Don't send your kids to University of Toronto Schools. That's what a relative warned a few years ago. So what if for nearly a century UTS has taken the smartest kids in the city and made them smarter? So what if it has produced 20 Rhodes scholars, two Nobel laureates and a passel of corporate chieftains like John Tory, Charles Baillie and Peter Godsoe?
"It's too Chinese," my relative said. "The parents will be demanding. The Chinese kids will hang out together. No one will volunteer for anything."
UTS today is so Chinese some people now call it a "Chinese school." School officials and students estimated that 40 to 50 per cent of its 625 students are ethnic Chinese.
I made a few assumptions based on my experience at other Toronto high schools. Chinese is spoken in the hallways. Chinese New Year is the blowout holiday of the school year. The sports teams suck.
Wrong, wrong and wrong. Valentine's Day is big. Chinese New Year is ignored. And while you might hear Latin, French or German in the halls, you never hear Chinese. "We speak English here," says Kim Zhou, 17, who was born in mainland China. "We're basically Canadian."
As for sports, students of Chinese heritage at UTS tell this joke on themselves: What's the definition of an Asian six-pack? Answer: Three maths, three sciences. Ha ha -- everyone takes math and sciences.
But Jeff Kennedy, the school's athletic director, says last year's star of the ice-hockey team was a kid named Doug Poon. This year, it's a kid named Ernest Chi.
"We're probably a microcosm of the ethnic makeup of the city," says Malcolm Levin, the principal.
In fact, UTS is not. It has few Hispanics, no aboriginals and two blacks. "Me and my sister," says Layusa Isa-Odidi, 17, who was born in Nigeria.
"I don't want to sound elitist, but we are a special school. There are no ethnic cliques," says Clarisse Siu, who doesn't identify herself as Chinese. "Not that I'm embarrassed. But I was born in Belleville." She rolls her eyes.
It turns out the Chinese contingent isn't Sinicizing UTS as much as the Chinese are being UTS-ified. Clarisse curls. Mackenzie Tan, the deputy student captain, or prefect, fences and plays guitar.
At many Toronto high schools, students tend to stick with their own racial group. Not at UTS. "When we do an experiment in physics and I tell the students to pair up, the choice of a partner is totally colourblind," says Ping Lai, a physics teacher. "That does not happen at other schools."
Still, questions about race make him and other teachers squirm. "I don't like this question," says Dr. Lai, who is one of only two Chinese on staff. "We never look at students that way. Our students are Canadian. This is a Canadian school for Canadians."
He suggests that foreign languages don't pose a barrier here the way they do at other schools. Although half of UTS students speak a language other than English at home, entrance exams ensure only linguistically qualified students get in. Applicants, mostly aged 11, have 15 minutes to answer 25 questions like this one: Amorphous is to shape as a) serpentine: snake b) anarchic: leader c) cordial: friend d) unusual: oddity e) colourful: tinge. (All you native speakers can find the correct answer below.)
UTS was founded in 1910 by the University of Toronto as a lab for its faculty of education. It offers Grades 7 through 12 and is called "Schools" because the plan was to have two. The girls school never materialized, though they've been admitted since 1973.
The castellated red-brick building on Bloor near Spadina initially catered to male WASPs from Rosedale, Moore Park and Lawrence Park. The bronze plaques at the entrance reflect that. All the UTS students who died in the First and Second World Wars have Anglo surnames: Adams, Aikins, Cunningham, Eaton, McCloskey, Stewart, Winchester.
By 1987, as immigration from Hong Kong and China to Toronto soared, Chinese accounted for 10 per cent of UTS. By 1991, it hit 20 per cent and, in the 2004 graduating class, 36 per cent.
Applications exploded after Ming Pao and other local Chinese newspapers wrote about UTS because the school's goal -- academic excellence -- meshed with Chinese immigrant aspirations.
The admissions committee briefly discussed the phenomenon, tried to counterweigh it by advertising heavily in other local ethnic newspapers, then moved on. Today, nearly one in every two or three successful candidates is ethnic Chinese.
The Chinese students may tilt the school toward the sciences. Three decades ago, about half of UTS graduates went into liberal arts. Of the 2004 graduating class, only 24 per cent went into liberal arts -- and only two of these were Chinese. But this may also be a sign of increasing competitiveness in general. Only one UTS student -- not a Chinese -- took a year off to travel.
Meanwhile, the parents have noticed the ethnic dominance, but aren't overly concerned. Will Goldbloom, 17, the student captain, or head prefect, says his parents have casually asked him if "most of your friends are Chinese." (They're not.)
Kim and Clarisse say their Chinese parents have actually advised them against having only Chinese friends. Mackenzie, the deputy captain whose parents are ethnic Chinese, says he doesn't speak to his parents at all, but in case anyone is wondering, his friends are mostly white.
A few parents draw the line, however feebly, when it comes to dating. Layusa's parents would like her to date a Muslim from Nigeria. "Which really isn't possible here," she says, adding, "I would date anyone I wanted to date."
Kim's parents prefer her to find a Chinese. "They specified a mainland Chinese," she says, blushing, as Will, Layusa, Clarisse, Katie and Mackenzie hoot and jeer.
Note to her parents: You may want to reconsider. Mackenzie is very cute, and he says he's free.
(Answer is B.)