Slashdot Mirror
Australian Teachers Try To Shut Down Website
DeathElk writes "New South Wales teachers are attempting to have a website based in the United States closed down due to "defamatory" content. The site in question encourages students to rate teachers at their school, which obviously results in some colorful content. Now the story has hit the media, with some insightful quotes such as "The president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Jim McAlpine, said the Federal Government should block access to 'scurrilous American websites'."
I was just listening to Radio National (oz public radio station) do a story on this. One of the people interviewed said that China is capable of blocking websites from overseas so maybe something similar should start up in Australia. I find it kind of disturbing that people believe that the great firewall is a rational response to the potential slander of some teachers.
most Austrailians I've met in person have been pretty cool people, but there seems to be a large portion of their online population who are big on censorship. At one point I was a very active member on a Stargate message board, but ther was an Aussie admin who was constantly closing threads as "Asked and answered" "No longer relavent" and the best yet "Off Topic" the funny part about the off topic one was that it was in a section of the board specifically labeled as the Off Topic section. I got the board admin in on it (he wasn't usually watching what was going on) and got their over zealous modding slowed down, but I stood my ground. I wasn't going to post anymore unless they reopend some wrongly closed threads, they didn't.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
The quotes about the anonymous principal, in the article? Yeah, I went to that school, she was principal back then, and the comments are 100% spot on. Funny that she'd find her way into the SMH and onto Slashdot ...
As with many stories, there is more to this than meets the eye.
The NSW Teachers Federation, which is a fairly powerful union here, has been vigorously fighting any attempts to rate the teachers performance and that of their students. Report cards for students are virtually meaningless nowdays and they have fought tooth and nail to prevent the return of the old system. I can't see what justification the Dept of Education has for blocking access to these sites, but as someone who went through the NSW system, I think having a rating site is a great idea. Many of the teachers are less than competent to be teaching our children.
Don't tailgate - the end is near!
I looked up my old school - some of the teachers I had are still there and have been rated. The ratings are right on.
Interestingly someone gave one of the IT teacher low ratings for blocking access to ratemyteachers.com claiming that it deprived teachers of much needed constructive criticism.
Most of the comments I saw were constructive and none were outright abusive. Most also showed respect and that the teachers had developed a rapport with the students. This site is an efficient web based suggestion box I don't think anyone should block it.
As a side note, it's also interesting that the first two posts in response to this story seemed to advocate the censorship instead of considering whether the "defamed" teachers might in fact be unfit.
.....
Unfortunately, the quality of teachers has decreased markedly in the last 10-15 years in Australia. This is simply because, like every other profession that requires skill or knowledge or competence, there has been a diaspora of excellent teachers to the UK, the USoA, Europe and Asia.
Of those teachers that took the place of the excellent teachers who left, the majority are uptight, narrow minded control freaks, and the idiot population likes it that way. These teachers are not only relatively incompetent as teachers, they are also having an influence on public school culture and curriculum.
For example, many Americans would be outraged to learn that scripture is being taught in Australian Public Schools. I personally find this highly offensive, and it makes me long for a US style constitution that guarantees separation of church (blech) and State.
Are Aussies really that OK with censorship?
Unfortunately, most of the rational, intelligent parents have also left with the teachers in the great Australian diaspora.
Sigh. What am I still doing here
- Nothing to see hear.
Having worked (briefly) in the Victorian education system as an IT support lackey, I can definitely say that teachers here have security issues and closet inferiority complexes.
Some of the general reasons that lead to this include, but are not limited to:
* The advancing average age of secondary teachers
* The general lack of tech savvy amoungst teachers and supporting staff
* The ultra-low wages, high-volume classrooms.
* The mentality from the general public that the teachers are given an 'easy go' and should be teaching their kids how to read/write (nevermind that this should have been done BEFORE the student reaches primary school, let alone secondary school, IMHO)
Case in point. One time, I was in a secondary college, and a group of teachers were discussing general causes of problem students. I casually remarked "You have to admit, sometimes it's not the student that is the direct cause". I didn't get a chance to elaborate, all three teachers immediately assumed I'd accused THEM of being incompetent (when i was going to discuss an event from high school where a teacher had shown up drunk for work)
Teachers tend to be very protective of their egos, so the incident in this slashdot story doesn't surprise me in the slightest (and, I'll also suggest it's being overblown here, it's no-where near what some US schools have done, such as suspending/expelling students, etc, over similar incidents)
That's overstating the facts. Each week there are a couple of slots set aside for religious education in public schools. Each religion is responsible for providing its own teachers for that time. Children attend the class of choice, and have the freedom to do a non-religious activity during that time. It's a good system. Freedom of religion includes the freedom to be religious as well as the freedom not to participate in religion.
I wonder whether the students posting such ratings would mind if they too were rated.
Ratings which would last an eternity on the internet.
eg. Joe Bloggs Student was a lazy, prick, more interested in cheating, being disruptive and time-wasting. Would be a waste of resources for any potential employer.
I'm sure this would fix the problem.
That's overstating the facts.
...". Children can go to Church on their parent's time, not mine.
The facts stand, regardless of my opinion of them.
Each week there are a couple of slots set aside for religious education in public schools.
Yes, time that my taxes are paying a State employee to be engaged in the process of teaching my child relevant and usefull knowledge and skills.
Children attend the class of choice, and have the freedom to do a non-religious activity during that time.
True. Unfortunately, the non-religious activity does not include education, it's just baby sitting and movie watching, something they can do on their own time.
It's a good system.
You forgot "In my opinion
Freedom of religion includes the freedom to be religious as well as the freedom not to participate in religion.
Not in a public school it doesn't. The public school is an instrument of the State, engaged in State activities, paid for by the State (i.e. my taxes). It is NOT, I repeat NOT, an institution for the teaching of religion. That is the role of private religious institutions such as religious schools and churchs (mosques, temples, synagogues etc).
Period.
- Nothing to see hear.
(If it were technically possible,) how would you react to a website where anyone (including potential employers) could search for you and see what your average bug count per 100 lines of code was?
Believing something doesn't make it true. Not believing something doesn't make it false.
I'm a teacher in New Zealand and many of the schools here in NZ are listed on this site. I think this site is actually beneficial. Most on the comments on there are positive and constructive. Some are not. I think the moderators do a reasonable job removing imature slander etc. Anyway I think it's cool but then i would say that because my feedback so far has been sweet! If i had negative feedback on there then it might give me a hint that i might need to change my teaching practice.