TOP STRIP (l-r): A very early, hand-tinted “portrait shot” of UTS. Moving full circle, the same building nearly 100 years later. Happy Birthday UTS!
won first prize in the prestigious Canadian Math Olympiad. He hoisted the huge Olympiad trophy in the air while the assembly roared the day’s first standing ovation. What many in the audience might not have known was that Jonathan’s plan after he finished grade 11 was to bypass grade 12 and at age 17 head straight to MIT. During the science awards – chemistry, physics, biology – a teacher announced that UTS was now the number-one physics school in the province. A mob scene of science prizewinners clogged the stage. Many held up the University of Waterloo T-shirts they’d just been awarded. Then came the literary awards: prizes for kids who had contributed to the Show, Twig, Cuspidor, SOMA, the play, Lip Synch, DECA, MUNA, Reach for the Top, the debating society, Echo, hip hop,
UTS 1910–2010 In September 1910, the doors of the new University of Toronto Schools were flung open for the first time and an eager cohort of students became the first in a long line of energetic youngsters to flood the hallways and fill the classrooms. Now, with pride in our enduring heritage and affection for our shared traditions, author Jack Batten ’50 reaches back through the first hundred years in the life of this singular and exceptional school to tell its story.
Do not miss out on this remarkable history of UTS. Pre-order your copy today! Special early bird rate: Pre-order by December 31, 2009, and you’ll pay only $45 (plus S&H)! After that the price will be $50. Order from: www.utschools.ca/centennialbook or 416-978-3919
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firefly, and countless other cultural activities. Ms. Robertson presented school keys to the four people, all boys, who had made the biggest contributions to the year’s cultural life. The sports prizes took no time at all. Just two awards: male and female athletes of the year. Sarah Coyne played basketball and volleyball, and Josh Butman ran track and cross country and played tennis. Ms. Robertson presented the Nesbitt Medals, among the oldest and most cherished UTS awards, given for students showing outstanding leadership, interest in extracurricular activities, athletic achievement, and everything else valued at UTS. Han Yan, the school captain, capped a magnificent school career by winning the gold medal; the silver went to Sinye Tang. Han delivered her school captain’s speech of farewell. She spoke of what she owed UTS. “The beauty of this school,” she said, “is the constant desire to always improve and continue the tradition of excellence in a constantly demanding world.” She thanked everyone she had met and worked with and played with in her six years at UTS. She thanked Ms. Robertson and her teachers, the junior kids and the seniors, and the administrators. “I dropped a tear in the ocean,” she said in the last sentences of her speech. “The day you find it is R the day I will stop missing you.” l This article has been excerpted from the forthcoming book UTS 1910–2010. Jack Batten ’50 has been a freelance writer for more than 40 years. He has written 36 books – including UTS: 75 Years of Excellence (1985) – on a wide range of topics: from sports to crime fiction, from the legal profession to a history of The Annex. In Guidance class at UTS during Jack’s grade nine year, the boys were asked to write an essay on an occupation they admired. Jack wrote his essay on journalism. “If I got anything right at UTS, it was in my choice for the future,” he says.