In 1994 the OAC (Grade 13) Philosophy course was introduced to Ontario high schools, making Ontario the first and only educational jurisdiction in North America to have philosophy as part of its official secondary school curriculum.
In 2001-2002, with the introduction of the new secondary school curriculum in Ontario, two new philosophy courses were introduced to replace the OAC, one at the grade 12 level ("Philosophy: Questions and Theories") and one at the grade 11 level ("Philosophy: The Big Questions").
Interest in these courses has grown rapidly since the early 1990's. In 2004-2005 according to the Ontario Ministry of Education statistics, over 30,000 secondary school students were enrolled in the courses, in over 300 high schools across the province.
In 1999, the Ontario Philosophy Teachers' Association was founded to serve and represent the interests of high school philosophy teachers at the local, provincial and national levels, as well as to host annual conferences for high school philosophy teachers. A new high-school level philosophy textbook has been published: Philosophy Thinkers, Theories and Questions, 1st edition (Toronto Ontario: 2011), for the grade 11 and 12 courses.
In the summer of 2007, the Ontario Ministry of Education designated philosophy as a so-called teachable subject. This welcome development means that undergraduate students with Specialized Honours or Honours Major philosophy degrees will be eligible to apply to the province's Faculties of Education (for the Bachelor of Education degree). Students should check with the Faculty of Education to which they are applying to ask if it is advisable to have credits in other areas besides philosophy.
For more information about high school philosophy in Ontario, please contact Professors Duff Waring (dwaring@yorku.ca) or David Jopling (jopling@yorku.ca).