Thornlea Secondary School

Criticisms

Despite its involvement with social issues and the academic accomplishments of its students, Thornlea has borne the brunt of some very harsh criticisms in recent years, with regard to its institutional role in fostering a deep-seated sense of helplessness, cynicism, and disaffected frustration among both students and faculty.

Related Topics:
Cynicism - Frustration

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The administration is perceived by the majority of students as surly, vindictive, faceless and unnecessarily cruel, even toward student council members and other upstanding student citizens. Punishment for dissent is meted out swiftly and without regard for the potential validity of the complaints in question. Petitions and letters are more often disregarded with contempt than they are addressed with sincerity, and many Thornlea teachers and even guidance counsellors compound this problem by flatly refusing to address non-curricular student concerns, choosing instead to parrot tired aphorisms and motivational clichés that gloss over the underlying issues.

Related Topics:
Cruel - Student council - Dissent - Petitions - Aphorisms - Clichés

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As a result, many students have turned to other forms of tacit rebellion that might be considered unusual in a bourgeois suburban community as affluent as Thornhill. A disproportionately large number of students abuse drugs such as marijuana and ecstasy. Student truancy has become an endemic problem, and the rampant piracy of copyrighted items, stolen goods, and blackmarket electronics has created a virtual niche market within the school's very walls. Eating disorders are another widespread but infrequently discussed problem.

Related Topics:
Rebellion - Bourgeois - Marijuana - Ecstasy - Copyrighted - Electronics - Niche market - Eating disorders

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Overpopulation is yet another serious challenge faced by the Thornlea community. Since the school's construction in the late 1960s, the population of the surrounding municipality has ballooned due to both immigration and urban sprawl. The rapidly expanding middle-class towns of Richmond Hill, Markham and Vaughan have led to a corresponding increase in extremely wealthy students, while emigration from Milliken Mills, Scarborough and other peripheral areas in the former Metropolitan Toronto has led to a somewhat smaller demographic increase of substantially less privileged students. Consequently, socio-economic disparities within the Thornlea student body have increased tremendously over the past two decades. The most visible result of this has been the formation of ethnic cliques, and ultimately a pervasive culture of non-participative insularity.

Related Topics:
1960s - Immigration - Urban sprawl - Richmond Hill - Markham - Vaughan - Scarborough - Metropolitan Toronto - Ethnic - Cliques

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The physical structure of the building itself has been the target of many complaints, notably due to its extremely poor internal ventilation, and its noticeable lack of exterior windows (there are windows inside the school). Student listlessness and apathy is sometimes partly attributed to these problems. This architectural peculiarity is accounted for by the fact that Thornlea was originally intended to be a prototype for an educational model wherein extrinsic stimuli (such as vegetation, the sky, wildlife) are minimized, while intrinsic stimuli (such bookshelves, other students in class, computer terminals) are maximized. The idea was that students would then be less distracted and more psychologically conditioned to focus on their studies during the day. At some point the experiment was abandoned, and finally, to the delight of students and staff alike, a new southern wing was built during the 2000-2001 school year, replete with windows in every classroom.

Related Topics:
Exterior windows - Prototype - Stimuli - Distracted - Conditioned - Experiment - 2000 - 2001

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