Just before the holidays, I asked readers to send me suggestions about how to make the Education News Colorado blog a place for civil discourse, debate and disagreement. I appreciate the thought that went into most of the several dozen responses I received. Many thanks to those of you who sent along your thoughts.
What I’ve decided is that to make the blog a more balanced and informative forum, I am going to have to work harder. I will still accept unsolicited contributions from my regular writers. But I may not publish them all. I will spend more time actively seeking pieces from people who are directly involved in issues making news in education circles.
You will begin to see these pieces on the blog today. If you have any suggestions about people you’d like to hear from, please let me know. I will do my best to get them to contribute.
My goal is for the blog to read like the op-ed section of a major newspaper. At times it has fallen short of that standard.
I will also moderate comment streams more carefully. If comments on a particular post head off into the weeds, I will declare that post closed. If a specific comment seems too snarky, I will contact the writer and request that he or she tone it down.
Going forward, I will insists that all comments be submitted under a writer’s real name, including a verifiable email address. I will make rare exceptions to this rule, as I already have. If you feel that by revealing your full name you will somehow do damage to your livelihood, endanger your job, etc., please contact me and explain you particular circumstances. You will need to tell me who you are. If you’re persuasive, I will publish your comments under a first name only or pseudonym. Those comments will be held to the same standards as everyone else’s.
As we move forward, the debate over public education in this country is going to get more high-stakes and therefore more heated. I’d like this blog to be more a source of illumination and less a blast furnace. Please hold me to it.
Popularity: 5% [?]
some of the comments I’ve read question a person’s credibility or expertise–to me that is fair game. Personal attacks are more like “you’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny.”
For example, questioning Senator Johnston’s expertise after his brief sojourn as an educator is justifiable. I find the senator charming, but his experience does not make him an expert.