This volume deals with innovative developments of many different kinds in the local school systems in the years up to 1970. Information was obtained from a sampling of school boards, including the largest. The major purpose is to show what may be expected from an educational organization that gives local authorities a certain amount of leeway to depart from standard procedures. Innovations in teaching, curricular experimentation, changes in the structure and use of school buildings, and the growth of special services are fully covered.

The influence of educational associations is often overlooked in treatises on Ontario's educational system because these groups tend to operate in an informal manner. This volume discusses the various types of educational organizations, their purposes, the scope and nature of their activities, and their contributions to education. It includes professional organizations, and a wide variety of groups with a direct or peripheral interest in education in its broad definition.

This volume contains a general introduction to the whole series, followed by seven chapters giving most of the quantitative information in compact form. The introduction discusses some current issues and problems in education: the economic value of education to the individual and to society, the effects of automation, the role of the school in social and emotional development, vocational training and physical development, and the relationship between education and social class. The main body of the text describes the quantitative growth of the educational system and is organized into seven topics: characteristics of the population, school enrollment, the proliferation of educational institutions, university enrolment, enrolment in other post-secondary institutions, and the financing of the system. It contains much specialized statistical material including 46 charts and 225 tables, and will be an excellent work of reference.

The development and functions of the Department of Education and local school systems, the financing of education, and the educational activities of provincial and federal governments are studied in this volume. The emphasis is on current issues and problems. Dr Fleming delves into the activities of the department since 1965, giving a thorough analysis of the consolidation of local administrative units in 1969. He describes in detail the financing of education, the budgetary practices of the department, and the system of federal and provincial grants. The last section gives a description of every type of educational activity of the provincial and federal governments.

Post-secondary education is one of the fastest growing segments of the educational system. In this volume the development and activities of universities, colleges of applied arts and technology, and other institutions of post-secondary education are described in detail. The public and private training activities of business and industry are outlined, and government programs for adult retraining described. Dr Fleming traces the origins of the institutes of technology and the college of applied art and technology, and he provides capsule histories of every university in Ontario.

A variety of institutions and activities including the training of teachers, research and development, and educational television services are discussed in this volume. It describes in detail the creation and growth of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and its research activities, and gives an account of the educational activities of institutions such as the Royal Ontario Museum, the CBC, and the provincial libraries.

Volume III explores the basic units in the educational system: student, teacher, and school. It examines the aims of education, historically and philosophically, and describes the development of various types of schools. The book provides an analysis of the use of educational media, a description of school buildings and equipment, among many other topics. An important part of the volume is a description of the evolution of the curriculum from the nineteenth century, with a detailed analysis of the changes made in such areas as science, the social sciences, and French.

Education: Ontario's Preoccupation, a companion to the author's seven-volume series, ONTARIO'S EDUCATIVE SOCIETY, reviews the main highlights of educational development in Ontario, concentrating on interpretation rather than statistics. Written for everyone seriously interested in education, whether specialist or general reader, this volume provides an analysis and overview of the key issues that have arisen in education in the last decade and evaluates the prospects for formal education in the future. Among the topics Professor Fleming discusses in detail in this volume are the role of formal education, the expansion of the educational system, the quest for organizational efficiency, the relationship between the province and the universities, educational agencies outside the formal system, research and development, the financing of education, and the questions of religion and language. Education: Ontario's Preoccupation is indispensable as an introduction to the series ONTARIO'S EDUCATIVE SOCIETY, and provides in one volume a compendium of facts and analysis of the main issues in the province's educational development.