Colvin Joins The Blogosphere: A Hearty Welcome & Some Unsolicited Suggestions

I think it's going to be a lot of fun having Richard Lee Colvin, the former LA Times education writer who now runs the Hechinger Institute, join the blogosphere. He did some guesting for Eduwonk, took a lot of ribbing from me for not starting his own (or giving this site a home at Hechinger), and now he's launched his own site, called Early Stories, which is going to focus on how reporters cover education, with a special focus on early education.

Commenting on how education stories get covered is a topic that's near and dear to me, and the site looks great so far. (In a recent post, Colvin makes fun of how much reporters like unschooling stories "Maybe because they secretly want to be unleashed from controlling editors!" he writes, and debunks the myth that learning to read is natural and inevitable.)

However, there are four things that Colvin needs to do to make his blog as valuable as it could be: Keep away from too much promoting the Institute's work, include blogs as well as traditional media outlets in the blog's coverage, keep the blog updated and dynamic (it takes time to maintain a website and Hechinger has not done this well in the past), and -- most important (and most difficult) of all -- be brave enough to criticize as well as praise the folks who come to his conferences and serve on his panels. Colvin was particularly reluctant to do this in his recent HotSeat appearance, but perhaps his blogging alter ego will be more willing.