Natalie Monroe, I Get It.
If you guys haven't heard of Natalie Monroe, she is the high school teacher who blogged about her students and got fired for it. Now, she said some very mean and very funny things, but does this mean she should lose her job because of them?
As a teacher you get paid very little. I teach at a college and if anyone saw my salary I'm sure it would make for a good LOL. So, admittedly, I understand where she's coming from.
You have bad days and sometimes bad semesters where, for whatever reason, you aren't connecting with your students and every minute spent in the classroom feels like torture. I have had to develop mind games with my students to entertain myself; things like being a mean teacher one day and super sweet the next, and if they are getting "rowdy" while I'm lecturing then I have secret weapons for that type of behavior as well (i.e. DEATH STARE).
Most people have responded to Monroe's blog posts by saying that she is a horrible person and should be providing a nurturing environment for her students. Well, I hate to break it to you, but teaching is a whole lot like babysitting. Except now, in most high schools, parents are doing such a lousy job that students come to class pregnant, or hung over, or wearing mini skirts and heels. School is a place of learning, true, but shouldn't we look at the parents who are creating these little monsters that teachers feels the need to blog about because, if they don't, they might hang themselves?
I mean, in a way isn't she sort of comparable to Steven Slater? That Jet Blue flight attendant who finally lost it and stole a beer then slid down the emergency slide escape? That guy was a hero and charming! Shouldn't Monroe be the same?
Anyways, let's take a look at some of the funnier things Monroe wrote:
- "There's no other way to say this, I hate your kid."
- "Although academically okay, your child has no other redeeming qualities."
- (I have a student that) "dresses like a streetwalker."
- When describing her students: "out of control," "rude, lazy, disengaged whiners," "rat-like," and "frightfully dim."
LOL.