Recipient: Dr. Eli Honig

Dr. Honig loves imparting knowledge. He began his teaching career at the university level and continues to teach at U of T as his schedule allows. When he went to CHAT he noticed immediately the difference in teaching high school students. He describes being able to see the evolution of a kid as he or she grows in high school as remarkable. To see the students growing, to see their minds operating and to see them ‘see the light’ compels him to keep teaching with excellence.

He loves building close relationships with his students and defines connecting with kids as “a wonderful satisfaction.” In order to keep his sanity amongst the high school population he remembers what HE was like at 16 and remembers that it is not the students fault that they are 16 now!!

Peter, a past student of Dr. Honig wrote these words of nomination:

Though it has been two years since I have had the pleasure and honour of attending Dr. Honig’s class, his lessons still inspire me to this day. Dr. Honig embodies the four characteristics (and many more) at the heart of this award: excellence, integrity, respect and innovation. Every time you see him teaching you can see how much pleasure he derives from helping his students understand. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to help or motivate a student not merely to be able to answer his latest quandary about Diamond Jim but to truly achieve, in the sense that achievement means understanding.

Dr. Honig’s humility and taking to heart the ancient adage of “I learnt much from my teachers, more from my colleagues, and the most from my students” demonstrated time and time again his respect for us, his students, as people. Our ideas and questions, of which there could be stupid ones, mattered deeply to him and it showed. To me personally, as a student with a double designation, learning disabled and gifted, he always tried to find different strategies knowing full well that the standard metrics were not enabling me to convey what I truly knew.