Abelard Formal

Our school formal is just a day away! We look forward to an evening of good food and even better company as we celebrate the winding-down of the 2013-14 school year.This is the last hurrah before next week’s exams…so bring your dancing shoes and prepare to have fun!

12 Angry Men

Abelard’s Annual Drama Production

Tickets are on sale now for this year’s Drama Production of 12 Angry Men. The show will be held at the University of Toronto’s Robert Gill Theatre on Thursday, 15 May. Don’t miss out on this exciting event!

Tickets are $10, and can be purchased from the school. Please contact abelardschool[at]gmail.com or call us at 416.944.0661.

Date and time: Thursday, 15 May at 7:30 pm.

Abelard Grad Vitalik Buterin Makes Internet Headlines

 

Congratulations to Abelard’s beloved Vitalik for the accolades he’s getting on his exciting software projects! Read more about him in Wired or Forbes. You can also watch him giving a presentation at Bitcoin Miami 2014 on youtube! We’re proud of you, Vitalik!

Eight Days in Paris

A Travel Diary by Noa M.

From the first day of grade nine, each student has heard of the Paris Trip. To them, it seems a distant and almost allegorical event. It is spoken of so often with such nostalgia and wistfulness that they consider it to be a state that they will never achieve. Indeed, as a ninth grader, I too believed that I might never experience such a trip. The classes felt too difficult, the weeks and months too long. As a ninth grader, grade eleven felt almost as far away and imaginary as the trip itself. That year was one of the years in which the grade eleven and twelve French classes travelled across the world together for a week of Parisian splendour. I remember seeing the poster for the trip for the first time and envisaging what it would be like when it was my turn. I’d hazard a guess that we all did.

Abelard at SPUR Festival 2014

Senior Students Spend the Day in Special Lectures at the University of Toronto

Last Friday, many of our Grade 11 and 12 students participated in the SPUR Festival‘s Young Scholars Program, through which they attended a series of special lectures at the University of Toronto. The lectures covered a range of topics, from Mathematics to the Cold War to the Mind-Body Problem. They were delivered by a host of excellent speakers drawn primarily from the U of T community, though among them was former Mayor David Miller.

The Young Scholars Program was designed to give high school students a chance to experience a unique day of learning at the University of Toronto, and to participate in lectures and discussions on topical issues. Abelard was thrilled to be invited and hopes to take part again next year in such a wonderful experience.

SPUR Toronto ran from April 3 – 6. SPUR Calgary will take place April 25 – 27.

The Divine Puzzle of the Human Enigma

An essay by Malcolm Kennedy, Grade 11

The story Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville is an Everyman story in its premise of divine intervention in the life of a man set in his ways, but it is more human and more untidy in its conclusion than the primarily binary outcomes of the Morality Plays. Bartleby paints a beautiful but ultimately tragic story of a man’s encounter with an impassable barrier around the character Bartleby, and of the consequences of being trapped outside of it as well as in.

Abelard Welcomes New Physics Teacher

It is with fondness that we say goodbye to our previous Physics teacher Dr. Scott Beattie, who is leaving the Abelard School to pursue a permanent research position at the National Research Council in Ottawa. Dr. Beattie has been teaching part-time at Abelard for the past two years, while conducting post-doctoral research at the University of Toronto. While we’re sad to see him go, we wish him much success in his new role.

Replacing Dr. Beattie is Chris Luciuk, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto and a member of Dr. Beattie’s former laboratory group in the Department of Physics.  Mr. Luciuk is working towards his PhD in Experimental Physics, and looks forward to sharing his passion for science and inquisitive thinking with his Grade 12 Physics students.

Welcome to the Abelard School, Mr. Luciuk!

The Abelard School at George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight

Senior Students Attend a Taping of CBC Talkshow

On Wednesday, 5 March, the Grade 11 and 12 students took a walk down to the CBC headquarters on Front Street to attend a taping of George Stroumboloulopoulos Tonight. A full audience was there to hear interviews by former Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive songwriter and guitarist Randy Bachman, as well as speed skater and four-time Olympic medalist Charles Hamelin.

The Ranger

Fiction by: Matt Pilgrim, Grade 12

The first sound to enter your ears will be the light jingle of metal complemented by the heavy, determined trod of hard heeled riding boots. Then you will hear the revolting noise of someone who is free from the burdens of hygiene gathering a fat wad of phlegm from the back of their throat before contemptuously flinging it at the floor.

Sound Lake

Fiction by: Jared Rand, Grade 12

Up in the north is a place that my parents called Sound Lake. We used to go there every summer when I was just a kid. I used to play on the beach while my parents watched me. I didn’t have a care in the world. This year, when I came back without them, Sound Lake was not as much a paradise as it had been.