To Blog or Not to Blog

As a child I loved to write, putting pencil to paper and then sharing these poems and stories with others. Mrs. Booth, my fourth grade Reading teacher posted my poems on the wall outside her classroom, and “published” them in a magazine put together with staples. Later, she set me up with a penpal, her own niece who lived in West Virginia on the Ohio River. Eventually, Mrs. Booth had me over to dinner at her house to meet face to face with her niece, and we exchanged little gifts.

I can only imagine what Mrs. Booth would have done with us if blogging had been around way back then. Maybe I’d still be in touch with Laura Hodges, the girl who could draw like no one else. She is probably waiting to be the illustrator of the book I’m trying to write. Linda, Mrs. Booth’s niece would probably have had a blog that I would have regularly made pings on, and we would have learned so much more about each other’s lives.

My daughter has a blog. In it she talks about her life, vacation, her friends, and her dog. She enjoys blogging because others read her writing and respond, or ping her writing. Her blog, however, is password protected. I thought about responding to Will Richardson’s column on blogging with the thought that there are a lot of kids out there blogging, but not showing up on web searches because they are password protected. I think the business of blogging is important for kids to have practice in, but the risk of putting themselves and their feelings into a public forum is a little scary. Recently, my daughter had a friend who was the subject of cyber-bullying. We were suddenly face-to-face with the down side of putting yourself out there, on the internet, at a such a young age.

I see the power that Laura, from the 25 Days to Make a Difference blog, has to change her world and the lives of others. Her Mom seems very protective of how much gets out about Laura herself, and she cautions others about posting with the help of parents if they are minors.

It is a delicate balance. In the classroom, password protected, kids need the opportunity to learn how to blog. They need to know the etiquette (I understand the Bloggers That Be are working on this) and become empowered with this tool that is changing the landscape of their horizon. It is our job to educate our kids so that when they are ready to change the world with their words, they will be informed consumers of the choices available.