Thursday, September 15, 2016

100 years of Nepean High School & how secondary education developed in Kitchissippi

My article in the Kitchissippi Times this week is a neat one. I am a former Nepean High School student, and participated in the school's 75th Anniversary celebrations in my last year of high school way back in 1998 (they actually entrusted a 17 year old kid with the coordination of the history & nostalgia displays), so all the way back then I started doing research into the earliest days of the school. I recently had a chance to research even further back in time, to how the school actually came about. The result is the story that the high school classes actually first began in Westboro in 1916 - exactly 100 years ago this month. And not only that, but a class photo of that original class (with all nine of its students) survives. So it naturally made for a great article for the Times this month.

I tried to cover some of the things I had wondered myself: what the difference is between 'Collegiate Institute' and 'High School', what advanced education options did students have in the 19th century, what other locations were considered for Nepean High School, etc. So all of that is covered in this article, which tells of the birth of Nepean High School (a big celebration no doubt will be had in 7 years in 2023 when the school officially turns 100!).

Please feel free to read it on the Kitchissippi Times webpage, just released today at:
https://kitchissippi.com/2016/09/15/kitchissippi-school-100-years-old/

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