yes, and no. But more yes than no. Let me explain.
Blogging certainly is not sufficient by itself. In politics phone calls still need to be made, doors still need to be knocked, and we still need good candidates to run.
But blogging can help set a context, inspire people, provide information, help in organizing, and do lots of other things that can lead to and support positive political action. And for those crunched for large blocks of time, the ability to hop on and off line in brief stretches can enable one to participate more fully than otherwise might be possible.
My life right now is a classic example. And yesterday demonstrates that very clearly.
Wednesday night and yesterday there was a Bloggers Summit sponsored by ED in 08, which is the effort supported by among others the family foundations of Bill Gates and Eli Broad in the hope of making education a more important issue in this election cycle. I was participant in one of the final two panels:
- The Role of Education Blogs at the Grassroots
* How have you been able to use the internet to garner interest and support for your issue? What can others who want to get the word out learn from your experience? How influential has your blog been in impacting the education debate?
There were three of us on the panel, and perhaps 20 people in attendance - lobbyists from professional organizations, people who run their own education-related blogs, journalists who specialize in education-related issues.
I could not attend most of the conference because Monday my students sit for a state exam they need to pass in order to graduate from high school. But the organizers were quite insistent that my presence was strongly requested, in part because of my writing about education here, in part because I also participate on several educational blog sites. In one, Education Policy Blog, I am one of two classroom teachers in the midst of a batch of university professors.
Among the things I shared in my remarks is how blogging has enabled me to help give the issue of education more visibility in the political process. When I first started posting here about education mine was often the only voice diarying on that subject. And when the first Yearlykos was being organized, education was not originally a subject for a panel - I contacted the organizers and pointed out that with reauthorization of NCLB on the horizon, education would be an important issue, and that as Democrats it should be one that we owned. I was encouraged to organize a panel. We had one panel in Las Vegas, and a panel and a roundtable in Chicago, each of which had about 100 people attend.
I have as a result of my blogging also been able to reach out to policy makers and candidates. As my visibility increased it was not at all unusual that Democratic candidates for Federal office would contact me for assistance on educational policy matters. Some were elected last cycle, more will be elected this cycle. Or I might meet an incumbent at an event and a staffer would recognize my name and suggest that it might be useful for the Member or a staffer to talk with me. And in part because of my visibility I was able to participate in direct lobbying on behalf of The Forum on Educational Accountability, a coalition of more than 140 national groups on the issues related to reauthorization of NCLB.
Blogging has also served as a means of making contact with a large group of people who share some of my concerns: this is important because working together is almost always far more effective in effecting positive change than is working in isolation.
And my experience in addressing educational issues is but one example of how blogging can help make positive change. Think of some of the other examples those of us here have seen or even participated in: exposing "Jeff Gannon", helping raise money for progressive candidates, helping progressive candidates defeat hacks in primary elections (congratulations Scott Kleeb, Jon Tester, etc.), keeping the feet of electeds and party officials to the fire on issues like privatization of social security, FISA, requiring Bush administration officials to testify (it was amazing to here someone like Rep. Wexler talkin about inherent contempt or to see John Conyers threaten Karl Rove with arrest, even if these actions trail the posting on the subjects by Kagro X by many months).
We do not all have the same abilities. Some may be hesitant to make phone calls, or knock on doors. Others are enthusiastic, and willingly devote cell minutes to calling across the country on behalf of progressive candidates. I applaud such people, and am amazed at how many calls someone like Elise can make. Since much of my free time is at hours like now, when calling people would certainly be counterproductive, I have to accept the limitations that prevent me from doing as a much. But I have the power of words, and blogs give me an ability to perhaps provoke the thinking of others and encourage their action.
Periodically people contact me - people who consider themselves nothing special, ordinary people. Something I hve written ignites something in them to the point where they take the time to write me - one reason I have an email in my profile is to allow this. Or perhaps they post an incredibly thoughtful comment on a thread to one of my diaries. In either case, as a result of words posted by a mere classroom teacher they have taken an additional step, sometimes the very first step, in involving themselves in addressing the issue of our society. At that point my role changes: here is an opportunity to encourage the next step: can that person do more than write me, or post a comment? Will s/he perhaps write a diary to which I can direct others, or perhaps embark on some other action? If my writings have read to people running for school board, or organizing fellow parents at a school, or taking the step to speak out and write publicly on issues that concern them, then I have in a small way participated in broadening the level of political participation in our country, hopefully to a positive end.
And in conversations (electronic and otherwise) with others I know what I have experienced in this regard is far from unique with me.
There is one other important role blogging plays, one often addressed here, and that is in the building of community. For some they may feel isolated, lacking regular contact with people with whom they can share ideas they may feel are unwelcome in the circles in which they live. In fact, often encountering people who think similarly online may lead them to realize that even in those "real" circles that encompass their daily living they are not as isolated as they may think, that when they take the first step of broaching an insight or a question that others near them have thought similarly, but also feared expressing them because they thought they too were isolated. The voices that dominate in such circles may in fact represent a minority point of view, but they are loud and persistent and other voices have been crowded out or intimidated into silence. It may take one person willing to take the risk of speaking or writing in a different fashion to unleash a torrent of supportive commentary.
Does blogging make a difference? By itself it could be destructive, a way of avoiding real engagement with the problems that confront us. But as I have increasingly found over the years since I first began writing on educational bulletin boards open to the public, it can also mean connecting oneself, and drawing one into action that goes beyond the words one writes.
I am tired - the end of my school year approaches. Today I will rachet down the preparation for Monday's state test - I want my students not to be overly anxious. Next week I will not see some of them until Friday, as they will have tests in the other core areas Tuesday through Thursday. On Friday next I refuse to be serious, as it will be my 62nd birthday. The following week our classes only meet for 3 days (Tuesday we are closed for graduation), and I will be in Providence on one of those - again, as a result of my blogging about education I have been invited to come as a journalist to observe an exhibition by students in schools associated with The Coalition of Essential Schools being done in conjunction with Rhode Island's state wide initiative to include performance assessment tasks in evaluating students. The particular event is one of several in CES's National Exhibition Month. I will of course write about what I observe. I am invited because I blog, and hopefully my blogging can help disseminate information to people who might not otherwise encounter or be aware of this important initiative in making education more meaningful.
I thank those of you read what I write, who choose to comment, or to recommend, or to pass on links, or to write in response (even when you strongly disagree). Blogging is insufficient, but for me it has been the means through which opportunities to do more have come to me: doors open, conversations occur, I get invited, as I was for yesterday and have been fro May 28 in Providence.
Yes and no. Blogging does make a difference. It can be an important part of how we can each and together effect positive change in our society.
Peace.