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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

No One Defends the Status Quo | InterACT

No One Defends the Status Quo | InterACT:


No One Defends the Status Quo

photo by the author
[As my friend Bill Ferriter would say, "cranky blogger alert!"]
parrotIt’s time to retire the clichĆ© “defend the status quo.”  Just. Stop. Now.
It’s misleading, insulting, and worst of all… it’s such an overused clichĆ©, which makes for dull writing and dumbed-down debates.  We need an intervention to help people who can’t help themselves when it comes to repeating this worn-out  phrase.
This blog post has been drafted, revised, and held back a number of times. What pushed me to finally click “Publish” was last week’s debate over SB-441* – a California Senate bill that aims to improve teacher evaluations. Supporters of the bill who took the debate online via Twitter grabbed this tired clichĆ© and attempted to shame the bill’s opponents with the hashtag #protectthestatusquo.
Perhaps they felt clever getting that little dig in, but the problem is, no one is actually satisfied with the general