Education for Hope: A Course Correction

by John E. Hull

This book traces the little-known history of an alternative school system erected in Canada by post-WWII Dutch Neo-Calvinist immigrants. In less than four decades, this community established a kindergarten to university education system that extended from Ottawa, Ontario to Victoria, BC. This remarkable tradition of education imagines the school as a dissident and transformational social institution. While this book offers the narrative of faith-based tradition of education, the author makes a strong case that educators from diverse ideological backgrounds, can learn important lessons from it about the implementation of an alternative educational vision, teacher-led curriculum reform and a self-formative pedagogy. To supplement this narrative, the author also provides a separate set of theoretical discussions on key issues in school reform, as well as, his memoir as an educator and curriculum designer within this tradition.