Our English teacher was boring and old but he was like smart, he was the head of the English department so he was so like, he was knowledgeable. Grade nine he like teaches us O-A-C stuff. We're in grade nine, he like retired.

Favourite teacher from high school. Oh, Mrs. Grewnowsky, I had this-this teacher for Grade ten science and then for Grade eleven chemistry and then for the second half of O-A-C chemistry and her name is Mrs. Grewnowsky and she came from Belarus, so, that's a Soviet Satellite State. So she's got like a thick Russian accent. And she was just really funny.

Least favourite teacher: okay who did I have that- oh I had a teacher named Mr. Drewry, for half- the first half of O-A-C chemistry. And he was just really bad. He couldn't teach, he was a bit of a- a hippie. So people were-like, "Oh yeah Mr. Drewry's really cool. I'm going-to have Mr. Drewry."

Speaker: And that's, I'm taking Chem one-thirty-nine, which is physical chemistry right now. So that's the half of the course that I, the half the year the OAC chem- the physical half that I took with Drewry.

Interviewer: Did you fast-track? Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: Okay. How'd you find that? Speaker: Um, it was, actually simpler than my grade- eleven year because in grade-eleven I took eight courses, and in grade-twelve, or grade-twelve-slash-O-A-C I took ah, six. So I was doing less work.

Yeah yeah yeah. I know what you mean. I did my um, my art project on him in O-A-C, so yeah. Um, when I was in Montreal I went to the museum there and they had this like, special exhibit of Janet Cardiffe or something like that. Did you ever see that? She does like audio stuff. It's really cool.

Like there were people sitting on stairs, yeah. It was- I think they said like one-thousand-five-hundred-and-fifty-some people, so yeah, it's pretty big. Um, and I went to a high-school that went from kindergarten to OAC and it had like seven- hundred-and-three people or something, so.

Interviewer: You chose Home-Ec over Geography? Speaker: No, it's not like that. It's, it wasn't, Geography was with Business. It was something like one Home-Ec course, or an additional English past, O-A-C? Like, not O-A-C, past grade twelve. Well I thought since I'm going into medicine I thought maybe I should take Nutrition. Yeah, but now I'm having second thoughts, I don't really know what I want to do.

Like people who did really well in high school, they might do really well. But they might not. Like the physicist, like the guy who's a physicist, he got seventy-fives in O-A-C, now he's getting ninties, ninties in university. He's like one of the top physics students. Just 'cause he's interested in it. If you go in something you're interested in. Like some of these engineers.

... but the English teacher was weird though. You'd really like him, like, I don't see how anyone could not. He's a doctor man! Doctor Pryor! Why is a doctor teaching English O-A-C? It's like.

Speaker: So then we should, giving some balance right? Why is Shakespeare taught every single year? Let's get different playwrites. I don't know. I think Shakespeare's great but. Interviewer: They need to teach Shakespeare last then. Speaker: Yeah yeah, O-A-C, you build up. Yeah, exactly, that's when you totally when you understand. Interviewer: Or maybe second last, we could have modern playwrites, have a little Samuel-Beckett. Why didn't do Samuel-Beckett?

Speaker: Grade-ten was just more like when um, when we are all like dirty rockers and got like chased around and Interviewer: yeah totally Speaker: threatened like everyday Interviewer: yeah, didn't Dan get initiated right to O-A-C? Speaker: probably Interviewer: yeah he did (both laughing) (inc)

Speaker: Not really good at the maths or sciences so journalism that type of stuff. It's my strong point I guess. English. Interviewer: Have you noticed anything different this year than in previous years? Speaker: In terms of what? Interviewer: I guess your- they- they've weeded out ah O-A-C now right? Speaker: Um there's still some O-A-Cs around. Like they're- they still kept some O-A-C courses around but more-or-less the majority of O-A-Cs are like taken like they got rid of them. Just like the main ones like there's Law O-A-C. There's still English O-A-C but just those main ones are still around but that's just for this year I think.

Have you taken accounting? I'm like, "No." She's like, "Have you taken business?" I'm like, "In grade ten, in French." She's like, "Have you taken math?" I'm like, "Yeah I took math." She's like, "Good. High-school math?" I'm like, "Yeah." She's like, "O-A-C math?" I'm like, "Yeah, even university math." She's like, "Okay then, can you start Monday? You got the job." I'm like, "Wow, this is great!" And they pay really well.

Interviewer: So you got a lot of attention? Speaker: Yeah, and I got to really know the teachers really well. And it 's just the spirit and the community and everyone was really friendly. It went from J-K to O-A-C so then I got to meet a lot of people who were younger than me like in grade five, six, and seven cause I really like getting along with kids. Um, they're really fun.

Interviewer: Did you get involved in a lot of activities cause it was- like it's a small community right? Speaker: Oh um, it's small, like the school's only nine-hundred people even though it goes from J-K to gra-- to O-A-C, but I think that their opportunities are tremendous. Like they have so many things, so many clubs, over forty clubs and um, every single sport like even rowing and tennis, and golf, and then there's like swimming, badminton, basketball, volleyball.

Oh, uh, basically cause that was the only thing I could get into at U-of-T if I wanted to major in something. Um, I wasn't really keen on the sciences like I liked biology- eleven that I took and I took chemistry up to O-A-C, but it wasn't really something that I enjoyed and it was really challenging for me so I'd have difficulties.

Interviewer: but I regret it 'cause it seemed like everybody was a part of it and it was something that everybody participated in Speaker: well yeah but not everyone, right but it got neat by O-A-C because then you had the music wing, right, your lockers were there, that's neat, bu-- personally I-mean I was a part of it but I never really got into it

Speaker: but it was nice just to be part of that wing and then you had the courtyard to Interviewer: yep Speaker: to yourself and a lot of people just hanging out, skipping classes to play cards and- but, um for me it was nothing special just because by O-A-C I was already very bored, I thought was eager just to go onto university already, meet new people, and-stuff, but ah so I worked at a cafeteria for a bit.

Interviewer: So like if there was somebody from your group and they wanted to go out on a date with someone from another group, it wasn't Speaker: oh yeah no you wouldn't even think twice, yeah no not at all and that's something, you-know it wasn't until O-A-C you that noticed oh yeah like these guys kind-of make up a group a segment of the population there