Who gets to tell our story?
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” — Mark Twain
One of the profoundly disturbing things that has developed over the past decade is the acceptance of lies crafted to parade as truth. Call it “alternative facts” or “fake news” or whatever you’d like. But gaslighting is becoming so ingrained in the practices of those in power that I believe they might not even realize that they are spreading lies. They just see it as their perspective and as long as they believe in the narrative of such a perspective, that such relative truth can stand in for the objective kind.
It would be easy to cynically say that it’s a national issue and one we don’t see here in Madison. But in our experience as educators, the narrative is controlled by the one with the largest bullhorn, not the objective facts.
Take, for instance, the issue of schools reopening. Thankfully, Dr. Carlton Jenkins made the prudent decision to keep our schools virtual until our COVID-19 infection rates and hospitalizations are under control, according to the Dane County Health and Human Services numbers, and staff and students have wide and equitable access to the vaccine.
However, the Wisconsin State Journal Editorial Board still chose to paint us as obstructionists to progress on this front because we deign to point out that many of our buildings do not have the physical spacing or updated ventilation systems to ensure the health and safety of everyone who steps into that building. And that the district has neither the plan nor the resources dedicates to mitigate these concerns because their budget and funding is as fouled up as the rest of the nation’s.
Funny how that part of our perspective is nowhere to be seen in the WSJ, despite our best attempts to communicate that. It doesn’t gel with their perspective and thus, it’s not part of their narrative. A perspective and narrative geared towards the most clicks than one focused on the objective truth. Of course page clicks and divisive headlines are their objective, otherwise they wouldn’t continue to employ Chris Rickert.
But the fault doesn’t solely lie on the media when it comes to our Union’s narrative in the community. We often solely rely on our weekly emails to faculty reps and the Solidarity! communication to reach our membership. Since the blessed arrival of Michelle Michalak to MTI, we have greatly improved our communications, both visually ( just check out the website and Facebook page) and in variety. This is evident in our video she created for MTI communicating our unified message around the return to school.
But what if that video was the norm and not just in case we needed to speak on a life-of-death issue like returning to school in the time of COVID? What if we:
- Made weekly videos highlighting MTI’s work in our buildings, as well as our work in the community?
- Centered social media and video to recruit and maintain perspective members, as well as answer questions that our veteran members have about what’s going on in our district?
- Used our communication platforms to connect to other community groups and build public partnerships of mutual support and aid?
Recently, the district has updated its policy on crowdfunding — essentially, we can only do so for school and classroom supplies and not to support students, families, or other entities when their financial or social needs are not being met.
During this disastrous past year, our community of children, families, and staff need our goodwill more than ever. Our Westside collective is changing families’ lives through rent, food, and utilities support. MMSD HR has worked to eliminate $25,000 of lunch debt. When a child or their family experiences unimaginable tragedies and traumas, it’s our social workers, counselors, psychologists, and nurses who rally to support them in their time of need. We cannot and should not limit our support if we can readily provide it. And if MMSD cannot support this, then MTI must take the lead to give our children and families what they need.
Let me be clear: these ideas are not brand new and they are not mine. They belong to other MTI leaders, like Jessica Hotz and Molly Walsh Anderson, who have called for us reforming our communications and philanthropy strategies to distribute the arduous work of mass communication so the burden doesn’t fall on Shelle alone.
And as we have made great strides in our strategies and our actions under the leadership of numerous office staff, Andy Waity, Ed Sadlowski, and Doug Keillor, we know we can do so much more with our MTI Communications Team to bring in more member leaders, enhance our organization’s transparency, and take greater control of our own narrative and the narratives within our education system.
This is our time to step up and speak up so that more members, staffers, children, and community members own this alongside us. Let’s do this together.
