By Nancy Miller Chenier
The Bettye Hyde Co-operative Early Learning Centre in Sandy Hill currently offers full-time care and learning for children from eighteen months to five years of age. Back in 1956, Bettye Hyde offered a half-day program for three- to five-year-olds in the Neighbourhood Nursery School at 66 Bolton Street in Lowertown.
Who was this Bettye Hyde (1918-2006)? Described by journalists as a pioneer of early childhood education in Canada, she was seen by parents as an extraordinarily gifted and creative teacher and by students as a feisty, energetic and inspiring leader. She saw herself as having the tenacity of a bulldog.
Her story in Ottawa began in 1942 when her husband, Laurence Hyde, accepted a job with the National Film Board. Shortly afterwards, she took a job teaching in a nursery school in a private home, and over subsequent years, studied child development at Yale University. She became a major leader in the field, eventually establishing the Early Childhood Education program at Algonquin College.
Before moving to 66 Bolton Street in 1956, Bettye Hyde had spent some time working from a tiny room that was part of a one-storey green and white hut on Bingham Park offered by J. Alphonse Dulude, the city’s playground commissioner. The 66 Bolton house had been purchased after extensive fund-raising efforts by staff and parents. The ground floor was a series of small rooms organized as activity centres where children were allowed to experiment with ideas and materials. Over the years, these young ones came from a variety of families including those of parliamentarians, public servants, and embassy officials.
After the school moved to Sandy Hill, the house was signed over to Bettye Hyde in gratitude for her many years of working with no salary or minimal pay. According to Bettye’s son Anthony, the family – mother, father, brothers Anthony and Christopher – initially lived upstairs above the nursery. By the 1990s, it was the home of Anthony, Bettye’s son, and she was in New Edinburgh fighting the Royal Bank’s effort to close its local branch.
Eight decades later, Bettye Hyde’s legacy lives on in Sandy Hill where children, parents and educators work together. The co-operative nature of the centre continues to have parents play an active role and the children enjoy an environment where they develop at their own pace guided by specially trained staff.
