The House that Ryerson Built: Essays in Education to Mark Ontario's Bicentennial

B.A. Robinson was a freelance reviewer from Toronto.

While this collection of essays does not address the most recent of Ontario’s educational shifts, the proposed funding of separate schools to Grade 13, it does give an interesting overview of the development of Ontario’s educational system during the past 200 years. Ten of the fourteen essayists have some connection with the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, but the collection appears balanced by the scholarly approach taken by each. Themes that are dealt with include the traditional “Trends in Ontario Education” and “Education in the 21st Century,” as well as some unusual and thought-provoking topics such as the schooling of girls, education and the oppressed, community college growth, and the role of the independent school.

Interspersed are small cartoons, vignettes from well-known Ontario figures, and quite astute poems, some of which raise a chuckle or two.