Support specialized programs & schools made possible by optional attendance!

It is right way to provide diverse programs to suit different students’ demand. It’s biased to require every student to accept the exact same education programs.

This idea is not helpful in anyway. These art schools you would eliminate are very accessible to everyone in the city and if they were limiting then it would be because they don't have enough funding or space for more people to attend.

Please don't take away the special programs, I think that this idea is terrible.

Every student is unique. Every student deserves to have their full potential reached. If the special programs are phased out, then some gifted students won’t have their full potential reached.

I am appalled to think that there is a proposition in play that would remove these specialized and outstanding programs. It's reprehensible! These programs are exceptional and provide opportunities that the children enrolled in them would otherwise not have or their parents could ill afford. I struggle to comprehend the rationale behind this proposition. I will do everything I can to support initiatives that ensure these programs are not compromised or removed, and hope that this petition helps to make a difference in that regard.

I think they should stop with these "Good ideas"

I went to three different TDSB high schools. I was a failing and apathetic student until I got to ESA, where I excelled. Now, I'm a visiting artist there, and my eldest son attends the school. An arts-focused program has had a huge impact on my life and that of my family. Let's not make the specious argument that homogenaity equals equality. Not everyone is the same, and not everyone needs nor desires the same education. Torching specialized programs is the easy way out. TDSB, time to show leadership, time to be courageous: instead of the jejune and misguided notion that students grow the most when they are treated the same, let's acknowledge and undertake the far greater task of acknowledging they're all individuals, and a wide variety of programs provides better environments that embrace their individual growth.

We need specialized programs in are school

BRING BACK WATERFRONT AND SNAPCHAT

Privilege has nothing to do with it, my daughter worked hard to get herself to where she needed to be in order to attend ESA and she deserves to be in a program with like minded students. Isn't this what it means to provide academic programming to meet her needs? Her artistic needs can not be met in the same way at her home school.

I currently go to Etobicoke School of the Arts. My teachers, peers, and educators at this school have given me the ability to connect myself to the world around me, and have taught me important lessons that I will use for my entire life. Art programs give kids the ability to express themselves in an environment that is accepting, openminded, and creative. Specialized programs were created for a reason. They were created to give a space for kids to do the things that they love among people who share the same passions.

These are important to diversity

Don't do this

Claud Watson is a great school, kids enjoy it, parents like it, teachers are passionate. I believe that a centralized school like this is the most efficient and effective way to encourage kids with special interest in arts to pursue their dreams. On the contrast, a decentralized approach is obviously less optimal, and requires far more resources. For example, we need more teachers to cover an arts program scattered in many schools.

TDSB, Don’t do this!!

My children are artists. One attends one of these special schools and has blossomed being amongst people with like passions. The other wishes to spend her next 4 years of high school with similar experiences. We need to cultivate great artists to ensure innovation. A few schools dedicated to this passion has proven to have produced some of this country’s most respected artistic talent globally. Do not water down our greatness. If you want kids to have equal access reinvest in arts programs in mainstream schools but not at the expense of these specialty schools. It is one of the TDSBs advantages over private school systems

I spent 3 months of my life working hard to get in to a specialized program, and now that I am here, I don't want my hard work to go to waste.

My specialized art program is what will make me have a brighter future!

Although I’m not at an Arts school any more, specialty schools are so beyond important to nurture the talents of people who love and thrive in what they do. To take that away is crazy. It’s like trying to take away the voices of youth. This can’t happen.

Tbis is stupidity at it's finest