The Problem with the Education Forum.

[Smarmie Doofus]

Skinner, EarlG, Elad,

Greetings. It's another scorcher. July. Whatchagonnado.

Down to beeswax:

The Education Forum, once my DU Stop Numero Uno, is suffering. In fact, it's past "suffering"; it's dead.

It's not hard to see why: a number of prodigious contributors can no longer be found. Hannah Bell, Dinger --- they come immediately to mind. There are others.

My question/proposal: would it not be worth considering the idea of offering an amnesty to long-standing, $$ -supporting, prolifically-contributing DUers who may have been deemed ..... perhaps accurately, perhaps not ( don't know; I wasn't there.)... to have transgressed DU posting rules at some point?

Seems to me, two things are inarguable here:

1. If they (HB, Dinger) transgressed, such transgressions were *rare*. Look at the post-counts.

2. The DU community as a whole suffers from their absence. HB, esp., was a *monumental* source of research and analysis on all aspects of education. Her total absence from the site hurts the community much more acutely than would an occasional lapse in decorum in the heat of political argument. I can NOT be alone in thinking this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9266634

I'll add a "third thing", if I may. It seems likely that whatever point was intended by the banning , whatever message, the point has been made, the message delivered and received.

Therefore: to what avail, this permanent "non-personhood"?

For the record: i write this totally on my own initiative and have not communicated w. any of the aforementioned DUers since they disappeared from this site.

Give it some thought.

Hey... I'll be in DC next weekend for the SOS education/teachers/schools March. Maybe we'll cross paths.

Thanks for hearing me out.

[Skinner]

1. I don't think they are coming back.

Sorry.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. You sound a bit uncharacteristically closed off on the matter.

(Hope it's not that legendary DC humidity; I'll be getting a blast of it this weekend, so I will not judge.... lest I be blasted.)

Seriously, what might change the dynamic here? Is there something I can do? Is there something they can do?

Seems tragic if both camps get locked into positions that they can't/ won't back off from. There's too much at stake to let that happen.

I miss them. I miss the intelligent, IN-DEPTH , examination of education issues. That is just not happening to anywhere near the same degree anymore. ( Notwithstanding the efforts of Madfloridian , Proud2Blib, and a bunch of others who shoulder on.)

I'm both a ps teacher and a parent of a ps student. These issues are *extremely* important to me. Maybe that skews by perception a bit, but folks that don't have a vested professional or personal interest in public education are similarly skewed.

Truth of the matter is: we ALL have an interest in what happens to public schools.... whether we realize it or not. Which is not to say that everything that I (or HB or Dinger) say is gospel. Only that it must be part of the dialogue here.

Skinner, there's got to be some common ground here. Let's look for it.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Ok. Silence. But what about the forum?

It.... like Generalissimo Franco... continues to be dead.

See for yourself:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=219


Proud2BLib and I are on the verge of exchanging cookie recipes.

Education is very important. (Really!)

Frankly, I'm hoping for more from your end.

[Skinner]

4. Welcome to DU2.

Very few of the small forums are particularly active.

On DU3, we are raising the profile of the smaller forums. Our hope is that they will be much more active.

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. I wish...

you would be a bit more communicative.

The ED Forum was plenty active before people started getting banned.

Can't we at least *talk* about *that*?

Maybe they HAD to be banned; maybe they didn't.

I'll start (shoot me down if you will):

Most ( virtually all ) of the regular contributors to DU Ed Forum that have been banned over the last 8 months have been critical of the education policies of the Obama administration.

Yes?

( Again: shoot me down; but please don't ignore me.)

[Skinner]

6. Let me bottom-line this for you.

Nobody ever gets let back to DU because SOMEONE ELSE makes the case for their return. I do not doubt that you really want them to come back. But this is not how it works.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. It appears to "work" in any number of ways.

Including having other DUers advocate on behalf of those who have been precipitously and foolishly banned.


Skinner, here's you, last year, on bannings from GLBT Forum:


>>>>>However I do think that the the idea of a targeted amnesty is probably a good idea at this point. I've already reached out to Vanje. If anyone else who was banned on May 3 or May 4, 2009, would like to return, all they have to do is send me an email asking for reinstatement -- no strings attached, no questions asked.>>>>>>>

Circumstances not exactly analogous, I will grant you. But it is misleading to imply that there is "a way" ( that is, a *single way*) in which the tombstoned become "with us" again.

One of the Ed Forum departed who has communicated w. me since I started this thread tells me that he/she has petitioned the admins for reinstatement on several occasions only to be ignored. ( In fact, If I recall, he/she claims she/he asked for an explanation of WHY he/she was banned in the first place; no hint from you, the mods or the other admins having accompanied the actual tombstoning.)

Can this *possibly* be true?

I hope not.

[Skinner]

8. Could this possibly be true?

Yes, it could absolutely be true. Because I have limited time, and it's tough enough to respond to all the email from DU members in good standing. Responding to banned members is my absolute bottom priority.

I'm sorry, but I consider this matter settled. At this point I don't think there is much more that either of us can add that will change the outcome of this discussion.

[Smarmie Doofus]

9. That's a shame. OK. It is what it is. Thanks. n/t