Do Teachers Have The Right to Blog About Anything?

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?