TEXT
Why education reporting is REALLY so boring
We must have an ivy-leaguer who arrogantly announces he or she has the answers to solve all of education’s problems. In a few years, he or she will improve schools. We must also have a loud, polarizing opponent who claims progressive views and usually wants poverty fixed first. One side will argue for more school options. The other will oppose.
Then there's the minor characters. We’ll have low-income black and brown students who struggle in school and get into more trouble than their white peers. We’ll have parent groups (who are mostly white, living on a gentrified street) fighting to be heard. The parents of color usually portrayed are attempting to salvage some piece of something that has value to them. There’s the academic who spends time researching what we already know.
Once in awhile, we’ll have a teacher quoted. But teachers aren’t usually quoted or included in education pieces because . . . well . . . teachers don’t want to get reprimanded or ostracized. The ones that are quoted, however, usually watch their words so carefully that it’s boring. Or they come off as people with extreme, myopic views.
These become, in every education story, one-dimensional perspectives. There are other voices, more nuanced voices. But nuance doesn’t come across well in a tweet. Bombastic quotes and outrageous actions generate more page views, retweets, and comments.
http://www.chicagonow.com/white-rhino/2015/01/why-education-reporting-is-really-so-boring/
