24th March 2006

Getting Mad about Educational Wrongs

posted in digitalstorytelling, leadership, literacy, politics |

Miguel Guhlin has posted some passionate words about the need for educators to “get mad” and take action for the sake of the children we work and live with each day in our era of high-stakes, fear driven accountability.

In addition to getting mad, we need to reframe the debate in a discussion that is not focused just on NCLB. We need to talk with each other and our fellow educational constituents (at all levels) about the classrooms in which WE WANT to teach, and in which our students want to learn. This was one of Dr. Janet Swenson’s major points in her keynote address at the SITE conference this week in Orlando. During Joe Lambert’s dialog following his keynote on digital storytelling, we discussed the idea of having an NPR “This I Believe” style show created on the theme, “I Believe in Teachers.” People from around the nation and globe could share teacher impact stories about how teachers (and other mentors who may not have been in a formal teaching role) have made a positive difference in their lives. If you know someone at NPR, please suggest this to them!

If you have feedback for Janet on her ideas, you can contact her directly by emailing jswenson at msu dot edu. I think it IS time for more of us speak out. Dr. Angela Valenzuela’s blog, “Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas,” is another excellent place to go to stay up on issues we should be advocating about in education.

For too long, we have turned our backs and swallowed hard when it comes to education. The more we do that, the easier it becomes to tolerate injustice and actions that threaten to steal a future of great potential away from the children of our nation and world.

They deserve better, and so do we.

On this day..

This entry was posted on Friday, March 24th, 2006 at 12:17 pm and is filed under digitalstorytelling, leadership, literacy, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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