Back to school in Toronto, vintage edition

Heading back to school after the summer break is always a day of mixed emotions for kids. I recall bursting to tell my friends about my summer vacation and which Sega games I had completed while simultaneously dreading the prospect of being trapped in a tiny classroom for much of the next ten months.

Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of Ontario school kids went through the same time-honored tradition of traipsing back into the classroom for the first day of the new academic year, so what better time to round-up vintage pictures of Toronto's schools.

You will most likely recognize many of the buildings shown here since so many of them are still in use. There's a common design thread linking all of the structures - many of the schools built in the early part of the 20th century are, frankly, terrifying in their institutional grandeur. There's no chance kids looked forward to a nose-blowing class (yep, it's real) in the middle of winter at any of these institutions.

Shots of the classrooms, however, don't seem half as scary. Sure, there's a sense of strict discipline, but the outdoor classes at Victoria Park Forest School can't have been so bad. Some of the creative classes look fairly decent, too. That said, the thick coats and hats some students wore indoors in one of the classroom shots make it seem like winter education was something of a drag. I'm glad I could take the furnace at my school for granted.

IN THE CLASSROOM:Students take part in an auxiliary art classBoy caning a chairHealth inspection by the school nurseBoy taking an auxiliary mental test with shapesMimico school band pose for a photographStudents take part in a public nose-blowing class in 1913Mr. Brown's outdoor art classAn outdoor class at Victoria Park Forest SchoolPuppet making classOutdoor classes in fallA chilly classroom in winterStudents drink up all their milk, like good little kids

EXTERIORS:Adam Beck Junior Public SchoolAgincourt CIAllenby Public SchoolBroadview Avenue SchoolCharles G. Fraser Public SchoolCrawford Street Public SchoolDanforth TechDuke of Connaught Public SchoolEarl Beatty Public SchoolEarl Grey Public SchoolEdith L. Groves Public SchoolGivens Street Public SchoolHarbord Street Public SchoolHillcrest Public SchoolHuron Street Public SchoolIslington School HouseThe original Jarvis CI buildingKent Public SchoolLeslie Street SchoolMalvern Public SchoolNorthern Secondary SchoolParkdale Public SchoolRiverdale CIRosedale SchoolToronto Junction High SchoolVictoria Street Public SchoolWestern TechWilkinson Public School

Images: City of Toronto Archives