[This is the fourth in a series of posts designed to give you an idea of what it’s like to live in one of central Toronto’s great neighbourhoods.  Note that I said “one of”. That’s because there are so many great neighbourhoods in central Toronto. Many of the things that make living in North Toronto so great also apply to other neighbourhoods, too. If you live in one of these other great neighbourhoods and feel like writing a short post about your neighbourhood to help people who are deciding where to live, let me know –  maybe we can post it on my blog!]

I’ve already told you about how we lucked into living in North Toronto, what our kids did when they were little and about their early school years. Before we knew it, Cole and Alannah graduated from John Wanless Public School and it was time to choose a middle school.

There are plenty of middle school options when you live in central Toronto. The first thing we discussed with them was whether they wanted to continue in public school or switch to a private school. Private school options in central Toronto include all boys and all girls schools, small and large schools and specialty schools, amongst others. But we didn’t have to look into any of these since Cole and Alannah advised us that private school “isn’t for us” because it involved more work. They wanted to continue in the Toronto District School Board system, which was fine with us, and weren’t interested in exploring the enriched French or gifted programs because those also involved more work.

They wanted to go to Glenview Middle School, which was where a large number of their John Wanless classmates were going. We heard mixed reviews about Glenview so we weren’t filled with confidence, but we figured that Cole and Alannah were both good kids, smart enough to know right from wrong and would only be going there for two years so off they went.

If you asked them to sum up their Glenview experience they’d probably do so in one word – fun. Not academically (as you could probably guess), but socially. Because there were 300 – 400 kids in their grade, they got to meet tons of kids from a bunch of other local public schools and had a great time doing so. It was almost a full time job keeping track of their social schedules because they were so busy.

Academically, they didn’t exert themselves and still managed to get by. I remember dropping Cole off at school one morning and mentioning to him that his primary job at school was schoolwork and he replied: “That’s not what school’s about. School’s for learning how to get along with people and making friends. If I pick something extra up along the way that’ll be a bonus.” I’m telling you, they went to school, but I got the education.

Their two years at Glenview passed by very quickly. It was now time to pick a high school. They had to choose between Lawrence Park, Northern and North Toronto. Each of these schools has a fairly solid reputation so we knew they’d be fine no matter which of the three they chose. (We did offer them the private high school option, but of course they turned that down.)

They could have chosen to go to different high schools, but they both ultimately decided to go to Lawrence Park, probably because it was closest to our home, it was big enough but not too big and many of their friends were going there. There were lots of options in terms of sports and extra curricular activities at Lawrence Park and they were given more responsibility in terms of doing their work and being held accountable (or not doing their work and being held accountable).

We thought they might start to work harder now that they were in high school and the time to apply to university was fast approaching, but they had other thoughts.  They stuck to their position of  “We’re not going work harder until we absolutely have to and that’ll be in grade 12”. By this time, Katherine and I knew there was nothing we could do to get them to work harder unless they wanted to and they didn’t want to. Although we were concerned, we let them know that they were in charge of their lives and they would have to deal with the consequences of their decisions.

A few of the guys I play hockey with are retired high school teachers and guidance councillors. Whenever they’d ask me how my kids were doing I’d reply “They’re doing fine, but they’re lazy. I just don’t know what’s going to be with them.” They’d always tell me not to worry and that if Cole and Alannah were good kids, from a good family and had a good circle of friends, they’d be fine.

Shortly before grade 12, Alannah decided she wanted to go to McGill. She knew she’d need excellent marks to be accepted so, true to her word, she started working harder and got the marks she needed. I remember her telling me afterwards “I wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t regret not working harder until grade 12 because I had so much fun.” Cole didn’t have his heart set on any particular university, but he also worked harder in grade 12 and decided to go to Queen’s.

All in all, I’d say that Lawrence Park was a good experience. As with any school, some teachers were better than others and some students have better chemistry with some teachers than others. For the most part, the teachers seemed to care and most of their fellow students were good kids.

As you can see, when you live in central Toronto you have lots of different options in terms of where to send your kids to school. What works best for one child may not be best for another, which is why it’s good to have so many options. We’re grateful that the options we chose together with Cole and Alannah seem to have worked out, but looking back on it, all the options were so good that it would have been hard to make a mistake.

When they weren’t in school, Cole and Alannah spent a lot of time playing sports and that’ll be the subject of the next post in this series.

In the meantime, if you know of anyone who’s looking for an honest realtor who really knows his stuff and who doesn’t pressure his clients, Please Don’t Keep Me a Secret. I really appreciate your referrals. Thanks for reading and don’t be shy if you have any questions or comments!