you're right, it isn't an excuse.

but you'd be surprised how many people still talk of the 'old ways', like people saying "at scarborough, this is how we did things, so that's how i'm going to do it". no one puts a stop to this kind of thinking because it is every-where.

barbara hall barely scratched the surface. but i'm glad she caught the whole in-crowd thing. if you want a promotion, or a good work performance assessment, you need to be a yes person to your supervisor. and your supervisor is constantly trying to get with the in-crowd so they can get their own promotion. it's insane. we've had a new org chart basically every year, but the names of the people don't change.

whether or not a school gets resources depends entirely if it is an "important" school or not. we spent hundreds of thousands on full day kindergarten in buildings that didn't need that level of because they were the 'right' schools that staff needed to pay attention to in order to curry favour with the trustees and even more senior staff. we cut corners at other schools and told them to make do because these other schools couldn't have their architecture harmed by full day kindergarten.

hell, everyone is chomping at the bit for a gifted class - either toronto has a lot of gifted children, or . . .. - but no one wants a special education class with "those" kids even though everything we don't have enough of them.

i've been at meetings with parents conveying information from my managers about what the province requires us to do based on their meetings with provincial staff to which we aren't invited or get to see minutes, only to find out from friends i'm lucky to have in the ministry telling me that the province requires us to do no such thing.

kids in toronto aren't guaranteed equitable access to education - you better hope your child lives in the 'right' community.

IMHO, their needs to be term limits on trustees and senior leadership. and senior leadership needs to have executive experience that goes beyond the classroom.