In the days of yore, I used to digitally accost education beat writers and other reporters for the way they covered issues impacting schools. Way too often in discussions about education policy, students and teachers are the subjects of the reporting but absent from it. When writing about legal matters, reporters quote attorneys. When writing about medical matters, they cite doctors or medical researchers. But when it comes to education, the voices of practicing teachers are almost always absent.
Instead, they talk to economists, legislators, even hacks like Liv Finne at allegedly “non-partisan” “think-tanks” (I put both terms in quotes because non-partisan ≠ non ideological and because the amount of thinking that goes on at the Washington Policy Center is debatable). Ideologues get column inches but teachers aren’t worthy. That paradigm never sat well with me and being the (occasional) brute I am, I’d make it my business to call it out.
My Twitter fingers have been quiet for a minute now but I am asking you to call this nonsense out whenever you see it
You’ll never get what you don’t ask for—each one of those resulted in a response from the publication. The Seattle Times story about the Tacoma strike was updated to include quotes from local teachers; Crosscut added State Teacher of the Year, Lyon Terry, to the panel at their event; The Times later published my op-ed offering a differing perspective about pending teacher evaluation legislation.
If I took the time to go for people’s necks about excluding teacher voices in the past, it makes sense to give flowers when they’re due today. Anne Helen Petersen, wrote this week about the burden of school spirit days and themed dress weeks/months in elementary schools. As a teacher in high school much of this was (thankfully) foreign to me. I don’t have a dog in the fight—I can’t be bothered with dressing up for Halloween, forget about the “100th day of school” or “Bling in the Holidays.” It all sounds exhausting and a distraction from the business at hand. But I’m bringing this up to highlight how Helen Petersen covered the issue. In setting up her story she wrote the following:
Still, I knew my annoyance was missing some vertical and horizontal contextualization…. I also knew that these days were meant to engender community, infuse the school day with some level of joy, and incentivize attendance — all things most schools are desperate for, particularly post-Covid shutdowns….
For today’s post, I asked educators to offer that context. The sampling you’ll find below comes from 150 responses from all corners of the country, in all types of schools, at all different levels, and with different levels of animus or apathy towards these days.
Look how easy that was: she saw an issue in schools that she knew was fraught in some circles. She sought input and context from educators and then shared their stories. If we can do this when it comes to themed dress days, then we can do it around compensation, evals, authoritarian book bans, and the myriad other issues facing schools. It’s a matter of taking the time and valuing teacher voices.
Publications and individual journalists respond to pressure. It’s often an oversight, rather than malice. If you find yourself reading a story about schools but ignoring the people who work in them, I encourage you to call it out.