The Peter Principle Writ Large
The Globe and Mail Editorial concludes — large school boards, not only in Vancouver — “the bigger they are, the more troublesome they become. “ Brilliant!
School boards per se are not a problem. It’s only as they grow in size and complexity when problems start compounding. Foreseen 40 years ago this effect was dubbed the Peter Principle — “Anything that works will be used in progressively more challenging applications until it fails.”
Ironically it was actually the Vancouver School Board where this model bloomed and provided the raw research material. Laurence Peter was a teacher and counselor for 25 years at VSB, Excelsior City School Board in the book, The Peter Principle, which soon became an international best seller.
The book elaborated on offshoots of the basic principle and most of us are more familiar with this observation — “In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” Given the latest fiasco (firing of the Board and 6 staff away on leave) I would say that VSB has definitely reached its highest level of incompetence yet!
[comment on Globe & Mail Editorial, Schooling the Vancouver School Board (A BC education) Oct 20, 2016 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/schooling-the-vancouver-school-board/article32448375/ and sent ase letter to the editor.]