Author: Don Adams

I made the mistake today of going to the online Education section of the New York Times. I haven’t been there for a couple of weeks, as we’ve been full steam ahead with preparations for our school year that opened very successfully this week. I like reading the Times Education section, as most heads of school, I assume, also do.

But looking at the totality of this set of headlines would depress event the greatest education optimist. Teacher strikes and lockouts, schools that are literally crumbling, schools competing against each other for the most luxurious dormitories, policy shifts denying teachers earned compensation – there’s just not any good news in the totality of what was published. Today, in fact, we have 350,000 Chicago public school students who have now been without school for an entire week.

What happened to balance in education? How and when did we cross into a land of extremes? I’m not a journalist but I guess I’m naive enough to think that one can attract more flies (readers like me) with honey (some realistic but positive pieces) than with vinegar (see above).

Schools are life-changing places. Done well, a school is a transformative place. Done poorly, I guess, schools are the kinds of places that breed the current Education section of the New York Times.

Elbert Hubbard once wrote that “A school should not be a preparation for life. A school should be life.” Let’s work to make our schools great places that not only create great results but great stories.

Don Adams, Head of School

Winter of Our Discontent

Though my role at The YMCA Academy is Head of School, I’m always going to be Dr. Adams, teacher of English. Once a teacher, always a teacher.

So, as that teacher of English, I was reflecting upon the start of the year and one of John Steinbeck’s best if most underrated works, “The Winter of Our Discontent.” There is a passage in the book that never fails to grab me:

“People who are most afraid of their dreams convince themselves they don’t dream at all.”

Inherent in a new school year is the notion of dreaming. Students dream about what they want to become in the future — when they’re fully “grown up” (side note – like many adults, I’m still waiting for that moment to happen). But the idea of dreaming about the future is inextricably linked to the past. Who and what we imagine ourselves as becoming is informed by who and what we have been.

For students who have always experienced success in the classroom, their trajectory of imagining is limitless. The formula in their minds for future success is the past + the present = opportunity. They can see and sense that, because success isn’t foreign to them. But here at The Academy, our students face a different challenge, that of imagining a successful future where their past in school has been an ongoing challenge.

When you spend years in school as the square peg trying to fit into the round hole, it’s easy to give up. You can blame the shape of the hole, but you’ll also look to yourself and why you don’t fit. What we deal with at The Academy are students who, for perhaps the first time, do fit and fit remarkably well. What comes along with that is a re-evaluation of the future. Sometimes, it’s as complicated as showing someone that they should no longer be afraid of their dreams, that what what was once thought of as being unattainable is now a real possibility.

This isn’t a challenge limited to us at The Academy, it’s inherent to the nature of schools. We know that this blog is read in many parts of the world and that students face a range and depth of challenges. But no matter where a student lives and works, part of what a great school can do is to help create a culture where dreams are pursued, not feared.

Don Adams, Head of School

Margaret Laurence loved school. She once wrote “Holidays are enticing only for the first week or so.  After that, it is no longer such a novelty to rise late and have little to do.”

If any of our students had that novelty over the past week, it’s officially over as, happily, The Academy is back in session for a new school year. I’m going to go out on what really isn’t much of a limb and predict our greatest school year in the history of The Academy.

The summer was remarkably busy for us. Applications and inquiries were at an all-time high. By the time the dust settles, our enrolment may surpass our best mark ever. The quality of new applicants we have seen has been amazing. We have a full school of mission-appropriate students and families. We are happy and energized for a new school year.

There is a Buddhist proverb: “When the student is ready, the master appears.” That’s the feeling here today. One of preparedness, anticipation. I sometimes think it cliche when people talk about education itself as a journey. I see it as a series of beginnings. Some are in a classroom and some are out in the world (or even in an intersection of the two). Each of these beginning is a checkpoint in the notion of a larger journey of one’s education. And, of course, for something to begin something else must end. So as we bid farewell to this summer, we do so with an eye on the amazing things to come this year.

I want to thank everyone in our community for being so prepared to accept this beginning. Watching the students and teachers today reinforces what a special place The Academy is. So, for another school year, off we go!

Don Adams, Head of School

I’ve always been a big sports fan. As a Torontonian, I’m a fan of the Blue Jays, Leafs – all the local teams, really. I was thinking, the other day, about what differentiates a good athlete from a great one. The conclusion I reached is that the best athletes have great hands.

I see this in two ways. First, literally: no matter the sport, the best athletes have the best hands. This is often discussed in sports analysis. Whether swinging a bat, shooting a puck, throwing a ball, it’s about hand quickness, strength and, of course, intangibles – things that a gifted athlete simply possesses.

There’s also the other meaning of having great hands. Having people in your life who give you a great hand when you need it. Amazing athletes have equally amazing mentors.

I’ve been thinking about all of these things because I’m preparing to greet our teachers in a few days after the summer break. Every one of the teachers at The Academy is that great hand in the life of a student with a learning style difference of learning disability. Every day I see the difference they make in our students lives and can’t imagine a finer group of teachers for our students.

And no matter how great our hands are, we keep working at what we do. We always strive to improve, and, like an athlete, put the gifts we have to their best use.

We can’t wait to have our students back and for the year to begin!

Don Adams, Head of School

It’s no secret that we all need exercise. Exercise makes us stronger, does everything from help regulate our appetite to give us a sense of daily structure. Sometimes we think of exercise as that one thing that can drown out the noise in our lives and allow us to focus on our work.

It takes nothing more time-consuming than a google search on “ADHD and exercise” to show that this is not only a huge thread in popular exercise culture, but also the stuff of serious scholarly research. “Physical Exercise as a Reinforcer to Promote Calmness,” “How to Reach and Teach Children with ADHD,” “Sport Participation and Lessened Anxiety in Children with ADHD,” are all part of a growing body of research.

This research supports a simple thesis: kids with ADHD and other learning differences and disabilities greatly, often dramatically, benefit from physical exercise. There’s simply no grey area here – daily exercise can be the tie that binds together your child’s learning, it is the thing that facilities their attentiveness, participation, and ability to retain information. You can click to read more about personalized exercises, here.

We are the YMCA Academy. Our school lives in the Central YMCA. That means two things. First, that we couldn’t possibly be more central. Our school has Bay Street to the west, Yonge to the east, Grosvenor to the south, and Breadalbane to the north. Second, and most important, that our school has, arguably, the best fitness facilities of any school in Toronto. We have it all here and student use it as part of our curriculum – a curriculum of health, learning, and community. We also encourage people to use Indoor trampolines for kids, which is one of the best form of aerobic exercises.

As always, I extend to you my invitation. Come out for a visit. Have a cup of coffee. Want to test the facilities here for yourself? Great – I’ll give you a Day Pass when we meet and you can spend the rest of your day exercising at the Y!

School is a week away. Come see The Academy and decide for yourself is this is the right fit you’ve been looking for.

Don Adams, Head of School