Change my mind.
If Steven Crowder is the meme-presentative of a concept, should we be surprised actually changing our mind is seen as a weakness or a mistake?
My teaching license expired in June of 2019. I mistakenly thought it had expired in 2022. I never checked the actual expiration date because, during the pandemic and the following years, simply having someone available to teach was sufficient, and no one i worked with requested proof.
The expired license sufficed for substitute teaching, consulting, and maintaining my LinkedIn profile. This year, I began consulting with a large East Coast district that required a copy of my current credentials. I applaud them for verifying consultants who claim to be certified are certified!
My license was expired.
Until today, I believed it had only recently expired, but a double-check revealed the actual expiration year was 2019.
So, after a letter to my state representative and multiple contacts with the Utah State Board of Education, I was able to renew. It was a pain to do—so I posted about it.
While drafting this post, I remembered I wrote about letting the credentials expire and being okay with letting that part of my life go. I went back and re-read it. I remembered why I felt the way I did when I wrote it. I maintain that former teachers are not the same as current ones. However, I now believe that my life as a credentialed professional is still part of my story.
We need a discussion on why renewing credentials after they expire is so challenging and how we can make these credentials more valuable for the holder. Today, I want to talk about how people reacted to a public post about changing my mind.
The supporters comment publicly, which is awesome. That’s a shift. However, I receive DMs such as, 'You should delete that old post; you look like an idiot,' and 'I let my credentials expire because you did it, and now you're saying that was incorrect?'" And to these, I respond:
🧠 Being able to publicly change your mind is a superpower and is the change we need in education.
🧠 I welcome the chance to have you change my mind, and someone changed my mind about current credentials.
🧠 I changed the way I write on LinkedIn, including drastically reducing my posting schedule and “advice” posts. I don’t know you or your life. Please consider changing the way you consume as well.
Discussion with worthy opponents has also changed my mind about
brace for political cringe
- School choice
- Social Media for student-facing school comms
- Student access to AI tools
- Sam Altman’s board ousting
- Notion vs. Drive
- Trust earned vs trust given
- Scrum
- The role of product in early stage companies
- Voting 3rd party
-Pre-teaching
-Leisure reading and leveled readers
Should I keep quiet about all of these issues just in case I change my mind again?
Not a chance. Many of these changes took place in small circles before I started posting about it. Whether it’s posting or small conversations, it’s critical to me to talk about it.
How will people come into my circle to challenge me if I don’t talk about it?
If we hold convictions against all incoming proof, but keep quiet about why we hold those convictions, it isn’t bravery or commitment but fear and stubbornness.