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I was annoyed this week by the news story about Pennsylvania teacher Natalie Monroe. You may have heard about the blog posts that landed her in hot water in which she bashed and insulted both her students and their parents. She said her students were rude and lazy, called them "disengaged whiners" and said they were out of control. She also posted a flippant list of remarks one could use to describe students to their parents, including phrases like "rat-like" and "frightfully dim." She then lambasted parents for their lack of parenting skills, saying, "Don't you know how to raise kids?" Although she has been publishing the blog for over a year without much attention, someone noticed this particular post and word spread. She has since been suspended without pay.

Now Monroe refuses to back down from her words.

"I was writing it not about anyone specific, they were caricatures of students that I've had over the years," she said. "[I]t was meant tongue and cheek for myself and my friends, it was not for mass consumption...I'm sorry that it was taken out of context but I stand by what I said."

Here are a couple things that I might say to Ms. Monroe in light of all this:

Point number one (that you should have already known): If something is not for mass consumption, do not post it on the Internet. How many careers have to be destroyed by shirtless senatorial photos or ill-thought-out Tweets before we get that? The Internet is not a big water cooler, and the people on the web are not all your best friends. Your actions may have placed you in the category of-well-frightfully dim.

Point number two (that you should have already known): Teaching is not about you. It's about your students, even the rude ones, even the disengaged ones, and yes, even the dim ones. If you don't want to take them as they come, get out of the business. Because that is your job. To write about them in the way you have, and to post it on a public forum-even if it was "tongue and cheek" and "not for mass consumption"-is a gross violation of the trust your students, their parents and the public placed in you when you became a teacher. I'm afraid that your actions here may have placed you in the category of whiner. And lets not forget rude.

There's one more thing I might say to Monroe. I read that she is the parent of a 3-year-old, and that she is expecting her second child. I might point out to her that she might want to think twice about judging other parents and asking questions like "Don't you know how to raise kids?" Parenting is a long-and at times-very difficult journey. It's full of learning experiences, pitfalls, scary moments and frustrating stretches when you may really not know what to do. Ms. Monroe, hypothetical children are much, much easier to raise than real children-and you, my dear, are just starting the long hard journey of raising real children.