So, I have been the youngest person in the room ever since I finished college. This is both a blessing and a curse.
It is a blessing in the fact that I can claim that I never taught without blogging. It is a curse in the fact that my life experience is so sufficiently small that it seems almost inconcievable that I couldn’t have intelligent ideas about how to change schools. No matter how much I believe in what I am saying or how well I flesh out my ideas, my inability to look older is still a major flaw.
The best part, however, and the reason for my post is that because of the way I look, speak and write, people tend to push me harder than others. I have had more push back on my thoughts than any other time, and I have lost more sleep this weekend in thinking through the issues that I most care about.
It is beautiful to be challenged on the merit of your work.
My session went well, but it only went well because I was able to put ideas out there and see if they stood on their own. I want more of this. I want to be able to have more opportunities to react to well developed thoughts and questions.
This weekend, to me, was about taking the time to let our work stand for itself. This weekend was about thinking about what is going on in our schools and seeing if it holds water. It is about pushing back from all sides and seeing what is pushed up in the process.
The question I really want to ask is this: How can we ensure that all perspectives are pushing equally? How can we get all of the voices in the room to test what we are talking about? If we only have some people pushing, ideas get pushed down. If we only question the ideas we don’t agree with, the ones that we value will never grow.
So, whatever you read on my blog, tell me I am wrong.
Push me to be better. I want to be better.
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@Ben
I was able to attend your session. It was great. With the democratization you speak of regarding ideas i think it is important to be critical that not all ideas are as valuable as others. If I want an opinion about how to fix my car the opinion of a mechanic is more valuable than that of florist. In education every teacher has an opinion. I don’t think they are all of equal weight. I care much more about what great / good teachers think than the sage on the stage tech scared worksheet kings. I agree everyone should be heard but some should be heard and quickly ignored. I don’t mean to be harsh but if someone hasn’t done the research and thinking to bring merit to their idea they should be ignored.