Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog

[ensho]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110216/ap_on_hi_te/us_teacher_suspended_blog


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 sensation 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 — writes: "Kids! They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs. Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy LOAFERS." She also comes up with a colorful list of comments that she felt should be available on student report cards.

-snip-
---------------------------------


again "what's wrong with calling them out?"

I have her back.

[OHdem10]

1. Some years back, I have been in schools which to a visitor

the young people would be described just as she said.

Discipline is needed in some schools.

I am not making excuses for anyone. However, as fewer
and few jobs are available in the greater society
have families given up. Seeing a future and believing
you really have a chance is a real motivator.

[Hello_Kitty]

2. I know several parents and not a single one of the kids has household chores

Not one.

[yellowcanine]

3. Complaining about rude students in a blog is not "tough love"

Confronting them when they are and holding them accountable is "tough love."

I don't see what she did as helping the situation in any way. Basically she whined about them being whiny students. Not an effective teaching strategy.

[Pithlet]

17. I agree. I also think it's pretty stupid to vent publicly like that.

A suspension is the least she should be facing. She'll be lucky if she isn't fired.

[InvisibleTouch]

4. I used to teach undergraduates...

...and many of them are lazy whiners. Not all, but many.

I say the teacher is allowed to vent.

[bbgrunt]

5. since education has adopted the business model where

students and their parents are considered "customers" who must be served, based professor ratings on anonymous student evaluations, and pressured teachers to increase grades to satisfy these "consumers of education" standards have become impossible to maintain. Of course these kind of policies help lead students to feel invincible and irresponsible.

It's indicative of what has happened to the country in general. If you don't prosecute leaders who violate laws and the constitution, you cannot be surprised when the society in general becomes lawless.

In this case, if you disempower teachers and professors from maintaining standards you cannot be surprised when students take advantage.

I guess it takes a few brave souls to point out that it is not all the fault of teachers.

[QC]

10. Bravo! You have said it all: the customer service model is killing higher ed.

Evaluations are now becoming the sole decider of whether teachers are retained/tenured/promoted or not. It's sickening, and I see it first hand, as I serve on a rank and tenure committee.

[prairierose]

14. Thank you bbgrunt...I have been saying this for many years now...

many college students have come to believe that because they paid for the class, they deserve an A. To them, grades have nothing to do with completing assignments in a timely manner with competence.

[montanto]

6. lol. Well, my students certainly fit all of those descriptions.

But I would never "say" that in a place where others didn't already understand it. Calling students out doesn't really serve a purpose other than allowing the teacher to vent a little. We should do that among our peers who understand us and remain professional else. Suspension in this case is extreme.

[Fuzz]

7. My oldest daughter is a freshman in high school and says the same thing actually, not in those words

though.

She is mostly in advanced classes where the kids are interested, but some classes are necessary for graduation and everyone must take them and she has told us that nothing is ever done with kids being sent to the office daily, shouting, fighting, security being called often, etc.

I'm thankful for the advanced classes where these things don't happen and that she is able to take them. What about the other kids who want to learn though and can't in that environment?

[QC]

8. It's unprofessional of her to say such things in public, but

much of what she says here is true about an increasingly large share of students.

Something is going on, and it's not pretty. There are serious entitlement issues with many people in that age group, as she says, along with a strange passivity in the face of even the most minor setbacks. It's not easy being a teacher these days.

[AngryAmish]

9. I'm sure they are gobbling their food, also

[ensho]

11. I don't understand your snideness - could you explain?

nt

[AngryAmish]

12. Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food and tyrannise their

Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food and tyrannise their teachers.
-Socrates

on edit: I case you do not understand it, teachers have complained about their students since we have had teachers and students. Socrates was a greek teacher and philosopher who died in 399 BC. You may remember him as a character in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure."

[surrealAmerican]

13. Indeed.

That "sense of entitlement" is, and always has been, a feature of children that age. Hopefully she is doing her best to help them outgrow it.

[ensho]

15. I didn't see that kind of student when I was in HS in the '50s

I was in a large HS in the outer burbs of D.C.

which nowadays would be the inner burbs.

I disagree that "sense of entitlement" has always been there.

I saw it begin when my kids were in HS - not the violence, but the I don't care attitude of the students.

violence followed after the I don't care attitude was established.

[Pithlet]

16. LOL n/t

[ensho]

18. what are you lol ing about?

nt

[Pithlet]

19. I'm sorry. i know it was rude.

But the "good old days" stuff always amuses me. It just does. Espeically on the internet because I get the mental image of a granny thwacking her cane. But I shouldn't be rude about it. Again, I'm sorry.

[ensho]

20. I never said 'good' about my HS experience - it could have been

better but the students were not like todays in attitude and violence.

[Pithlet]

21. And I highly doubt that. Memories have a way of softening things.

I dont' think kids are any different than they've ever been. I would bet that if blogs had been around in the 50's, teachers would have been venting then.