to a Canadian understanding of
childhood and family, both historically and currently.
Series Editor
Cynthia Comacchio
Department of History
Wilfrid Laurier University
Manuscripts to be sent to
Brian Henderson, Director
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
75 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3C5
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The Dominion of Youth
Adolescence and the Making of
a Modern Canada
1920–1950
Cynthia R. Comacchio
Studies in Childhood and Family in Canada
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This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for
the Humanities and Social Sciences through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme,
using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Comacchio, Cynthia R., 1957-
The dominion of youth : adolescence and the making of modern Canada,
1920–1950 / Cynthia R. Comacchio
(Studies in childhood and family in Canada)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-88920-488-1
ISBN-10: 0-88920-488-8
1. Teenagers—Canada—History—20th century. 2. Teenagers—Canada—Social life
and customs. I. Title. II. Series
HQ799.C3C64 2006 306.2350971’09042 C2006-902348-4
© 2006 Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5
www.wlupress.wlu.ca
Cover design by Pam Woodland. Front cover photograph: Girl skaters from the Old Orchard
Skating Club, Toronto, c. 1920. William James, photographer. City of Toronto Archives, SC
244-1367. With permission of the City of Toronto Archives.
Text design by Kathy Joslin.
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in
this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions
called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.
Printed in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a
licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access
Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
Frontmatter 5/8/06 8:24 PM Page v
Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction:Young Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. In Theory: The “Problem of Modern Youth” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2. In the Home: Intergenerational Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3. In Love: Dating and Mating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4. At School: The Culture of “Modern High” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5. On the Job: Training and Earning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6. At Play: Fads, Fashions, and Fun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
7. At the Club: Youth Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Conclusion: Youth’s Dominion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
v
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Preface
June 15, 1970
Dear Diary: Well, now I’m 13, I’m a teenager at last. I don’t feel
older yet. I’ll feel more grown up in the fall when high school starts.
That will be exciting....I want things to change fast.
I
have kept this old diary, with its gilded pink vinyl cover and its tiny padlock,
through many years, moves, and life changes. Now and again I come across it;
reading the careful scribbles, I am reminded that, at various times during the
course of adolescence, the girl who wanted “things to change fast” would find
herself wanting them to change back to their familiar form. That is the nature of
“becoming adult.” Where adolescence is concerned, there is probably as much
looking backwards as forwards, as much a sense of exceptionality as commonal-
ity with peers, of aloneness as generational belonging, of being “a kid” as of being
“grown up.” The thirteen-year-old diarist could not have known, on the verge of
stepping into high school, that looking backwards would become her life’s work,
and adolescence itself a consuming historical interest.
I became interested in the history of childhood and motherhood as a nerv-
ous new mother eager to know the “how-to” of scientific childrearing. Once my
daughter reached the teen years, I found myself feeling as ignorant about par-
enting a “not-child-not-yet-adult” as I had when she was a fragile newborn.
Coming of age in the late twentieth century, as my children did, was a complex
and anxiety-provoking matter, and not only for them and for their parents. It
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was, and remains, a dominant social issue. Teenagers are seen to inhabit a world
in which established values and their related customs are disintegrating, families
are fragmenting, and parents and other elders are disregarded in favour of the
peer group. This increasingly “wired” and media-saturated postmodern culture
is considered to be fundamentally different than that of any previous genera-
tion—and eminently more dangerous. The young appear intent on “acting out”
the worst fears of adult onlookers, as horribly manifested in the murder of four-
teen-year-old Reena Virk in Victoria, British Columbia, and the high school
shootings in Columbine, Colorado, among other acts of violence made all the
more shocking in view of the youth of those involved. Most of the victims, and
all of the perpetrators, were teenagers. What does this say about our world?
More to the point, what does it portend about our future?
In reading the contemporary literature on adolescence, I felt compelled to
delve into its precedents. What I uncovered were a few simple but salient themes
and issues that call into question the newness of contemporary adolescent cul-
ture, as well as the unprecedented nature of public concerns about teenagers.
The first of these might well appear obvious: adolescence is a socio-historic
event as much as a personal experience. It changes over time to reflect its par-
ticular context, while maintaining certain cross-generational continuities that
hinge on the usual variables of gender, class and race, and religion and culture.
Although the focus varies, another “modern” theme is the tendency of society to
project its every current anxiety onto the younger generation, citizens of the
future. In the early twentieth century, as the eyes of so-called modern experts
became fixed upon the young, certain long-lasting theories about the nature and
meaning of adolescence were formulated. Once the Great War had passed and
the “modern age” had truly arrived, the modern teenager emerged amidst the
“new day’s” intensive developments in technology, medicine, psychology, edu-
cation, cultural anthropology, family sociology, and any number of other “scien-
tific advances” and “modern innovations.”
This creature, initially seen in a positive light as being more modern than
its parents, quickly took on a certain resemblance to Frankenstein’s infamous
monster. Although it was not unlike its creators, both parents and the larger
society, its very modernity made it a terror to behold: undisciplined, ungovern-
able, and ever challenging the “norm,” hence threatening the future. This grow-
ing apprehension about the younger generation came to be classified—and still
is—as the “youth problem.” This book is about the ideas, policies, and projects
that were devised, during the years from the end of one world war to the end of
another, in hopes of ensuring the making of a certain type of modern young
Canadian. It is also about the everyday experiences of growing up in what was
itself a young Canada undertaking a parallel journey of transformation.
The problems associated with a long-term, often unwieldy and always exas-
perating project such as this one are borne not only by the historical actors but
also by the historian trying to make sense of it all, not to mention the historian’s
hapless family, friends, and colleagues. While the work may be an individual
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effort, the related aggravations tend to be shared by all within reach, with or
without their consent. With much appreciation and even more apology, then, I
acknowledge all the moral support, encouragement, and technical, scholarly, and
collegial assistance so kindly supplied by so many: Neil Sutherland, who pio-
neered family history in this country and continues, with much enthusiasm, ener-
gy, and generosity, to guide those who follow, myself included; my colleague
Suzanne Zeller, who heard too much about all this and still made herself available
for sustaining doses of coffee and cake; the good people at Wilfrid Laurier
University Press, especially Sandra Woolfrey, Brian Henderson, Jacqueline Larson,
Carroll Klein, and Leslie Macredie, all of whom remained remarkably straight-
faced for all the years that it took to get the manuscript to them. And I very much
appreciate the skill and imagination of Pam Woodland, who designed the cover.
Among other friends and colleagues who offered consistent encouragement,
I thank also Terry Crowley and Jamie Snell, University of Guelph; Terry Copp,
Wilfrid Laurier University; and the late Gerry Stortz, St. Jerome’s University. A
number of capable graduate student researchers gave much-appreciated assis-
tance through the years, especially D.J. MacPherson, Inge Sanmiya, Alessandra
Iozzo, and Laura Quirk. I am very grateful for the funding provided by grants and
fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Federation of Canada; the
AMS-Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine; and the Office of Research,
Wilfrid Laurier University, and especially for the support of Dr. Barry McPherson,
former Dean of Research.
As always, I must thank my parents, Bruno and Maria Comacchio, and my
sister and brother-in-law, Linda and Murray Calanchie, for helping me to raise
my children while also “raising” this book. I feel strongly the ineffectiveness of
trying to express what this means in the context of my life and the lives of my
daughter and son. Stefanie, now twenty-three, and Evan, just leaving adoles-
cence as this project comes to pass, pretty much came of age with it, this
demanding, ever-present, un-human life form, also a “monster” of sorts, to
extend the Frankenstein analogy. This might have been an interesting experience
for them; it was more likely another thing to suffer through at a time when they
had compelling projects of their own to take up. I am grateful for their patience
and endurance, and for becoming such wonderful young adults, probably in spite
of it all. Newcomers to our circle have been obliged to “live with it” as well. I
thankfully acknowledge the supportive roles undertaken by my son-in-law, Long
Ly, and my friend Murray Tucker.
Finally, I dedicate this one, with much love and constant amazement, to the
“rising generation,” as represented close to my heart by my grandson, Alexander
Bruno Ly: ti voglio tanto bene, carino mio.