Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario

• Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario

• Hall-Dennis Committee

• Hall Dennis Committee

The Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario was appointed on June 10, 1965 under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Emmett Matthew Hall with Lloyd A. Dennis as Secretary and Research Director. Dennis was elevated to co-chairman in 1967.

The Committee received briefs from 112 groups and 30 individual experts and held two years of public hearings. Committee members also visited Russia, England, Ireland, the United States, Japan and Israel.

The Committee's report, "Living and Learning", also known as the Hall-Dennis Report, was submitted to the legislature in 1968. It contained 258 recommendations for educational reform in the province, and touched on issues of traditional versus progressive approaches; bilingualism; fears of "Americanization"; concern for national unity and identity; the equalization of educational opportunity; provision for Native education; funding responsibilities; centralization versus decentralization of administration and the unique demands of a fast-changing urban technological society.

Among its important recommendations were the creation of individualized instructional programs for each child; the de-emphasis of competition in the classroom; the abandonment of rote learning and the removal of corporal punishment in schools.

The Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario was mandated to assess the state of education in Ontario and to recommend methods for revising the elementary division.

The committee gradually broadened its scope to encompass all levels of public education.

RAD: Rules for Archival Description, 2nd edn (2008)

2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

tvo.org

R.D. Gidney, 'From Hope to Harris: The Reshaping of Ontario's Schools" (University of Toronto Press, 1999)

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