We’ve all heard the stories of facebook being used in court cases. The cases where an employee takes medical leave and then a photo of him/her is posted skiing and sitting in a hot tub with a drink in hand. The reality is that we have to be careful what we put out there on the internet anywhere. There was recently another case where someone was forced to resign because of tweets (remember Octavia Nasr of CNN?).
“My students are out of control,” Munroe, who has taught 10th, 11th and 12th grades, wrote in one post. “They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying.”And in another post, Munroe — who is more than eight months pregnant — quotes from the musical “Bye Bye Birdie”: “Kids! They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs. Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy LOAFERS.”She also listed some comments she wished she could post on student evaluations, including: “I hear the trash company is hiring”; “I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son”; and “Just as bad as his sibling. Don’t you know how to raise kids?”
Granted, that last set of quotes is nasty, it’s the type of frustration driven venting that should be kept private. Many, many people, in many different professions, vent in similar ways, but hopefully keep it in the staff room, or some other private space.
“They get angry when you ask them to think or be creative”, … “The students are not being held accountable.”
She then goes on to talk about our instant gratification society and how kids want things yesterday without having to work for it.
I agree with the teacher, its the truth, the students they lack discipline, they are all out of control, they are lazy, rude, they talked back, they are very,very loud, they swear, and the lists just goes on and on. Furthermore i’ve witness some of these behaviour on the public system (the Bus). And i’ve also had the pleasure of seen some of the parents, (and i was afraid) they are also out of control. Hats off to all you teachers out there, the stuff you have to put up with….,oh i dont know…i couldn’t do it.., AND I WOULD NOT.
I know that is some schools you can’t whine to another teacher about your classes. I knew one teacher who did so in some way. She was kindly taken aside by another teacher who told her never to do that as you will be seen to be incompetent and you will lose your class???? How stupid is that that a teacher can’t vent to a colleague??
Maybe this teacher needed to vent. Does she realize she isn’t telling us something we don’t already know about schools already? Lack of discipline, nasty language and parents who don’t care. No surprise!!At least she speaks out. Maybe she cares. If she never pointed out or named any kids in particular why is it such a big deal?
I’m a teacher (like you) so I am ultra careful about what I write. Also, the pictures I choose to post. There are quite a few topics I would like to broach, but I feel they are completely inappropriate if one of my students was to stumble across them.
I use my students as a barometer… if one of them read this/saw this, how would I feel? How would my boss feel?
You get the point.
However, should you be able to talk about the educational system as a whole…but be perfectly ok with any backlash you may receive as a result.
Erin…short version: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dooced
Um, what is getting Dooced? #needbackstory
I love Dooce! But I am very careful when I write about my work, about the kids I care for, and about my clients (their parents). No names, no rants, and lots of generality. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a blog post. You have to expect that your clients (and friends, and family, and teachers) will read it, sooner or later. And, especially when you’re working with kids, I think you need to respect THEIR privacy as much as possible. They have a right to make their own first impression.
But for a teacher to criticize the system in general? Absolutely, she should be able to do that, in whatever forum she deems appropriate, in whatever words she chooses. We need those voices to improve the system for our kids.
I made sure on my personal site that I didn’t actually write WHERE I worked….and I REALLY didn’t write much about my job, unless it was something good, or something completely not work-related. For instance, I play office softball with coworkers and I wrote about that from time to time, but I never really talked about things that went on IN the office. I was pretty careful…even though sometimes I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to dump some of the crap out on my site…but again…WHO WANTS TO GET DOOCED?
You should never put anything in print (or recorded in any other way) that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the newspaper. That’s the rule I try to stick with. If you criticize your job where public eyes can see, you run a huge risk.
It sound like every single thing she had to say was true (or at least felt true to her) and I can understand how frustrated she must have felt in these moments, but it was a bad call. It’s too bad she’s actually losing her job over it though.
That is very, very interesting. My first instinct is – if the comments are generic than what’s the big deal. But hmmm. I have to think more about it. I don’t discuss my 9-5 job on my blog very much but I could….I think I just have the ‘Dooce’ fear in me so I keep that aspect of my life private. Yet a blog is a place to vent and discuss – so shouldn’t you be able to if it’s generic??