Sunday, September 5, 2010

Ontario History Textbooks

Came across this historical survey of Ontario history textbooks in the 20th century at ActiveHistory.ca by Larry A. Glassford of the University of Windsor:

Citizenship Literacy and National Self-identity: The Historical Impact of Curriculum and Textbooks in Shaping the Character of Ontario 

A quick search revealed that Glassford has written several items on Ontario education history.

It's a fairly compact article and draws conclusions about the power of schools for political socialization. I enjoyed it but couldn't help but thinking, 'my god, it was boring enough reading these textbooks in public school and high school, how did this man survive reading through them all and writing about them without reverting to some sort of bored and resentful adolescent state?'

For those of you who went to Ontario elementary or high school I'm sure the narratives for the mid and late 20th century texts will sound painfully familiar and dredge up memories of awful boredom as you force-read passages from these texts whilst sitting in blandly painted classrooms...enjoy!

random uni student

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