A teacher in Grimsby, England was recently suspended and is threatened with termination for “bringing the school into disrepute.” Her offense was that in a private conversation on Facebook she referred to a particular class as “just as bad” as another class on the grade. She said that and nothing more.
An investigation was launched after a colleague, maybe more out of ambition than conscience, ratted out the impeccably-credentialed teacher who now, despite her immaculate record, may be booted from the livelihood of her dreams.
Certainly no teacher should indulge in destructive criticism of students whether they are individuals or groups, identified or not. And the proverbial line must be drawn somewhere on the much trodden pedagogical field of scrutiny. But the human frailties of teachers tend to be tested on the job more so than is the case in most other lines of work.
Although that doesn’t entitle them to act insensitively or be excused from the consequences of rash words, they ought to be forgiven an occasional lapse of such patently non-catastrophic consequence. Enduring sandbox scratches, including those of an emotional kind, is part of growing up. Any “trauma” absorbed by the Grimsby school kids resulting from the gratuitous application of the word “bad” in a private exchange on a social networking site is bound to lend itself eminently to recovery without ill-effects.
The kids there are more likely to have been meaningfully hurt by the rating of “inadequate” in 13 key areas as conferred upon the school by the inspectional authorities.
But if the errant teacher must be disciplined because of society’s whimsically enforced standards, at least the correction should be proportional to their mistake of judgment.
Let’s lighten up. Simply once calling a class “bad”, possibly with a tone more mild than bitter, does not necessarily stigmatize or constitute that much bandied about charge of “abuse.”
School is not the military and in any case there is no call to tear down a student’s character in order to build it up again. No kid’s resiliency should be deliberately tested, regardless of how street-hardened or thick-skinned they seem. But learning not to “sweat the small stuff” is part of “life in the big city,” a concept that covers all zip codes nowadays.
Hopefully a solution will be found that will do justice to the Grimsby’s students’ sensibilities, the teacher’s freedom of speech and the policing appetite of the educrats.
The conflict should be downgraded from a hurricane to a zephyr. Sometimes it seems like the whole planet is just one big raw nerve.
