“If you only knew the power of the Dark Side”

Today I was personally introduced to the dark side of rhetoric and civic life. I received news from home that a former teacher of mine was removed from my former high school due to a blog she published. In this blog, she vented her frustrations and propagated her disdain toward her profession by insulting students, parents, and other teachers.

Let me be clear that my goal is not to cast disrepute upon my former teacher and in no way do I feel joy from this situation; her class was a positive experience for me and I hope she will learn from this unfortunate mistake. That being said, the content of her blog was offensive, distasteful, and had no place online.

I naturally looked into this matter online to get clarity on the situation and see how people were reacting to it. On the Doylestown-Buckingham-New Britain Patch’s website, I found many comments located on both the story and directly on the teachers blog via screenshots that were posted on the site. To my dismay, many of the comments were inappropriate or utterly repulsive. I have learned in my study of rhetoric that although we have the freedom to speak our minds, it is a privilege we must exercise responsibly. The worst way anyone can treat another’s irresponsible rhetoric is by sinking to that person’s level to personally debase him or her.

However, there were some comments that were constructive; one user who claimed to be a member of my graduating class engaged in what looked like the beginnings of an open-minded debate with another user. Below is another notable comment, written by an employee of the site:

“I am almost finished my studies in secondary education and teacher certification at Saint Joseph's University so this story really hits home.

I just want to get out of the way that everyone makes mistakes. So I think this teacher should be given a chance to redeem herself, though she did not give her students that very same opportunity.

Now with that being said, there is NO way she should have posted her feelings about her students on a blog! Yes there is free speech, but sometimes we have to be sensible! You have to know that a stunt like this will cost you your job especially if you post on an identifiable blog. How could one be so careless?

Secondly, if you feel this way, and trust me teacher's deal with a lot and do need an outlet, why not keep a PRIVATE journal where no one can view it? It seems to me that not only does this teacher need a lesson on how to properly use the internet, she also needs a lesson on teaching. It seems from many of the responses, she was a horrible teacher, so maybe the students behavior was a reflection of her lack of classroom management.

This teacher needs to lay low and seriously consider whether teaching is what she was meant to do in life. If it's she needs to 1. Apologize over and over again. 2. Take classes on classroom management and teachers strategy. 3. Maybe take some anger management classes. And finally 4. PRAY that someone sees her efforts to rectify her mistake and give her another chance.

I HOPE she's learned her lesson!”

It is a quality comment because the author holds the teacher responsible for her actions without condemning her; meanwhile she provides possible reasoning for her actions and constructive solutions with which to move on from the situation. It is well organized, insightful, and informative; it was a far cry from other comments which were riddled with profanity and served no purpose other than as vulgar regurgitations of negative emotion.

The lesson to be learned here is that rhetoric must be used responsibly and appropriately; it should not be used to disparage others to provide an emotional vent for the rhetor. The teacher and the commenters are perfect examples of the false sense of superiority with which we equip ourselves when others act in a manner we find deplorable. By doing so, we threaten our own sense of dignity when our language becomes more caustic than that of the opposition.