Chris Lehmann continued the discussion over at Practical Theory that started with my earlier post about the disclaimer added to the tagline of this blog. I appreciate Chris’ work as he writes about the Science Leadership Academy in Philadephia. He talks in this post about the questions some have about blogging, and concludes with this,
Any student who wants to come to SLA, any teacher who wants to teach here, could Google SLA, find this blog and learn a lot about our values, our process, and the thoughts (and ramblings) of the principal. With luck, that will be part of the process of enhancing our community and strengthening its values. If nothing else came of this blog, that’d be worth it.
Earlier, Christian Long posted at think:lab about this issue , including his tips for success with blogging. His suggestions are prudent and certainly ideas that I follow. However, I do think it’s okay to post first names of students and full names of other professionals when the post is positive in nature. Public recognition is a form of praise that we have much too little of in education.
Both posts listed above remind me again of a conversation I had with Will Richardson at the start of my blogging endeavor. We were talking about audience and I asked Will what will happen when I’m interviewing for a superintendent’s job someday and the interview team looks to my blog to see how I think about different issues. Will’s response, “they’ll hire you.”
I think of Will’s response often, and I keep on writing. Our schools need leaders who are willing to take a stand.
Love the way this conversation continues to build!
I recall for years my response to students who would ask, “How do I get an A on…?”. I would say, “If you don’t care about the topic, just follow my rules and don’t deviate at all from the expectations and stay neatly in the lines and be the very, very, very best at an average answer. In the real world, do all the same, but get ready to compete with 95% of the masses and only a few of you will get that A. On the otherhand, if you really care about the topic, than take a risk, break a few rules, but speak passionately, write passionately, and fight for your audience’s attention. You may ‘fail’ and create an awkward argument, but you can always fix that in time if you really care, or you may surprise yourself and write something that truly stands out. And then the A will be the smallest compliment you receive.”
Why do I bring this up?
Because like you, I, too, name students in a celebratory manner in my blog, and agree that there are moments when naming them (and colleagues) is the key to fostering powerful stories that change the world for the better. Both of you are correct to protect that right to name those you respect.
At the same time, just like I told my students who didn’t have that passion or instinct for an audience to simply follow the rules that were prescribed, I say the same thing to bloggers who are still uncertain what it is all about. Better to NEVER name anyone at your school until you know exactly what the trickle-down, ramp-up impact will be. A good way to cover your butt and not insult and not be taken out of context.
But, once you ‘get it’, then celebration by naming and linking is the currency of the blogosphere that really counts!
Cheers and thanks for the challenge and new ideas –
Christian
I’m with you… at the end of the day, we blog what we believe. If an employer were to print something out from PTheory and tell me they weren’t hiring me because of my beliefs stated on there, well, then I wasn’t the person for them. Conversely, I’ve had too many amazing instances of connection because of what I’ve written to think that, as long as I’m prudent, it could ever be a net negative.
“they’ll hire you.”
Much of my journal has to do with FLOSS – which most administrators (at this point in time) have no idea about. So in that regard, my writing likely has little to no effect on whether or not I’d be offered a teaching position.
However, every now and then I post something “controversial” like this. At first, I hesistated making such posts as many would write me off immediately. But then reason kicks in and I think, “I really wouldn’t want to work for anyone who would write me off for that anyway.”