There's a blog for those who live in the Concord/Clayton area called Claycord. It's usually a pretty useful site. If you want to know what the deal is with all those helicopters flying around your house, you can find out which murderer is loose in your neighborhood, among other local news items. It's run by "The Mayor", and as far as I know, his real name is not given on the site. Perhaps his first name is "The". Who knows for sure?
Just recently, a friend of mine, Andrew Nolan, received an email from The Mayor regarding a post he made on Facebook. The post was the first sentence of a student's very poorly-worded essay, and he was basically pointing out that this is the kind of thing we teachers have to deal with when we read essays. It was all meant in fun, and he never named the student (or even specified if it was a boy or a girl). Also, it turns out that when he talked to the student about it, he/she thought it was funny that he put it up as well. Oh, and apparently he called a former student an "asshole" in the thread. The former student is now a 25 year old man, and "liked" the comment - so obviously there were no hard feelings involved.
The email was basically a series of leading questions along the lines of: "Do you think it's appropriate to mock a student's essay on Facebook? Is it appropriate to call a former student an asshole?" He, quite smartly, ignored it. Another email was sent to the principal, who after talking with Nolan about it, didn't think it was worth the trouble bothering with beyond that point. Why? Because Nolan didn't violate his contract or break any rules; that's why.
Not surprisingly, The Mayor posted an entry on all of this. You can find it here, but be forewarned that it's been deleted, re-posted, deleted, etc. It might not be there when you click on it. I'd write a breakdown of all the distortions, but my friend and colleague, Josh Coito, already did it for me. He tried to post the following to the Claycord blog, only to have it deleted twice:
I am ashamed that claycord concocted this story. I know Mr. Nolan and there are tons of holes in this story that everyone should be aware of before they weigh in:When I got home to discuss this with my wife, I found out that she had written some comments which were deleted. The same was true for my sister-in-law, and there were a few comments on Claycord's Facebook page which were taking The Mayor to task for his obvious witch-hunt. Those comments were subsequently deleted. (I got to see a screenshot of one of them, where The Mayor defends himself because he's "not a journalist" but a blogger - which apparently excuses a lack of integrity.)
1. Nolan's facebook is set to private; one of his friends copied a screenshot and sent it to claycord. He is not putting anything "out there ... for all to see."
2. He posted a single sentence from a student's work and didn't identify the student at all. He didn't even include the name or gender of the student. No matter where you work, you should be able to post about it on your private facebook wall without naming names.
3. The former student whom Nolan called an "asshole" is 25 years old, friends with Mr. Nolan, and he even "liked" Nolan's comment. Please notice that Nolan never calls a current student an asshole; the comment is directed at an adult who graduated several years ago. Notice how claycord doesn't include this information. The Mayor doesn't want readers to contextualize the story or have all the facts. Should the fact that this guy was Nolan's student seven or eight years ago give him amnesty from insult?
4. The whole thread is missing; claycord only provides a snippet, so readers have to guess about the context of the discussion. Pretty convenient, Mr. Mayor.
5. Mr. Nolan is friends with nearly all of his students and many parents of students on facebook. The insinuation that he is choosing to exclude certain people is unfounded.
6. The photo album title is a joke. All the pictures (again, left out by claycord) are of Nolan posing with students at prom.
7. Mr. Nolan is adored by parents and students at College Park. I don't see claycord reporting on Mr. Nolan dancing for kids at rallies, planning engaging/popular lessons, putting in time after school for his students, or praising his students on facebook, all of which he has done.
The Mayor should feel ashamed for attacking a public servant like this. Claycord has become a joke.
The really insane thing involves many of the comments that did make it through. While several posts defending him (most of which were from former students and parents of former students) somehow made it through, there were plenty of negative ones. Some of them called for him being fired. Really? The man should lose his job? Let's say that we all agree that he made a mistake. Is that really something that should get him fired?
Of course, the comments get even nuttier, with people accusing him of union thuggery and being like Ted Bundy. Yes, that's right. Andrew Nolan is comparable to SERIAL KILLER Ted Bundy. (Personally, I always thought he was more of a Richard Ramirez. Just watch, Claycord's next headline: "College Park Teacher Suspects Fellow Teacher of being The Night Stalker".)
The really crazy thing, and this didn't just come from people who were attacking him, but you also got it from those who were supporting him, is that people were taking this one little out-of-context post and doing entire psychological evaluations on the man. Even when people who knew him and described him tried to chime in, their opinions didn't seem to hold much weight.
I got involved as well, and was taken to task for posting while school was in session. When I tried to explain that I posted during the seven minutes of the beginning of class while my students were writing in their journals, I was accused of having absolutely no work ethic, and all sorts of judgments were made about my curriculum. I suppose I could have written about all those times I disappeared during the weekend to work on lesson plans and grades, but it's only the negative that matters. (If you can call that a negative - my class was working as I took a few minutes to respond - they weren't juggling flamethrowers while I spent the whole period posting.)
I'm not sure what's worse: The Mayor's blatant censorship and "gotcha journalism" or the fact that he's safe behind his little pseudonym. The people who posted all sorts of vile things about my friend also didn't have the guts to put their real names to what they wrote. How cowardly. Hopefully with this, at least a few people who actually care about the truth will get it.
23 comments:
Mr. Johnson: Thank you for this. I agree with what you write about Claycord. I affectionately call it "Claycrap." What this whole incident really shows how everyone is okay with the dumbing down of the education system in America. Teachers are no longer allowed to "teach." They must spend their day "teaching" students how to pass a ridiculous test (STAR); defend themselves against students who feel they are being given too much work or that they are being treated unfairly if they didn't get the "A" for mediocre work; defend themselves against the parents who think their children deserves perfect grades all the time; ie, "Oh, Mr. or Ms. Teacher, you're not going to give my child that A on the paper they spent a few minutes putting together? Then I'm going to go to the principal, the district office and the board and whine and complain until you are forced to give my precious that grade"; deal with students who feel it's okay to use profanity in the classroom and at you whenever they feel like it because they know the consequence will be meaningless. Which leads to the most disheartening thing you must deal with on a regular basis: The lack of respect from both students and parents shown to you when you are just trying to do your job. Both my girls were lucky enough to have you as their teacher while at College Park and my senior was in Mr. Nolan's Threads class and is now one of his TA's. She is so upset by this BS posted on "Claycrap" and hopes that nothing happens to Mr. Nolan in response to this. Keep up the good work, Mr. Johnson & Mr. Nolan. Thanks, Stacy Boschetti
I'm sure Mr. Nolan will be fine. Thanks for your support! Your daughters are both awesome, but don't tell Cola that. It will go to her head.
Bravo lance! I could not agree more with your final paragraph. This is, like you said, "gotcha journalism" designed purely to inflame the masses. It absolutely pisses me off when people like "The Mayor" freely put the cross hairs on someone from behind the safety of their alias and anonymity, merely for the sake of generating web traffic and ad revenue. As a parent of 2 MDUSD children and the husband of a teacher I would like to say thank you for all that you and your colleagues do.
Claycord readers are often rude and hurtful, but its still upsetting to hear that they are attacking a beloved teacher. I am an old CP student and this whole thing sounds a little silly. I may have missed this part of the story, but how did the Mayor even hear about Nolan's post?
I still like Claycord and I think they do a lot of good work for the community, but it's pretty clear that the Mayor took off running with what he thought was a sensational story, without really reading into the context. I'm troubled to hear that he's deleting comments that are attempting to set the record straight. Keep up the good work Mr. Johnson!
--Vince Sturgis, Class of 2005 (the one kid who came to class on Senior Ditch Day)
Wow, in English class we're going over The Crucible and after learning about McCarhy.... "The Mayor" needs to pull his head out the ground and start paying attention. I agree with you Mr. Johnson, this is totally blown out of proportion. Mr. Nolan made a harmless joke that his student was fine with so why is he a target of all this flak? It just doesn't make sense!!! Mayor, if you're not Senator Joseph McCarthy, don't go on a witch hunt!!!!!!!!!!!
Class of 2013 supporting this case FOR Nolan. I don't want to lose a great teacher at cp because of somethin stupid like this
Lance is using Claycord for hits on his little blog. Don't worry; it's not obvious.
Anonymous isn't addressing the point. Don't worry; it's not obvious.
Sadly, what you are describing is pretty much the norm for blogs and websites these days. I am not that familiar with the blog question, ClayCord, but with 10+ years of internet based work under my belt I can tell you that personal opinion driven, non-researched blogging that is occasionally presented as "news" is 90% of what you will find online. And while I do object 100% to someone's reputation being unfairly assaulted, I also believe that it is our responsibility as the reading public to understand the difference between a blog and a news story. By their nature, blogs are fiefdoms run by one person who feels they have something important, or interesting to say. They are not balanced, they don't have to be, they are not reliable, and they don't need to be. To me, the scariest part of this story is not the removal of comments/and or blocking, it's the fact that action was taken on his words. If we as the public take opinions whether they be from an anon-online blogger, Perez Hilton, or Glen Beck and believe them to be fact without any critical thinking on our part we are in serious trouble. In summary, from what you have written I 100% think this Mayor person is a total ass hat (my opinion, I have no factual evidence that he is a living breathing hat made of an ass) HOWEVER I agree with his statement that he is not a journalist. Not even remotely, he is a dude (we assume) that pays for a unique URL and writes stuff he thinks on the interweb. That is all. Giving him more credit, as anything more important than that is a mistake on our parts.
"I may have missed this part of the story, but how did the Mayor even hear about Nolan's post?"
One of his fb friends (or someone with access to one of them) cut and pasted it on to the Mayor. That info is not included in the story and makes it seem as if Mr. Nolan's profile is open to everyone, rather than just the audience of people he has chosen.
Thank you so much for posting this! I'm a current student of Nolan's and it's nice to see him defended in such an eloquent manner. Thank you for telling "The Mayor" where to shove it!
Well said, Mr. Johnson. My daughter has had the pleasure of having both you and now, Mr. Nolan, as teachers at CP. We have been nothing but pleased with the quality of teaching in both classes. We and our daughter have the highest of standards for teachers, and we have have been quite impressed both years. What makes me most concerned about this issue is how easy it is for someone to blog or publish information about someone and how many people will immediatey accept it as fact without fully knowing the context, intended "spin," or evidence. I lull myself into thinking that we have come a long way since crucifixion, the Salem witch trials, the McCarthy era, yellow journalism, the holocaust, and the like. However, the Mayor (and the bandwagon of "negative commenters") have reminded me that we are all one blog or gossip mill away from our own public skewering.
Thanks, everyone. While this has all been disheartening to some degree, the outpouring of support has actually made me feel pretty good about my job. I'm hoping that Mr. Nolan can say the same thing.
The Gossip Girl of the East Bay has taken down the page, right when I was waiting to see if my post about privacy violations and the ACLU would be accepted. It baffles me that someone who keeps their identity private feels as though they have the right to place the rest of us under a public micrscope.
If what claycord posted is true then why didn't mr. nolan just respond to claycord and say this was all just a big misunderstanding and it was taken out of context? it seems like everybody is saying it was taken out of context but how is a person supposed to know that just by reading it and why wouldn't mr. nolan want to clear that up? why would he even write that in the first place? it really doesn't seem funny to me that he would call kids societys mistakes. i don't think this is a witch hunt since claycord says they tried to get information from mr. nolan and you even say mr. nolan got an email but ignored it. why would he do that? it seems like this whole thing would have never happened if mr. nolan would have just taken a moment to clear it up when given the chance. i also don't see why mr. nolan had to post a students paper online. what was the point of that when he has so many student friends on facebook? in this day and age of kids shooting up schools why would you want to taunt a student for their lack of skills?
Anonymous,
A few points:
1. As I tried to make clear in my post, the email that Mr. Nolan received contained obvious leading "gotcha" questions. It was clear from the tone that Claycord had already determined what the angle of this story was going to be. Considering how "The Mayor" has handled this since, with deleting comments and the entire post, I think that Mr. Nolan's fears were pretty justified.
2. He didn't post the student's paper. He posted one sentence from a student's paper. And he didn't name the student or even identify if it was a boy or a girl. As I stated in my post, the student thought it was funny that he did that.
3. As for the bit about "society's mistakes" being funny or not, well, not everybody has the same sense of humor. Considering the outpouring of support Mr. Nolan has received from students and parents, I think that more people appreciate his humor than do not. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.
I was pissed at first about the story but the more I think about it, Mr. Nolan should not have posted that on Facebook. I understand that everybody has a right to post whatever they want but it just seems a little childish.
I had Mr. Nolan as a teacher a few years ago. He's a great teacher and an even better person but that was a dumb thing for him to do.
The thing is, whether Mr. Nolan should have posted that or not is actually a worthwhile conversation to have. I can completely respect a rational expression like yours, but the problem is that this whole thing was blown so far out of proportion - calling for him to be fired, making assumptions about what kind of a teacher he is in general, and comparing him to Ted Bundy of all people.
Maybe when this all blows over, we can actually have that rational conversation on either this blog or Mr. Nolan's (I believe he's planning on writing something). I hope you join in when we do.
I hate to say it but I think you are just adding fuel to the fire. Mr. Nolan should just ignore it. He does not need to explain. Everybody is on his side who knows him and nobody seems to be outraged about it. As a former student I would have more respect if you and Mr. Nolan just let it go. Nobody will remember it in a week anyway.
You may be right.
I agree. Just forget about it and don't waste any more of your life on something so silly. This is so small in comparison to life's everyday problems. You would be doing yourself a disservice if you keep talking about it.
Stacy
dumbass
Guess I gotta check my SPAM folder more often. Not sure how the heck this wound up in there!
Post a Comment