Website:
http://www.schoolhouseconsulting.ca/
Email:
c/o Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia
Paul W. Bennett, Ed.D. (OISE/Toronto) is a Halifax author and the Founding Director of Schoolhouse Consulting, an independent educational consulting firm. Over a career spanning three decades in three different provinces, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, Paul Bennett has written or co-authored five books and many articles in both the popular media and the academic press. His latest book is The Grammar School: Striving for Excellence in a Public School World (Halifax: Formac Lorimer Books, 2009).
As Director of Schoolhouse Consulting, Paul produces regular Opinion Columns and Book Reviews for The Chronicle Herald. He writes for Progress Magazine and recently produced a major research study for the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies entitled "School's Out, Again: How 'Throw-away' School Days Hurt Students," (AIMS Commentary, May 2010).
As a writer, Paul is best known as the author of three widely recognized Canadian history textbooks, Canada: A North American Nation (Toronto: McGraw Hill Ryerson, 1995), Years of Promise, 1896-1911 (Toronto: Grolier, 1986), and (with Cornelius J. Jaenen) Emerging Identities: Problems and Interpretations in Canadian History (Scarborough: Prentice Hall, 1986). His articles and commentaries have appeared in The Mark, The Globe and Mail, The Montreal Gazette, and numerous academic journals, including the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society Journal, Canadian Issues/Themes, Social History/Histoire Sociale, and Ontario History.
Dr. Bennett is a widely recognized leader in Canadian education. From 1997 until 2009, Paul served as Headmaster of two of Canada's leading independent coeducational day schools, Halifax Grammar School and Lower Canada College. He has served on the Halifax Club Board of Management (2005-2010) and was appointed in June 2010 as a Member of the Board of Directors for the Halifax Public Libraries.
- The Grammar School; Striving for Excellence in a Public School World. Formac Lorimer Publishing, Halifax, 2009. 96 pp.
- Canada: A North American Nation. Senior Author. Toronto: McGraw Hill Ryerson, 1989, and Revised Edition, 1995. (with Cornelius Jaenen, Nick Brune, Alan Skeoch and Cecilia Morgan.) 808 pp. and 650 pp.
- Emerging Identities: Selected Problems and Interpretations in Canadian History. Coauthor and Senior Editor. Scarborough: Prentice-Hall, 1986. 576 pp.
- Years of Promise: Canada 1896-1911. Toronto: Grolier Limited, 1986.
- Rediscovering Canadian History: A Teacher's Guide for the 80s. Toronto: OISE Press, 1980.
- "Thunderclap of Reform: Hilda Neatby's So Little for the Mind and the Halifax Grammar School Experiment, 1953-1958." Royal Nova Scotia Society Journal, Vol. 11, 2008.
- "Teaching Canadian History in our Schools," Theme Issue: Giving the Future a Past, Canadian Issues/ Themes Canadiens. (October, 2001).
- "Chasing Rainbows: In Pursuit of a National Vision of Canada's History," Canadian Social Studies. Vol. 33 (Spring, 1999), pp. 77-79.
- "Beneath the Gloss and Floss: Teaching American History in the Great White North," The History Teacher (September, 1990) Long Beach, California.
- "Taming 'Bad Boys' of the 'Dangerous Class': Child Rescue and Restraint at the Victoria Industrial School, 1887-1935," Histoire Sociale/ Social History, Vol XX1 (May, 1988)
- "Turning 'Bad Boys' into 'Good Citizens': The Reforming Impulse of Toronto's Industrial Schools Movement, 1883 to the 1920s." Ontario History, Vol. 78 (September, 1986).
- "Concepts of Canada: An Introductory Unit in Canadian History," The History and Social Science Teacher, Vol. 14 (Summer, 1979)
- "Remedial Lessons: The First Decade in Education," The Globe and Mail Decoding the Decade Series, January 16, 2010.
- "Turning Around our Schools," Progress Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 2 (May 2010), pp. 26-30.
- "School's Out, Again: Why 'Throw-away School Days' Hurt Students," AIMS Commentary (May 2010).
