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Teacher Suspended Over Blog About Students
English teacher Natalie Munroe is in a bit of hot water after she described the precious snowflakes in her class as: “Frightfully dim,” “Rat-like,” “Am concerned your kid is going to open fire on the school,” “I hate your kid,” and “Seems smarter than she actually is,” on her blog. The Central Bucks School District has suspended Natalie after parents complained to administrators. “It’s hard to know that you sat in her class for an hour and a half a day and for her to feel that way it is like, it is an awful feeling,” student Alli Woloshyn said.
Kids have a way of living up to people's expectations. She expects these kids to act like animals, and they're fulfilling her expectations. I'd expect teachers to vent to each other about the students (and parents) they have to deal with, but venting in an online forum displays terrible judgement.
My mother works as a substitute teacher. She takes troubled kids that every else badmouths, treats them with respect, and gets them to open up, stop being disruptive, and actually start learning. If a teacher is having problems with kids, it is as much an indictment of the teacher as it is of the kids.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Depending on the status of her blog, it's arguable how public that kind of communication should be considered. While I think it's dumb that she would post such brutally honest feelings somewhere the parents could find it, I'm not sure it's much different than if she were to say the same things to friends at a bar -- and in the bar situation I would definitely say it's her right to say what she wants without this kind of disciplionary action.
The fact of the matter is, sometimes this stuff is true. And it's definitely true that despite the best intentions, lots of teachers feel this way, even if it's only for the space of an afternoon after a particularly difficult week. Are we meant to fire every teacher who has a negative thought about her students? It's probable that there's more to the story that would change my mind, but I don't see how this is any different that suspending a student because he said he hates his Principal on Facebook.
I don't think her ability to teach is compromised, but her ability to play the politics necessary to educate kids while keeping their parents happy definitely is. She actually got off light. One of my kids' old elementary teachers got fired on the spot for having a blog about her kids, and she wasn't saying anything nearly so mean about them. She had just been awarded the district's teacher of the year award the year before, too. Combine privacy concerns with angry parents, and you can pretty much pack your bags.
That said, I can sort of understand why she was doing it. I've known lots of teachers, and they almost universally say the worst part about teaching is dealing with the parents. Some parents try to micromanage the teachers, others won't ever show any interest in their kids' education at all no matter how hard the teacher tries. Plus, kids come in with a variety of emotional, mental, and/or developmental problems that many times the parents simply refuse to acknowledge.
All of this, along with the daily frustrations of shrinking budgets, increasing numbers of kids per classroom, and administrations that don't seem to care about anything but their own political ambitions, means most teachers really need a place to vent. Sometimes they bitch to each other, but schools can be nasty gossip factories, so it doesn't pay to do that too much. Sometimes you see your kid's second grade teacher in a bar. Sometimes, especially recently, they vent on blogs. The problem is, they don't anonymize themselves or the stories they tell sufficiently (or in this case, not at all), someone who has an axe to grind with them anyway (such as a parent) finds out about it, and it's all downhill from there.
Normally I'm aghast when someone gets in trouble at work for their private blog/whatever, but in this case it's perfectly reasonable.
Why is it reasonable in this case? What does it matter what she thinks about her students, and why does it matter that people actually know the truth about how she feels? "Oh no! She might hurt the kids' feelings. Their precious self-esteem will be destroyed," you say. Kids so desperately need to learn to hear shit they won't like -- this is something that's missing from our society. Kids need thick skin. If she can get through to the kids and teach them the material, she has done her job superbly. In fact, showing her kids that it's ok to not be scared to speak the truth despite possible retribution is a vitally important lesson, one which too few kids even learn in their entire lives... Instead they turn into Compliance Sheep who never speak up or fight for what they believe in.