Teachers and Personal Websites

As a teacher with a Facebook profile and a blog, this story drew my interest.

Personal websites raise professional ethics issues.

The Washington Post (4/28, A1, Shapira) reports in a front-page story that some teachers' Facebook profiles "can be overtly sarcastic or unintentionally unprofessional -- or both." And "the crudeness of some Facebook or MySpace teacher profiles, which are far, far away from sanitized websites ending in '.edu,' prompts questions emblematic of our times: Do the risqué pages matter if teacher performance is not hindered and if students, parents and school officials don't see them? At what point are these young teachers judged by the standards for public officials?" The Post notes that teachers in "Florida, Colorado, Tennessee and Massachusetts...have been removed or suspended for MySpace postings, and some teachers unions have begun warning members about racy personal websites." In the D.C. area, "school officials say they have no policies concerning social networking pages or blogs kept by teachers. But they said that online improprieties would fall under general guidelines requiring proper behavior in and outside school and that sketchy websites would be handled case by case."

It would really be a step in the wrong direction if schools adopt policies regulating the use of social network sites and personal blogs. It reminds me of some of the ridiculous things in teacher contracts years ago.

1905 teaching contract for Story County, Iowa

Teachers will be required to spend weekends in the community unless permission is granted by the Chairman of the Board.

Dancing, card playing and the theatre are works of the Devil that lead to gambling, immoral climate, and influence and will not be tolerated.

Any teacher who smokes cigarettes, uses liquor in any form, frequents a pool or public hall, or (for men) gets shaved in a barber shop, (or for women) bobbs (cuts) her hair, has dyed hair, wears short skirts (could not be any shorter than 2 inches above the ankles) and has undue use of cosmetics will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

Teachers will not marry or keep company with a man friend during the week except as an escort to church services. (The only man a woman teacher could be seen with was her father or her brother).

Loitering in ice cream parlors, drug stores, etc., is prohibited.

Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.