So a hot media and blogger topic is yet again, a FEMALE teacher is taking crap for blogging.
I can't remember if I wrote about the Notre Dame
teacher and the Main Line thuggery that ran that
Elizabeth Collins out of town and out of a job. By all accounts (mostly what you read between the lines on her
own blog ) - I think that the teacher from Notre Dame was quite abused, yes abused by those good Catholics - oh alrighty, so I am going to hell but there is nothing more hypocritical then Catholic school parents especially on the Main Line because they
sooooo want to belong and have so many inner conflcts and issues I don't know why they just can't be themselves.
Sorry to go off on a side trip, but I find Catholics can be really cruel on the Main Line- they deny issues like...sexual abuse and priests (hello can you say current events with St. Kat's in Wayne and something to do with Malvern Prep?) And they ignore issues that abound at Archbishop Carroll, which by accounts I have heard is worse than the toughest inner city high school in take your pick of major metropolitan areas. And then there is all the hypocrisy of many Main Line Catholics in general - Jesus loves cheating husbands who would never seperate their families - it's all about stepping out. And Jesus also apparently loves bitchy alcoholic women.
But let's get back to the teachers and blogging - this Bucks County teacher
Natlaie Monroe has resumed blogging, and apparently is making the rounds on talk shows - how much money is she making from all of this? Is she hoping to become a Lifetime Made For TV Movie or something?
See the thing is this- that teacher from Notre Dame?
Elizabeth Collins. Real writer. This teacher from Bucks? Well Natalie the teacher just sounds pissed off. And to actually put out there she never thought anyone would read her blog? Hello??? Remember the shampoo commercial with Joe Nameth telling two friends and so on? Get real. It's the Internet. If you are going to blog lady, own it.
Now, as to should she be able to blog? I say yes. Even if the other part of me thinks she is doing it at this point as a publicity slut.
Teachers aren't slaves even if sometimes they want you to feel that way when they go on strike over their contracts and whine about benefits the rest of us non-teachers wish we had.
And face it, a lot of today's kids are a pain in the ass - due to their parents - yes the helicopter parents that start out whining when little Charlie has to play with green blocks in nursery school, who then grow up to be monsters - heard a story a couple weeks ago about the helicopter mother of adult children who actually contacted her kid's boss to complain that her kid did not get a raise.
And a lot of these parents don't discipline or raise their kids - they leave that to everyone else. And they don't seem to give a crap that their kids are sometimes miserable and inappropriate to their teachers. I have seem kids presume they are equals to adults. News flash they aren't.
I have read on her blog that this
Natalie Munroe is expecting a baby - I can't imagine the stress this all adds.
What I don't get about this woman Natalie Munroe is why she seems to have scrubbed her blog of earlier posts - if she feels she did nothing wrong, she should have let the content stand.
Teachers should be able to blog and parents out there? If the products of your loins weren't such monsters at times, teachers would not have anything negative to say about students. No, no one ever said parenting was easy or an exact science, but you can't assume that because you turn a blind eye to what your kids are up to or think they are perfect, it doesn't mean everyone else will.
Let's talk about kids - a lot are terrific. But a lot run wild and the parents who think teachers shouldn't blog should take a long, hard look at the kids who provide the impetus for this teacher to write about her experiences in the first place. Why is it ok for kids (for example) to be live and cyber bullies to other kids as well as adults? Why is it ok for a lot of these kids to be completely sexually active without anyone explaining reality to them - enough of this abstinence crap - they need to learn the realities. Or what about the parents who think it's ok that their kids have wild out of control underage drinking parties as long as the parents are there? Or the kids who pay other kids to take their standardized tests and write their college application essays?
I don't see teachers as the new Victorians people. They deserve to be able to speak their minds. I think these parents in Bucks County need to take a long hard look at their little darlings before passing judgement on a frustrated teacher. And that school district? Mmmm, mmmm, mmm - seems to me that school has BIGGER and MORE PRESSING issues it should be dealing with? It seems that Central Bucks has had OTHER issues that have truly made them newsworthy in a negative way?
But as for Natalie Monroe? What is her goal now? Here is part of her recent
blog post:
Bloggate - Part 2: A Surreal Week
I think it is safe to say that this has been the most shocking, unexpected week of my life. To say it's all been surreal would be an understatement.
Just over a week ago I was creating study guides for Oedipus at Colonus, packing lunches for school, and working in the classroom each day. This week, though, I've been the guest on television programs I usually WATCH on television, have given interviews to news agencies that I usually read or listen to, and have received hundreds upon hundreds of emails from people I've never met before, many of whom have been expressing support and encouragement. (Thanks for that, by the way!)
This situation has in all ways changed my life. I'm very routine-oriented. Change, as a rule, scares the beejesus out of me (I used to get mad at my parents if they decided to move the Christmas tree from centered in front of the window to the corner of the room.) So for this degree of change to come at me from all sides--so quickly and unexpectedly--it's been quite an adjustment. And it hasn't just affected me; my family has been going through it, too. Our appetites, health, ability to sleep, and stress levels have all been affected. On the second day, we were so concerned that I made an appointment with my OB to make sure my baby is ok in there; thankfully, she is.
Some negative blog posts have accused me of loving the media attention. Um, sorry to disappoint, but this is not the stuff that dreams are made of (at least, not my dreams; if it was, then I would have gone into news instead of teaching). I was actually on Regis and Kelly when I was 20--I had an ambush makeover. While it was still nerve wracking being on camera, it was exciting and fun and I got a really cute outfit and hairdo out of the deal. This news stuff, though, is very stressful, and is quite a process. (Interesting fact: it takes longer to apply the makeup then it does to do an interview.)
I've been to New York City 3 times in 3 days; today I went to Philadelphia for some satellite stuff. I've been on Justice with Judge Jeanine, Fox and Friends, CBS 3, 6 ABC, NBC 10, Good Morning America, CNN, WFMZ 69. I've talked on radio programs in Toronto, San Francisco, London (the BBC), and Philadelphia 1210. I've sat with reporters from the Intelligencer, the Inquirer, the NY Post, Time magazine, Reuters, and the Associated Press.
I went from being completely unknown to being a cartoon and an allusion; I've even been compared to Sue Sylvester of Glee (as a fan of Glee, I was amused by this comparison and was also heartened to see that she was rated as having the meaner insults by the online polls.)
I've been called "mean" and "unprofessional," but have also been called an "education icon" and a "hero." I even garnered a 97% approval rating on an MSNBC poll--wowsa!
These are not the sorts of things that happen to me on a regular basis. To put it in perspective, a normal day for me involves work, having dinner with my family, and watching General Hospital on my DVR each night. (As it were, I'm now 4 episodes behind as I haven't been able to watch this week since I've been so busy trying to put this blogging scandal into some context and start important conversations about our education system. These matters are obviously more important, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that this is the week that things with the Balkan were supposed to come to a head and Sonny and Brenda are supposed to be getting married, so it's an important week of the show, too!) So, for me, these past 7 days have been the farthest thing from normal.
What is remarkable, though, is that somewhere along the past few days, the focus has shifted a bit from the blog itself and onto the education debate. While I certainly never--not in a million years--thought I'd be so near the center of this conversation, I'm glad it's a conversation that's happening.
Lady, sorry, not minimizing your right to blog because I think that is your right, but I think you love the attention too - you are t.v. show name dropping. My granny always said least said soonest mended.
Natalie Monroe also wrote another
blog post --- AFTER she seemingly deleted all prior posts and content as if she WAS doing something wrong. I think if she only suppressed the prior content she should re-post it.
Here is some recent media commentary:
TIME: How One Teacher's Angry Blog Sparked a Viral Debate About the Modern Classroom
By Kayla Webley Friday, Feb. 18, 2011
When high school English teacher Natalie Munroe had a bad day at school, she didn't just vent to her husband: she took it to her blog. Titled "Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?" and all but unknown to the world until earlier this month, Munroe's website served as a chronicle of her "utterly loathsome" students. In one post, she advises students to go get jobs with the trash company. In another, she calls them "rude, disengaged, lazy whiners." In yet another she doesn't mince words, proclaiming, "There's no other way to say this: I hate your kid." Now Munroe, who has been temporarily suspended from her position, finds herself in the middle of a swirling online debate — not over what she did, but over what she said about the sometimes harsh realities of the 21st century classroom.
While it's undoubtedly naive to believe in 2011 that a blog will remain anonymous — especially considering Munroe published the online musings using her first name, the initial of her last name and a photo of herself — her attorney, Steve Rovner, says legally she did nothing wrong to warrant suspension. Rovner says his client's school district does not have a policy in place that dictates what teachers can and cannot do online and Munroe did not name the school, nor her students, in her blog posts. Still, while Munroe maintains what she wrote was meant only to serve as amusement for herself, her husband and seven of her friends who read the site, in publishing the rants to a blog — rather than, say, via a mass e-mail to friends and family — she opened herself up to the chance that anyone outside her circle could find the posts.
Read more
CB East teacher suspended for blog investigation By: Christina Kristofic phillyBurbs.com
This is an interesting thing to follow for sure. But at the end of the day I say again to these parents who seem to think teachers are to have no independent thoughts while teaching today's youth: look at your children and how they behave - as in actually pay attention. Then maybe you will understand how teachers feel - after all they are there to educate not baby-sit and wipe your kids' asses.
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