Parents posting critiques of their kids’ teachers on Facebook and other social media

[Anonymous]

In my college days, I always used ratemyprofessor.com. I am a teacher now and I wouldn’t care if I was out there like that be it negative or positive. Teaching does have a customer service aspect to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a big difference between:

Ms. Monica Bing at Radlin Middle School is just AWFUL! So shrill, always screaming at the kids, talks nonstop during tests and refusing to let the kids mute their laptops, etc.

and

My daughter's 3rd grade teacher is really making my DD hate school. I am scrambling to make things better but she's just awful.

Uh...neither sounds OK to me. What am I missing?

Huh? Why not? The first one offers specific complaints, while the second one is just venting about a difficult situation. What's the problem?

The problem is your kid’s teacher is easily identifiable. You are trashing a professional online.

And? That's normal. Have you heard of Yelp, HealthGrades, Avvo, Zillow, etc., before?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of my friends are posting critiques of their kids’ teachers on Facebook.

I don’t think this is appropriate....is it?

I would not appreciate it if my coworker or client or boss posted about me on Facebook. I feel like we should give teachers the same professional courtesy.

Are they posting names? If they say something like: "Ms. Smith, Larla's 2nd grade teacher at xxx E.S, did this and that and I think it is horrible" (etc) - yeah, inappropriate.

If they say: "my 2nd grader's teacher did this and that, and I think it is horrible" (etc) - ok.

[Anonymous]

Another example of teachers wanting no accountability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another example of teachers wanting no accountability.

Op here. I am not a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a big difference between:

Ms. Monica Bing at Radlin Middle School is just AWFUL! So shrill, always screaming at the kids, talks nonstop during tests and refusing to let the kids mute their laptops, etc.

and

My daughter's 3rd grade teacher is really making my DD hate school. I am scrambling to make things better but she's just awful.

I disagree. Though not specifically naming is better, her daughter’s third grade teacher might be known to the friends. You are still identifying a professional and criticizing her on social media.

What do you do for a living? Do you think it would be ok for your client or coworker to post “my coworker who works on blah blah blah is just awful”?

People leave reviews for service providers all the time. I'm frequently asked by the providers to leave reviews on Facebook/Google/Yelp.

So you equate a teacher to.... wait staff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a big difference between:

Ms. Monica Bing at Radlin Middle School is just AWFUL! So shrill, always screaming at the kids, talks nonstop during tests and refusing to let the kids mute their laptops, etc.

and

My daughter's 3rd grade teacher is really making my DD hate school. I am scrambling to make things better but she's just awful.

I disagree. Though not specifically naming is better, her daughter’s third grade teacher might be known to the friends. You are still identifying a professional and criticizing her on social media.

What do you do for a living? Do you think it would be ok for your client or coworker to post “my coworker who works on blah blah blah is just awful”?

People leave reviews for service providers all the time. I'm frequently asked by the providers to leave reviews on Facebook/Google/Yelp.

So you equate a teacher to.... wait staff?

Humm... no pp you are quoting, but what is wrong or "less" about a wait staff? If anything, the standards should be higher for teachers since they must have a bachelors degree at the very least. And make more $$.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a big difference between:

Ms. Monica Bing at Radlin Middle School is just AWFUL! So shrill, always screaming at the kids, talks nonstop during tests and refusing to let the kids mute their laptops, etc.

and

My daughter's 3rd grade teacher is really making my DD hate school. I am scrambling to make things better but she's just awful.

I disagree. Though not specifically naming is better, her daughter’s third grade teacher might be known to the friends. You are still identifying a professional and criticizing her on social media.

What do you do for a living? Do you think it would be ok for your client or coworker to post “my coworker who works on blah blah blah is just awful”?

People leave reviews for service providers all the time. I'm frequently asked by the providers to leave reviews on Facebook/Google/Yelp.

So you equate a teacher to.... wait staff?

People leave reviews for doctors, lawyers, accountants, dance studios, business owners, etc. Teachers should be fair game too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. Do you want them to post on Yelp instead?

Orrr, you know, just not post "reviews" of their kids' teachers *anywhere,* since the posters are just showing their own absurd immaturity.

Or else they can add a section for Parent Reviews.

[Anonymous]

I'm ok with parents venting on facebook, but they shouldn't name the teacher - that is tacky.

This idea that teachers are so fragile and need to be protected is weird. We all complain about professional relationships (doctors, bosses) on facebook though we don't use names. It's like the whole teacher appreciating week thing. So infantilizing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm ok with parents venting on facebook, but they shouldn't name the teacher - that is tacky.

This idea that teachers are so fragile and need to be protected is weird. We all complain about professional relationships (doctors, bosses) on facebook though we don't use names. It's like the whole teacher appreciating week thing. So infantilizing!

I would never complain about a boss on Facebook! That’s really stupid.

[Anonymous]

Former elementary Teacher here,

Big. Fat. No. Especially public school teachers.

1. It’s tacky.

2. It takes years for a public school teacher to become an amazing teacher. Years. Reviews are super subjective and do not take into account the circumstances that impact the teacher’s work environment.

3. Too easy for parents to target a teacher they don’t like (racial, gender, etc) and to make an attempt to professionally have the teacher’s online presence tarnished unfairly.

4. Preschool, Elementary, and middle are hard. Many parents don’t even realize the dimensions of parenting, let alone childhood. Some parents are in denial about their kids’ out of home behavior as well.

5. It’s tacky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In my college days, I always used ratemyprofessor.com. I am a teacher now and I wouldn’t care if I was out there like that be it negative or positive. Teaching does have a customer service aspect to it.

The thing is that students will leave a bad review just because they didn’t get a good grade, and turn it into a personal attack. It has also been shown that women and minority teachers/ professors are more likely to get negative reviews.

[Anonymous]

What do you hope to gain or improve by posting online? Trashing a teacher to your friends and family across the world is not “constructive” feedback.

Teachers also aren’t in customer service. You may think you know better than these trained professionals, but how would you know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. Do you want them to post on Yelp instead?

There’s an existing RateMyTeacher.com