Anniversary of Blog

This post marks my 13th anniversary as a blogger. I want to thank readers who regularly read my twice-weekly posts, those who have dipped into them occasionally, those who have subscribed to the post, and, finally, those who have taken the time to write thoughtful comments. Also to the growing number of international readers, I am grateful for your attention to one American educator’s view on school reform and classroom practice in the U.S.

As with all things, there is a history to writing this blog. My daughter Janice who is a writer in marketing communication urged me to begin a blog in 2009. She guided me through the fits-and-starts of working on this platform. I thank her for getting me started on this writing adventure.

For over 1600 posts that I have written since 2009, I have followed three rules:

1. Write about 800 words.

2. Write clearly on school reform and classroom practice.

3. Take a position and back it up with evidence.

Sticking to these rules has been no easy task. Yet after 13 years, I remain highly motivated to write about policymakers, administrators, teachers, and students–all who inhabit the policy-to-practice continuum–and all who in different ways, with varied ideas, seek to improve schooling. Even after two-plus years of school closures, re-openings, and abiding concerns over the Covid pandemic, I continue to look forward to writing twice weekly posts.

To me, writing is a form of learning and teaching. The learning comes from figuring out what I want to say on a topic, researching it, drafting a post, and then revising it more times than I would ever admit so that the post says what I want it to say. Learning also has come from the surprises I have found in the suggestions and comments readers post—“Did I really say that?” or “I had never considered that point.” Finally, I have learned a lot from simply researching the series of posts about previous school reforms and reformers that I published called: “Whatever Happened To….”

The teaching part comes from putting my ideas out there in a clearly expressed, logical argument, buttressed by evidence, for readers who may agree or disagree about an issue I am deeply interested in. As in all teaching, planning enters the picture in how I frame the central question I want readers to consider and how I put the argument and evidence together in a clear, coherent, and crisp post of about 800 words.

Because of my background as a high school teacher, administrator, policymaker, and historian of education I often give a question or issue its context, both past and present. I do so, and here I put my teaching hat on, since I believe that current school reform policies and practice are deeply rooted in the past. Learning from earlier generations of reformers’ experiences in coping with the complexities of improving how teachers taught, and how they have tried to change schools and districts, I believe, can inform current reformers about the tasks they face. Contemporary reformers, equally well-intentioned as their predecessors, too often ignore what has occurred previously and end up bashing teachers and principals for not executing properly their favored reform-driven policies.

Expressing my sincere gratitude toward readers for the blogging I have done over the past 13 years is a preface to the posts I will write in this 14th year. School reforms return again and again so I will have little trouble finding content for upcoming posts.

Again, thanks to those readers who have taken the time to click onto my blog. I deeply appreciate it.

Larry Cuban