News Release: A U.N. that Works?
FROM: THE GILES SCHOOL
80 Scarsdale Rd.
Toronto, Ontario M3B2R7 Canada
For further information, please contact the school at 416-446-0825 or info@gilesschool.ca
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 1, 2007
A U.N. THAT WORKS?
TORONTO, ONTARIO – Several recent news stories question the effectiveness of Canada’s thirty-six years as a state-mandated multicultural society made up of over 190 distinct nationalities and cultures. These concerns center on a possible "balkanization" of Canada into many competing views by large parts of the country.
"The inevitable outcome of our policy of state-sponsored multiculturalism," Canada Free Press columnist Klaus Rohrich argues (June 27, 2007), "will be the establishment of more and more political parties or action groups that concern themselves with the narrow concerns unique to them." "In this scenario," Toronto-based Giles School Headmaster W.H.Giles says, "Canada could eventually separate into independent nation-state members similar to those of another multinational but now truncated Yugoslavia-type nation.
Surprisingly, a solution to the "Canadian balkanization" issue facing multicultural societies may have been discovered nearly eighteen years ago at a small, 150 student, private school in Canada called The Giles School. Located on the north side of the City of Toronto, the School is itself a small-scale multicultural society. It provides its Pre-K to secondary level students from over 25 countries and ethnic groups with multilingual, A and O level, and Baccalauréat français in a collegial learning environment. Students achieve grade equivalencies two years ahead of their peers.
"Whether or not multiculturalism causes Canada or, indeed, other countries to become a Yugoslavia-type society," Giles School Vice Principal Sharon Isac argues, “any growth in self-serving, political interests that are not amenable to cooperation or other forms of peaceful resolution would hurt Canada. Indeed, they would hurt any country or people."
Instead, she argues, "there is another way to forestall the destructive development of 'more and more' political parties, one that we’ve seen daily for eighteen years with the students, parents and staff at The Giles School. The six-part Giles philosophy of teaching—early and retroactive academic intervention, bilingualism, third languages, small classes, high international standards, and love—are the forty-year-old, 'Six Pillars of a Giles Education' that provide students with proven ways of learning, and their parents and teachers with ways of helping the children to be excited about learning."
"In practical terms," Mr. Giles says, "our students are, on average, two grades ahead of their peers, and enjoy the intellectually stimulating and emotionally fulfilling environment created to the point that many do not want to leave at the end of the school day when their parents arrive to pick them up.
"The result of rigorous training in a caring, supportive environment," Ms. Isac’s says, "is the creation of a "united nations’ of cooperation, growth and mutual respect. Bullying, rudeness and criticism are rare; encouragement, respect and love are the norm. Perhaps," she adds, "there is an important lesson here for all societies and peoples—regardless of age."
Giles School families and staff represent over 25 cultures and nationalities. They speak over 40 unique languages, a half dozen of which are taught at The Giles School in a bilingual, French-English country known as Canada. For more information, contact The Giles School at info@gilesschool.ca, 416-443-9499 or 416-446-0825, or visit the School’s web site at www.gilesschool.ca.
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NOTE: Interviews and photo opportunities at The Giles School can be arranged upon request.
ABOUT THE GILES SCHOOL
The Giles School is an independent school serving the Greater Toronto Area’s primary and secondary students. Since 1989, it has provided international learning methods in several major languages. The School has an "open door" accessibility policy that strives to provide Pre-K to Grade 12 students of all abilities with an advanced university preparatory education in mathematics, the sciences, modern languages, and the humanities. Students are prepared for the major university entrance examinations including the British A & O Levels, the French Baccalaureate, and the American SATs. Student learning not only reflects the highest standards in international academic excellence but does so in small-sized multilingual classes which--collectively with Giles School parents, teachers and administrative staff—comprise The Giles School learning family.
Bio for the Headmaster of The Giles School: W.H. Giles, CM, QC
Mr. Giles has over a forty year history of pioneering innovation in the field of education. As founder and, for twenty-five years, headmaster of the Toronto French School, Mr. Giles introduced bilingualism to Canada. Today, over 300,000 students enjoy the benefits of a bilingual education because of his insights and courage. He has worked tirelessly to improve the state of education in this country for all children, to draw attention to its many flaws, whether this concerns unsound or misdirected pedagogies, inadequate standards, or substandard textbooks. Thus, he has scoured the globe for superior pedagogies, incorporating Russian, French, British, or Swiss approaches and methodologies as the need arose, and purchased mathematics and science textbooks from Singapore when it become recognized as a world leader in this field. He did not hesitate to recruit teachers from other countries if this meant securing the best and the brightest for his school. Furthermore, he established the Giles School as the only test centre in Canada for the British O and A levels administered by Edexcel, a rigorous, world-renowned standard, the successful completion of which represents the equivalent of two years university training.
Mr. Giles' aspirations for his school include becoming the first one in Canada to introduce an engineering sciences program, construct a nanotechnology centre, utilize groundbreaking research in the areas of attention deficit disorders to empower children suffering from these challenges to learn at a level of equality with others, and to implement a standard that combines the breadth of the International Baccalaureate with the depth of the British A levels to give North Americans an unparalleled benchmark of excellence.
One highly revealing testament to the quality of Mr. Giles' stewardship is evident in some of the results achieved during his years as headmaster of the Toronto French School. The Putnam Mathematics Competition is the top mathematics competition in North America. During his last twelve years at TFS, graduates from the school, scattered at leading universities throughout Canada and the United States, made up between 4 and 7 of the top 9 students - every year. In that same span, only one other school in all of North America appeared more than once - the Bronx High School of Science, a school filled with math and science prodigies-with two placements. No other school, anywhere, before or after, has ever come even remotely close to approaching these results, a telltale sign of early education's staggering potential.
Ultimately however, as remarkable as these achievements are, it is the welfare of children that lies at the heart of Mr. Giles' social project. The enterprise of education, properly conceived, is to fashion a society where love triumphs over hate, tolerance over prejudice, and decency over mean-spiritedness.