This opinion piece from Garris Landon Stroud, a Greenville, Ky., teacher and a Kentucky State Teacher Fellow, appeared recently on Education Post.
If I had a nickel for every time a school official uttered the phrase “unprecedented times” in the past year and a half, our schools wouldn’t need the American Rescue Plan.
But you know what isn’t unprecedented? Animosity towards those school officials and the systems they represent. And it’s heating up again, just in time for the holidays.
This time, the debate isn’t even over a specific critique of public education; it’s about who should be able to point out the shortcomings of school systems at all.
Does someone really have to be an educator to have an opinion on education? Because if you ask some of the teachers who chimed in, they’ll tell you that it’s classroom experience or bust. “This world has too many armchair quarterbacks,” one teacher argued. “Why not come get your hands dirty before you criticize?” another educator questioned.
And as fallout from this debate continues to occupy my timeline, I’m calling for a ceasefire.
The act of educating young people is a symbiosis between families and schools—a delicate and sometimes complicated dance. At the end of the day, schools are tasked with providing a service for students and families, which makes their satisfaction the ultimate charge. No school leader wants to deal with criticism, obviously, but this arrangement means that dissent should be fair game whenever it does arise.
In other words, if education is a public service, then the public should get a say.
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I didn’t have any expectations concerning that title, but the more I was astonished. The author did a great job. I spent a few minutes reading and checking the facts. Everything is very clear and understandable. I like posts that fill in your knowledge gaps. This one is of the sort.