I’m only now hearing about the teacher who blogged about her work environment and some of her students.  It seems to have made quite a splash on the blogosphere and the news, and I have no excuse for not finding it earlier, other than I have a tiny, demanding human being who willfully bites electric cords and opens the trash can and all manner of other things that could potentially land her in the ER if  don’t watch her every single second.  Thus, I have about two hours at night in which to cram in all of the things I need to do.  I’m lucky I even know about Bahrain at this point.

Anyhoo, a teacher wrote about her school, and some of her administrators, and some of her students.  And yes, she complained about them and some of her job duties on a few of her posts.  She didn’t name any of them, and didn’t name the school.  She blogged under her first name and last initial, and didn’t even make her location known. I’d say other than blogging under a pseudonym (which I’m sure she wishes she had done now)  there isn’t much else she could have done to make it more anonymous.  Basically this was a personal blog that sometimes mentioned things about her job, it wasn’t set up to deliberately bash her students or co-workers.

One of her students supposedly stumbled across her blog, reported it to the school, and she was sent home and suspended for a week.

Is it just me, or did the school and the district overreact?

I know that it is a general rule not to blog about work, but usually that applies to people who name names. 

She didn’t.

By some twist of fate, someone who was able to recognize her found her blog amongst the thousands out there, and reported it.

Maybe I’ve just got a soft spot for teachers, but why wouldn’t she be allowed to complain about the general state of her class?  Goodness knows I read blogs that constantly talk about their jobs and co-workers and say much worse than what Ms. Munroe did.  Add to that the district has no Internet or blogging policies in place, so I would like to think she and her First Amendment rights get a pass on this one.

Ms. Munroe is unapologetic for her blog, and I for one, support her fully.

She actually hopes that her complaints about her students and their lack of engagement and responsibility will spark a discussion about accountability and where that accountability should be placed.  I think this is an idea that has merit, as teachers have definitely become huge scapegoats in the education game.   Not much talk is made of parents who don’t care, which there are more of than you would like to think.

Those among us who have never complained about their job, feel free to set that stone aloft.