We live in a society where people voluntarily put themselves into a glass house and invite the stonethrowers over for a party.
It's all public blahbity blah all the time. Between facebook, blogs, tweets, retweets, and the myriad of other public commentary purveyors? Frankly, most of the time I fear we know far too much about each other far too quickly. Real Housewives? Enough said, right?
So where is the line when the blogger is also a teacher? Should there be a line? Who should draw it? Where should it be drawn in terms of what is or is not appropriate for discussion?
These are questions I've been mulling the last couple of weeks as I've been working my way into being the librarian at The Peanut's school: how is this going to impact my daily blogging? Should I even be blogging? And, even more of a question, can I continue to do so without stepping on the toes of the kids I'll be teaching (or their parents)?
This started as a blog just for me to keep in touch with family and friends about health and life issues that I was having, and about how The Peanut was doing as she was growing up. I've delved into a lot of crafts and personal bits and pieces, but for the most part it has been a whole lot of mommy blogging with the occasional rant thrown in when something ticks me off.
It's also been an outlet for my writing. When other avenues have stalled out for one reason or another, I've kept this space to put myself on the page.
Since I'll be teaching part time this year, that's morphed a bit into talking about library plans and decorating and such. But there is an internal line that I have tried not to cross by avoiding talking about students or folks with whom I work -- because, frankly, it seems wrong to me to write about someone else who hasn't consented to be part of my conversation, you know?
Especially the kids. In my mind, that is a big no no for some reason.
So when I stumbled across this post, it really got the wheels turning:
The case calls into question whether teachers should even have blogs at all, with students being savvy enough to usually find these types of private thoughts online. Part of the teacher-student relationship requires a modicum of space between the two parties, similar to a therapist. Is it distracting in the classroom for students to be reading a teacher's blog even if she doesn't write about them? For them to read her thoughts on major issues or to know that she had one too many glasses of wine at that bar as she reports to her readers?Doesn't that sound a whole lot like building your house out of very, very thin glass and then handing the angry mob some bigger, sharper rocks to hurl?
I have found answers to a lot of my newbie teacher questions from friends online. It's been a fun interchange of ideas and thoughts, and I've really appreciated it when folks have chimed in with their own experiences when I've asked questions. But now I'm wondering how much is too much? I'd love your thoughts...
(Photo of an apple on a desk via David365. Love the colors on this apple -- looks delish!)
3 comments:
I'm part of a ring of women pastor bloggers (RevGalBlogPals) and some of the issues are the same for pastors as for teachers. We recently talked about this in a face-to-face context and here are some of the things we talked about &/or that I go by:
We should always assume that everything we write online will be found by anyone out there.
There is no such thing online as an anonymous author.
I do write personal things, but never private things.
I might write about difficult things, but I don't write about negative things "out there" -- like, those people or that person or that church or that other pastor.
In the past, I have written some positive things about people or situations in my congregation. I haven't done that in awhile. I am not currently comfortable writing about real situations in church life.
There are standards for pastoral ethics (and probably teacher ethics too?) and those apply for online communication. If it's not OK to say or do in person, it's not OK to say or do online. I do think people have high expectations of pastor and teacher behavior. That said, we are human people and deserve to be able to live normally as professionals who value creativity and self-expression.
I think it's a bit extreme to cut out blogging altogether just as it would be extreme to get rid of the telephone or email or writing a newspaper editorial just because abuses or misunderstandings can occur.
The line you have drawn sounds to me like a reasonable one. It's probably also a good idea (note to self!) not to blog after three glasses of wine!
Thanks Sharon -- that was all very, very helpful. Much appreciated!
Sharon's comments are terrific and I agree with everything she posted. Also, feel that your approach is a good one.
I've thought a lot lately about teachers and the internet (given my sister's role as a HS principal). It seems to me that blogging (within the parameters you've set) can actually be quite healthy.
Growing up in this small town, I knew all of my teachers. Heck, I even babysat for some. I wish, though, that I had had an opportunity see/know more about their thoughts outside of the classroom -- and not just in their social roles.
I was blessed to have some marvelous teachers. Just wish some of our conversations could have been expanded a bit. If a kid "finds" you online, I can imagine he/she will only appreciate you more.
Post a Comment