Graduates, Parents, Families and honoured guests. It is with a joyful heart that I welcome you here today in person to celebrate the Class of 2022. I don’t know if this is the Class that will see the end of the pandemic but it is certainly the class that has brought us together again. Artist, […]
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Monday was an interesting day at the Castle as we encountered a small group of anti-mask and anti-vaccine protesters determined to share their opinion about our school policies. To quote one insightful Grade 5 student: “Why do they care what we do?” Thankfully, it was an uneventful protest but as I explained to students when […]
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The social upheaval experienced around the world over the past two years has been difficult to fathom and overwhelming to process. At times, we’ve felt numb to the sheer enormity of suffering we’ve seen and have struggled sorely to help our children make sense of the senselessness just as we, ourselves, have struggled. COVID seems […]
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It’s been a couple of decades since my own graduate work in sociology and education had me analyzing the world around us. This past weekend’s events almost caused me to pull out the old textbooks to read up on social change theory. I didn’t (to the great relief of my family) so let’s just agree […]
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It’s complicated. That’s what the Toronto District School Board failed to appreciate when it made a pro forma decision to remove two books from a TDSB supported book club for girls, thereby setting off a spectacular social media firestorm of debate. I find it ironic that a public board that talks a good equity game […]
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Edgar Degas once said, “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” That makes sense to me. I often find myself learning through art. It was music in the early 1980s that revealed the brutal injustice of apartheid, prompting me to learn more about the history of South Africa, of activists […]
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If I’ve learned anything from the past 18 months of COVID living, it’s the importance of being adaptable and self-aware. Just when I think we’ve turned a corner, another pot hole (or sink hole) appears in the road. It’s been frustrating to say the least, but it’s also reminded me of the need to be […]
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Dr. Foster’s Commencement Address to the Class of 2021 on Trafalgar Day: A few years ago – it was before COVID so it feels like more than a decade ago – we set out to create a new mission statement for our school. An organization’s mission is an important thing. It explains the reason that […]
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You were found in unmarked graves Acts of genocide Your precious lives taken With spirits so strong We heard your cries To go home Rest well little ones And fly high with our ancestors We will not forget you You are sacred By Leah Gazen, MP Winnipeg Centre I imagine her playing […]
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“Sugar and spice and everything nice….” You know the rest, don’t you? That message, delivered to girls from the time they understand the tacit meaning of pink and blue, underpins and undermines the long and frustrating fight for gender equality. “Choose to Challenge”, the campaign theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, reminds us that […]
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