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TEMAGAMI WILDERNESS ACADEMY
Temagami, Ontario, Canada
Colin Rayner, Director of Admissions
905-632-9458
info@temagami.com
www.wildernessacademy.com
[Visit
Report from June 30, 2003]
By Lon
Woodbury, C.E.P.]
 Temagami Wilderness Academy is about four hours north of
Toronto, in the sparsely settled wilderness of northern Ontario.
We
drove
past an area of uncounted scenic lakes, a destination for
urban dwellers looking for prime hunting and fishing spots,
or to just get away from it all for a few days. The Academy
is on the banks of one of these lakes, 47 miles north of
the city of North Bay, and 13 miles south of the town of
Temagami. At first glance, it looks like a summer camp, because
for many years that was what it was. Specifically, starting
in 1965 it was an Outfitting Center, which over the years
started taking in student and corporate groups for retreats.
Participants would stay in rustic cabins dotted around the
property, with the prime ones being close to the lakefront.
In the center of the property is the main Lodge that currently
doubles as a dinning room, classrooms, and social center.
By 1998, short-term summer wilderness trips for struggling
teens were being based out of the Center, while continuing
with their mainstream clients. Three years ago they expanded
and began taking in children year round, augmenting their
structure and the healing aspect of the wilderness with the
addition of academics. Thus was born the Temagami Wilderness
Academy, a school for boys. At the present time they have
transitioned to working exclusively with struggling teens
and the property now serves both as a base camp for wilderness
expeditions and as a year round school. The wilderness expeditions
are a separate program and coed, but participation in the
wilderness program is a requirement before a student can
be enrolled in the Academy.
 During my visit, all the wilderness students were out in
the field, so I was exclusively looking at the Academy. The
boys looked like they were in various degrees of settling
in; some looked like they were reluctant to be there, others
seemed to be appreciative of the opportunity. They were polite
and cooperative, and several of them were doing better in
school than they had ever done before. Their style of dress
was pretty much the variety you would see with any group
of teenage boys, except the more shocking style of dress
is not allowed. The boys who had been there some time and
had demonstrated responsibility in the program were allowed
more latitude, such as to have their own music in their rooms.
There are outdoor activities every day and while we were
there, most of the boys enjoyed afternoon group swimming
excursions at one of the surrounding lakes.
The Academy follows the Ontario Education Ministry curriculum
and is fully licensed and accredited as a school by the Ontario
Education Ministry. This serves as the main regulatory agency
for the Academy; there are no Health & Welfare licensing
requirements for private programs in Ontario for teenagers
as there are for programs in the States. Academics are largely
one on one. The Academic Director, an accredited teacher,
works with the students to select the courses they need for
graduation and supervises their schoolwork. She functions
largely as a tutor, using standard textbooks and distance
learning resources. To speed up the process, they are expanding
their Internet access to bypass the delays that are inherent
in having their work sent through the mail to be scored by
the Education Ministry, as has been the case in the past.
 When justified, they use a satellite campus called the Blue
Demon for some of the boys. Although a person can drive there
over dirt roads, the best route is by way of a half hour
flight from Temagami, over countless lakes and spectacular
scenery, giving the impression of being in a very remote
place.
Two dynamic young people head the staff. Chris Hill took
over recently as school director after the popular previous
director was killed in a tragic traffic accident in December.
He has added Dawn Antonissen as Academic Director. She was
raised in the area, is an Ontario Education Ministry accredited
teacher and has had international teaching experience, mostly
in Latin America schools. Although new to their jobs, I was
impressed by their grasp of the issues that come from working
with struggling teens, and their energy in relating to the
young men. They seemed to be rapidly getting on top of some
of the problems that had developed during the painful transition.
The appropriate student for this school is one who has had
some mild behavior problems, and/or is floundering back home
or in traditional schooling. Teens who are oppositional,
have serious clinical problems, or are violent would not
be an appropriate match. The school is not geared to work
with these more difficult boys, but they can help boys who
are floundering, making poor choices and needing structure
and direction.
Being located in Canada gives them both advantages and disadvantages.
A major advantage is that compared to similar programs in
the States, their tuition is quite inexpensive, due to the
favorable rate of exchange between the American and Canadian
dollar. The disadvantage is that Temagami lacks a pool of
potential staff members who have experience working with
struggling teens in a private school setting. When a school
for struggling teens in the States has a staff vacancy, they
can choose from several people who have had years of experience
working in comparable private schools and programs. In Canada,
due to the difficulty of obtaining a Green Card, Temagami
is mostly limited to Canadian citizens, whom they have to
train from scratch. In many ways, Temagami is having to reinvent
the wheel, and compares to where State side programs were
in the 1970s and 1980s. |
