Last night I sent out a tweet mentioning being nominated for an Edublog Award.  I then erased the tweet, but it had already become public knowledge on those crazy ether tubes that fill up our make believe world.  I had pleaded publicly and I regretted it.  Then I added a badge and mentioned it at the bottom of two blog posts.  Then I felt like an arrogant fool and so I thought about erasing all of that.  Here’s the deal: I want to win.  This feels oddly foreign, since I don’t tend to be all that competitive.  I chose individual sports in my youth (if running as hard as you can is considered a sport) so that I could compete against my own personal records. One of my greatest personal accomplishments involved finishing among the bottom of the pack in a marathon. And yet . . .

Ego and the Edublog Awards

I want to spread some of my ideas and values to a larger audience.  I want people to get past the Waiting for Superman mythology and recognize that it’s about humility and transparency and authenticity.  (And all the while, I’ve got this ego thing that I can’t shake) On the darker side, this is the explicitly arrogant belief that I have the answers (even if the answer is that no one has all the answers).  On the positive side, I think I have something worth saying. I think I’ve been sharing a philosophy that counters much of the screaming in the mainstream media echo chambers about teachers and education reform. Read more at www.johntspencer.com