The Ottawa New School and Educational Dissent in Ontario in the Hall-Dennis Era

Résumé

This paper traces the history of the Ottawa New School, a parent run alternate school that flourished from 1969-1972. It explores the school’s history in the context of a more general treatment of educational reform in Ontario and North America during the 1960s and 1970s. The author, Deborah Gorham, was involved with the school as a parent. She employs material gathered from interviews with Ottawa New School former teachers, parents and pupils. Her intention is to retrieve the history of this specific experiment, one of many “alternate” or “free” schools of the period. For the most part, these small ventures have left little or no trace in the historical record.