Alternative Schools in British Columbia

Alternative Schools in British Columbia 1960 – 1975: A Social and Cultural History

by Harley Rothstein

Published by Friesen Press

The tumultuous 1960s was an era of the counterculture, political activism, and resistance to authority. Conventions and values were challenged and new approaches to education captured the imaginations of parents, teachers, and students. Reacting against the one-size-fits-all nature of the traditional public school system, groups of parents and teachers in Canada and the United States established alternative schools or “free schools” based on the Progressive, child-centred philosophy of John Dewey and the Romantic ideas of Summerhill founder A.S. Neill. In Alternative Schools in British Columbia, 1960-1975, Harley Rothstein tells the story of ten such schools that arose in the province of British Columbia.

Drawing on 350 self-conducted interviews, newspaper articles, personal journals, and school records, Dr. Rothstein invites readers to experience the early days of alternative schools. He describes the educational philosophy, curriculum, and governance of these institutions, and introduces readers to the people who were at the heart of alternative communities. Tracing the evolution, successes, and challenges of each school, he presents the day-to-day experience and brings to life the ethos of the 1960s era. Historians, educators, and all curious readers will become immersed in this engaging account of a group of educational pioneers on Canada’s west coast, and how they inspired the liberalization of the public school system that would come in the 1970s.

Alternative Schools in British Columbia

In February, 2024 Harley published his major work Alternative Schools in British Columbia 1960-1975: A Social and Cultural History. In this book using documents he uncovered along with his own conducted interviews with 350 subjects, Harley presents a history of ten small-scale independent BC alternative schools founded by parents and teachers, and explains their role in inspiring the development of alternatives in the public school system which we take for granted today. He also provides an introductory chapter on alternative schools across Canada, a story that has never been fully told.

Preface

I completed my PhD dissertation Alternative Schools in British Columbia, 1960-1975 at UBC more than twenty years ago. Finally, I have decided f to publish this work in book form. You might ask why I waited so long to publish it. And why publish it now? Both are good questions.

After completing my PhD, I dived into other professional projects and life took over. Besides, I needed a break from alternative schools after working on this subject for almost thirteen years throughout my Masters and Doctoral studies. As well, the manuscript was very long and I was advised to substantially shorten it. I couldn’t imagine spending the hundreds of hours that would have been necessary to edit the manuscript, and didn’t trust anyone else to do it.

But as the years went by I became increasingly unhappy that this work remained unpublished. No one else in Canada has written this story-of how the alternative schools and programs that we take for granted in the public school system got started in the first place, and how a handful of idealists found the wherewithal to express their values in small private schools. These independent alternative schools of the 1960s and early 1970s were founded by courageous visionaries. They recognized that the public schools could do better in addressing the wide range of students with different needs and interests than the one-size-fits-all system of the time. These pioneers deserve to have their story told. Alternative schools also provide a unique and valuable window into the social and political culture of the 1960s. This relationship has received little attention by scholars, even though interest in the 1960s has remained high.

There are other reasons for wanting this work to be more widely circulated in book form, in addition to the story it has to tell and the analysis it offers of the alternative schools movement. I’ve noticed over the years that my work has been cited relatively often despite the fact that it is only available in dissertation form. This means that scholars have gone to some trouble to find and reference my research. I’d like the information and insights embedded here to be more easily accessible. I’ve pulled together vast primary sources on alternative schools during this period, never seen by other researchers. This resource consists of individual school documents (such as enrolment lists, financial statements, newsletters, meeting minutes, prospectuses), letters and personal journals, philosophical statements, school district records, over 150 newspaper articles, and my own 350 original interviews with former alternative school parents, teachers, and students. I’d like future scholars of education, history, and culture to be aware of these resources.

The biggest decision was how much revising, shortening, and editing to do. I finally decided on very little. The book in this form is a retrospective from 1999 of my thinking about the rise of alternative schools, their eventual acceptance into the public school system, and their relationship to the 1960s. As it turns out, my thinking hasn’t changed much and an analysis of developments during the last two decades will need to wait for another book.

I’d like to offer a word of explanation about the time period 1960-1975. I chose 1960 as a starting point for several reasons. That year saw the publication, by the Province of BC, of the Report of the Royal Commission on Education, otherwise known as the Chant Report. The conservative perspective of that report inspired a group of Vancouver parents to open one of the earliest alternative schools in the province two years later. The year 1960 also ushered in a new decade of both optimism and turmoil, which provided a backdrop for the striking educational developments recounted in this book. I chose 1975 as an endpoint because of the significant and surprising changes that occurred in the public school system between 1970 and 1975. After five years of transformation and excitement, it was clear that the changes were here to stay and that the school system would not revert to its inflexible past. I argue that one of the major factors inspiring that change was the pioneering example of the experimental alternative schools of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Readers and researchers are likely to use this book in a variety of ways. Some might be interested in one individual school, one particular educational theory, or one of the three periods I identify during the years 1960 to 1975: Progressive, Romantic, and Therapeutic. One school, the New School in Vancouver, experienced and evolved through all three, and accordingly its history is presented in three distinct chapters spread through the book. But most of the schools belong to just one category, and I’ve tried to write the accounts of each school so that they can both stand on their own and also be part of the fuller narrative. Some readers may be most interested in the overview provided in Chapter 1, others may be drawn to the liberalization of the school system described in Chapter 15, others may gravitate to the source materials and bibliography, while still others may be interested in what the book has to contribute to the field of oral history.

My own interest in alternative schools goes back over fifty years. As an undergraduate student I lived with my older cousins who had enrolled their two children in the New School, and I was intrigued. During that time I first heard about Summerhill and was moved to write an article about the school in the student newspaper in 1968. A year later I visited the Barker Free School outside of Vancouver and still have the handwritten letter I received from Bob Barker, confirming his invitation. In 1972 during a visit to London, I convinced some friends to undertake the two-hour drive to the little town where the iconic Summerhill is located. Una Neill, the wife of Summerhill founder A. S. Neill, gave us a tour of the school and the grounds. Neill was in his eighties and wasn’t receiving visitors, but I did catch a glimpse of the famous man through a window.

When I became a public school teacher in 1976, I tried to incorporate some of the principles of alternative school teaching into my own classroom. Upon entering graduate school ten years later, it seemed natural to follow this idea and direct my research toward the history of the early alternative schools of the 1960s and 1970s. I couldn’t have imagined the richness of people and ideas that awaited me. So as this book ventures out into the world, I hope that you will find this subject as valuable and engaging as I did.

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