As you all know, I am completely obsessed with this story. I am interested in it for many reasons: for the question it brings up about the protection afforded by the first amendment, whether public employees are as at risk as private sector employees, whether this "scandal" will open up national conversations about education the way Munroe hopes it will, what the public's perception is of teachers in general, and what lessons we can learn about being better teachers, students, and parents. I am especially interested in the blog postings for which she is being lambasted. Are they as offensive to you as they are to her students? Should we be outraged? Can we read this as satire? Is she just venting, or are rhetorical strategies at work here? Does her persona, diction, or tone alienate an audience that could learn something from her criticism? Should she be fired? Should she quit?
I pulled up some links for you:
New "blog-gate" website where she is posting about post-suspension experiences (Is she defending herself well? Is she employing the rhetorical strategies she teaches to convince others that she is justified? Do you think we will be successful with her audience? This is definitely something to think about as you compare these recent postings to the ones that got her in trouble):
http://www.nataliemunroe.com/
Here are some old postings from her blog that has been taken down (I kind of think she should leave all the old postings up. She says things are taken out of a much greater context, so, where's the context?). I admit that I could feel her pain on the post about essays:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JskrSd3fWK8J:natalieshandbasket.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html+site:natalieshandbasket.blogspot.com&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com
This is one of the posts that really angered people. I admit that I haven't read the whole thing yet, so I can't offer an opinion (but you know I will eventually). I recognize parts of this that have been quoted in lots of news articles. Wondering what a student reaction is to a post like this:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3xdfvZq3_YMJ:natalieshandbasket.blogspot.com/2009/10/big-problem-today.html+site:natalieshandbasket.blogspot.com&cd=30&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com
It is almost impossible to find the text of the REALLY "incriminating" (not my word) blog posting, but I am tenacious and I have it. I must caution you: this post contains profanity. But it's NOTHING compared to what her disgruntled students wrote as comments. Read at your own risk; you've been warned:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sALNOuknr30J:natalieshandbasket.blogspot.com/2010/01/if-you-dont-have-anything-nice-to-say.html+%22Where+are+we+going+and+why+are+we+in+this+handbasket%22+%22Natalie%22+%22If+you+don't+have+anything+nice+to+say%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com
BTW, I am not trying to talk y'all into anything. I just think this is a fascinating current event. Go to google and search for "natalie munroe blog" and read some of the commentary about her. So many people have opinions, yet no one can even get it straight whether she was suspended WITH or WITHOUT pay. I'm hungry for someone who makes a truly salient and convincing point about whether she is in the right or in the wrong and what the legal, moral, and ethical consequences should be for her actions, if any. Comments, Young Scholars?
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