Saturday, April 22, 2006

MySpace?

There has been a fair amount of discussion regarding school districts where the filters are blocking not only MySpace but any site that uses the phrase MySpace. Miguel Guhlin has been discussing this at length and other have joined the conversation. Part of Miguel's response is a call to action, asking fellow bloggers to write "MySpace" on their blogs.

That'll show-em. Or, rather, it won't show them anything--being blocked and all.

I had a student last year who insisted on peppering his discussions with "fuck". When called on it, he insisted that these utterances were an act of rebellion. That he was challenging the system by breaking the taboo. As the teacher in the room I didn't so much feel challenged as bored (& maybe a tad annoyed). His liberal use of the word showed a lack of creativity. I told him so. I added that if he really wanted to rebel he should do something about poverty or world hunger--real social issues that require real social change.

I just don't see writing MySpace on my blog just for the sake of writing it as doing anything of value. I know Miguel is doing other things, real things (see 1 & 2 ), about reforming the way we think about & practice our profession. But a lot of energy is going toward making a noise that lacks creativity and will, at most, annoy.