The TEACHERS SPEAK Project
This is an important moment for education. It’s an important moment for the U.S. and for the world, too. But as COVID-19 and the appropriate responses (reopening, wearing masks, and so on) and their implications (health, the economy, the nearing election) have become increasingly politicized, Education (the system) and education (the concept) have become sites of debate, anger, fear, and anxiety.
This is a blog by teachers for everyone. That’s how education works, by the way—teachers are those who enable others to engage with ideas and skills, sometimes incredibly difficult and challenging. Education is complex, imperfect, in need of reform. But for many, teachers embody a kind of threshold, a moment held in time between not having encountered an idea and engaging with it. This blog is a threshold.
A learning threshold is not inert. It requires something of the learner (we’re all learners). The learner may accept the idea without modification; accept the idea with modification; reject an idea; withhold judgement for another time (though withholding too long, however, is similar to rejection). The writers of this project are presenting their concerns, anxiety, solutions, but it is the reader who must decide what to do with the idea. We hope you’ll amplify our voices.
For the educators/writers that are part of this project, we believe the more we can make our voices heard, to participate in what is happening now, the more we have the opportunity to be a part of positive change.
Our writers are from across the U.S., and have addressed their writing to governors, education commissioners, superintendents, school boards, and other policy makers. However, as our lives are made public, as our safety is a topic of discussion, we make our thoughts and concerns also public.
You can help us participate in larger publics by sharing, Tweeting, linking in emails and newsletters, sending through group text messages. Please, share, quote, argue, discuss. This is a project about participation. We are teachers. And we are participating.
If you are an educator and would like to participate in this project, please email Andrew Hollinger at andrew.hollinger@utrgv.edu.
Teachers speak. These are their words.
Andrew Hollinger is a former high school teacher/current higher ed teacher in Texas.