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January 03, 2007

The right to speak

This post from Brett Pawlowski is highly important on many levels.  Main quote:

Clearly, being an educator or administrator by no means disqualifies one from participating in that discussion. But does it give you more authority or expertise? I don’t believe that it does. Identifying desired outcomes of public education is the public’s job; while educators can and should participate, it is not their role or right to direct the conversation. And as for determining the operating principles of education, I believe those should be based on what we know about successful organizations of any stripe – there’s plenty of data on the effective management of for-profit and nonprofit organizations for us to call on. In neither case does having classroom experience give you insight or an edge.

There's all sorts of other stuff in there that touches on issues I've addressed recently (particularly teacher autonomy) and stuff I've been trying to get to, such as the meaning of "public" education.  I hope to comment more soon.  In the meantime, read the whole thing.  (Hat tip: this week's Carnival of Education, hosted by Teaching in the 21st Century.)

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