On "Blogging from the Classroom, Teachers Seek Influence, Risk Trouble" -- By Eddy Remirez
My article talked about teachers who risk their jobs by blogging out their aggression towards their jobs, or more specifically the anger and sadness they experience within their particular school system. Remirez discusses how these blogs have helped teachers connect with, and gain support or advice from other teachers who may be going through, or have gone through, similar experiences. Then, he looks at how these blogs can be offensive to parents or administration, who can sometimes pick out the writers, or find the language and topics to be innapropriate and the idea of anyone-access irresponsible. The article seems to lean towards teachers having the right to responsible, and what I would call "black-boxed" or limited, freedom of speech.
I am not sure I have rested completely on a conclusion for whether teachers should or should not be able to blog freely. I think that teachers should have the right to blog without restriction, just as anyone can make a website on anything. In other words, a person's profession should not limit his or her right to write without censorship. On the other hand, I agree that specifics should be left out of these blogs. Targeting a specific person or place is rarely, if ever, appropriate when negatively discussing troublesome or personal issues that can be accessed by anyone. It would be nice to see a website set up that allows teachers private access and open discussions with each other, where they can create blogs, or have forums that help and support one another through difficult times. Even better, if the government would take some of the teachers opinions and ideas to heart when creating their laws. In professions that can tend to cause burnout, writing that includes some form of venting is one of the best ways to de-stress. Teachers need an outlet to get out their frustrations, and frankly, the teachers lounge is a little overrated for such outbursts. Besides, I think that these blogs could influence changes within a community, if they read and accept the problems that sometimes only teachers can see. Remirez points out how one teacher helped his community gain better funding opportunities through his rants on the disrruptive and destructive nature of the students. However, this teacher also lost his job.
I am left wondering: Should a line be drawn on what teachers can or can not say in blogs? And, who has a right to draw that line? More so, couldn't these blogs offer a potential opportunity for some change if taken seriously by the right people. Where do we go from here? And, the always popular, how do sites like MySpace or Facebook fit into this argument?
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"In other words, a person's profession should not limit his or her right to write without censorship."
I agree with a lot of what you said about using writing as a way to vent so teachers do not get burned out. But I don’t feel that publicly announcing these gripes is the best way to relieve stress. Write your issues in a personal journal or talk about them with a co-worker or close friend. There should be a line that teachers should not cross. Students are influential and could very easily take a complaint of a teacher the wrong way. We as a society do not need students revolting because of something a teacher posted online. For example, (and an extreme/hypothetical example) if a teacher blogged about how they were annoyed that their students were tired during their morning classes and then were sluggish towards the end of the day and the teacher, half kidding, suggested putting cocaine in the food or drugging the students so they were more productive; the students who read this blog and took it seriously would either take it the wrong way and “agree” that we should give students cocaine, or be appalled that a professional educator would suggest something like that. Also a person’s professionalism should be the concern not their profession. This is not just about a person who wants to bitch about his or her job it is what is being said about the job and thier bosses and officials. Teachers are not supposed to talk bad about their school, or district, or whatever. There is a code. another example, members of the church should not openly speak negatively about the church especially to non-members. With teaching, it is as if professional educators are on a team, when they have an issue they should keep it within their “house.” Teachers should know better then to post things that are incriminating and if the subject is that important and the teacher posts something controversial, they probably already know the consequences and they have to be prepared to face them.
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