Aleta is a spirited, young woman who is attending “Macdonald College of McGill University” and training to be a teacher.  This is during the Macdonald-Robertson Movement to improve and make education relevant to rural life with an emphasis on nature study, gardening, and household science. She writes about coursework, student antics, friendships, and flirtations. In 1921, she is living with her cousins and teaching in Percy Township, Northumberland, and later she marries William Smith. You can read more about her early life in her mother’s diaries. 

Front cover of Aleta's 1914-1915 diary.

Student teachers working in the practice school gardens at Macdonald College 1911.