Educators speak out at Democratic Convention

In the primary season the AFT supported Hillary Clinton and the NEA mostly sat on its hands. Both are now solidly behind Obama, as we would expect. Both groups will be listened to, but given their slow arrival at the campaign, one can ask whether they will be welcomed as insiders going forward.

But to get a clearer sense of where Obama is heading on education we can listen to what Jon Schnur, an education adviser to Barack Obama’s campaign and CEO of the non-profit reform group New Leaders for New Schools, has to say. Schur spoke on the first night of the covention Monday night at one of the three "American town halls".

According to EdWeeks's convention coverage,

Schnur tackled a very broad question from a Philadelphia mom who was piped in on video, who wanted to know how Obama would reform schools. Schnur basically recited Obama’s education platform in lightning speed, but emphasized the Illinois senator’s plan to recruit and retain effective teachers with the goal of getting the best teachers in schools where our students need them the most. Schnur, and his school reform group that trains school administrators, are more open than the teachers' unions are to ideas such as merit pay.

Also on stage on night one were National Education Association President Reg Weaver, and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

Weaver said: "He knows we must hold schools accountable. But that the world is too complex and diverse to judge students by a single, multiple choice, and high stakes test." Weingarten added: “Barack Obama knows teachers must be partners, not pawns, in federal education policy.”

Citizen Journalism

The website Helium is partnering with various public interest groups to sponsor awards for citizen journalism on a number of topics of interest to members of JDS.

As it is the prime mission of the Commission on Social Issues to encourage citizen journalism among JDS members, this project should have special interest.You may remember Dewey's abortive collaboration with Franklin Ford, his complaint that the mainstream media were mostly scandal sheets failing to get behind lurid stories to the social processes responsible for them, and his complementary desire to bring more of the newspaper business into philosophy. So here is one already organized outlet.

Here is the lead from Helium:

Are you a real citizen journalist?
Helium's Citizen Journalism Awards cover a broad spectrum of issues: technology against world poverty, presidential candidates' health records, protecting animals by eating stem-cell-grown meat and the conflicts along Columbia's borders.

Show us your skills and get recognized by publishers, news outlets, journalism institutions and peers.

Here is more:

The time has come to rethink what it means to be a journalist. If you have what it takes to research topics and issues, lend an objective voice and write compelling articles, then you are a citizen journalist. Helium is bringing together the worlds of traditional news reporting and community-based journalism to create a site that citizen journalists call home.

Are you ready to report and write? Helium encourages you to report everything from local issues happening in your town to pressing global and environmental issues. As a citizen journalist writing at Helium, you’ll get recognized by publishers, news outlets, journalism institutions and peers. Here’s where to build a diverse portfolio of top-quality articles to help jump-start your career.

Guidance for Writers from J.K. Rowling

Caroline Miller at Positive Psychology Digest provides an inspiring post on the Harvard commencement address of J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame.

In addition to a link to a video of the address itself, a video which will certainly be endlessly viewed in the coming months, Miller provides a very useful summary.

Briefly, Rowling hit on the following themes:

1. Don’t be afraid of failure. Rowling described herself as an utter and complete failure as she set out to write the only thing she’d ever wanted to do – tell an engaging story about a young boy named Harry Potter. At that point, she was extremely poor, a single mother, and a disappointment to herself and her parents, who had not wanted her to experience the same poverty they’d experienced, as well. With nothing left but her authentic heart’s desire of writing, Rowling said that she went after her dreams with gusto because she’d already lost everything external, and there was nothing left to lose anymore.

2. Treasure your friends. Rowling implored the audience to tend to the friendships they’d made at school because she noted that these relationships were what sustained her.

3. Use your imagination to have empathy for others. This part of Rowling’s speech was the most powerful and memorable by far. In moving terms, she described her job at Amnesty International when she was in her twenties, and how she’d seen courage and compassion exhibited by the Amnesty International workers on numerous occasions. She asked everyone in attendance to use their intellectual talents to do more than accumulate money or possessions, and to instead imagine the pain and plight of those less fortunate to be generous with their time and energy.

Many academic authors long to have a wider audience for their thoughts, and an opportunity to make a real difference in life. We need to turn our souls from the very real but limited allure of academic recognition and start learning how to write for those wider audiences.