The Difference Between Insult and Argument
by Frederick M. Hess • Dec 29, 2011 at 8:12 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareIt's the end of the year, and I always get a bit reflective. As a blogger, I've long been intrigued by the "comments." I'm frequently startled by the inchoate fury of so many postings. At an intellectual level I understand this is how many engage online--and it's of a piece with talk radio and so much of cable news--but I find it a little bizarre, and not especially constructive. That said, it poses a bit of a teaching opportunity. On that count, my indefatigable assistant Becky King put on her rubber gloves to grab a few of this year's more vociferous comments (boy, I hope my mom doesn't read these).
In response to "The World Conspires to Make Expertise Unreliable," one reader opined, "Hess has found his niche--at the AEI, where he uses his questionable 'expertise' to undermine public education and seeks to privatize education for the benefit not of the kids but of profit-seeking entrepreneurs." With regards to "Customized Schooling," the same reader noted, "Hess and [co-editor Bruno] Manno are pro-voucher fanatics who will stoop to anything to wreck public schools