Thornlea Secondary School is a public high school that opened in 1969 and is located in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada, on the north east corner Bayview Avenue and Willowbrook Road, north of the Steeles Avenue border dividing the city of Toronto and the municipality of York Region. Thornhill (2006 population 106,394) is a community in Ontario, Canada, directly north of Toronto. ... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman - Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 106 - Senate seats 24 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area [1] Ranked... A Canadian postal code is a string of six characters that forms part of a postal address in Canada. ... The York Region District School Board is a school board in the public school system of Ontario, Canada, in York Regional Municipality. ... Public is of or pertaining to the people; belonging to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; opposed to private; as, the public treasury, a road or lake. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Education in Canada is provided, funded and overseen by federal, provincial, and local governments. ... Thornhill (2006 population 106,394) is a community in Ontario, Canada, directly north of Toronto. ... For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ... Thornhill (2006 population 106,394) is a community in Ontario, Canada, directly north of Toronto. ... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman - Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 106 - Senate seats 24 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area [1] Ranked... Steeles Avenue, near its intersection with Warden Avenue. ... York Regional Municipality, also called York Municipality or York Region, is a municipality in south-central Ontario, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. ...

Extracurricular Life

Due to the demographic composition of the area, Thornlea boasts a highly multicultural population, and is generally not considered by its students to be a stereotypical high school, in that there are few jocks, cheerleaders, or nerds in the sense so often depicted in American popular culture. Rather, the emphasis among even the more "popular" members of the student body tends to be on community work and academic achievement. Thornlea students often play key roles in the social activist life of Thornhill, and have, in the past, helped organize the Terry Fox Run, as well as the Walk Against Male Violence. The school began in the '70s as somewhat of an educational experiment. The curriculum was unique, varied and highly specialised, following a trimester system, and students were encouraged to address their teachers by their first names and focus on independent learning. The school attracted innovative teachers and self-directed students. Gradually, this model gave way to a more traditional, but still high-achieving academic environment. Map of countries by population Population growth showing projections for later this century Demography is the statistical study of human populations. ... Multiculturalism or cultural pluralism is a policy, ideal, or reality that emphasizes the unique characteristics of different cultures in the world, especially as they relate to one another in immigrant receiving nations. ... In modern usage, a stereotype is a simplified mental picture of an individual or group of people who share a certain characteristic (or stereotypical) qualities. ... The term jock is a classic American stereotype of an athlete. ... Cheerleading is recreational activity and sometimes competitive sport involving organised routines including elements of dance and gymnastics to encourage crowds to cheer on sports teams. ... Nerds (on the left, apple-coated watermelon; lemonade-coated wild cherry on right) Nerds Nerds are candies sold by Nestlé under their Willy Wonka Candy Company brand. ... Popular culture, sometimes called pop culture, consists of widespread cultural elements in any given society. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Plato is credited with the inception of academia: the body of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations. ... Social activists are people who act as the conscience and voice of many individuals within a society. ... Camp Julien, Afghanistan - Major-General Andrew Leslie leads Canadian troops through one of the many 2-km laps of the camp perimeter that make up the first Terry Fox Run ever held in Kabul. ...

Generally, the school is known externally for its support for social causes. The school, which in the mid-'90s had an enrolment of over 2300 students and a staff of perhaps 150, was once known for its Grade 9 and 10 Gifted Program, Talented Athlete Program, musicals and other arts programs, all of which were cut or starved in the late '90s as a result of political pressures in the Board, and ostensibly an effort to lower the student population. This era saw the retirement or transfer of many dedicated teachers, the firing and hiring of new department heads, frequent curriculum changes, and the discontinuing of many specialty courses as the OAC program (Grade 13) was eliminated. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Thornlea also boasts a thriving artistic community, with many prominent Canadian musicians among its alumni, including the groups The Philosopher Kings, Prozzak, Courtesy Blush, By Divine Right, hHead, Hayden, and Moxy Früvous. Some of its more active extracurricular organizations are arts-oriented, in addition to other influentialathletics-oriented organizations, two prominent ones being the Drama Club and the Music Council. Despite occasional friction between members, the two organizations have been known to collaborate on intra-scholastic events and concerts. Notable quasi-annual examples of such events are known as Thornstock, and An Evening of the Arts. The Thornlea Lights Sets Sound (TLSS) committee also plays an instrumental role in the organization and orchestration of the school's extracurricular activities, as it is accountable for the technical work that many of the aforementioned events necessitate: for instance, the operation of audio-visual equipment, stage set-ups, mechanical labour and assistance, and so on. The Philosopher Kings are a Canadian R&B/soul band and were one of the most commercially successful Canadian pop groups of the late 1990s. ... Prozzak was a pop music side project by two members of the Canadian band Philosopher Kings, James McCollum and Jason Levine, conceived as a lighthearted mockery of their own romantic troubles. ... // This five-piece melodic rock firestorm, hailing from Thornhill, Ontario, Canada, has been together since 2002. ... By Divine Right is a Canadian indie rock band. ... Moxy Früvous is a folk-pop/geek-rock band from the Toronto, Ontario area. ... The Arts is a broad subdivision of culture, comprised of many expressive disciplines. ... A sport consists of a physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose: for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of a skill, or some combination of these. ... Extracurricular activities are activities performed by students that fall outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school or university education. ... A technician is generally someone in a technological field who has a relatively practical understanding of the general theoretical principles of that field, e. ... Audio Visual (AV) technology is technology that combines visual input such as video or 35mm slides with sound to convey information. ...

Thornleas's Drama Department has a tradition of ambitious projects, including a weekly show called Maxwell's House that the OAC students put together in 2001-2002 as their collective graduating project. Sets, scripts, direction, stage managing, and acting were all undertaken by the students, and their show was free every week. It was a popular event that drew not only students either skipping or on a spare, but also field trips from other schools.

Another prominent group at Thornlea is Thornlea's Athletic Council (TAC), which annually organizes an auction, athletics-related charity fundraisers, and a year-end Athletic Banquet, one of the school's best-attended events, and also participates in the administration of Thornlea's many successful sports teams. Other clubs include a yearbook committee, an anime club, an environment club, art and film clubs, a prom committee, and a local chapter of the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA). The school has a tradition of student and teacher activism on certain humanitarian-related issues. In January 2005, after the Tsunami Disaster in South-East Asia, a group of students quickly got together and organized a fundraising drive that collected over $5000 in less than a week. A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a book to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school or a book published annually. ... The main cast of the anime Cowboy Bebop (1998) (L to R: Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Ed Tivrusky, Faye Valentine, and Ein the dog) For the oleo-resin, see Animé (oleo-resin). ... The Bath, a painting by Mary Cassatt (1844–1926). ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... DECA (formerly the Distributive Education Clubs of America, and also known as Delta Epsilon Chi on the college level) is an international association of Marketing Education students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service (DECA.org). ...

Most student events at Thornlea are organized by Thornlea Student Association Council (TSAC). TSAC consists of six executive members and three appointed directors as well as three representatives from each grade. TSAC's major events include Thornstock, an end of year music festival, Some Wonderful Entertainment (SWE), and Hip Hop Away From Violence, a charity hip hop concert.

In the late 1990s, Thornlea students published a newspaper called Deadline. This paper, unfortunately, was discontinued the year after its editor-in-chief graduated. During the 2001-2002 school year, the Music Council funded the publication of an arts-oriented paper called Volume, which again was discontinued after the graduation of its entire editorial staff at the end of that year. A new publication known as Ka-boom has recently been founded, the latest in Thornlea's turbulent but prolific tradition of student journalism. Past student publications included Shonen Knife and Thornlea RAW. For the band, see 1990s (band). ... It has been suggested that this article be split into articles entitled Editorial and Op-ed. ...

For a short time, in the early 1980s, Thornlea was the hub of a student-driven journalism movement that published a newspaper called "The Underground." The paper only published a handful of editions before school administrators discovered the identities of those involved, and shut it down.

Academic Life

For all of its extracurricular idiosyncrasies, Thornlea is by all accounts a reasonably paradigmatic Canadian high school with departments in a fairly standard set of subject areas. Alongside traditional disciplinary staples such as English, mathematics, science (chemistry, physics, and biology), and social science (divided evenly between history and geography), Thornlea also offers courses in the fine arts, music (vocal, choral, orchestral, wind ensemble and jazz), drama, and design and technology. A survey course in philosophy that is generally popular among Thornlea seniors has also been offered inconsistently over the years, depending upon the availability of a qualified instructor. A variety of popular creative writing courses have also been offered over the years, again, the existence of which has typically been a function of instructor interest and availability. This is a list of academic disciplines (and academic fields). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, as imagined by by Raphael in this detail from The School of Athens. ... Part of a scientific laboratory at the University of Cologne. ... Chemistry - the study of atoms, made of nuclei (conglomeration of center particles) and electrons (outer particles), and the structures they form. ... A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor demonstrates the Meissner effect. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The social sciences are groups of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ... HIStory - Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double-disc album (one half greatest hits, one half studio album) by American musician Michael Jackson released in June of 1995 by the Epic Records division of Sony BMG. The first disc, (HIStory Begins) contains fifteen hit singles from the past... Fine art is a term used to refer to fields traditionally considered to be artistic. ... // Music is an art form consisting of sound and silence expressed through time. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... Industrial arts is an umbrella term used in the late 20th century to describe an educational program which featured fabrication of objects in wood and/or metal using a variety of hand, power, or machine tools. ... The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... Creative writing is a term used to distinguish certain imaginative or different types of writing from technical writing. ...

Students from Thornlea have been known to perform extremely well in provincial competitions in the sciences, such as the Ontario Biology Competition, hosted by the University of Toronto, and various mathematics and engineering competitions hosted by the University of Waterloo. Business students have also done extremely well, with Thornlea sending many to the DECA international finals over the years, as well as having many students achieve high scores on the ¢OIN CA Challenge accounting contest, run by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. In addition, Thornlea has been recognized as claiming the top prize for several years in Wilfrid Laurier University's Stock Market Competition. Thornlea's also has an excellent Modern Languages department, as evidenced by its students' consistently high scores in regional and provincial French competitions over the past decade. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The University of Toronto (U of T) is a coeducational public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... The Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, hosted at the University of Waterloo, administers mathematics and computing contests for Canadian high school students. ... Engineering is the design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ... The University of Waterloo (also referred to as UW, UWaterloo, or Waterloo) is a medium-sized research-intensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. ... DECA (formerly the Distributive Education Clubs of America, and also known as Delta Epsilon Chi on the college level) is an international association of Marketing Education students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service (DECA.org). ...

The acceptance rate of Thornlea graduates into post-secondary institutions, in general, is quite high. Whether this is due to rigorous academic standards at Thornlea itself, Thornlea students' own peculiar diligence, or the overall socio-economic privilege of the community is largely a matter of speculation. Vacations to destinations such as Hawaii, shown above, may be seen as a hallmark of the Upper-middle class. ...

Wilfrid Laurier University's Stock Market Competition Winnings:

• Fall 2005 - Jason Snow (National Champions)
  
• Winter 2005 - Liran Tal and Richard Srour (National Champions)
  
• Winter 2005 - Jon Fishman, Jason Snow and Jaynie Rovet (Ontario Regional Awarads, Ontario - Greater Toronto Area)
  
• Fall 2004 - Sarah Bleiwas, Turbo Kwok and Phillip Keung (National Champions)
  
• Fall 2004 - Andrew Linzon, Jaclyn Weintraub, Daniel Modarres, John Hu and Natasha Fernandes (Ontario Regional Awarads, Ontario - Greater Toronto Area)
  

Criticisms

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 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. The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... Urban sprawl (also: suburban sprawl) is the spreading out of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area. ... Motto: En la rose, je fleuris (French for Like the rose, I flourish) Map showing Richmond Hills location in York Region Country Canada Province Ontario Region York Region Incorporated 1873 Government  - Mayor Dave Barrow  - Governing Body Richmond Hill Town Council  - MPs Bryon Wilfert (Richmond Hill) Population (2006)[1]  - City... Map showing Markhams location in York Region Coordinates: , Country  Canada Province Ontario Regional Municipality York Region Communities Buttonville, Thornhill, German Mills, Milliken, Unionville Settled 1794 Incorporated 1972 (town) Government  - Mayor Frank Scarpitti  - Deputy Mayor Jim Jones  - Regional Councillors Jack Heath, Tony Wong, Gordon Landon  - MPs Susan Kadis (LPC) - Thornhill... Motto: The City above Toronto Vaughans location in York Region. ... Country Canada Province Ontario Established 1 January 1850 (township)   1 January 1967 (borough) Incorporated Amalgamation June 1983 (city) 1 January 1998 Government  - Mayor David Miller (Toronto Mayor)  - Governing Body Toronto City Council  - MPs John Cannis, Jim Karygiannis, Derek Lee, John McKay, Dan McTeague, Tom Wappel  - MPPs Bas Balkissoon, Lorenzo Berardinetti... Metro Council redirects here. ...

The physical structure of the building itself has been the target of many complaints, notably due to its poor internal ventilation, and its noticeable lack of exterior windows (there are windows inside the school). This architectural peculiarity is accounted for by the fact that Thornlea was originally intended to be a prototype for an educational model where extrinsic stimuli (such as vegetation, the sky, wildlife) are minimized, while intrinsic stimuli (such as 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, complete with windows for every classroom that has an externally facing wall. It has been suggested that window frames be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with prototyping. ... Stimulation is the irritating action of various agents (stimuli) on muscles, nerves, or a sensory end organ, by which activity is evoked; especially, the nervous impulse produced by various agents on nerves, or a sensory end organ, by which the part connected with the nerve is thrown into a state... In the scientific method, an experiment (Latin: ex-+-periri, of (or from) trying), is a set of actions concerning phenomena. ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...

Thornlea Lore

The Thornlea experience has spawned a class of expressions that have attained metonymic and in certain cases eponymous status among Thornhill residents. Examples include: In rhetoric, metonymy is the substitution of one word for another word with which it is associated. ... An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, who has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery, or other item. ...

• The Graduation Hall: Lined with composite graduation photos and sports actions shots from years 1982-1986, this is Thornlea's most traditional and impressive hallway.
• The Purple Hallway: "The Spot" in the school where the more popular students would hang out in between classes and at lunch. In 2003 the purple hallway became an academic hallway removing any form of "hanging out". The following year doors were put up and no longer would the popular students have a place to sit.
• The Un-Carpeted Hallway: Refers to a tiled hallway that connects the recreational wing of the school with the classrooms proper. A location that is monitored by school authorities in theory only, and was once known as the carpeted hallway for its previous furnishings.
• The Caf: As the name interprets, it is obviously the area where students and usually teachers come and eat lunch. It is the most popular area in the school due to its largeness and its variety of foods to buy. Pharley's Place is located inside of here.
• The Thornlea Loft: A secret location somewhere in the school's main gym, strictly monitored by the school's drama department, the Thornlea Light Set Sound (TLSS) team, and the Costume Goddesses.
• The Music Hallway: Named for its proximity to the school's two music rooms, and is adjacent to one of the only sets of windows that were included in the building's original plans.
• The Pit: As of October 20th 2006, the pit no longer exists due to traffic congestion along Willowbrook Ave.(by the intersection of Bayview & Willowbrook). Students mourned the destruction of the pit as the pavement was replaced by grass and a fence was constructed. It was once just a depression in the ground immediately beyond the southern frontier of school property. It was also the main smoking area for high school students because smoking on school property is illegal. The Pit was also the name given to room 016, the home of the Autonomous Learners' Programme in the 1980s. The name was given to it owing to the mini-amphitheatre located in the classroom, sunken below floor level.
• The New Pit: A replacement to the old pit. (location still to be determined)
• The Rock: A metonym for an enclosure on the school's east side within which a multi-coloured boulder is contained.
• The Dennis Herbert Wall of Fame: Named after former coach, teacher, and mentor Dennis Herbert, the wall boasts pictures of those students who have made exceptional contributions to Thornlea Athletics during their high school careers.
• Pharley's Place: A mythological persona for whom the student-run convenience store in the cafeteria is named.
• The New Wing: Completed in the summer of 2001, the new wing is the latest addition to the school in an attempt to fight overcrowding. However, even with 12 new classrooms and 2 computer labs, overcrowding is still a problem.
• The Res (Reservoir): An unpaved area, located on the northeast side of the school property. Students are allowed to park their cars there although on occasion, the vehicles will sink into the mud and have to be rescued by the custodial staff. In addition, you can often find people smoking cigarettes in this area.
• The Big Gym: It is referring the larger gym of two in the school campus. It is located in the middle of the main building.
• Pool Gym: The smaller of the two gyms. It is in the swimming pool building beside the pool, which is separate from the main school building.
• The "Secret" Spot: Another secret location located directly across from the loft. It usually consists of a sofa & chairs and usually very dark to see, even if the loft lights are on. Very few people know about this place, as it is hidden very well, but it is a great spot to just "chill out" during lunches and sporting games.

Thornlea was the first high school in the district to have a computer. The IBM 1130 was installed at or shortly after the school was opened in the late 1960s. Unlike the way students program modern computers, programs were generally prepared on punch cards and run in batches; the output was printed in a line printer. There were a few experiments with the pioneering interactive APL system. In rhetoric and cognitive linguistics, metonymy (in Greek meta = after/later and onoma = name) is the use of a single characteristic to identify a more complex entity. ... Operator loading a 2315 disk cartridge into the IBM 1130 computer. ... Insert non-formatted text hereBatch processing is the execution of a series of programs (jobs) on a computer without human interaction, when possible. ... The IBM 1132 Line Printer was part of the IBM 1130 Computer. ... APL (for A Programming Language) is an array programming language based on a notation invented in 1957 by Kenneth E. Iverson while at Harvard University. ...

Famous alumni

• Author Gordon Korman
• Actor Cameron Mathison
• Actor Daniel Lewis
• Actor Stuart Stone
• Actress Lauren Collins
• Much More Music VJ Bill Welychka
• Canadian National Basketball team member Rans Brempong
• Moxy Früvous
• Prozzak
• Mike Koreen, Toronto Sun Sports Writer
• The Philosopher Kings
• Jose Contreras of By Divine Right
• Bloomberg News journalist Sean B. Pasternak
• Singer/Songwriter Hayden
• Singer/Songwriter Mike Ford of Moxy Früvous
• Playwright and Artistic Director of English Theatre for the National Arts Centre, Peter Hinton
• Ilana Miller Mickey Mouse Club
• Ryan Kowarski and Dan Kowarski of boy band b4-4
• Michael Kwan, notable University of Toronto professor
• Michael Gelbart, comedian
• Dr. Faisal Moola, Director of Science, The Suzuki Foundation
• Prof. Parham Aarabi, Canada Research Chair in Multi-Sensor Information Systems, notable University of Toronto professor