Head of School

When I speak about The Academy, I often speak about the six core values of The YMCA of Greater Toronto, generally focussing on the value of respect — which I think is the fundamental value underlying the other five: responsibility, inclusiveness, caring, health and honesty.  It is certainly at the core of both what we teach and also what we do at The Academy.

However, I’ve been thinking a great deal of another of the core values recently — caring.  At a recent social gathering, I was asked the usual question, “What do you do?”  My response to this question is always brief — something along the lines of “I’m the principal of a high school for students with learning disabilities” or “I run a high school for students who learn differently.”  Sometimes my answer stops a conversation, but at other times it starts one.

On this occasion, it started one.  “That must be very difficult.  How do you manage the students?  How do you control their behaviour?”  At first I found it difficult to answer the questions; after a few seconds I realized that my difficulty was based on the assumptions implied in the questions themselves.  One underlying assumption — students are difficult to control — is based on an understanding of the educational dynamic that we all experienced during our schooling, where the relationship was often adversarial.  The teacher possessed the power, and enforced rules that often seemed arbitrary or irrelevant to the students.  This idea of control was fundamental to the classroom — and teachers were given classroom management advice, and judged on their ability to control the behaviours in their classes.

The dynamic is entirely different at The Academy.  Underlying all “classroom management” here is the value of caring.  There is nothing arbitrary in our expectations of behaviour; indeed, they are collaboratively created by teachers and students. Our students know that we care, that expectations of behaviour spring from caring, and that our motivation is to benefit them.  Maybe that’s the most profound difference I can offer to students entering The Academy — the core value of caring.

Don Adams, Head of School

Just having passed the mid-term reporting period, I want to give you something to think about. We talk about how our children are “doing” in school. It’s a phrase I remember using my entire life – I’m sure that my own parents thought about how I was doing in school.

Today I’d like to suggest that we think about how students are “being” in school. What’s the experience of daily life in school like for this young person? Are they honored in school? Are they made to feel important, like they truly matter? What is their own sense of who they are in school and how does it differ from how they perceive themselves out of school.

When a student and a school are a poor fit, it creates an essential disconnection in their lives. Their being becomes a fragmented thing, the place they spend every school day is a place of frustrations and failures. So when we consider how they’re doing and the result of that question is an unfavorable one, we need to dig deeper and examine how they’re being. If we can begin to shift this question, it will lead to a much better analysis of our schools, our children, and how to most effectively serve who they are and want to become.

Don Adams, Head of School

Every day, someone somewhere prepares to open a school. In the United States, since the advent of charter schools, each year many schools open and close, for a variety of reasons. The process of opening a school is, in some fundamental ways, easier today than it has ever been.

But I wonder how one could open a great school and serve a population the most in need. Here at The Academy, we worked hard for a decade before becoming what many have described as a great school. I think about what we did throughout the process and offer this as a primer for those looking to do the same.

My advice would begin and end with the notion of community. Building a community is infinitely more challenging than building a school. Community takes infinite ingredients and nonstop attention. Community cares for people. It makes us feel as if we belong. Community, not a sugar-and-taurine-laden energy drink, gives us wings.

How to build community in a school is more art than science. It begins and ends with respect. By creating a safe place where people, their opinions, thoughts, and actions are valued, you’re on the right track. There needs to be balance, focus, constant and consistent improvement.

The construction of a great school is never, ever complete.

Don Adams, Head of School

As more families and education professionals come to know about The YMCA Academy, I am increasingly asked the question: “How did The Academy come to be?”  This is a question that I have answered in several ways – most recently in an interview with the amazing Sara Winter from Squag — a curated, online experience for kids on the autism spectrum! (read it here).

Every bit of what we do at The Academy is absolutely intentional.  From the constructivist-based pedagogy, to the experiential opportunities we provide, to the use of a variety of assistive technologies, to the sizes of the classrooms and the physical layout of the school, everything is done with an unswerving eye toward better serving a wide variety of learning styles and challenges.

At the same time, there is something serendipitous about the coming together of such an amazing staff – who share an unending passion and energy for serving our students!  And it’s the mixture of intentionality and serendipity that underlies an aspect of the learning culture we wish to create here.  We are intentional in how we serve students who learn differently – teach a person how to learn, and they’re immediately hungry to learn more.  That allows students to be open to surprises, to the serendipitous, as founding teacher of The Academy, Peter Skillin, puts it in his blog, “so that beneficial communications and connections are more likely to occur.”

In short, we intentionally enable our students to experience the delightful coincidences in life!

Don Adams, Head of School