Heh. I posted the original blog post here. Number Two Pencil.
I'm thinking of changing my name to "This Kimberly Person"
Anyone remember this post, back in April of this year, in which I expressed concern that a teacher named Linda Sorter who spends her time teaching "peace activities" in the classroom?
I thought my opinions were expressed rather mildly - instead of getting all fussy about someone dragging politics into the classroom, I merely asked the following: "Why can't Ms. Sorter just admit that teaching her students her particular, one-sided political beliefs is a big part of her agenda, if not the main part?"
Ms. Sorter was welcome to reply to me to clear up some of my other questions, including whether students who believed that winning the peace means waging war would be welcome in her classroom. I would have posted such a reply had I gotten it (and do note that when a former student of hers posted a comment to defend her, I did not remove it).
Ms. Sorter has indeed written me, but not to clear up any misconceptions I may have. Here is her email, in its entirety:
"Kimberly, I stumbled into your website and was quite shocked to find myself "reviewed and evaluated" by you. I have no idea who "you" are, and you, having not the decency or the courtesy to meet me, have NO idea who I am. I can accept any criticism based on fact, but you have no idea what you are talking about. It was pretty awful reading your catalog of lies. Sure gave me enough to know and evaluate you. My former student, JR who responded to your degrading and ridiculing comments, said it all. Thank you, my dear former student, for defending the teacher who always gave the best of herself in her classroom, and for growing up to practice the principles you learned there. Surely you are making the world a better place. Which is a lot more than I can say about this Kimberly person. I will not read your site again, so your response is meaningless to me. Suffice to say, I feel sorry for you, Kimberly."
Note that she didn't actually correct anything I said. She didn't address any of my questions. She just insulted me. So mature. So effective. And so worthy of someone who considers herself an "educator."
What's more, her shock at realizing that her publicly-available information has been read on the Internet, and judged by the public, suggests a bit of discomfort, shall we say, with the Information Age. Somehow, I believe even Miss Manners would support me in my belief that I was in no way discourteous in commenting on news articles about Ms. Sorter's doings without introducing myself to her first.
On the other hand, I can't really say that she didn't clear up any of my misconceptions. I think after reading her reply, we can all guess just how she would have responded to a student who disagreed that origami cranes are useful for spreading the "peace", can't we?
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