I don’t know what’s more surprising - that sociology does, in fact, pump out the occasional serious, well-trained scholar/researcher [sorry, had to], or that we’ve finally got a name to go with the legend.
Either way, David Cantor and the NYC DoE’ers must feel a bit silly now.
A comment on eduwonkette’s post is pithy:
“Your blog is a testament to the power of facts and ideas over mere authority.”
There we go. That an unknown - whether by design, as eduwonkette did it, or by circumstance, like most others do it - can make such a tremendous impact based on the quality/value of content is worth noting.
I brought this point up, specifically citing our edu-darling, in an e-mail about two weeks ago. Here’s an excerpt with some edits:
“The most intriguing thing about the education blogosphere is how democratic/meritocratic it is… you’ve got Eduwonkette, whose popularity comes from her content, since we know nothing else about her… It’s rare in any sector, especially media, to have such an impact without paying decades of dues, going through the proper channels, etc. About the only thing I can think of that’s so meritocratic is professional sports. This just wasn’t possible 20 years ago in public education.”
And that has lots and lots of implications for what’s ahead.
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