The Classroom

Much like churches and social clubs, schools play a central role creating and maintaining community. They provide a space for people to gather, to pass down knowledge and rituals, and to maintain traditions. In the early 20th century, French-Canadian parochial (or Catholic) schools in Woonsocket served as a pillar of La Survivance. Nuns from Québec taught students in French about Canadian history and culture, and about the Catholic faith. But schools were also an important site of Americanization, where young students would learn about American history and politics, and form an American identity. As a result, Woonsocket parochial schools became sites where members of the French-Canadian community projected their anxieties or sometimes, their hopes, about Americanization. The community felt increased pressure to Americanize, particularly in response to heightened nationalism and fear of foreigners during the first World War. 

Many feared that threats to the grade-school curriculum – especially with regards to the French language – would disintegrate ties to Québécois culture and to Catholic faith. These sentiments came to a head in what has become known as the Sentinelle Affair. 

In 1922, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed the Peck Law, which required that parochial schools teach basic subjects of elementary education – math, history, civics – in English, with French as a separate subject. Around the same time, French-Canadian leaders in the city accepted support and initial funds from the Irish Catholic-controlled Providence diocese to open a Catholic school for boys. This was part of Bishop William Hickey’s drive to raise $1 million to expand Catholic secondary education in Rhode Island, ultimately resulting in the expansion of LaSalle Academy and the creation of Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, De La Salle Academy in Newport and St Raphael Academy in Pawtucket. As a result, many French Canadians felt that these circumstances amounted to no less than a direct assault on la survivance. 

The Woonsocket French-language newspaper La Sentinelle led the city’s opposition to the law and to the school. But when the diocese, local French-Canadian clergy, and church-endorsed politicians supported the law, the community became bitterly divided. “Sentinellistes” resisted the law and tried to sue the church, hoping to reignite the community’s passion for La Survivance. 

Fueling the flames, Bishop William Hickey sought to raise money for English-speaking schools in Rhode Island through the offertory at parishes across the state, but some Woonsocket French Canadians refused to give money because the efforts did not support the preservation of French language and culture. But finally, the Vatican intervened, and ruled in favor of the Bishop and those who consented to the law. Stunningly, the pope excommunicated more than sixty of the protesters. Horrified, each of those excommunicated signed a statement of repentance and rejoined the church the following year, and the church’s authority was reestablished. 

This course of events majorly influenced the course of Americanization in Woonsocket.  Ironically, in 1925 the Peck Law was repealed before it was even enacted in full. Until the 1960s, the majority of students in Woonsocket continued to attend parochial schools.

The Eugene A Peloquin Catholic School Archive is part of the Catholic School Classroom and includes photographs of the orders of nuns and brothers who served in area schools 

It currently has 74 binders depicting the story of Catholic Schools worldwide with donations from as far away as Tarnow in Poland and Hastings in Scotland.

Individuals who attended or taught at Catholic Schools anywhere in the world are encouraged to send photos and memorabilia. 

The yearbook collection located in bookcases in the classroom includes a growing collection of yearbooks of Mount Saint Charles Academy, Saint Clare High School and Woonsocket High School.