I have a question for all teachers and principals: do you feel free to speak to the media? Or do you find yourselves ‘censored” — either because your district manager tells you that you can’t be interviewed by a journalist without going through the official ‘channels” or because the Voice of the Department speaks on your behalf?As a member of the media, whose fulltime job it is to communicate with school communities, it seems as though strict gagging orders have gone out to schools from some education departments. In fact, in the almost seven years I’ve been doing this work, some provinces have gone from being merely difficult to totally restrictive.
I don’t believe that the media has an unqualified, automatic right to enter schools. We need to show our utmost respect for the fact that these institutions are there, first and foremost, for the business of teaching and learning, not to provide fodder for our pages. We need to be courteous at all times in our requests to visit schools and fit in with their timetables.
What I’m objecting to are the extreme bureaucratic hurdles some provinces have put in the way of effective communication. Often, principals or teachers will express their willingness to have the Teacher visit them, but say we need permission from provincial heads of department first. We will then be referred to the education department’s media office, where we will be asked to send a letter asking for this permission, and often, a list of questions we intend to ask as well.
Perhaps part of the motivation for this is to protect schools from more dodgy journalists. But I feel there is something else happening here. Education officials are attempting to have absolute control over all information coming out of their schools, and this is an expression of how little they trust the ‘foot soldiers” — the teachers and principals — to say the ‘right thing”. The ‘right thing”, as far as the officials are concerned, is information that portrays schools and the experience of working there as nothing short of excellent.
The other side of the coin, of course, is a clear mistrust of the media. In all honesty, I can’t really blame the public for their lack of confidence in the media’s ability to represent a story with balance, truth and accuracy. Our nation’s media has, on more than one occasion, behaved so unprofessionally and unethically that it deserves its lousy reputation.
But the Teacher is not that kind of media. Our vision of this newspaper has never been to publish sensationalist scandals. If we rake up muck, it’s because we believe the muck needs to be exposed in the public interest — because it has no place in the just, democratic society in which we live.I want to get one clear message out to all in school communities: schools are public institutions, and should therefore be open to scrutiny from independent observers such as the media. It’s about accountability, and it’s about transparency.
Educators are also citizens of this country and therefore enjoy certain constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. Like the freedom of religion, belief and opinion. And freedom of expression. Their employers — the government have no right at all to restrict these freedoms.
All of us — in schools, education administration and journalists — must remember we are on the same side. All of us should be working to create an education system that embodies values like equality and excellence.
So speak openly with us — please. Whether it’s a celebration or a crisis of teaching you have to share, we would like to know.