Teachers in the New York City public schools are posting tweets saying that they cannot access this blog on their school computers. One posted a screen shot saying that the school’s filter denies access to this site.
I wonder why?
If anyone is in a New York City public school, pleases let me know whether you can read this blog or any others that I have posted at this location.
There is only one way to find out whether I have actually been blocked, and that’s if people in various schools try to get through.
I have not had the best of relations with the NYC DOE, but this seems way too petty.
Please don’t do anything you are not supposed to do, like using school time to read blogs. But if you do have a free period, where your life is your own, check this rumor out and let me know if it is true.
Diane
just for the record, you are visible from Portland Public Schools in Oregon!
Sorry about the poor screenshot, but as I Tweeted earlier (at least from my public high school in Queens), you were blocked. I certainly hope mine isn’t the only school where this is the case, otherwise, I’d be fairly well embarrassed to have wasted any time.
By in large -and without making and cheesy 1984 or ‘Fahrenheit’ references- I think the idea of blocking your blog really does cross a very clear line that divides the ideas of protecting students from objectionable material with limiting speech (by way of limiting the information that adults have access to while on the job). Certainly, studentsfirst.org wasn’t blocked, so someone, somewhere is making decisions about what the adults can and cannot see while on the job.
If you are, indeed, blocked (and it’s not just my school) I hope you give them h___ over it. For my part, I know I’ll try.
Lots of gatekeeper IT people block sites that allow comments, as a category. It’s stupid, but gatekeepers often do it because students might use comments to say naughty things. Other gatekeepers block, for example, all WordPress sites. A good test of this would be to test another WordPress blog (for example, http://preaprez.wordpress.com/ ). If other WordPress blogs get through but yours doesn’t, then you’re on a ridiculously paranoid blacklist.
Is this a little bit like saying, don’t learn at schools? Obviously one’s supervision and care of students comes first, followed by good pedagogy, but good pedagogy comes from good learning. I think schools that block sites for teachers are a bit worried that teachers may learn something useful from this thing we call the Internet.
It may be unnecessary, but I go out of my way to tell people not to break the law, not to put their jobs at risk as a result of anything I have written. I have no idea whether my blog was widely blocked or whether it was just the customary incompetence of those making these decisions.
Diane, welcome to the club. My blog has been blocked by the NYC DOE for months. Now that I know yours has been too, I feel in elite company. This is indeed a happy day for me.
Other WordPress blogs are accessible from the DOE’s computers. So, yes, it is just us Dr. Ravitch.
Rejoice, for this means you are doing something right, as you have been doing for many years. Thank you for this blog.
[…] of our blogs are censored on New York City Department of Education […]
I seriously doubt you have a self-image problem, but you REALLY know you have made it when an entire school district blocks your blog!
You were blocked in Brooklyn! The reason given was social media.
My blog, Investigating Choice Time: Inquiry, Exploration, and Play, is blocked in NYC schools. I guess choice time, exploration, inquiry and play are subversive!