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What do you all think of the teacher who called out her students as being “lazy”, “entitled”, etc.? Apparently, she's been getting support for what she voiced. Her comments were made in a blog of hers, and from what it seems the blog was intended for family/friends, but somehow her students found out about it.Teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog
I think most people are upset because they know she is speaking the truth. It is like when we got shotgun blasted at work, I tend to ignore them if I know they don't apply to me but the people they do apply to get offended. Same phenomenon here. How much you want to bet that the students that outed her are the types she was talking about in her blog. I also just think it is plain hilarious.
She just said, in blog form, what is the general discussion in every school staff room in the nation.
I agree completely… BUT… playing devils advocate, regardless of whether the students are indeed lazy whiners, doesn't the teacher, even in a personal blog, have the responsibility to “watch” what she is saying? Similar to business people who blog… they could say a LOT of things, but something harmless in general could turn around and bite them, so when putting something out they need to be extra cautious. Maybe this applies to the teacher here as well?Just saying…
I think that she did “watch what she was saying” in that she didn't single out any particular students. Her comments appear to be generalizations – not targeted at specific individual student's work. She didn't say, I have this one student, I'll call him “Melvin” – who is so stupid, he actually wrote on a test….”I think that the issue should be that the students would have to prove harm – she isn't singling out any one or any one group “all of the student athletes in my class are so lazy…” I think that we, as a society, have become too coddling with our children, especially our teenage children We end up putting a bunch of “young adults” out into society who are not prepared to be contributing citizens.Now, just to turn the page and be fair – I became so frustrated with the local public high school teachers that we made the move to private school for our son – and we live in one of the best school districts in the state! She says in the article that her students got upset when asked to be creative – well, here's some of the really STUPID “creative” assignments. English Literature course – Assignment: Read Beowulf and design and make a t-shirt depicting a scene or character from the book (Really? In a college prep course?) That was the ONLY assignment related to Beowulf. US History – the American Civil War – using a 2 liter soda bottle, create a famous character from the American Civil War, provide a 3X5 card identifying who the person is an why they were significant (Really? This was the sum-total of their assignments for the American Civil War?). Here's a fun one, guess what class this was for: Write, direct, and create a 3 minute digital video depicting a scene inspired by “Fahrenheit 451” – I'll give you a hint, it wasn't Theater Arts.So, I'm sure that she has some extremely valid points, and I defend her right to express her opinion (provided she doesn't violate the Federal Education Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) – which it doesn't look like she did). But it's a two way street that encompasses more than just laying the blame at the feet of the students and their parents. Some students are unmotivated and disengaged because they are lazy. Others are because they are fed up with asinine assignments from teachers who evidently learned their teaching skills from an ad in the back of Rolling Stone.
I know the feeling. I began teaching high school when we could still force boys to tuck in their shirts, shave, and settle disputes in the gym boxing ring, and girls to low-key their makeup. Then fear of ACLU lawsuits on behalf of student rights began the decline of dress and discipline in our schools, plus great women who would have been teachers in the old days could become lawyers and such.I am still waiting to see a teacher strike against lack of discipline and especially violence against teachers and students – but no, it is always for more pay and perks.
