Sheila Morrison has always seen life as a series of challenges that must be faced and overcome, whether it was battling conditions and the elements in a one-room school house in Northern Ontario, or challenging bureaucracies in the corridors of power.

She has fought and continues to fight on behalf of those she considers are being short-changed by the education system. Born in Englewood, New Jersey, Sheila was ten years old when the family moved to Beardmore, a whistle-stop on the C.N. Railway in Northern Ontario, one-hundred and thirty miles east of Port Arthur (Thunder Bay). In spite of the limited employment opportunities available, Sheila worked for her room and board in order to go the high school in Port Arthur. From there she went on to Normal School and teacher certification. Sheila's first job was teaching four students from two railroad families in Tashota, an even more remote hamlet in Northern Ontario. One family paid her $20.00 per month, while the other provided food and lodging.

After teaching in several similar situations, Sheila found herself in an ungraded school with a teacherage attached - but no power or water. In this school she taught fifty-two students, from grades one through ten. She also acted as the janitor of the school and routinely lugged in five-foot logs to heat the school. Needless to say, when the school trustees finally met their tiny (five foot, two inches, one hundred and twenty pounds) teacher, they quickly remedied that situation. But Sheila was still responsible for cooking a hot lunch for the entire school. Which she did every day on the wood burning stove.

Sheila Morrison worked for a number of Northern School boards. In many instances the greatest challenge was actually getting to the school. Sheila routinely walked miles to reach her classroom. In one situation she was forced to master the art of dog sledding, all to bring the opportunity for education to those who'd never been given the chance.

In 1954, having moved to Southern Ontario, Sheila left the profession to devote herself to her husband and growing son, but by 1967 she was back, this time in the Toronto Public School System.

In 1970, alarmed by the inadequate education she felt her son was receiving, Sheila organized the Parent Advisory League, a group dedicated to returning basic skills and a structured curriculum to the school system. The group's efforts generated much favourable attention, but little constructive action by the School Board.

In 1974 Sheila persuaded a number of Metro teachers to allow their classes participate in a spelling test for students in grades seven to ten. The test was designed by Mary Johnson, author of "Programmed Illiteracy in Our Schools", a scathing indictment of the public school system. It contained thirty, simple three-letter words, plus a number of purely phonic words; words such as scuffle and bombard. The results were appalling. Only six students, less than 2% of the almost five hundred students who took the test, were able to spell all words correctly. Test results were shared with the North York and Toronto School Boards.

The event was publicized and Sheila found herself making guest appearances across Canada, on radio and television talk shows. Amongst other things, she discussed the apparent discrimination by the public school systems against children with learning disabilities. In spite of the enormous amount of money being channeled into special education, programmes were experimental, ineffective and never evaluated. Her ongoing crusade for the educationally disadvantaged led Sheila to being elected to the Board of Directors of the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities. Sheila acted as the liaison member between the government and the association.

In 1977, Sheila opened her first school for boys with learning disabilities, The Sheila Morrison Schools, in a remodeled farmhouse in Alliston, Ontario. The first semester she had seven students and three teachers. By January 1979 the demand was so great she opened a junior campus in Lefroy.

In the early days of the school, Sheila Morrison regularly traveled around the province to support parents at hearings to obtain government funding to allow their learning disabled children access to private education. As these children represented a severe strain on the limited resources in each community, Sheila's testimony benefited both parents and school boards and she received co-operation from all parties.

Sheila traveled across North America and Australia, addressing meetings and giving workshops on the need for education reform. The Reading Reform Education conferences across the United States, conferences in Canada, the National Forum for Educational Awareness in Washington, D.C. and the Basic Skills Foundation in Minneapolis are examples of events at which Sheila was asked to speak. She continued to make guest appearances on radio and television in Australia for the University Women's Club in Queensland.

Twenty years after the disputed Hall-Dennis report which changed the face of education in Ontario, colleges and universities are having to provide remedial classes for high-school students who lack the fundamentals of English.

Even today, Sheila Morrison continues her quest for a better education for all children. After the release of her kit "Unbungling the Basics" for parents, she was invited to be a guest speaker at the Home Schooling Conference in Red Deer Alberta before 900 parents. More recently she was a featured speaker at the Whistler B.C. conference, International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL). She was also invited to give workshops at the First Nations Conference, Prince George B.C. and was the keynote speaker at the banquet following.

Currently, Mrs. Morrison is a director on the board of the Coalition for Education Reform, working with groups from the Ministry of Education in an effort to upgrade the quality of education across the province.

The school that Sheila Morrison founded and which bears her name has expanded and moved, but its focus remains rooted in her ideals: to provide a better opportunity for students to realize their full potential.

An Outline of Sheila Morrison's Honours and Achievements

Awards

Guest Speaking Engagements - A Partial List

Keynote Speaker

Radio

Television

Workshops

Magazine and Newspaper Articles About Sheila Morrison