Apparently most on this list considered her blogging to be not correct. It
certainly was not very wise, especially using invective.
But many other commenters on other lists and newspapers think that her
expose was OK and needed. So the issue will probably not be settled as long
as society is divided. She engaged in unwise yellow journalism. If a
newspaper reporter saw the incident and reported it, he might be praised for
his expose, while still being condemned as revealing "personal" information.
All sides acted hastily. Parents who brought this before the school were
essentially painting their own children with the muck. The school acted
hastily by threatening the teacher rather than trying to use some gentle
reasoning. And finally the situation described shows a lack of schoolwide
discipline. And the blog could have been more factual with less invective.
If she recounted the same incident without invective, it would probably have
not made a sensation.
I don't know whether she is right or wrong, and that is a value decision,
not an absolute truth. If it results in better management at that school,
it was absolutely the best thing she could do. If it makes schools look at
how their teachers are becoming disaffected and what can be done to help
them, it was absolutely the best thing. But if it just vanishes or just
results in her losing her job, then it was in vain. Shooting the messenger
leads to revolutions, not reform. This could be an opportunity, rather than
just a heated controversy.
Discipline is not just what a teacher does, but also what a school does.
Teachers can be taught how to be better managers, and there is research that
shows how it can be done. I will leave with the thought that they fired the
cross eyed teacher. She obviously couldn't control her pupils.