I voted for Reagan, and I voted for Bill Clinton. There were good points, as well as some not so good points, about where each one stood on the issues. In other words, I vote for whoever can do the job I believe needs to be done. I feel the same way about LinkedIn and the many discussions available to teachers, administrators and education in every forum and group. I support LinkedIn for the wide swath of subject matter it has brought to the floor. I think LinkedIn provides a wonderful forum for all of us to voice our grievances. That being said, I think grievances are now outweighing solutions and that is when I must make a move, particularly when fielding all problems that are school-based. I don’t intend to move out of LinkedIn as it is entirely too popular a venue to extricate myself from. I mean it is time to put forth ideas (solutions and alternative strategies) that I believe people are looking for, but that are not forthcoming. If they were forthcoming, we would not continue to have these same discussions. Teacher forums are unusual in that they are a little like soap operas. You can leave for years, return, and pick up right where you left off with the bickering, arguing, complications, intrigue and non-resolution of major issues. At least in the soap opera, a bad guy dies off every now and then.
Teacher groups: I love them. I love the teachers and I love they want to make teaching better. Count me in! But more correctly I love the headlines. What I don’t love is how well they go for about two to three days, then it happens. Someone says something, another person disagrees, personalities come into play and next thing I know is that the discussion goes dormant with no apparent solution being proposed. I say apparent because some very good, knowledgeable and affable people believe they have offered up solutions, but these are usually theoretical ideas, not easily and readily applicable solutions to right the wrongs of education. (Ok, there are a few good ideas, but these usually skirt the big issues and do not directly attack the problem.)
For those of you who have read my words, I pull no punches and I will not propose anything I do not believe in 100% or that I have not already put into practice in my own classrooms in the past. On that note, my thoughts and ideas will be in line with the philosophy that we need change, we need it now, and we will either be the solution or continue to limp along as part of the problem. None of us want that, but very few know where to begin the mechanism of change. It begins in us. What do we want? Once we know that, we can move forward and that is where I hope to lead you.
The Business of School offers the change we all want.