A TEACHABLE MOMENT
Juno award winner gets a blast from his classroom past
Simon Ward, the Strumbellas’ lead singer, was a supply teacher at Bowmore Road P.S.
Hila Dapaach knew the song from the radio that plays on his school bus.
Noli Wilson knew it from the radio at home and would sing along when the teacher played radio station Indie88 in class. But when Canadian band the Strumbellas’ hit song “Spirits” came on one day in March, teacher Jeffrey Munroe asked this Grade 7 class at Toronto’s Bowmore Road Public School if they knew who the singer was — the guy with the beard whose band won a Juno and just rocked the Jimmy Kimmel show. They had no clue. Bombshell: It was their old supply teacher Mr. Ward.
“He taught us how to throw a football,” recalled Jake Young, 12.
Added Noli, “He was pretty nice to us all.”
It’s just that they didn’t recognize Simon Ward with his new trademark hipster beard.
Then this small special education class showed spirit of their own. Munroe helped them send Ward a video greeting full of questions about something they’ve been talking about in class; how to keep trying when your goals seem out of reach. How not to give up. How to take risks — the good kind.
To their surprise, the rising music star wrote them back, answering each of their questions and adding a breezy 26-second video greeting from the streets of New York City.
“I was flattered they were asking me for advice — actually, that anyone would ask my advice,” recalled Ward in an interview from his home in Lindsay, Ont., where he is preparing for an international tour to launch the band’s third album, Hope.
“And I recognized some of the students on the video! I have a special place in my heart for Bowmore because they kept booking me back when I was a supply teacher.”
The band was starting when he was a teacher — “Don’t tell the principal, but I might have written a song in the staff room” — and he finally faced a crossroad: teaching contract or fulltime musician?
“It was a tough decision, but I knew if I didn’t take the risk, I’d miss that chance.”
With the growing focus on student mental health, Munroe has been encouraging his students to feel confident enough to take chances, to try things in life that may seem daunting but could pay off — from making a new friend to trying out for a team.
“I want to help them believe in themselves enough to take positive risks, even when other people tell you it can’t be done,” said Munroe.
That’s exactly what Ward went through on his trek to stardom.
“In the beginning, we played farmers’ markets and house parties for free; there were six of us in a minivan playing to empty bars across the country,” Ward recalled. “We all almost lost hope. The band took a long time to get a name for itself, but we kept doing it.”
Eventually, they were winning awards and playing on American talk shows.
“That was my message to the kids,” said Ward, 33, who is married and has two children aged 5 and 2.
“You need patience, but it can happen.”