Had I known about this, I might have submitted this. Even though I generally don’t do the carnivals of whatsits, I would have been interested to see what kind of feedback I might have rated.
Nathan, I probably could, although I always thought that the carnivals were supposed to represent more current posts. But Jerry brings up a good point: if the response is as defensive as the response from the Motley Crue kids, then it really wouldn’t be worth it.
In fact, although I could laugh about the Crue defenders, I actually take education seriously.
I have never met a primary-education teacher who wasn’t incredibly defensive regarding any criticism of the educational establishment. The opening paragraphs of your piece takes some pretty broad shots at several education sacred cows. Given the collective maturity level of the blogosphere (about 6-7 years old) and the aformentioned defensiveness, you could be opening a big can of worms.
I’ve met a few that aren’t too defensive to be able to listen to outside ideas (although, admittedly, one of them is the g-phrase, and she’s pretty open minded), but most of them definitely aren’t. You probably aren’t wrong.
Right now I’m just trying to catch up with Andy, Trench, and Rae. And they aren’t currently commenting.
But I actually do have something constructive to contribute now:
If you are in the business of sharing opinions (and you are, or you wouldn’t have this site), you will inevitably encounter negative reactions.
To me (and I may be alone in this), the only time negative reactions discourage me is when I’m not expecting them. Like, say, people jumping down your throat for pointing out that a washed-up 80s band is, well, a washed-up 80s band. It’s hard to expect people to get vulgar in disagreeing with you there.
But when I know something is going to be controversial, I can prepare myself, and it doesn’t bother me. I can write the piece to be as non-confrontational and open to criticism as possible in a controversial piece, and then if anyone over-reacts I know I can justifiably ignore them.
For me, at least, my blogging mood all about the attitude/stance I adopt when I hit “post”. I think you make some very good points, and say some things people need to hear. Their probable negative reaction just provides additional evidence they need to hear it. Everyone’s gotta do their own thing and live in their own skin, so I’m not saying you have to do it. But I would.
And I’m not worried about the “recent” nature of carnivals. The main point of most carnivals is really just to drive traffic, right? Traffic can and should be driven by someone’s better work, not just their most recent.
I don’t mind the dissent, I just don’t like the shout and scream tone of it at times. Hell, convince me I’m wrong and I’ll happily admit it, show me how to fix the system and convince me that it’s the right solution, and I’ll buy in, but what I get at times is people shouting at me, dismissing me out of hand, and ignoring any validity in what I had to say. That makes for a much less enjoyable conversation.
There is a significantly heavy dose of irony, is there not, that a group of people whose occupation and avocation is to educate often cannot respond to criticism without anger and invective.
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You can always submit it to the next one, no?
Yes, that was a pretty useless comment, as is this one. But I gotta pump up my comment total somehow, don’t I?
Maybe I’m just feeling cynical today, but I’m guessing that the response would have been similar to the Motley Crue comments.
Nathan, I probably could, although I always thought that the carnivals were supposed to represent more current posts. But Jerry brings up a good point: if the response is as defensive as the response from the Motley Crue kids, then it really wouldn’t be worth it.
In fact, although I could laugh about the Crue defenders, I actually take education seriously.
Maybe I’m just feeling cynical today, too.
I have never met a primary-education teacher who wasn’t incredibly defensive regarding any criticism of the educational establishment. The opening paragraphs of your piece takes some pretty broad shots at several education sacred cows. Given the collective maturity level of the blogosphere (about 6-7 years old) and the aformentioned defensiveness, you could be opening a big can of worms.
Of course, I could be totally wrong…
I’ve met a few that aren’t too defensive to be able to listen to outside ideas (although, admittedly, one of them is the g-phrase, and she’s pretty open minded), but most of them definitely aren’t. You probably aren’t wrong.
PS- Nathan, you’re falling behind again.
Just sayin’…
Right now I’m just trying to catch up with Andy, Trench, and Rae. And they aren’t currently commenting.
But I actually do have something constructive to contribute now:
If you are in the business of sharing opinions (and you are, or you wouldn’t have this site), you will inevitably encounter negative reactions.
To me (and I may be alone in this), the only time negative reactions discourage me is when I’m not expecting them. Like, say, people jumping down your throat for pointing out that a washed-up 80s band is, well, a washed-up 80s band. It’s hard to expect people to get vulgar in disagreeing with you there.
But when I know something is going to be controversial, I can prepare myself, and it doesn’t bother me. I can write the piece to be as non-confrontational and open to criticism as possible in a controversial piece, and then if anyone over-reacts I know I can justifiably ignore them.
For me, at least, my blogging mood all about the attitude/stance I adopt when I hit “post”. I think you make some very good points, and say some things people need to hear. Their probable negative reaction just provides additional evidence they need to hear it. Everyone’s gotta do their own thing and live in their own skin, so I’m not saying you have to do it. But I would.
And I’m not worried about the “recent” nature of carnivals. The main point of most carnivals is really just to drive traffic, right? Traffic can and should be driven by someone’s better work, not just their most recent.
I don’t mind the dissent, I just don’t like the shout and scream tone of it at times. Hell, convince me I’m wrong and I’ll happily admit it, show me how to fix the system and convince me that it’s the right solution, and I’ll buy in, but what I get at times is people shouting at me, dismissing me out of hand, and ignoring any validity in what I had to say. That makes for a much less enjoyable conversation.
There is a significantly heavy dose of irony, is there not, that a group of people whose occupation and avocation is to educate often cannot respond to criticism without anger and invective.
...man, 22 to go just to catch Andy…
See what happens when you take just a little too much time away from the computer?