In case you missed it, apparently some of my fellow Oklahoma bloggers and I have gotten under the remarkably thin skin of someone at the online publication, “The Middle Ground.”
In this article, Vitriol and Obscenities by Oklahoma Public Educators Blur Serious Debate, the author accuses Mid-Del Superintendent Rick Cobb (OkEducationTruths), Union PS teacher Dallas Koehn (BlueCerealEducation) and me of, “using notoriety they derived from the classroom to promote their partisan political ideology through internet and social media.”
Further, he states: “This network of #Oklaed bloggers is filled with insults, venom, hostility and vulgarity. In a line of work where the employees claim to pride themselves on professionalism, the rhetoric fails live up to the hype.”
The core message of his diatribe is that we, as professional educators, should check our first amendment rights at the door. In fact, the author implies we should face “legal ramifications” for sharing our views relative to public education which, I should add, is done completely and totally on our personal time.
Well, isn’t that special?
First of all, if you spend a few minutes on the “Middle Ground” website, you will quickly ascertain that their views are about as middle-of-the-road as those of Fox Commentator Sean Hannity. The Middle Ground is a mouthpiece for the right-wing Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA).
I suppose “View From the Extreme Right Edge” would have been a tad too wordy, albeit far more accurate.
Oops, there I go again using my notoriety to spread hateful and insulting rhetoric.
I apologize.
I just happen to be one of those people in the world that when I stumble upon a big steaming pile of festering crap I tend to say, “Hey look, there’s a pile of sh*t.”
And when some ignoramus makes unwarranted, hypocritical, or disingenuous comments about teachers, children, or public education I am likely to respond, “Hey look, there’s an idiot.”
Some things and some people simply do not deserve sugar-coating.
Contrary to what the writer at The Middle Ground believes, school leaders not only have the right to advocate for our students and schools on and off the job but, in today’s climate, we have an absolute obligation.
Speaking for myself, I write to help educate and inform readers about the often complex issues surrounding education and education reform. And, yes, I often use humor, creative satire, hyperbole, and ridiculous metaphors to make the content more engaging.
I have discovered in three years of blogging that most people don’t read boring stuff. I have the data to prove it.
I suspect the folks at the OCPA would prefer to have sole control of the internet and social media to spread their far-right propaganda. In their minds, all of us bloggers just distort the message and confuse people.
Without push-back from Oklahoma’s education establishment, it would be so much easier to dismantle teacher bargaining units, push through vouchers, eliminate local boards of education in favor of corporate directors, shutter local schools and districts, rewrite our state science curriculum, re-segregate our communities, and prop up private and corporate-run charter schools.
That’s not going to happen because we are not going away. On the contrary, my colleagues and I find this type of silliness rather inspiring.
What the OCPA and their sycophants at The Middle Ground need to realize is that Rick, Dallas, and I represent just a small segment of the passionate, courageous, and outspoken Oklahoma education community. And we are all just a bit pissed off.
Oops, my mistake. That was hurtful.
How about something from Dr. Seuss instead:
The people who matter to us are the hard-working professional educators who strive everyday to make a difference in the lives of children.
The people who matter are the 688,000 children who attend Oklahoma’s public schools and represent the future of our great state.
The people who matter are the citizens of our communities who support their schools and classroom teachers and want the best for their kids.
The writers at The Middle Ground? Well, not so much!