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Gabriel Chazan
Web Page: http://www.dragonacademy.org/ |
| Profile: Gabriel Chazan currently attends The Dragon Academy, a private school in Toronto. He likes to write, watch movies, draw and read. | |
Posts by the author:
Shutting Up And Listening
February 24th, 2010 | Comments | Posted in Blog, Education, Music, School Life, School's Out by Gabe
A while ago, I was reading the New York Times arts section and I came across something amazing. A write up of a play preformed by a cast of young adults that sounded fascinating, vibrant and wonderful called Once and For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen (yes, it’s a mouthful). I immediately thought “I must see this show!” but it was showing in New York and closing on that Sunday and I was going to have to miss it. Then in what I guessed was to be a futile attempt, I searched the play’s title and Toronto on Google and then HARK it was coming to Toronto in a month for its final run at the Harborfront. Well, I made it out and saw it and I wanted to post some thoughts.
The show is like nothing you’ve seen. From when you get into the theater and are handed a pin showing a hand giving the middle finger to when the lights go up, it is a surprising and enlightening experience. The play is basically a series of variations on one scene, recess and one question what happens when kids are free to play featuring a chorus line of adolescents. After the first time we see this scene, it is repeated again and again with the addition of various elements: sex, drugs, absence, ballet, anger, fulfillment. It has a fierce energy featuring a pumping soundtrack (the theater literally shook).
The day after I saw the play I was eating lunch at my school when I saw two kids fiercely dancing around with a leopard skin blanket. I smiled and thought back to a scene in the play where the same thing pretty much happened and I thought “for better or for worse, this show got it. This IS what its like. Down to the last detail. Everything is invoked” It was worth shutting up and listening for what I learned from (finally) seeing a truthful representation of adolescence.
Tags: absence, anger, art, ballet, drugs, fulfillment, New York, private school, school, sex, theatre, TorontoSchool Books
December 11th, 2009 | Comments | Posted in Education, Private Schools, School Life, School's Out by Gabe
As the holiday season fast approaches and the winter cold descends, looking for good books is a quest that grows more and more important. I thought I would recommend a few books that I found wonderful which are about the experience of school (which is after all, what this blog is about).
The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger: If you want to even start to talk about books about schools, you have to mention The Catcher In The Rye. This book is great and still holds resonance today (despite what anyone says.) You have to read this book.
Looking For Alaska by John Green: I took this book out from the library on a whim and was blown away. I read for a sleepless night until I finished this book. It is a furiously compelling book about what happens after a boy is sent to boarding school and his experiences there both falling in love and dealing with tragedy. I can’t recommend this book enough.
Prep by Curtis Sittenfield: This is another book about an experience in a boarding school, in this case unlike with Looking For Alaska, that of a female protagonist. The book is well written and quite entertaining. A while after I read it, I met a girl who had previously attended a wealthy school much like the one in Prep. The experience of her time in the school were astoundingly alike to those in Prep.
The War At Ellismere by Faith Erin Hicks: Speaking of boarding schools, this graphic novel about teen rivalry is unbelievably wonderful. With great characters, great art and a killer use some of the dialogue from Romeo And Juliet, I would highly recommend this book.
MirrorMind by Tory Woollcott: A really good graphic novel on coping with dyslexia. Highly recommended.
Escape From Special and A Mess Of Everything by Miss Lasko-Gross: One day I was browsing at the library when I saw a book about a girl’s trouble changing to private school. I thought “this will probably be cliched and kind of boring.” I was bowled over by its honesty and power. This graphic memoir begins in its first volume, Escape From Special which is about about Lasko-Gross’s early years growing up and feeling alienated and feeling ‘different’ after being sent to a private school. The second volume details her use of drugs, beginnings of publishing comics and trouble when she learns one of her friends is anorexic. These two books are literally the best and most true things I have ever read about the experience of adolescence.
NOTE: this ended up having a focus on books on boarding school which is funny as I’ve never gone to a boarding school. Perhaps it is the differences between private day-schools and private boarding schools that is interesting to me and that is why I’ve leaned toward those books.
I didn’t provide links to buy the books but if you would like to know where to buy them I would recommend:
FOR COMICS: The Beguiling (601 Markham Street – Toronto, Ontario, Canada) which is an amazing store with an awe-striking selection.
FOR NOVELS: If you’re in New York go to The Strand! Really good deals, really cool place. If you’re in Toronto, I recommend Mable’s Fables or The Flying Dragon or BMV.
Thanks for reading.
Gabe Chazan
(for more writing on books by Gabe, check out his blog: readingbookwatchingmoviesandmore.blogspot.com)
The Dragon Academy: In Photos
It’s been a while since I blogged on here so I thought I’d reintroduce myself. I’m a student at The Dragon Academy, a private school in Toronto. I thought I’d give a quick update on the happenings at the school (because I think the best way to really learn about what a school’s like is by what actually goes on) by sharing some pictures I took recently.
So, first I thought I’d talk about an experiment we did in science class. It’s called the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment and the idea is that when you insert Mentos into Diet Coke, it produces a chemical reaction.
Field Trips…
One of the other aspects about The Dragon Academy are the relatively unusual field trips we do. The school calls its philosophy museum-based learning, which basically means we go to museums and other cultural institutions a lot. I remember once hearing that originally the school was going to be based in a museum but for a variety of reasons, it didn’t work out. Still, nonetheless, we go out of the school a lot.
We went to see The Reader which was a very good movie. Later on I was talking to someone who had just seen the movie and I said I had seen it with my school. I was greeted with a moment of shocked silence.
“You go to The Dragon Academy?!”
At my school, there is ongoing discussion about the awkwardness of when you are introducing yourself to people and having to say “I go to The Dragon Academy,” when they ask what school you go to.
I have heard of many instances where it was misconstrued for a school of Karate. A continual joke seems to be that it is a school of magic.
It is neither. It is “just” a private school. Although the school’s name is very far from what you would call a normal school name, I think that to be ‘normal’ at Dragon would be to be unusual, and the name is just an extension of that.
But that wasn’t the sole reason for the choice of name.