What to Do With a Voice

It has been said to me more than once recently that apparently my voice now carries weight in the educational community and that I should be prudent about how I use my words.

I find that fascinating on so many levels.

The idea of my voice having weight is somewhat amusing (particularly to my children).  I'm an elementary classroom teacher who blogs and shares my practices and continues to be the slow learner in the class when it comes to technology. There are dozens of incredible educators doing much more than I, not just with technology but in other disciplines. There are many teachers who incorporate technology who do not use the trial and error approach I have to because they actually have IT training.   The recognition I've garnered is fully due to naivete on my part as to the scope of projects I begin and the good fortune of having a skilled team to support my efforts. My practice is not very different from anyone else's. We have good days and bad days in my classroom and days where I can't find where I put a resource and lessons that don't go as well as expected and moments of downright dullness. (why blog about those?)  I'm usually the last one to hand in anything administrative and I occasionally screw up when I deal with a student. There are areas where I cut corners in teaching because there is simply not enough time to teach every subject effectively when you are a generalist teacher. I teach grade 6 Language, Geography, History, French, and Computers. I also teach grade 7 Language, Geography, History, Drama and Computers. It is not possible to teach every one of those well all the time. I see about 50 students every day, which means that on an individual basis, each student gets a few minutes of my time if they're lucky.

But I do care deeply about my students and I continuously attempt to improve my practice. I do document this changing practice on my blog and I do use social media strategically.  I like to seize opportunities and I'm not afraid to take very public risks. I know that there are areas in education and our social and political structures where we need to do better and I'm  willing to speak about them.  And so, this has garnered some attention and I now find myself with a "voice" and with some people saying, "You're so visible, you need to be careful."

I have to admit that on more than one occasion I have hesitated and not tweeted something that 10 months ago I would have had no problem tweeting.  And that I've hesitated and not tweeted irritates the heck out of me because if this move into social media serves anything, it's to create a space where all voices can be heard and no one should feel they must censor their words for political expediency as long as those words are spoken honestly with the goal of making things better.  And this includes occasionally saying the wrong thing, or speaking without full understanding or making a pointed remark or challenging an idea.  While learning and celebrating and sharing our successes via social media are important, we have this unprecedented opportunity to bring all voices to the table, to have honest conversations about strengths and weaknesses in our education systems and how we think they can or to need to be improved. Imagine how quickly things would change if we could set aside questions about our practices or ideas as challenges to be taken personally and instead were able to hear, "This isn't working, how can we do better?"

Open and public discussion of practices shouldn't be considered an impossibility. Many governments are moving towards open government where policy development and decision-making are done visibly and all voices have the opportunity to contribute and shape policy. Iceland stands out as a prime example.

The idea of a voice carrying weight is something to be mulled over. Who gives it weight? Not the user of the voice. It's a decision others make to give a voice credence.  Given that student voice has become the next step in the evolution of the Ontario education system, it is perhaps time for more teachers who experience the impact of educational policies, funding and practices not just as front line workers but as parents with children in the system to speak openly about our schools - both the strengths and the weaknesses - without fear of repercussions.

The idea that one should be afraid of using one's voice? That is just regugnant. What disturbs me in this is that the expression of this sentiment indicates a deep-seated fear. Of what? Public lynching, I suppose. It is scary when first venturing into a space of public conversation. When I began, I was very cautious.

Public challenge is survivable. I've been called out on my views of the ridiculous levels of wealth in some Ontario communities when there are students in others who can't afford the $13.00 to attend a year end trip or worse, buy food and also on a few poorly worded comments about some of the outdated practices in our high schools that I feel are leaving students woefully unprepared for the world they are going to enter. Some of this has been done through polite DM's. Some has been done through open, public comments on twitter as in , "Comment was offensive... personal vast generalizations not supportive". That's ok.  As my mom says, "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen."

The problem is, all of us need to be in that kitchen.  The challenges our country and our world are facing are too enormous for anyone to being staying out. If the youth of this world are willing to put their lives on the line in places like Libya and Egypt and Syria through social media in order to force the conversation, surely, we as very privileged Canadians are up to the challenge of saying what we think publicly.