When I was an undergraduate in my methods course, our professor stressed to us to not hang out in the teacher’s lounge too much once we became teachers. It was a place where teachers who were bitter, upset, and angry congregated and built off each other’s negative energy. If we were to stay positive, it was best to avoid this place. This, is, of course, a generalization, but I think a good one for secondary teachers. I feel lucky because the middle school I was at had a fairly open lounge for teachers, and for the most part, teachers at my school were very positive.
But now we have a “teacher’s lounge” of sorts that has become public: Rate Your Students. When a friend pointed the blog out to me months ago, I immediately was repulsed. This blog wasn’t just venting, this was public venting, and for the most part, the writers seem to have forgotten that their students are human. I didn’t want to read it, even if at times I shared some sentiments out of frustration.
Today, Nels notes that a post there includes the following awful statement:
Every few semesters, I blow up without the benefit of catharsis. Last semester, an entire class sat and stared at me with bovine simplicity after I asked an idiotic low-level question, like, “Does this essay have a thesis?†I screamed, “Take out your goddamned textbook, open it to the essay, and at least try to find out instead of staring at me like a caged animal.†So one asshole gets up, marches right to the dean’s office, and complains. Fuckhead. I hope he’s a prison bitch now.
I don’t know where to start. As Nels says, it’s offensive (and I’d add atrocious) to desire that a student who annoys you gets raped. This is beyond unacceptable. Ironically, the poster’s very next statement reads, “There’s a lack of human decency in not answering a question.” If this teacher is so concerned with human decency, where is his/hers (probably his) decency when it comes to students’ dignity?
What this blog seems to lack, in 90% of the posts I read, is the very patience that the teachers lament students don’t have. We want our students to slow down, to take their time, to focus and do critical readings and critical thinking, to take a step out of their habits and lives to see things differently. Yet the professors who write into Rate Your Professors and leave these undignified diatribes don’t take the patience to learn from their students.
I won’t be checking in on this public teacher’s lounge again, unless someone points me to something else I have to rant angrily about. No, give me smart public spaces where teachers are compassionate and patient.
Like Nels, I’ve emailed Rate Your Students:
Dear Rate Your Students,
I read with anger and pain the post from Monday in which a teacher wrote:
“Every few semesters, I blow up without the benefit of catharsis. Last semester, an entire class sat and stared at me with bovine simplicity after I asked an idiotic low-level question, like, “Does this essay have a thesis?†I screamed, “Take out your goddamned textbook, open it to the essay, and at least try to find out instead of staring at me like a caged animal.†So one asshole gets up, marches right to the dean’s office, and complains. Fuckhead. I hope he’s a prison bitch now.”
(http://rateyourstudents.blogspot.com/2008/03/superkeeners-are-probably-annoying-but.html)
I find it appalling that your blog would condone a post that promotes the rape of a student, and even finds glee in such a rape. This is beyond distaste: this is undignified and inhumane. I find it incredibly ironic that the poster writes in his very next sentence, “There’s a lack of human decency in not answering a question,” when it is he who lacks the human decency to respect his student’s dignity and safety.
I request that you post an apology to your readers. While much of what is written on your blog is offensive in some way to some readers, this isn’t just about offense. This is about care for other humans, and condoning rape does a disservice not only to this teacher’s student, but to every reader of your blog who has survived rape, who knows someone who survived rape, or who has the potential to be raped.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Faris
EDIT: RYS wrote back:
We completely agree with you, and if the writer of the post chooses to issue an apology, we’ll consider it for the blog.
The idea that we condone rape is quite distasteful to us. We hope you choose to apologize to us as well.
My response:
RYS,
What I wrote was “I find it appalling that your blog would condone a post that promotes the rape of a student, and even finds glee in such a rape.”
This sentence clearly states NOT that your site condones rape, but rather that you condoned a post promoting rape. That your site condones this post is clearly the case, as it is up without any editorial comment. I am not familiar with your editorial policies, but those policies aside, it is evident that your site condones this type of discourse both by not offering an editorial comment and by closing comments to posts that could help to engage in critical discourse around these issues.
I understand the purpose of this blog is, in part, to allow people to vent or rant anonymously about their students. However, a decision to post this without any comment is an act of condoning this language in the public sphere.
Because I did not state that you condone rape, and because you are in fact condoning discourse that encourages making light of rape, I do not see a reason to apologize.
If you do not find a reason to apologize publicly for your editorial choice, it is my hope that you are at least in contact with the writer and asking him or her to apologize. Please feel free to forward my original email on to the original writer.
Thank you for your time,
Michael J. Faris
ANOTHER EDIT: They responded again, with a much clearer explanation of their editorial policy. Though the editors too are disturbed by the line, they have chosen to keep it unless the author asks for it to be taken down. I’m not happy with their policy, but they were much more respectful and open in their last response. They are sending my initial complaint on to the original author.
You are much more eloquent than I am. I was worried that, once I got started, I wouldn’t stop. Thank you for this post.
Well, after receiving their reply, I may not stop. They asked me to apologize to them!
Ick! I hadn’t looked at that sight in a might long time. When it first started, it was mildly amusing, but it has devolved from mostly amusing stories to a whole lot of malice towards students. It was becoming mean-spirited, and I see now it’s only gotten worse. Their response to you is further evidence of this. While I, too, would like to see an apology posted on their site, they could have refused in a more gracious manner – I can imagine some free speech arguments that they could have effectively used.
But, I still don’t like it. For the most part, I honestly like and, more importantly, respect my students. It is so very depressing to hear educators talk/write about their students this way.
ok – clearly I can’t spell tonight. That should have been “site.”
Wow, their response to me was not at all like that, perhaps because they thought I was a lone voice. I was just told that the post was based on “real anger,” which I don’t doubt. The point is that the writer and the site feel this is a point worthy of public promotion. I mean, if I wrote a post that detailed graphic ways of murdering students, would they post it simply because it’s based in “real anger”?
Can’t wait to meet you in a few weeks in New Orleans!
Oh, I received a nice email from IHE that did feel sincere and expressed an awareness of what message their linking to this post might send.
Bravo to you for writing both times and doing it well. Instructor frustration at students is normal (and vice versa) but this type of debased, personal anger is not constructive. We do have to model the behavior we want to see in our students — and we do have to realize they are living, breathing human beings with fears and feelings too. Again, thanks for sharing this with us all!
Some vaguely devil’s advocat-ish questions and comments, none of which are designed to indicate that wishing ill upon one’s students is acceptable:
1. I understand Michael’s point about editorial policy and the common understanding that posting something without comment is generally considered equivalent to condoning it, but it seems that RYS has perhaps established that it doesn’t follow that policy. The moderators seem to be clear in indicating, albeit over time, that they don’t agree with everything – or even very much of – what they post (the one time I received an email in response from them, they indicated they thought the poster in question was completely wrong). Given that, is it still the case that the moderators must specifically disown hateful comments every time?
2. [More of comment than a question] I’ve seen more than one post on RYS that contains language similar to the one Nels linked to. In some cases, the moderators will note getting email from people whose reaction to the ultra-angry posts goes something like this: “Gosh, so-and-so is angry! Reading that post helped me remember that it’s essential to be compassionate and treat my students as full human beings. I don’t want to end up like so-and-so!” or “Wow, I just realized I’m waaaaay too close to that angry poster in the way I think about students! I need to work on that!”
Again, without diminishing the negative, hurtful aspects in the original post in question, I think there is an upside to these sorts of comments: Call it a great example of what not to do, or a reminder of what’s important.
3. Nels said this:
“I mean, if I wrote a post that detailed graphic ways of murdering students, would they post it simply because it’s based in “real angerâ€?”
I would venture to guess they wouldn’t reject it outright, simply because such a large part of the premise of RYS is honesty above all else (including, sometimes, what you or I might call the ethical). Further, I would argue that there is a place in public discourse to hear and deal with the warped anger that’s so often on display at RYS. RYS isn’t the perfect place for that, but I’d rather it exist than not.
Dennis,
Where is the place in public where we should have this discussion about instructor-rage? I don’t mean to sound as curt as the question suggests, but I do wonder where that place is where instructors can express anger safely (and without attacking students)? The problem with RYS, like RYP, is that its openness makes it vulnerable to posts from angry people who are simply using (whether they realize it or not) there students as the latest target for a rage that is far deeper than the situation warrants. I agree that reading such a post can make a reader step back and think about how she feels about her students and her profession, but where is the forum that asks why the writer is angry in the first place? And is that place like a therapist’s office , a confessional booth or a political rally?
Dennis and Joanna, Thank you for such smart responses. I’d agree with Joanna that we need to formulate what these publics would look like where both instructor rage can be vented and where people can interrogate the damaging aspects of that rage. Perhaps an open, anonymous forum isn’t the best option for that. Perhaps you are right, Dennis, that RYS is the best option we have right now, but how can we theorize public spaces so that folks can have meaningful discussions that grow out of rage but then respects the dignity of both students and professors?
Michael,
Just a brief comment–I really appreciate how you’ve taken the time to interact with RYS in an intelligent way (unlike the way in which that teacher has expressed his frustration, which, quite possibly, stems from a need to reassess his methods and pedagogy). At least they’re sending your message to the author.