Library
The articles compiled deal with educational topics, organizational stories or bibliographical references in the Dutch Reformed Tradition in North America from 1900 to 2010.
Index to Library and Articles:
Recommended books and papers on [Christian] Education are…
INTERVIEW About Creating a Third Way
This August 2022, Dr. Phil Teeuwsen, Dean of the School of Education at Redeemer University, and Dr. Adrian Guldemond, retired educator in Hamilton, former Executive Director of the OACS, sat down to discuss the current condition of Christian Education in Ontario. The occasion was the publication of Dr. Guldemond’s new book, Creating A Third Way: A History of the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools-1952-2018
The Four OACS Books
The Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools (OACS) published two books in 1990 explaining its political and educational philosophy. One was “Progress in the Courts,” and the other was “Hallmarks of Christian Education.” In 2013 and in 2021, Monarch Educare Solutions (Monarch) published two books describing the work of the OACS in transforming the basics of a sound Dutch Reformed Tradition (DRT) into a working school system. This hybrid or independent system, situated between private and public, became a third way of doing schooling in Canada after 1960.
Special Archive Needed!
YES! We need one more special archive in Canada. Those of us who treasure the Reformed heritage want to see the records of Christian education preserved for future research. We want the truth about the past available for future generations- both the remarkable achievements as well as the shortcomings. We at Monarch want the pioneer generation of the Christian schools to be judged fairly, in terms of their own ideals and circumstances. An informed approach will secure the legacy of a very important subculture in Canada’s mosaic society.
If History Is Bunk?
If history is useless, and the record of the past is merely bunk,i then why have archives? Do communities have legacies worth preserving, or should they just fade away? Most people seem happy to forget their past, in the hope that the future will be better. Around 630 CE, the Muslim ruler Caliph Omar was asked if the army should burn down the fabled Library of Alexandria containing 40,000+ scrolls. He reputedly replied, “They will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous.” Now there was a clear viewpoint about record keeping.