GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Two random notes – 

1. I’m very happy to see the return of the “Chalk it Up” feature! 

2. re the tweet/link to InsideSchools’s post about “what to do about commenters”. I find it so, so strange that as the privilege of anonymous/mostly anonymous commenting expands like wildfire across the internet, some edu-sites have scaled it back. To name one example: you can freely and anonymously comment on virtually every single thing the New York Times publishes online — an editorial written by a former head of state, a long feature from in the magazine, standard news pieces, entries on blogs like City Room and DealBook, and so on. The print version of the magazine even publishes selected comments that they pull from online and they are credited in the print version to a user ID, not a real name. Then there’s SchoolBook, which allows comments on only a fraction of what they publish, and commenters have to be logged on via Facebook. It’s a contrast that doesn’t make any sense (and I suspect SchoolBook will change their policy eventually). 

I can understand that Inside Schools needs to guard against people making false or unfair statements about schools and individuals, but they would be doing their readers a disservice by eliminating the ability to comment without using a real name. Schools have gotten extremely media savvy, and criticism — no matter how valid, fair, well-intentioned, or mild — can be viewed by principals, teachers, PAs, etc. as an act of treason.  

I’m not sure what Gotham Schools has to “think about all the time” with the commenting issue — is it the lurkers who claim not to comment because they are turned off, for whatever reason, by the quality or slant of the commenting? Again, at places like the Times, Atlantic, Washington Post, National Review, Slate, etc. the dross and the sublime seem to be able to coexist and dialogue without any problem. 

It’s just my opinion, but yes, compared to the back-and-forth that goes on in the comments section of the websites of the world’s biggest and most respected news-gathering organizations, or other prominent education sites (Joanne Jacobs, Eduwonk, etc.), I don’t feel that what goes on here is particularly out of bounds (this isn’t the same as saying there isn’t room for improvement). 

But really, anonymous commenting, or requiring but not verifying an email address, is so commonplace now, I feel the burden of proof ought to be on the people who are staying on the sidelines. Requiring real names would make it extremely difficult for many parents and educators to participate in the discussion. Maybe that’s a positive to some.