To expect teachers not to comment on their pupils performance on facebook?

[mumoffraser]

I am a bit actually. A friend who is a teacher commented on facebook (yes facebook again)how well her pupils had done in their exams but a friend of hers then added the following "my lot are a bunch of fannies I didn't have high hopes and they performed exactly as expected"

I could chose to ignore this but FFS with a teacher prepared to make comments like this in a pretty public place (with friends of friends able to read) what chance do the kids have? I don't even know which school it relates to but do I just ignore or make a polite addition to the thread along the lines of "thanks my kids attend your school" Have even thought about highlighting to school head. IMO as a professional eg. teacher, nurse, police etc you need to be very very careful what you post on the internet. AIBU here?

"Why is bottom maths set dispiriting - surely the role of the teacher is to bring them up to a better level?"

OK I said that so I'll answer but teachers may disagree with me. It's hard - and unwise - to generalise, but a large proportion of disruptive behaviour in schools is caused by students who can't cope with the lesson trying to do something/anything to distract people from that sad fact.

Maths is a subject that, when you are struggling with it, brings on a particularly acute panic I think, so the disruption in a maths lesson where a lot of the pupils are struggling is a lot greater than in say, a Science lesson where a lot of the pupils are weak.

Also people who struggle with Maths all struggle in a different way, so in a class of 30, despite your best efforts at explaining something, I'd guess 10 of the students still won't get it, and will need 10 different one-to-one explanations the teacher, however good they are, just doesn't have time to give.

I'll second that. I was in bottom set for maths and science, and top of the top set for absolutely eveything else. I didn't play up exactly, (wasn't really my style) but I did bunk off alot - which is much harder than it used to be. So those kids who used to bunk off are now trapped with the humiliation of not getting it...

Look, if it;s friends only , this is NOT a problem

I think you're overreacting. You don't know the teacher, the school or the kids and it's definitely not your place to report this person over very little!

I do think a lot of parents would get a nasty shock if they knew what teachers really thought about their children.

Teachers of bottom sets in rough comprehensive schools where the overwhelming majority is disruptive, uninterested and of low ability do not usually expect their pupils to achieve very much. They are realistic! Of course they do their best to motivate the class and hope they will learn something, but it's often a losing battle.

I think the comment was just honest and meant in a jokey way, and is IMO not a big deal unless the teacher had named names of specific students.

Oh and suggesting that teachers shouldn't even think badly about their pupils or make any comments in the staffroom is laughable!

(I'm not a teacher by the way!)

Perhaps her lack of faith in their ability has something to do with her students under performance? A teacher who is enthusiastic and has belief in their students probably would result in at least some inspired students.

There are some very thick kids out there. Some of them are also uncooperative and lethargic.

Hats off to anyone who chooses to try to help/teach them

I would not make a good teacher .

Just to be clear, it isn't "just friends" because Op isn't a friend of this teacher. She has read the comment because she is "friends" with the teachers friend.
Regardless of what people think is wrong or right, teachers have a code of conduct to adhere to, and will also have a policy on IT use at their school which they have to abide by. So they need to be very careful about what they put out in the public domain. Because there have been so many problems involving FB, you can be sure that this teacher's school will have use of social networking sites carefully dealt with in their policy.
If this teacher is reported to his head, he *will" end up in disciplinary proceedings. In all the cases of FB abuse I have been involved in, this has resulted in some sort of formal warning on the teacher's record. When you sit in the hearings and appeals, watching teachers so upset, often crying, it does seem harsh, but that is how it is. So Op would be doing this man a huge favour if she lets him know that she has seen his comments, found them offensive, and considered reporting him but didn't. I am sure that would change his FB use for ever.

Alternatively, he might think she was an interfering bat who has absolutely no right, given that she doesn't know him, to pass judgement on what I'm guessing was a light-hearted throwaway comment.

And he'd be right.

And the friend who is in between them (given that the OP and the person who wrote the comment do not know each other but are inadvertently linked through a third party) would doubtless be mortified. I know I would be.

good post, my leetlepony.

mumoffraser - what have you done about it? Have you commented? Or sent him a private message to say that he is indulging in unprofessional conduct that would likely result in a disciplinary if it should be seen by someone involved in his school?

"Alternatively, he might think she was an interfering bat who has absolutely no right, given that she doesn't know him, to pass judgement on what I'm guessing was a light-hearted throwaway comment.

And he'd be right."

Op would be doing him a favour, and if he was stupid enough not to realise that then he'd deserve to get caught out in future. I suppose if you've not had any personal involvement in how schools view this sort of posting on FB it would seem trivial. If the teacher gets reported though, it's anything but. If I was in Op's position I'd always warn the teacher concerned, even if they did think I was an interfering bat. I would know that at least I'd tried to help avoid a huge amount of grief.
From my perspective the odd disciplinary proceeding is an excellent income-generating opportunity, so why should I care if another poor soul gets added to the list? I do though.

I'm a teacher, so I'm well aware of how schools view FB use. In fact, when my school was Ofsteded recently, one member of staff wrote something silly on her FB page and indeed there were repercussions, which she deserved, as her comment was a bit silly and meant that students were able to learn of the Ofsted results before they were supposed to.

My point is not that this teacher is being a bit silly, or even that he shouldn't be "warned", but that the OP is not the person to do it - she doesn't know him! If a total stranger told me off about something I'd written on FB, I would A)Think they were a nutjob and B)Ignore them.

If the OP wants to do something, then she should send a private message to her friend, asking if the friend wants to say something to the other person.

Why is that MNers think they have the right to correct the behviour of people they've never even met? It baffles me.

EvilTwins, I agree that it's bizarre to pull a stranger up on their facebook posting.

Not sure where the tearcher is from, but I'd use "bunch of fannies" as a semi-affectionate term, as would most of my friends here in Glasgow.

I wanted to add that because someone further up the thread equated it with calling them a a bunch of cunts, which would IMHO have very different undertones.

I'd read it as a jokey throwaway comment, and it's really not worth getting your knickers in a twist about (you bunch of fannies )

If you'd said that Op should ask her friend to contact the teacher then I'd have understood and agree that was a good option. Why didn't you say that in the first place?