About a month ago, someone uttered solemn reproaches on me for the better part of an afternoon for cussing on my blog. It’s UNPROFESSIONAL, and makes other teacher blogger dolls look bad, she says. ~i’m not picking on her, since she’s far from the first to tell me that~
Best I can break it down, their argument is this:
“People” are judging teachers and the future of teacher blogging based on what teachers do right now, so I should shut up.
Nobody has actually told me to “shut up,” or “shut down.” ~yet~ But, people have asked me to tone down my language for the good of “teacher bloggers” everywhere. You know, in the name of “professionalism.”
If you use words like “professionalism” ~part of the lexicon of intellectual rape~ you must be doing some GOOD for society, right? Your argument must make sense because you used a six syllable word.
But the above argument, both their eloquence and my paraphrase, is… how shall I put this? Crap.
Some assumptions to this argument, presumably unexamined, are these:
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The true content of my blog is irrelevant. Some words are too evil to utter. So evil, in fact, that a doll’s entire message should be disregarded if she uses one of them. ~ridiculous, but common~
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Context, artistic license, intellectual freedom, the First Amendment, and even meaning are to be subordinated to the need for the collective to maintain control. ~fascist fucks~
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Teachers have something to prove. It’s assumed we’re morons, and how teacher bloggers behave is supposed to change that. ~wake up! teachers take the heat for the whole system because we’re the lowest on the totem pole, the easy targets. not because somebody said ass butter online~
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It’s acceptable for the professional futures of ALL teachers to rest on how well I ~and others~ show out for the team. Making it, by extension, acceptable for THEM to silence the speech of educated grown ups.
It seems some think we should all just comply with the current system and do as we’re told. As though that’s working for us. How many teachers have been forced to take down blogs? How many are afraid to start one? People that try to control language ~and therefore thoughts~ need to be told about themselves.
Censorship on any level is an attempt to silence something.
UPDATE: Just found this video within minutes of publishing this post, via JJ on Twitter, and thought it fit perfectly. It’s called “The Annotated FUCK.”
I'm Taylor. This is my classroom. There used to be a "real" teacher behind this blog, but she nagged me all the time about not saying this and not saying that. ~all she ever did was type anyway, since my fingers are stuck together~ So I've taken over.
Yes, I'm an imitation Barbie knock-off doll. What of it? Barbie's got nothing on me! Let me take you to school.
You said it, sister!
Now if only I could get my head out of my supervisor’s ass long enough to think of something clever to say.
I don’t care what sort of language you use. What I really want to know is the important stuff, like whether or not you wear a flag lapel pin.
NYC Educator’s last blog post..Mr. Klein Names a School
When I saw this headline, I kinda got my hopes up for a story about a date with Stephen Hawking gone terribly, terribly wrong.
PS: FLAG LAPEL Y/N?
TAYLOR 2008
Damian’s last blog post..More Than You Ever Cared to Know
Oh my word. You are going to he- to heck, I mean – in a handbasket, young lady.
Why you ought to be ashamed of yourself talking like that.
You go in that bathroom and wash your mouth out with soap right this instant.
And don’t let me hear you using that filthy language again, you hear me?
It leads to heroin, liberalism, and other perversions.
Clay Burell’s last blog post..Diigo “Jury” Needed on 74-Comment Assessment Post Debate
I wrote something similar about this in my last post, but yours is definitely worth a head nod. I’m amazed at the sort of “professionalism” some people talk about. I’m constantly getting blitzed with this talk of professionalism as if I wasn’t professional already. The shit annoys me to no end. If people around here really cared about professionalism, they wouldn’t be cutting each other’s throats in order to look like they’re the better blogger or better teacher for whatever they believed in, like who gets to curse and who doesn’t.
jose’s last blog post..It’s Not a Confessional, It’s a Blog (My 200th)
Uh, yeah. I was like “AHHHHH!” when I first read your blog, because you’re a teacher, but then, I remembered, that you are person. Funny, huh? I thought it was. I think you should say whatever you wants.
I use sucky grammar because I know it pisses people off.
Oops. I swore. You should give me detention.
Kaelie Curbxstomp’s last blog post..Happiness Is A Warm Gun
It really gets to me when other people try to push their own values on others. I feel like if I didn’t like your language or what you write, I have the choice not read it or listen to it. It becomes my problem and not yours. I don’t like hearing profanity around young children and if the young children were mine, I would choose to remove them and not ask you to change your behavior. I don’t think other professionals are acting very professionally by acting in this way towards another adult. I would ask students in my class not to use it and wouldn’t use it in front of them but again, that is my choice and shouldn’t be inflicted on you or your blog or your conversations with others. I think they just need to get a life! I like what you have to say and enjoy your points of view (I don’t feel I have to agree but I feel it is important to me to hear your point of view.)
Pat’s last blog post..A Matter of Manners
“I would choose to remove them and not ask you to change your behavior.”
It’s this response that leads to the deterioration of a community. Why should one foul-mouthed person drive out a family? At what point would you ask the person to change his/her behavior? If the answer is never, eventually you end up condoning things like rape, murder, etc.
Rhetoric might also bring some light to all of this: occasion should determine appropriate speech. The occasion of a public forum calls for publicly-appropriate discourse. This isn’t a revolutionary or difficult concept, and is only flouted by the immature who believe their “fresh” take on reality means the rest of the world needs to move over, or that shock can substitute for substance.
MLK and Gandhi had no problem using publicly-appropriate discourse to bring dramatic change to the systems they opposed. Usually, profanity only signals either intellectual weakness or laziness.
Word, sister.
I always feel a vague sense of trepidation before blogging/tweeting a naughty word. But then it goes away and I post it. BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN FREE SPEECH.
Sorry for that bit of facetiousness. I think there has to be something said for saying what you’re trying to say without swearing. Not that I don’t love peppering up my speech with four letter words. I thoroughly love being inappropriate.
It basically comes to this, for me anyways: If you’re an individual living within a collective and want to spread your individual message out to the rest of the collective, do you need to do so within the collective’s parameters?
Maybe we can even use college as an analogy. A student (*cough* me *cough*) wants to be an independent learner and not conform to the archaic grading system but finds that she has to because the college that will provide her with the opportunities she wants requires a certain GPA/SAT score.
Wow. That was breathless. What I’m trying to say is that the system sucks balls, but how can we change the fucked up system without first gaining its trust a little bit?
Lindsea’s last blog post..I float on tag clouds and blog fog
Ah, Taylor – you’re such a revolutionary
As we’ve talked about elsewhere, there’s a time and place for everything, no? Of course you’re not swearing in the classroom and of course you’re not the representative of all teacher bloggers. As my mom always told me, do what I think is right and be prepared to accept all rewards AND consequences. I personally choose not to swear on my blog because I that’s the way I choose to portray myself to future clients and business contacts. That’s me, though. I don’t think anyone should make ANYONE the poster child for teacher bloggers – I’d never want that position since I’m not really even in that category, and as far as I know, you never set out to represent anyone other than yourself. I hope you can look past this issue and just let your true voice out – as others have said, you have the right to write what you want, others have the right to read or not read. Thanks for being strong enough to speak up about this……..
Kate Olson’s last blog post..Attention Everyone: You Do Not Own Twitter
I don’t mean this to be rude or confrontational, seriously, but (never good to start that way, is it?): would you feel/speak the same if your blog wasn’t anonymous/pseudonymous? I’m curious specifically, but also generally: anonymity online seems to enable language and actions that otherwise wouldn’t occur, or at least not as frequently. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I think anonymity certainly has its value and its place.
Also, I would side with the “time and place” argument, but completely defend your right to make the decision about the where and the when, provided you’re willing to accept the “rewards and consequences.” I think that’s kinda the point of the first amendment.
Eric Hoefler’s last blog post..This is How I Flock
i agree that censorship is the governments way of controling how we think thank you teach
@kooldanny You’re smart. You have good ideas. You should look for the most comfortable way for you to start writing things down. Just notes, even.
I respectfully disagree with your take on people objecting to salty language in a blog. First, let me say that I am a habitual user of obscene language, so don’t take this as a moral criticism. In fact, just consider it a nod to devil’s advocacy and an opportunity for me to be argumentative, my greatest joy.
Frankly, when overused, cursing distracts from your message. Foul language is essentially physical comedy. Cursing while making a point (Dick Cheney is a cocksucker because he did X) is equivalent to a pie in the face – a form of low, easy humor, requiring little thought, strictly for a simplistic emotional release. While this kind of humor has it’s place, it’s a small place, and should not be overused.
Extreme language has a purpose – to show extreme emotion, or draw particular attention to a comment. It can also be used for shock value, but realistically, these days you would have to be very creative to actually shock someone. Using it excessively dilutes this purpose.
The biggest danger/drawback to cursing during a persuasive essay or argument is that it’s counter productive. Take a political comment – by adding a string of expletives and hyperboles (George Bush is a ball sucking ass pirate nazi who…), what have you actually accomplished?
You’ve eliminated more than half of your audience. Everyone that likes George Bush has stopped listening and now believes you’re just a teenager with poor manners. You’ve wasted an opportunity to bring your logic and reasoning to productive use, converting a non-believer. Even people that agree with you who are uncomfortable with that type of language will be non-receptive to your arguments and less vulnerable to your reasoning. While this might not bother you, really, what’s the point of sitting around talking with people who all agree with you about everything? That’s not a conversation, it’s mental masturbation, or at best, a tedious intellectual circle jerk.
There is nothing wrong with people criticizing your language – in fact, it’s no different than you criticizing the government or anything else. It’s no more fascism for them to insult or criticize you for cursing than it is for you to mock or complain about anyone. It’s exactly the same for me to say “shut up and quit talking bad about Bill Clinton” as it is for you to say “shut up and quit telling me to stop cussing”.
Now put that in your fucking pipe and smoke up.
I think I’m going to make your comment a post, mark.