My Daughter, the Blogger-exposed teacher for mistreating her to the whole cyberworld

FrontPageMagazine.com | February 25, 2004 | Catherine Seipp

[SJackson]

How my 14-year-old exposed her teacher for mistreating her -- to the whole cyberworld.

My 14-year-old daughter's blog now gets more hits and links than mine, I'm happy to say. In fact at one point she and I together occupied nine out of the top 10 spaces in Journalspace traffic, and the day of her Instalanche she alone brought in 1/3 of all Journalspace hits. All because of her blog entry earlier this month about how her English teacher had ridiculed her in front of the class for writing an un-p.c. paper.

I've heard what happens when the mighty Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds links you but never seen it up close, and it really is amazing: From 100 hits a day (typical for a teenager's blog) to 100 an hour, with links to dozens of other blogs and around 300 posted comments from Edinburgh to Aukland. (The post counter reads 96 when I last checked , but that's because once this comments server reaches 200 it begins counting backwards.)

For anyone who's interested in the continuing story of Cecile at school, here's an excerpt from a recent entry:

"Background checks--needed. In sixth grade, I had a nice coach who shared my passion for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But there was something peculiar in him. He always seemed to enjoy flirting with some blonde high school students. And by February of that school year, he was in jail awaiting trial for statuatory rape.

"In seventh grade, I had a nice but airheaded history teacher who decided to teach us less than a month of Roman Empire history and more than three months of African and Islamic History. She also repetitively told us the many ways Israeli troops were ruthless. On a project on the middle east, I compiled countless sources including pamphlets by David Horowitz and articles from National Review and Weekly Standard. Unsurprisingly, she called me to her desk once and basically said, 'I don't like your attitude'....Thankfully, the next year, she went abroad to 'save Tibet.'"

Samizdata's Brian Micklethwait, who originally linked Cecile's post, noted last week on his own education blog that he's starting to feel sorry for the English teacher: "I realise that she's probably her own worst enemy, but Cecile runs her a close second. What the old USSR used to call the "correlation of forces" has definitely tilted in that relationship."

Anyway, the back story: My daughter, whose nom de blog is Cecile DuBois, wrote a paper about Mary Wollstonecraft arguing that modern American women have achieved equal rights, and also that the pioneering feminist would have frowned upon contemporary concerns like "banal women's studies classes." The teacher was shocked, began a discussion of affirmative action for women and minorities, and described Cecile as racist not only in front of the whole class but also (according to reports from other kids later) to all the classes she taught that day.

By the way, this is not to say that I think my daughter's paper was above criticism. As Cecile put it on her blog: "Since I was stuck on the spot with my futile attempts to convince the class I was not racist and mentally sane, I moved on to the second parapraph of my 'paper' that even my mother said had weak arguments...afterwards [the teacher] thanked me casually, as if I were heretical, for sharing my 'interesting opinions.'"

Samizdata, a group blog of British libertarians, immediately began a Support Cecile DuBois campaign, along with our blogger friend Jackie D, a young American living in the U.K. who'd introduced us to the Samizdaters when we were in London over Christmas. A day later Instapundit picked up the story, and the outpouring of already sizeable support Cecile had gotten via Samizdata quadrupled.

I suppose that tales of students humiliated by teachers for dissenting from the prevailing groupthink always touch a chord. As Michael Jennings, another Samizdata contributor, observed on his own blog: "I think the moral of this story may be that there are a great many people in the blogosphere whose lives really sucked when they were 14 and in high school." That's certainly true. But there are a few other morals as well in this story of a Los Angeles teenager whose bad day at school on Friday got the attention of a bunch of London libertarians and a Nashville, Tenn. law professor by Sunday.

One is that the Internet really has folded certain corners of the planet into the small town of Blogville, Planet Earth; conversely, the traditonally small, closed world of high school can no longer be so small and closed - not when any kid can find countless informed opinions that differ from what the teacher thinks with just a few mouse clicks.

This can be difficult for schools, which I suspect often are entrenched in conventional leftist wisdom simply because they are institutions. A fondness for instructing and improving (in other words, teaching) might be another reason why pedagogy and the left seem to have a natural affinity. In any case, while there are of course many left-of-center bloggers, the rightward tilt of some of the biggest (Instapundit, Andrew Sullivan, Eugene Volokh, proto-blogger Matt Drudge, etc.) has been noticed - and complained about - from the beginning. Especially by traditional media, another institution not unsympathetic to liberal orthodoxy.

Blogging is essentially an unregulated, free-agent activity, and that can drive people who prefer rules and regulations and decision-by-committee crazy. From its earliest days, I noticed a tone of disapproval towards bloggers that reminded me of school, what with all the carping from magazines like the Nation and the American Prospect about the blogging world's sorry lack of supervision. The tongue-clucking made me think of the teacher's pet constantly raising a hand to protest: "Miss Jones! Miss Jones! Johnny's reading ahead again! Unsupervised!"

I imagine many teachers go into the profession because they want to be inspiring figures who open students' minds, like Sidney Poitier in "To Sir, With Love." That's great when the teacher actually is like Sidney Poitier (and the students are like the underprivileged little know-nothings in the movie.) But what happens when a student's brain has a few ideas in it already and is not simply waiting to be filled with every opinion the teacher has? Well, if the teacher is the exact opposite of the "To Sir, With Love" type, she can try humiliating the student in class. And in the old days, that probably would have worked, because high school pretty much was a student's whole world and such an incident would have seemed like the end of it.

But a teenager with a blog is a teenager whose world has already expanded, sans help from Sidney Poitier wannabes. Much has been written about the dangers of the Internet to teens; I've seen how it can be a safe outlet. Cecile often feels frustrated by what kids her own age want to talk about, and she likes discussing politics and other topics online with various people (law students, soldiers, retired accountants) she's not going to meet in the school cafeteria. I doubt they'd want a 14-year-old in one of their real life hangouts, but on blogs she's a welcome constant commenter.

So even if she hadn't received such an outpouring of support, I think Cecile's regular stops in the blogsophere would have served as an antidote to what happened at school this past Friday. Certainly if a teacher implies a student is a racist idiot one day, and by the next some 200 smart and articulate adults have said she's not and here's why, that rather counteracts the original lesson plan. Now that so many teens have blogs, concerns about doctrinaire teachers may be passe. Our sons and our daughters are beyond their control.

Here are the relevant post links:

http://ceciledubois89.journalspace.com

http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/001012.htm

http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/005458.html

http://ceciledubois89.journalspace.com/?entryid=840

http://www.jackieblogs.com/archives/001886.html

http://www.instapundit.com/archives/013842.php

http://michaeljennings.blogspot.com

[Redbob]

"What is the appropriate gift for a 14-year-old girl's "day of Instalanche"?"

A large, square-ended, flat-bottomed shovel comes to mind.

[Redbob]

"So much for Macbeth, Grapes of Wrath, etc.,etc.."

PC is not that new a phenom: when I was going to school in Oklahoma, "Grapes of Wrath" was banned in the public schools!

Of course, that was around the time Okie self-esteem was so low that billboards alongside the road would say things like "Oklahoma is OK!"

[Oberon]

In the sixth grade, I had a male "Social Studies" teacher who was apparently also a bodybuilder. I remember him asking the class one day what languages had contributed heavily to English.

"German" and "Latin," came the replies. I put my hand up.

"French," I offered.

"No, that's wrong," he said. "French didn't really add anything to English."

Although I did not know why, precisely, in the sixth grade, I knew I was right. In later years I would think back on that episode and think "Gee, Mr. Latsha, ever heard of 1066? Battle of Hastings? Any of this a-ringin' a bell?!?"

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[GigaDittos]

Yeah, well Captain Planet is a teacher's best friend. Captain Planet teaches kids to worry endlessly about Mother Earth and how we're poluting it. He teaches kids to conduct little environmental project for the good of the world community.

[Ditto]

And when I was in high school in the early 1960s, we were stuck with the likes of Silas Marner... which set in me a prejudice against female novelists that took years to shake.

Ugh! Deadly dull for a teenage boy. I hated every word of it.

[CatoRenasci]

Ah, yes. In 6th grade, class was so boring that I read the Encyclopaedia Britannica under my desk instead of paying attention. Much more interesting. Of course, I aced all the tests and had the answer whenever called upon.

The teacher hated me and was most unpleasant. He was a poster child for the ills of tenure described by Max Rafferty in Suffer Little Children! In fact, reading that book under my desk in class got me sent to the principal's office! LOL!! He pulled a few too many impermissable stunts with me and a couple of other kids (including one he didn't realize had an uncle on the Board of Education), and ended up with the choice of being fired or teaching the retarded. He finished his 30 years faithfully (??) putting in his time in a special education classroom. I always felt those poor kids, who wouldn't know the difference, deserved better.

[CatoRenasci]

I'm sure this is heresy, but, for the most part, I am not a fan of the 19th century English novel. Oh, I like some Scott and some Hardy, but I can't stand George Elliot or Dickens. Disraeli was a mediocre novelist and Trollope generally bores me after an hour or so. I much prefer American novelists like Twain and Cooper, Germans like Goethe, Fontane and Mann, or even Froggie Proust!

[Ditto]

I much prefer American novelists like Twain and Cooper, Germans like Goethe, Fontane and Mann, or even Froggie Proust!

I agree. The 19th Century Brits were tedious. American were vivid.

[Jotmo]

If recycling was such a good idea why don't companies mine old trash dumps for valuable materials to recycle?

Holy cow. That is the best statement on recycling I've ever heard. I'll use it myself the next time I get into a discussion on the subject.

Excellent!

[Oberon]

The 19th Century Brits were tedious.

You need to try on a little Kipling, sir, if you haven't lately. A few hours of Kim or Captains Courageous can really help.

[Ditto]

You need to try on a little Kipling, sir.

Have you ever Kippled? ;~))

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping

[Hatteras]

bump for later...

[7thson]

In school suspension. I hear that these days and always laugh. We called that Study Hall. We did not have in school suspension. We had detention hall, which is even more time in school. Then there was real time suspension - don't come back unless/until you bring a parent. Then - when it started to get serious - there was permanent suspension. "7thson, you're seventeen. We don't have to keep you here."

[7thson]

I wish that I had the English text that I read back in high school. There was one story - a sci-fi story - where there was a planet full of blacks. What happened was that when space travel was possible, all the blacks left earth and created a utopian society on a distant planet. Now, the last surviving whites were coming to their planet because they destroyed Earth and were begging forgiveness to come live on that planet. The leaders of the black planet were debating whether they should let this happen. I kid you not - this was a story in the text! Even back then, I knew that was full of it.

[7thson]

I believe it was the ninth grade, in History. The teachers name was Mrs. Layman. You always remember the names of the good ones. Anyway, one day some skank of a girl was misbehaving and Mrs. Layman instructed her to straighten up. The skank said the classroom was like communism. Mrs. Layman became furios. She verbally lit into that skank for about 15-20 minutes, explaining the differences between communism and a Constitutional Republic. Made a lasting impression on me. I liked history up to that time but really took a great interest in the subject after that. Especally American History!

[7thson]

Wnen I was in the 4th grade in Blandesburg Elementry, there was a male teacher who looked like Charles Atlas - at least he did to this little 4th grader. I remember one rainy day while we stood in the cafeterria, waiting for school to start. One of the school punks - many existed in that school - was mouthing off. This teacher grabbed him by the shirt front and snatched his arse up in the air, quick. Curled the punk right up to his face and had a "man-to-man."

[Thinkin' Gal]

I had an A+ and the comment, "Does not pay attention." I tried to convince my parents why the contradiction. :)

Ahhh, memories.

Those were the good old days, when grades were based on actual results (test scores), rather than being weighed down by subjective interpretations of what constitututes class participation. I never volunteered answers in classroom discussions, and when called upon, usually responded with a vegetative, "I don't know". What kid wants to be tagged as a know-it-all, except the obnoxious Bill Clinton types.

Too many teachers are like the camp counselors in Addams Family Values. Kids who don't tow the party line risk being sent to the Harmony Hut until they are thoroughly brainwashed and smiling vacuously.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I suppose that tales of students humiliated by teachers for dissenting from the prevailing groupthink always touch a chord.

"When we grew up and went to school, there were certain teachers who would hurt the children any way they could.
By pouring their derision on anything we did. Exposing every weakness however carefully hidden by the kid."

"You can't have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!
How can you you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat!"

"You! Yes, you behind the drapes, kid! Stand still laddie!"