The Daily News1 Allow me to post something that seems outrageous to me:
Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog
Play Video ABC News – Blogging Teacher's Job on the Line
FEASTERVILLE, Pa. – A high school English teacher in suburban Philadelphia who was suspended for a profanity-laced blog in which she called her young charges "disengaged, lazy whiners" is driving a debate by daring to ask: Why are today's students unmotivated — and what's wrong with calling them out?
As she fights to keep her job at Central Bucks East High School, 30-year-old Natalie Munroe says she had no interest in becoming any sort of educational icon. The blog has been taken down, but its contents can still be found easily online.
Her comments and her suspension by the middle-class school district have clearly touched a nerve, with scores of online commenters applauding her for taking a tough love approach or excoriating her for verbal abuse. Media attention has rained down, and backers have started a Facebook group.
"My students are out of control," Munroe, who has taught 10th, 11th and 12th grades, wrote in one post. "They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying."
And in another post, Munroe — who is more than eight months pregnant — quotes from the musical "Bye Bye Birdie": "Kids! They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs. Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy LOAFERS."
She also listed some comments she wished she could post on student evaluations, including: "I hear the trash company is hiring"; "I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son"; and "Just as bad as his sibling. Don't you know how to raise kids?"
Munroe did not use her full name or identify her students or school in the blog, which she started in August 2009 for friends and family. Last week, she said, students brought it to the attention of the school, which suspended her with pay.
"They get angry when you ask them to think or be creative," Munroe said of her students in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. "The students are not being held accountable."
Munroe pointed out that she also said positive things, but she acknowledges that she did write some things out of frustration — and of a feeling that many kids today are being given a free pass at school and at home.
"Parents are more trying to be their kids' friends and less trying to be their parent," Munroe said, also noting students' lack of patience. "They want everything right now. They want it yesterday."
One of Munroe's former students, who now attends McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., said he was torn by his former teacher's comments. Jeff Shoolbraid said that he thought much of what Munroe said was true and that she had a right to voice her opinion, but felt her comments were out of line for a teacher.
"Whatever influenced her to say what she did is evidence as to why she simply should not teach," Shoolbraid wrote in an e-mail to the AP. "I just thought it was completely inappropriate."
He continued: "As far as motivated high school students, she's completely correct. High school kids don't want to do anything. ... It's a teacher's job, however, to give students the motivation to learn."
A spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association declined to comment Tuesday because he said the group may represent Munroe. Messages left for the Central Bucks School District superintendent were not returned.
Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said school districts are navigating uncharted territory when it comes to teachers' online behavior. Often, districts want teachers to have more contact with students and their families, yet give little guidance on how teachers should behave online even as students are more plugged in than they've ever been.
"This is really murky stuff," she said. "When you have a teacher using their blog to berate their students, maybe that's a little less murky. But the larger issue is, I think, districts are totally unprepared to deal with this."
Munroe has hired an attorney, who said that she had the right to post her thoughts on the blog and that it's a free speech issue. The attorney, Steven Rovner, said the district has led Munroe to believe that she will eventually lose her job.
"She could have been any person, any teacher in America writing about their lives," he said, pointing out that Munroe blogged about 85 times and that only about 15 to 20 of the posts involved her being a teacher. "It's honest and raw and a little edgy depending on your taste. ... She has a deep frustration for the educational system in America."
Rovner said that he would consider legal action if indeed Munroe loses her job.
"She did it as carefully as she could," he said about her blog. "It's so general that it applies to the problems in school districts and schools across the country."
2 So...a teacher who is a bit frustrated at work has a bit of a bad day, and blogs about it on Facebook.
3 Just like a billion other people in all kinds of professions.
4 I'm guessing you can see where THIS is going.
5 On the one hand, if a person who works at a Target, or a Denny's criticizes their boss on Facebook, and their boss reads it, that person could conceivably get fired. No union protection, and certainly no first amendment protection.
6 If that's the case, then shouldn't a teacher who criticizes lazy students get fired as well?
7 Uh...no?
8 Should anyone on Facebook or Twitter or whatever get fired for doing what everyone else does on those public forums?
9 Does the first amendment expand to Facebook?
10 Unchartered territory indeed.
11 Every single day billions of people on Facebook complain about their jobs. Most are smart enough not to criticize a boss, because once something is publicly out there, the boss can take a peek.
12 What bothers me I think about the Natalie Munroe thing isn't that she criticized parents and students, but that because she's a teacher, she is somehow no longer an American who has the freedom to voice her opinion.
13 For whatever reason, evidently teachers don't have freedom of speech, at least if we look at the shenanigans in Pennsylvania.
14 I've always said whatever I wish on the DN, oftentimes annoying people with other political beliefs or other people who completely disagree with my folderol.
15 I have taught passionately about the JFK assassination, for example, and have opened many eyes to the fact that there are quite possibly corrupt people in politics.
16 And I stand firmly on the fact that in America, I have that right, despite my profession.
17 And yes, as a reasonably responsible person, I am professinal enough not to cross too many lines.
18 As teachers we are trained to raise controversial issues so that students could debate, think critically, and come to their own conclusions about certain issues.
19 To me, calling the government on its lies in the JFK assassination is the result of years of research. There is overwhelming evidence. It clearly isn't an opinion to me, not any longer. It is irrefutable.
20 It is akin to publicly calling out Christopher Columbus for being a murderer, a rapist, and a slave owner. It is fact, not opinion.
21 I was outraged that our English 3 literature books never mentioned a thing about that, but instead made Columbus look like a prom date.
22 I'm sorry. That is incorrect history. There should be mention of his subsequent voyages and his behaviors that make Michael Vick look like Mickey Mouse.
23 Can I get fired for "blogging" this?
24 Am I allowed to call those things out if they're true?
25 And if teachers get muzzled, what does that say about a free-thinking society?
26 And yes, thousands of teachers say stupid and inappropriate things every single day. But thousands of teachers say intelligent, thoughtful things every day as well.
27 I personally would find it hard to criticize teenagers as being "lazy" and insolent and all the rest. Not an issue. Yes, some are. Many aren't. I would also be hard-pressed to criticize parents who care about their children's education.
28 I spent WAY too many years watching kids whose parents couldn't care less about their children's education, so any parent who writes or calls me about how their child is doing deserves my respect. And yes, some are annoying, but only because I'm already ridiculously busy, and it takes time out of the day to look up their child's papers, look over what seems to be happening, and then give a courteous reply within a reasonable amount of time. That's not easy to do when we have a billion other deadlines every single day.
29 But I think that any parent who is trying to reach the school regarding their child's progress is a good parent. So the issue isn't with Munroe's content. I understand that frustration, but I also understand the parents' frustration. Perhaps she was just upset for having had a tough day.
30 We all have them.
31 My concern is the right to freedom of speech. If seven billion people on Facebook could say anything they want, then why can't a teacher?
32 We are clearly American citizens.
33 We are clearly protected by the first amendment.
34 Why are we held to some sort of higher standard?
35 It's an interesting issue if you ask me, because I've seen this sort of thing go on for years.
36 Students aren't stupid. If a teacher is blasting off his or her political beliefs, they'll know, and they'll probably write the person off as a blowhard.
37 Every single day billions of teachers talk for almost five hours, and the students pretty much figure out where those teachers stand politically, morally, and passionately. Nobody could read an adult's hypocrisy quicker than a teenager.
38 And nobody could read America's hypocrisy quicker than a teacher.
39 I'm not at all scared by the story. I just think it brings up some VERY interesting issues.
40 Should I dismantle the DN just because I fear I might write something that will offend someone, and then lose my job as a result?
41 Not in this life, and not in the next.
42 Do I have the same first amendment rights as the guy next door?
43 Food for thought, and grounds for further research, as my good friend and spiritual confidant David Emory says.
44 Truth.
45 Patriotism is a lot more than singing God Bless America at a baseball game.
46 It is standing up for our freedoms, even if someone says something with which we disagree.
47 Earlier this year I mentioned that our school suddenly started announcing the Pledge of Allegiance every single morning. The students were told that it was okay to sit and listen quietly to the pledge. They could not get in trouble for not saying it, but it was requested that they sit an listen.
48 And every single day I stand up, look at the flag, and say the Pledge, hand over heart. I do that because I think it is a part of being a good role model.
49 Is it weird? Not in the least. I put my hand over my heart because I believe in the principles of freedom, which includes freedom of speech for everybody. If some teacher goes off on a rant, that's their right. We do expect a certain amount of professionalism, but we are also entitled to the occasional bad day, or the occasional moment of poor judgment, just like anyone else.
50 So that's my rant. I will rap the flag around me and stand tall. I have every right to say what I feel as anybody else.
51 Hope this struck a nerve.
52 Peace.
~H~
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