This Will Be Our Last Post Together

Reading Aloud to Henry Walsh

The little counter that accompanies the analytics page of this blog tells me that this is my 400th post. I have decided that it will be the last. To paraphrase Dr. Pangloss, I make this decision for the best of all possible reasons. I have said what I have to say on the topic of literacy instruction and after nine years out of the classroom, I think it is time for new voices to take up the cause of thoughtful literacy instruction.

I started this blog in earnest after I retired nine years ago to continue the conversation with teachers about literacy instruction that I had begun at the start of my teaching career in 1969. As I wrote, I found I could not avoid commenting on issues related to public education like the Common Core, the education reform movement, charters, vouchers and the like. Diane Ravitch, Jonathan Pelto, Mary Howard, Stu Bloom, Mike Simpson and others started sharing my work and the blog reached a wider audience than I could have ever imagined.  

I am grateful and humbled by this. Over the years, however, new voices have joined the blogosphere with fresh and knowing perspectives. I found that Peter Greene at Curmudgucation did a better job of debunking education reform than I did. Paul Thomas at Radical Eyes for Equity did a better job on social justice issues. Jersey Jazzman did a better job of debunking the myth of charter school excellence. Steven Singer at The Gadfly in the Wall did a better job at righteous indignation. So I decided to stay in my literacy lane, for the most part, the one area I felt I had some real expertise.

As I look back on my literacy writing for this blog over the past few years, I truly feel I have said what I needed to say. It is all out there in cyberspace for those who want it. When I took a year off from writing the blog a while back, I noticed that thousands kept visiting the old posts even without new content. I trust that will continue and I hope teachers and teacher leaders continue to find them useful.

So that's it. I hope all of you will continue the good fight for good literacy instruction. It is a never ending battle, and while I know we will never get it completely right, I know that many of you will continue to passionately pursue the best literacy instruction possible for children. This fight demands knowledge, informed decision making, the will to speak up for the children, the will to take risks in instruction, and the desire to continue to read, write, learn and grow. Keep at it.

I am off on new projects. I have decided in my 75th year of reading, writing, acting, and blathering that the truest, most lasting form of human communication is through story. I plan to spend much of my remaining time writing and telling stories that I hope will resonate with others. If you are a baseball fan, you might be interested in one such story project: my new blog The Faith of a Phillies Fan. It turns out baseball stories are really fun to write. And I will continue to act, just another form of story telling, after all. I get my third shot at playing Shakespeare's Sir Toby Belch in a production of Twelfth Night this fall.

Be well all. Thank you for your passion and readership and feedback and sharing over the years.