After a few years of fairly prolific blogging about education, I quite suddenly fell silent. I had, I think, been naïve to assume that putting my thoughts out into the public sphere was a safe activity. But, just over a year ago, someone took and twisted the words of my blog and used them in a particularly nasty attempt to sabotage my career. It was their first, but not their last attempt to do so.
It’s taken over a year to come to terms with the knowledge that there are people who act with such cowardice and malice, and that what we put into the public sphere can make us vulnerable. But I miss being part of the conversation about education. I miss blogging, I miss being a part of the public dialogue, and I don’t like being silenced. That act of cruelty hurt, but I think I’ve enough courage to return to the public space. So this term break, I plan to start writing a few posts again, but perhaps with a little more caution… Stay tuned.