Corrupt teacher? Or just plain innocent/ignorant?

@veronizm (907)
Philippines
December 2, 2011 7:17am CST
When I opened my Facebook this morning I saw a post from a friend (actually a link to a blog post) about a certain grade school teacher who gave a homework assignment to her 9-yr old students, instructing them to open their Facebook accounts (and if don't have any, they should create one), go to a certain Fan page and then hit the "Like" button of a certain picture there which happens to be a picture of her daughter joining its school beauty pageant. I think, and based on my understanding, the one who would get the most number of likes would be the winner or something, well not really the winner of the pageant per se but maybe receive an award or something... The blogger was the sister to one of the teacher's students. When I read the blog post I was kind of aghast by what the teacher did and reminded me of my previous teachers, particularly in college, who did a similar, somewhat unethical, thing --- he sold us tickets to a school concert and whoever would buy them would get an extra credit (I never bought a single ticket by the way). So I got somewhat furious about this certain school grade teacher. I think it's beyond question that what she did was wrong, right? It' a conflict of interest and as what the blogger said in her post, her brother (and the rest of the students) "should not be manipulated to fulfill the personal interests of his teacher". But after reading the comments, I saw that the teacher made a comment on the post herself, apologizing for what she did and admitting her mistakes. Her apology seemed to be genuine. She said that she's a mother and it seemed like her being a mother (who loves her daughter so much and somewhat desperately wants her daughter to win) out-shined her being a teacher. She said that she didn't realize that the assignment was wrong, etc. She then requested the blogger to remove the post so that no one else would be able to read it anymore and for the sake of the school as well. Personally I think it's best for the blogger to remove the post. It has always been my belief that once a person has stumbled down, one should not trample on him any further. I think that the teacher has learned her lesson and has had enough shame already. Also, as per one of the comments, there are minors involved with their names not being censored, especially the teacher's daughter. I think it would create a great deal of unhealthy psychological effect to her if she knows about what her mother did. How about you guys? What's your opinion about this? BTW, here's the link to the blog post. I thought I might include it here so that you guys would understand more about the story. I'm not sure if it's not yet broken though coz I think the blogger would soon remove the post based on her latest entry. (Note: this is NOT a referral link whatsoever ) http://saylala.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/mater-carmeli-school-what-is-your-grade-3-computer-teacher-teaching-my-baby-brother/
2 people like this
6 responses
@carmelanirel (20942)
• United States
2 Dec 11
The blog is still there and I totally this teacher was wrong and against the law. Because in third grade, students are too young to have a FB and for some people,, like myself, I refuse to allow my son get one until the required age. So what about people who are like me? Plus she is asking the students to lie, very wrong, I would make a stink if my son's teacher did this..
• Philippines
3 Dec 11
Can you please cite what law the teacher violated? Just curious about that if there is any law that prevents teachers from giving such assignments? Sorry, I just think that your reaction in your first sentence is a bit out of the line with the phrase "against the law" which might give a totally bad impression against the teacher. Or maybe I just missed that law about that or maybe there is no law regarding that in our country. But, I do agree with you that such students are too young to be exposed to a very sensitive media from social networking sites like Facebook. With a lot of sharing and interacting going on with such sites, it can really influence the way a child thinks. Also, I believe that what she did is rather unpleasant and inappropriate. Just my two cents in here!
@zralte (4178)
• India
3 Dec 11
Making children under 13 years old to make Facebook account is unethical, I'm not sure if it is against the law or not. But it definitely is against Facebook Terms and Rules. By her own admission, she is aware of that rule, albeit a little mistaken about the age. 'Wala pong halong malisya at inisip ko na if wala silang facebook account (nakalagay po sa paper na please make your own account) ay i-guide po sila ng parents nila na kung hindi sila payagan na gumawa ng facebook account (kasi po I am aware na 18 years old and above ang pwede) ay ipapagamit na lang ang FB account ng parents nila para magawa po ang assignment. Nakalagay po graded kasi first, para gawin nila (and yes naging mandatory po dahil sa statement na yon) and second para hindi masayang yung time nung bata and even yung parents sa paggawa.'
1 person likes this
• Philippines
3 Dec 11
Thanks for that information. I haven't read yet her full comment regarding that. But with what you have posted in here, it can be said that she was a bit aware about the terms and rules of Facebook. Yes, her motives were quite unethical and inappropriate. She explained too many excuses and explanation regarding her actions which masked the apology part of her comment. Thanks for the heads up. I'll be reading her comment in full later.
@mr_pearl (5018)
• India
3 Dec 11
Hi... Has anyone reported to the school admin about it??? This kind of behaviour will certainly send wrong message to kids... It is kind of acorruption and should be acted against...
@veronizm (907)
• Philippines
5 Dec 11
Hi mr_pearl, Yes it has been reported, actually, by one of those who commented on the blog, who happens to be a parent of one of the students. On that very night she called and sent a text message to the principal on his cellphone and the next day they set an appointment for a meeting with the teacher and the blogger as well. They did a dialogue last Friday, Dec. 2 and based on the blogger's latest entry, the teacher just didn't ask for the blogger to take the post down, however the blogger herself just volunteered to censor the names involved including the school's name. She (the blogger) didn't really mention on how the teacher was reprimanded or what actions where taken by the school administrator on the teacher coz the blogger said that it's just between the school and the teacher. But I'm sure proper corrective actions have been taken, as well as preventive ones to prevent this kind of incident in the future
@buddha3 (1026)
• India
3 Dec 11
I agree with you friend! Yes, it was unethical on the part of the teacher to give such an assignment to her student. Meanwhile the POWER of facebook is incredible and it spread the word so quickly and reached the concerned teacher as well to receive her response!! The blogger may consider the teacher's request and forgive her. Maybe she has really felt sorry and never do such a mistake again!
@veronizm (907)
• Philippines
8 Dec 11
Indeed, the word spread like fire! I was really surprised when I saw the teacher's comment, including a comment from one of the kids' parent. Yeah I felt sorry for her too after reading her apology. But I guess the issue has been resolved already coz according to the blogger's latest entry, the teacher agreed not to take the post down but just censor the names involved. Well I'm just happy that the blogger agreed to censor the names, I think the teacher has suffered enough.
2 Dec 11
In a world where success and money are the most important things, that's perfectly normal behaviour. Stupid, ignorant, unethical, self-centred and obsessively competitive (I pity her child, being entered in beauty pageants at school...) but perfectly normal. I'd hope for better from a teacher but with things the way they are these days, it doesn't surprise me in the least.
@veronizm (907)
• Philippines
6 Dec 11
Hi Spike, Yeah it is indeed a sad reality. But somehow I still can't help feeling surprised. Or I guess it's not really surprise that I felt but kind of like disbelief and anger that until now, people still do this kind of stuff, especially that I remembered my teachers in the past, quite several of them and not only the one that I mentioned in my discussion, but also those during my grade school and high school days.
• Indonesia
3 Dec 11
I am very concerned with what happened to the disciples and that they must undergo a task that they themselves do not know what they're facing. I think an important role in the development of children in matters of education, parents must be vigilant in their child and need to watch what they face. Because sometimes we can not guess, and guess what will happen. I've never heard of this event and I think the ties with the growing progress of civilization, the more forms of human error and this is one example of the impact of the life of today's world.
@shskumbla (3338)
• India
2 Dec 11
In every field, there will be good persons and bad persons.For that reason only, I think it is not good to blame a teacher(I have not read your comment fully)