Badass Teachers Association Blog: Classroom Teachers are the Real Scholastic Experts – Not Education Journalists by Steven Singer

Badass Teachers Association Blog: Classroom Teachers are the Real Scholastic Experts – Not Education Journalists by Steven Singer

Classroom Teachers are the Real Scholastic Experts – Not Education Journalists by Steven Singer

When you want an expert on health, you go to a doctor.

When you want an expert on law, you go to a lawyer.

So why is it that when the news media wants an expert on education they go to… themselves!?

That’s right. Education journalists are talking up a storm about schools and learning.

You’ll find them writing policy briefs, editorials and news articles. You’ll find them being interviewed about topics like class size, funding and standardized tests.

But they aren’t primary sources. They are distinctly secondary.

So why don’t we go right to the source and ask those most in the know – classroom teachers!?

According to a Media Matters analysis of education coverage on weeknight cable news programs in 2014, only 9 percent of guests on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News were educators.

This data is a bit out of date, but I couldn’t find a more recent analysis. Moreover, it seems pretty much consistent with what I, myself, have seen in the media.

Take Wyatt Cenac’s “Problem Areas,” a comedy journalism program on HBO. The CONTINUE READING: Badass Teachers Association Blog: Classroom Teachers are the Real Scholastic Experts – Not Education Journalists by Steven Singer