Natalie Munroe, Blogging Pennsylvania Teacher, Receiving Diminishing Approval

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. -- More than 200 parents have told a Pennsylvania school district they don't want their children taught by a teacher who called students "frightfully dim" and "disengaged, lazy whiners" on her personal blog.

Central Bucks East High School Superintendent Robert Laws say he expects the district to get "a lot more requests" from parents who want to keep their children away from English teacher Natalie Munroe.

The Doylestown Intelligencer reports 62 requests came from parents whose children were scheduled to be in Munroe's classes. District officials had estimated Munroe would have 90 students in her three classes.

Munroe was suspended in February after district officials learned of her blog.

Laws says a substitute will likely be hired to take on the students who won't be taught by Monroe. Classes begin Tuesday.

Comments

[Marisa Stein]

08:11 AM on 08/31/2011

and they didn't fire her because? oh wait..she's union..I forgot

[yort45]

12:34 AM on 08/30/2011

Dim...its true. They are. Do teachers need to feed kids answers or make them think? Do we shed light on the excitement that is knowledge or simply explain and do wrote work? The kids arent interested in trying or thinking or doing. Just get this school thing over with so i can go back to doing what i want.

[Larkin31]

09:34 PM on 08/29/2011

I wouldn't either, and I am a teacher.

[Michelle Polcaro]

06:36 PM on 08/29/2011

She should have definitely kept her blog private. She was an idiot not to do so.

Another question, why is she scheduled to only teach 3 classes? I have 6!!

[Dede Eagleburger]

10:59 PM on 08/29/2011

good question, maybe they only brought her back part time? she is coming off maternity leave...

[ironicisntit]

07:49 PM on 08/28/2011

One more reason why teachers need to protect themselves and not have public blogs, Facebook pages or twitter accounts. What may seem witty or funny to you may prove offensive to someone who can have you fired. We live in an age where information is everywhere. Be proactive and protect yourself.

[db08]

06:48 AM on 08/29/2011

As an English teacher, she should understand the impact of all forms of communication. She used very poor judgement.

[Ariel Bonzai]

12:47 AM on 08/27/2011

I am tired of hearing about this woman--she and sex offenders are always in the news and seem to represent all teachers when in fact they are a minority. I don't know why the district is agreeing to put her back into the same school or why she is frightfully dim enough to want to return. She dislikes the students, their parents and now the feeling is more than mutual. The legs this styory has are becoming suspect. HP (and it is better than most media outlets, too) doesn't follow the saga of heroic Hope Moffett, the teacher jails full of educators doing nothing for full pay, the corruption corroding the system, collossial waste or the fate of Atlanta cheating scandal's whistleblowers, who were fired and professionally ruined by dishonest educRAT$ ironically for ethical misconduct. Yet you keep track of Natalie and the privledged white kids who were offended by her foolish rants? What is really going on?

[Dede Eagleburger]

07:59 AM on 08/28/2011

exactly, we need some POSITIVE stories about our profession, would be nice to see really!

[kellywelch]

02:47 PM on 08/26/2011

A teacher should never criticize our precious children who are for the most part pretty lazy and just want to do the minimum required to get by. (tounge in cheek)

I am guessing she would be an awesome english teacher to students who really want to learn and are willing to work hard. She is probably referring to the other 95% who just want to get by with mediocre grades. I have one of each so I can speak from experience!! I don't think I would have a problem with either of my kids being in her class.

[LindaRetiredTeacher]

01:51 PM on 08/26/2011

I am a huge supporter of teachers but anyone with such poor judgment as this teacher is not suited to the job.

[Pat Bateman2000]

07:46 PM on 08/25/2011

I don't think she's wrong at all in what she said, maybe doing it in her own name was a mistake. If you're going to burn your bridges you can't expect to walk back over them. She will find that no one is going to want a pariah

[lcr999]

11:24 PM on 08/28/2011

Yes, punished for saying what most teachers know, and what parents who are paying attention should know as well. Even the good students know the slackers.

[Grouchland]

12:05 AM on 09/09/2011

She is guilty of telling what her truth is. The truth changes constantly.

[Equinator]

04:11 PM on 08/25/2011

Seems to me that the teacher just did not know how to teach her class. It takes more than knowledge to teach. To transfer knowledge it takes a set of mental tools that each teacher must develop. Teachers are the very valuable and under appreciated members or our society.

[Dede Eagleburger]

10:22 PM on 08/25/2011

you are so right about that!!!

[raw280]

07:54 PM on 08/26/2011

Great point, never heard it stated better than this...

[poeticjustice4all]

03:26 PM on 08/25/2011

She has every right to hate children. But wy does a woman who hates children insist on being a teacher? With that attitude, and her writing skills, she clearly belongs in admin.

[lcr999]

11:28 PM on 08/28/2011

It doesn't say she hates children. She just dislikes children who don't want to learn and are squandering not only their own opportunity but that of other children as well.

[poeticjustice4all]

01:14 PM on 08/29/2011

You either have not read the blog, or you hate children yourself.

In either event, a teacher is not a social critic. Thanks, but shut up and teach.

(Oh . . . and by the way, the children now hate her. So it's a moot point.)

[StevenM]

01:32 PM on 08/25/2011

I had a pastor who used to say that abortion should be legal until the child is five years old. It was said tongue-in-check and was gallows-humor. Natalie Munroe appears to have been doing a bit of venting off steam. If I was a parent of a child in her class, I be much more concerned with how she actually did her job than what she wrote in a blog. But since there are 200 parents up in arms, it makes me wonder if there were other problems before this and this is just the last straw?

[JimNast]

12:52 PM on 08/29/2011

only 5?

[poeticjustice4all]

01:15 PM on 08/29/2011

What is your pastor's name and location?

[Dede Eagleburger]

10:36 AM on 08/25/2011

Okay, I just read her blog. (for anyone who hasn't, all of the older posts where she called students 'frightfully dim' etc are gone.)
Apparently the blog was only intended for her, her husband, and seven of her friends, so I think her biggest mistake was not making it secure somehow?
Anyhow, she really is an AMAZING blogger, all other comments notwithstanding, if the teaching thing doesn't work out, she should probably become a professional blogger (I think that's a paying job these days?). I couldn't write as well as she does. She is an English teacher and I think a lot of people could learn from her writing, if they can't learn in her classroom.

[Absolute]

11:07 AM on 08/25/2011

On her blog she posted a picture of a school bus for special-needs children, the caption read:

"I don’t care if you lickwindows, take the special bus, or occasionallypee on yourself, you hang in there sunshine, you’refriggin’ special."

Yeah, that's pretty amazing.

[Dede Eagleburger]

11:35 AM on 08/25/2011

I think that the caption was with the picture, she didn't write it, she just posted it? And judging from the rest of her blog posts I'd say she posted it a bit tongue-in-cheek...

[intellifran]

01:57 PM on 08/25/2011

FYI I accidentally faved you. Please know that it was unintentional. This woman's blog is no one's business. I hated having to deal with classmates who were disruptive and disrespectful. It ruins the experience for everyone. Good for her!

[Ariel Bonzai]

12:57 AM on 08/27/2011

Uh..are you joking? I don't think she is witty or insightful. All I have to do is hit the teachers' lounge for more of the same. She really did us all a disservice by letting this story mutate as it has. She was wrong, she has no business teaching this demographic--or at least in this school, and she writes predictable whiney white bread stuff that is inspired by the lowest purpose. I agre people can learn from her writing. This what one does not do with their skills or their free time. Oh yeah, it wasn't free time. It was, in part, the school's time. As I recall she openly admits this in the last blog, which was actually her undoing.

[Dede Eagleburger]

07:31 AM on 08/27/2011

okay, I see where you're going here, so you say she shouldn't be teaching or blogging, then.

[kristiemaureen]

08:09 AM on 08/25/2011

Having read her blog, I can now comfortably say that this woman is worse than the unnamed students she attacks. She reveals herself to be a completely self-centered complainer with statements like "a particularly malicious group of students... who decided to make it their business to try to ruin me". Seriously? She thinks that her students had that much forethought and planning as to be conducting a campaign to ruin her, yet in other posts calls them dimwitted dunderheads?

Natalie, you are not cut out for the teaching profession. You lack logic, you lack the student focus required to encourage a positive learning environment, and you care more about your union benefits than you do about doing your job well.

[Absolute]

08:56 AM on 08/25/2011

She is a hypocrite who displays the behaviors that she claims to despise.

[DeuxExMachina]

09:02 AM on 08/25/2011

Now hang on. Just because you think she's paranoid doesn't mean the critters weren't out to get her.

[Absolute]

09:13 AM on 08/25/2011

They can't get you unless you give them an assist. It's hilarious that she would describe anyone as "malicious". This woman has absolutely no self awareness.

[kristiemaureen]

11:14 AM on 08/25/2011

LOL Deux.. I actually own a t-shirt that says just that :)

But if she thinks the "critters" were staging some massive, vindictive campaign to oust her, she can't also think they're idiots as planning that kind of thing actually does take some ability to think, and executing it well takes even more ability to think.

[Absolute]

05:19 AM on 08/25/2011

When asked if it ever crossed her mind that someone from her school would see her blog, Munroe replied, "No, not really, not ever, in fact, it was up there for over a year, nobody found it."

That makes her frightfully dim.

[Dede Eagleburger]

10:20 AM on 08/25/2011

I'm still trying to figure out why she posted something on a blog, and why it took a year for someone to find it?

[Absolute]

11:08 AM on 08/25/2011

Our students always do internet searches on us. Especially if they know our first names. I'm surprised that it took a year.

[daughterusmc]

01:28 PM on 08/25/2011

well...she did saythey were dim witted.