The 1968 Report of the Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario, known as the Hall-Dennis Report, offered a glimpse into the social and educational context shaping connections between literacy and mothering in the mid to late 1960s in Ontario, and in other parts of Canada and western nations. The commission’s report was based on submissions from one hundred and twelve organizations convening during 1965–1966, visits to educational systems in other Canadian provinces, the United States and Europe, and extensive deliberations by the convening committee. Its broad-based inquiry and recommendations reflected other policies and literacy advice at the time and shaped advice discourses surrounding parental involvement in children’s literacy development into the 1970s. In 1968, Canada was forging a vision of multi-culturalism and a unique Canadian identity. The one-hundred page document described the characteristics of Canadian society as increasingly urbanized, multi-cultural, and prosperous. This document suggested that the key theme underpinning the aims and objectives for education in Ontario in 1968 was to protect and promote children’s “[f]reedom to search for truth” (p. 21) as the cornerstone of a free society and “to protect our way of life” (Hall & Dennis, 1968, p. 21). As with most key policy documents and commissions concerned with education since the nineteenth century, the Hall-Dennis Report located its new education vision within a context of rapid social change.

What is new, exciting and thought-provoking in our era is that what was once the privilege of an elite has now become the right of a multitude. How to provide learning experiences aiming at a thousand different destinies and at the same time educate toward a common heritage and common citizenship? (Hall & Dennis, p. 21)

The project of educating the “multitude” in a democratic society was the main theme of the commission’s work. In line with other education policy documents in the Twentieth Century, it emphasized the importance of children’s early years as a crucial stage of life, and called for child-centred, experiential approaches to teaching and learning that would foster children’s participation in the ideals of a multi-cultural democracy. The home was considered an important setting for learning:

Every day and every stage of child development is important. The middle stages and adolescence are not forgotten years. However, in view of the most recent findings based upon research and clinical studies, special emphasis must be placed upon the early years…thus the home is a base of exceeding importance. (Hall & Dennis, 1968, p. 42)