East Coast Bias
Jay Mathews searched out the best in Education related blogging. His list is found in the article Innocents in Blogland. I did a little research, not a whole lot because I need to get over to Linens and Things to purchase a vacuum cleaner that is on sale. It is reasons like this that my pathetic blog didn't make the list. But take a look at which ones did. See if you find the pattern.
1. The Chalkboard--Greensboro, NC.
2. Critical Mass--New York, NY.
3. D-Ed Reckoning--Swarthmore, PA.
4. Edspresso--Phoenix, AZ.
5. Education Policy Blog--multiple contributors, mainly from East of the Mississippi River.
6. Eduwonk--Washington, D.C.
7. From the Trenches--Warroad, MN
8. Intercepts--Elk Grove, CA
9. Joanne Jacobs--Los Altos, CA
10. MathNotations--New Jersey
11. A Passion for Teaching and Opinions--Ukiah, CA
12. A Shrewdness of Apes--Somewhere in the USA--I can tell she's an East Coaster.
13. Susan Ohanian--Arizona State University
14. Teaching in the 408--California
15. This Week in Education--Chicago, IL.
16. TLN--Southeast, USA.
Okay, this may not be entirely accurate, but I tried really hard! Two-thirds of the blogs listed in the WaPo article are East Coast based. I hate to admit it, but I think there might be an East Coast Bias in Education Blog Voting.
Now, you may call it what you like. Sour grapes--you bet. Blog envy--just a little. Immature--I once wrote a post about the Ten Most Annoying People on Staff. I guess this is what I get for being the class clown. Anyway, I am just going to call it an East Coast Bias with a bone toss to California--oooh look at us, so important because we take up 3/4 of the West Coast.
Well, someday I'll figure out what I am doing on this blog and make it to the top, you know, move on up to the East Side and get a piece of the education pie in the sky.
posted by Mr. McNamar @ 6:58 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Bah! Down with the Easterners! I don't see an NV bloggers on that list either. I don't think I've EVER seen one, actually. (Actually, I do subscribe to another LV, NV blog, but it's all the crime in the city. Not very uplifting.) Chin up, though. You are writing about important things, and we do appreciate the honest pieces, like the 10 Most Annoying Staff Peeps. Keep on squeakin'!
It's funny how where we grew up changes our sense of geography. I grew up in Minnesota, and can only identify five of the sixteen as being "East Coast." Well, six, I guess, if you count that vague "Southeast" as being east (and a Shrewdness of Apes is written from Oklahoma, as near as I can tell).
But then we count the four from Cali (more than any other single state) and the two from Arizona, and what it looks like to me is that the heartland is being ignored.
Happychyck is right about Nevada being ignored (when I started blogging I was at CCSD-932. I no longer qualify as a NV blogger, if I qualify as a blogger at all :) ).
What kind of vacuum? I hate the Dyson - it sucks up all the dog hair, so the house never does smell quite right.
My problem with these sorts of things is not geography, but the fact that it's always the same blogs that get mentions. I think some of these award sites and newspapers need to branch out a bit.
I think Dana Huff is right: The blog-award nominators don't really know (or, seemingly, care) what's out there, so they keep nominating the same blogs over and over again. It kind of sucks for the rest of us.
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