Camp Juku
Where Awesome is Possible!

Another of Mr. T’s rants . . .

Juku History: Interesting people doing interesting things.

As time passes, I start to get more nostalgic about the great students, teachers, and adults I’ve helped along the way. In the late 1980s, I started a software training school for adults that soon branched into a vocational college where the main diplomas were for Accounting, Administration, Computers, and Early Childhood Education.  We were helping adults get into the workforce.  By the mid-90s, with my oldest son hanging around the school, I started evening and weekend tutoring and daycare. He was 3 years old. Daycare was a no-brainer because I had a lot of adult education students who needed placement. I had locations at the Yonge/Eglinton Centre, Lawrence Square, and Midland/Finch in Scarborough. The tutoring grew very large, very fast, especially in Scarborough and Markham. Soon, I was off to the races and focused solely on tutoring and summer camps.

I have met some amazing teachers, like Graydon Hazenburg, MSc Harvard (AstroPhysics), who would teach any course I offered at any level.  He would be chatting with students well after his class finished.  And, he appeared on Jeopardy four times. Michael White, MA McGill (English), was with Juku for four years.  He developed much of the English curriculum, although his Math knowledge was very strong.  He later completed his PhD and is now a professor at Utah’s Brigham Young.  To this day, he is my best teacher.  Chrisoula Andreau, MA U of T (Philosophy), joined her boyfriend (Michael White) at Juku during a six-month break in her PhD program.  She is also a professor at Brigham Young.  She won the distinguished U of T Gold Medal as the top graduate student of her year.  Kenneth Lam (two MA’s, PhD), was an exceptional English teacher with Juku.  It took him 8 years to complete his PhD, then he landed a job in Europe as a Toronto Maple Leaf Scout. Ha.

More recently, while being in the dentist chair in Vancouver last November, I caught the Global Morning Show and the guest was one of my legendary teachers, Duanne Gibson (BA English).  He was promoting his children’s book, “Dream Big, Stay Driven”. He was exactly as I knew him 20 years ago.  He has visited over 5000 schools across Canada performing motivational rap lectures.  It helped that his mom was a high school principal.  Probably many of the current Camp Juku students have seen him.  He also holds the Guinness World Record for “Longest continuous rap”, 10 hours.  He did it at the Markham Fairgrounds.  With Juku, he ended all his classes with a rap with lyrics including every child’s name. Cool.

Last year’s guest Camp Juku teacher, John Dias B.Educ. MA (French), has been with Juku since grade 2.  He has written many children’s books and is currently promoting his new book,  Open Heart.  It is an autobiographical picture book (John did all the artwork) about his personal growth with having a sister, Lily, with Down Syndrome and other disabilities.  It is a touching yet humorous story about overcoming obstacles.  John is currently teaching for the YRDSB and has partnered with U of T and the Toronto Library System for a series of lectures.  The book was very poignant for me because I knew the whole family twenty years ago. I vividly remember how Lily would come in a wheelchair to support John’s studies. John’s teacher for three years was Mr. Gibson.

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