Book Store

(Published in June 2022)

The dismal virtual schooling experience inflicted on public school students during the COVID-19 pandemic has many parents looking for alternatives which provide accountability and flexibility. Beginning in the 1950’s, the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools has provided a network of alternative Christian schools for parents desiring a different kind of education. The OACS’s original vision was for a Third Way of schooling, a hybrid of public and private education models. This book tells the story of growing such an alternative system.

The OACS was set up to coordinate the professional activities of its member schools, which grew from the Dutch Reformed immigration wave in the 1950s in Ontario and Eastern Canada. This book provides the history of the OACS organization from 1952 to 2018, and to date, is the only history of this school organization.

A central theme in the OACS story is reaction to the official government discrimination against religious schools in Ontario. The early leaders of the Christian School Movement were perplexed by the full funding of the secular public schools and the partial but substantial funding of the Roman Catholic or Separate Schools. Privileged funding for two religions (Humanism and Catholicism) and complete denial of any type of subsidy for all other schools (Jewish, Muslim, Waldorf or Christian schools) rubbed their egalitarian sentiments the wrong way. They were determined to establish a Christian public school system to parallel the other two systems. They did not want to be elite nor esoteric private schools, hence the OACS conducted a four-decade campaign for educational justice.

The growth and consolidation of this small but enthusiastic school movement, which grew to 75 schools, is described in stages as follows:

1. Setting the Foundations: 1952-1956
2. Building Together: The 1950s
3. Sharpening the Vision: The 1960s
4. Managing the Crisis: The 1970s
5. Setting the House in Order: The 1980s
6. Social justice Activists: The 1990s
7. Justice Triumphs: 2000-2003
8. Consolidating the Framework: 2003-2012
9. Repositioning the Settings: 2013-2018
10. The OACS: A Retrospective

A summary of the intellectual debates and internal controversies is provided in the Introductory chapter. The book includes an annotated bibliography of sources, a list of all the schools, a summary of the OACS team in each decade, and an index of names found in the book.

(Published in 2014 – 454pp)

In this book, editor and chief author Dr. A. Guldemond provides an historical overview of Christian education and a synopsis of critical issues which surfaced in a half century of operating this network of Christian schools in Ontario.

Three introductory chapters situate the Dutch Reformed School Network in Canada. They deal with key concepts such as worldview, pedagogy, community, and tradition in order to locate these 140 schools in the North American education landscape of 2010.

The next chapters address a bold question: Can a new vision for community-based Christian schooling survive in a society that attacks nearly all religious traditions? First, Dr. Guldemond describes the authority crisis which rocked the TDCH community in Toronto in 1969. Next, twelve contributing authors describe the challenges of operating private schools in specific communities all over Canada, recounting both successes and failures. These experienced administrators examine internal crises and church schisms as well as fresh starts and innovative pedagogies. The stories illustrate that the same vision can take different shapes in different communities.

1. Lambton Christian High School: 1970-2003 May Drost
2. Lucknow Christian school: 1980-2007 John Vanasselt
3. Burlington Christian Academy Lorna Keith
4. Orangeville Christian School George Hoytema
5. Vision Conflicts in St. Catherines Bert Hielema
6. A New Heritage in Jordan Ben Harsevoort
7. Beacon Christian High Shuts Down Bert Witvoet
8. King’s Christian Collegiate             Linda Williams
9. Milton Christian School Jennifer Feenstra
10. Unity Christian High School Peter Bulthuis
11. Dramatic Change in California Leonard Stob
12. Niagara Christian College Lisa Vandenhaak

The three following chapters deal with leadership issues and questions raised by these specific, local experiences. What is sound, accountable governance in a school community? Is there more than one way of organizing a community-based school? What lessons can be learned from the successes and failures described in these real schools?

The final chapter summarizes the historic lessons and offers some concrete advice for the future of Christian schooling. The contours of the optimum school are outlined and general advice for implementing a Vision with Integrity is spelled out for dedicated educators and innovative leaders.