Head of School

In our recent advertisements and our YouTube site, among other places, you will see us described as an “alternative” school.

Alternative to what?

We think about this question a lot. For many reasons, we embrace the notion of being alternative. First, we are alternative to what was the status quo for the students who come to The Academy. In that way, our alternative is small, intimate classes; teachers who are experts in dealing with students with learning style differences and learning disabilities; administrators who are on the leading edge of research and thought in this area of education.

We are also alternative in our ability as a school to invert the history of a students experience at and with schools. Where schools were previously places of failure, The Academy is a place for success. We spend the entire year spreading the word about our school. We actively prospect for the students and families who would most benefit from being part of The Academy community and an education at our school. We take these students on the way into our school and throughout their time here, empower them to succeed on the way out. This is transformative and deeply alternative for the families who come to our school.

Finally, alternative is an attitude. From the minute the school day begins, the expectation is engagement and success. Students take from an education at The Academy what they put in. We create an environment here that makes it safe, comfortable, rewarding for students to check in. It takes time to change the paradigm from school being a passive thing that probably should be avoided, to school being an integral part of who you are, in a community that not only cares about you, but is equipped to help you succeed.

The Academy IS Toronto’s alternative school. It’s a beautiful time of year in the city – come join us for a tour and a cup of good coffee.

Don Adams, Head of School

I have one of the best views in Toronto.

My office is on the main floor of The Academy. It’s three floors up, has a big window, and looks north. So I look from Breadalbane towards Wellesley and points north. I can turn my head to the left and easily see Bay Street, to the right and easily see Yonge Street. Had I ever the opportunity to hit a golf ball from the roof of our building (assuming that the streets would be completely empty), I’m pretty sure I could at least get my drive to roll to College on the south and Wellesley on the North. I could easily clear Yonge without a bounce.

For a lot of families, location is everything. For a family working in Toronto’s downtown core, they can drop their son or daughter off at school. Don’t underemphasize the role of that commute in family life. We are an urban community school. We feel that we are a part of downtown Toronto. Surrounded by towers that drive Canadian and global commerce, we do something equally important – we prepare high school students with learning disabilities and learning style differences for a lifetime of success and happiness.

Take a look at the school video we made last year HERE. Do these seem like happy young adults to you?

Come by for a visit and let us show you how we make school a pleasure for our families.

Don Adams, Head of School

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