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Education Opinion

Making Your Voice Heard

By Learning Forward — November 08, 2012 1 min read
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Learning Forward is a member of the Learning First Alliance, a partnership of 16 national level education organizations representing 10 million members dedicated to improving student learning every day. The following post, written by Learning Forward Director of Communications Tracy Crow, was originally published on the Learning First Alliance’s “Transforming Learning” blog on Nov. 6.

For many of us, Election Day symbolizes our opportunity as American citizens to stand up and be counted, to pull the lever for choices that show our aspirations and values. Some take this opportunity and related campaigning activities seriously, spending time and money to influence the outcome. Others barely pay attention and don’t vote, perhaps not making connections between what happens at the ballot box and their daily concerns.

For the past several months, we’ve seen billions of dollars worth of efforts to influence our choices on voting day. Those who run national campaigns have spent considerable energy in understanding what it takes to get a person to care enough to get themselves out of their routine and to the polling place, to make a choice. Ultimately it’s up to us whether we will exercise this opportunity.

As educators, we have similar opportunities to advocate our values and aspirations, exercising the belief that we can change behavior and outcomes. Some take the opportunity to make their voices heard, while others spend their energy elsewhere, perhaps, like the non-voter, not making the connection between such discussions and the hard work in front of us.

Read the rest of this post here.

The opinions expressed in Learning Forward’s PD Watch are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.