When I began following free speech controversies, I was a First Amendment absolutist. Now I’m something less comfortable. I still think free speech is a good idea, certainly better than alternatives I’ve come across, but I’ve learned that everyone has a line that can’t be crossed, a word that sticks in the craw, an image that feels like a kick to the gut. The First Amendment, bless its little heart, always eventually lets us down (self-protection is innate, tolerance an acquired taste), so how can I not be bothered by its limitations?

This is a running log of arguments over free speech – some silly, some funny, some hard -- because free speech is all about argument. Being able to speak our mind makes us feel good and it's essential to real democracy and fairness. Yet, in the end, one of the best reasons to keep our speech rights intact is that we miss them when they’re gone.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Who teaches teachers that blogs are not private?

       So a teacher creates a blog "for family and friends" in which she denigrates her stus as "disengaged, lazy whiners." The story includes that short quote out of context, followed by an ominous "and worse," so there may be more to it, but it doesn't sound much different from what a lot of teachers say or think.  Nonetheless, she got suspended and the superintendent doesn't want her back after she finishes her maternity leave, to which her "supporters" retort, free speech.  Thus, the battle lines are drawn.  Or maybe not.
       Yes, of course, she has a right to her opinion of her students, to voicing it too, but was she really so naive as to believe that she could restrict something she posted online to the readers she chose?  (Almost no one reads this blog, but I'm always aware that anyone could.)  We hear story after story about kids learning hard lessons about communication they thought was private snapping round to bite them, but this is an adult, a teacher and soon-to-be parent.  Surely, it would have made more sense to say this stuff to her family and friends in person, if that's whom she wanted to tell it to.  Aside from a breach of professionalism (euww! how stuffy does that sound?), there's the impact on her classroom because it's hard to teach students who know you disdain them. 
     So, yeah, let her keep her job -- and her blog, if she still wants to -- but help her to be a better teacher and make her figure out a good way to deal with the consequences of her words.
Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)