High school wasn’t free in the 19th century, and you had to pass an entrance exam to get in. To pass the examination for Prince of Wales College, for instance, you had to study extra subjects like Latin, algebra and French. If you did manage to pass – the entrance exam results were published in the paper, so everyone knew how you’d done – you could earn a teacher’s certificate. A second-class certificate took a year of study; a first-class certificate at least two years. But if you passed and could get a school, you had an independent income.

As a teacher, you had great responsibilities. Not only did you have to manage nine or ten grades in the same room and the full range of subjects, but you had to plan one of the most important social events of the year: the Christmas concert. All students had to sing or recite or act in dialogues (short plays); the school had to be decorated; and the teacher was judged on the quality of the concert. Many teachers and students have fond memories of great concerts and greater catastrophes.

Rural students had to stay with relatives or board in town to go to high school or its equivalent. Few students had their own apartments; they’d stay at a boarding house where their meals were provided, and like Anne at Queen’s, they had a small bedroom. If callers came, students could use the parlour to entertain. My mother (in Ontario, not PEI), said that in the 1940s, high school still wasn’t available to everyone. “One of my friends used to bike five miles in and out every day,” she said. “But if you stayed in town, what a life! No farm chores to do, lots of stores, your friends right there, and plenty to do in the evenings.”

Imagine being a teacher at the age of sixteen, like Anne Shirley and her friends, or eighteen, like my mother. Some of your students would be as old as you. And, like real-life teacher Lucy Palmer, you’d get invited out to tea, dances, meetings, and all kinds of social events. Education was highly respected, so teachers were important members of the community. They weren’t well paid, but ambitious teenagers could save money to put themselves through university.

Do you think you could cope with unruly students if you were a teacher? Lucy Palmer, a teacher in Malpeque, found a clever way to discipline her male students. Discipline could be a real problem, especially if the students were the same size as the teacher.

The laws at the time didn’t say that men and women had to be paid the same wages, so women were often paid less than men. Teaching was one of the few occupations where women could earn an independent income, so many did earn certificates – including L. M. Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables.