Should teachers be disciplined for online lives? What a question! This contentious issue was one of the topics on NPR's Talk of the Nation today. Two college professors, Jonathan Turley (Prof. of Civil Law) from George Washington University and Elizabeth Meyer (Asst. Prof. of Education) from California Polytechnic State University, discussed the issue with callers on today's program. I listened to the podcast of the episode today and found it incredibly relevant for teachers even in a small, rural district like ours.
As the title implies, teachers across the nation have been disciplined for online activity. One teacher was disciplined after he posted a
blog entry containing his opinions on the topic of gay marriage (by the way...he was awarded Teacher of the Year in Florida prior to this blogging incident), others have been let go for
posting photos on social networking sites of themselves drinking alcohol, and the infamous Philadelphia teacher who blogged about her students being "rude, disengaged, lazy whiners" was also fired. Though this may seem to some like immoral behavior, as one caller (a pre-service teacher) points out, it's all perfectly legal and within each teacher's right as an American citizen under the first amendment.
"Teachers are denied the full range of freedoms adults have" states Turley. Turley's argument throughout the show is that teachers work long hours for low pay, and they should be allowed the full freedoms that every other citizen is allowed. Meyer argues that there is no separation between a teacher's career life and his/her personal life. "Schools are public compulsory, therefore it's essential that teachers are held to a higher standard," she states.
There's no doubt that teachers should model social media responsibility, but should they be held to higher standards than every other citizen? Should districts include morality clauses in teacher contracts? If so, who gets to decide what to put in the clause? Where do we draw the line? It's a touchy issue for sure; listen to the podcast yourself to decide if you believe teachers should be disciplined for their online lives....and you might want to think twice before you tweet, blog, or Facebook!
To follow up...here's a related article that is just as controversial; I ran across it on Twitter today:
ReplyDeletehttp://edinsanity.com/2012/04/10/twitter-professional-identity-and-the-1st-amendment/
The article you posted above mentions using "Would I put it on my classroom walls?" as a guideline. I like that... but it still doesn't answer the question of whether it's fair to hold teachers to that standard. I don't have the answer. It does seem that the line that divides the professional from the personal is finer in some professions than others.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just the nature of the beast...