Saturday, July 24, 2010

Edu what? Edu who?: Prelude to a Blog

I know what you're thinking: The world needs another blog like it needs another Gulf Oil Spill. The relative ease of Internet access and social networking have welcomed every man, woman, and child with a keyboard and wi-fi signal to share their 2 cents with the world. That has many Internet seekers saying, "Keep the change."

After all, running a blog used to be an eclectic activity reserved for beatniks at used book stores ranting about how mass coffee shops made drinking macchiatos less cool. It wasn't hard to understand why the local corporate-media owned newspaper wouldn't run such a story, but man was it good reading and presented a unique perspective. Now the neighbor's 12 year old daughter has a blog complaining about how boys are gross.

Dare I venture into this minutia? I yes I will.

You see, this blog will endeavor to be different. It will be different because its goal will not be to fiercely advocate one sided, myopic positions or to provide political talking points. It will not be an exercise in punditry. It will not be a platform for lobbying. It will not tell you the best place to score some really good Thai Food. That daunting task will be left to my friend Marcus Collins, who will probably swear on the bible that No Thai in Ann Arbor, Mi is the only Thai joint on Earth.

No, this blog will do none of those things. Instead, it will make you question; challenging assumptions of both conventional and unconventional wisdom. It will not leave you with "The Answer" to solve all of the problems in K-12 Education. It will make you ask questions, and be a springboard for you to have dialog with your co-workers, friends, church group, book club, and perhaps even mortal enemies and ex-husbands. It may even challenge your personal beliefs and force you to re-evaluate your own position.

I created this blog out of a frustration with media, both local and national, on lacking substantive conversations about the state of education in this country. Hell, forget substantive, I'll take more than a day or two of news cycle coverage. As you read this, consider what you've seen over and over (and over and over) in the media: Sherry Sherrod, Tea Party, NAACP, Racism, BP, Gulf Oil, Mel Gibson, the iPhone 4; all of those stories have gotten massive amounts of coverage.

Yet, when was the last time a story, any story, about education got more than one segment in a news cast. In our local media here, most of the education news centers around Robert Bobb and the on-going scandal ridden Detroit Public Schools. Last year it was revealed that DPS students scored lower on standardized tests than all other big cities in American. All of them. That, at least, sparked some outrage, spawning the creation of a volunteer reading tutor cadre numbered in the thousands. Now fast forward to present day and what do we have? The usual crew of agenda driven adults arguing over who will appoint the next occupant of a finely adorned executive suite in the Albert Khan building. All the while, students miles away in neighborhood schools continue to be ill-served by the system.

Indeed, this blogger believes, those concerned citizens are having the wrong fight. They are fighting so viciously because their arguments have so little substance. I find that the most bitter, vitriolic arguments seldom do.

So now here's my shot at giving this debate more substance, more beef. More Chauncey Billups, less LeBron James. Here's my spiel on education, my EduSpiel.

This blog will bring you under reported topics, revisit old debates, and create new debates on the state of K-12 education in our community. And, it is my hope, that through my writing, and your responses, that our dialog becomes much richer, and ultimately better serves the children who so desperately need more than what they are getting.

New Blog entries will be released every Sunday morning. Please log on, read, ask questions, and extend the conversation to your friends and colleagues. And yes, even to your neighbor's 12 year old daughter who still thinks boys are totally gross.

Welcome to the EduSpiel Blog.

Log on next week to read: Obama: The Disruptor-In-Chief.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for inviting others to your link. I'm very interested in the dialogue that arises from the topics that you post. I hope this sparks an interests for others to begin talking and planning for action to make a change within this community.

    Shiseida

    ReplyDelete