A Nation Defeated


Articles Dante Alighieri Arthur Dent Jesus Jones Thomas Paine Other Authors Contact Us! Letter to the Editor Dante Alighieri Arthur Dent Jesus Jones Thomas Paine	A Nation Defeated Arthur Dent Recently, there has been much ado about a website called HighSchoolNation, where students can "evaluate" their teachers and administrators. I have heard a couple of people mention HSN and The Subterranean in the same breath, and it troubles me greatly because, while HSN is a "good idea gone bad," The Subterranean has stuck to its principles and not stooped to the kind of defamatory attacks one can find on HighSchoolNation.com. According to HSN.com's webmaster, a student at Lowell High School in San Francisco, the organization's mission is to "give students a voice" in evaluating teachers and administrators. The webmaster goes on to say that "most teachers are hard working, good people that deserve higher wages, more respect, and better facilities." That being said, it is mind-boggling that he/she allows libelous content to remain on the website. Even more perplexing is that students, when given the opportunity to provide useful and important feedback about their teachers and administrators, choose instead to attack not only the lame and ineffectual, but also some of the hardest-working staff we have. HighSchoolNation started off with a noble goal and innovative means, but through slanderous attacks by many unscrupulous Terra Nova students and their ilk across the country, the site has been reduced to drivel. It is upsetting to see students waste an amazing opportunity to improve the school community, instead choosing to refer to teachers with ridiculously stupid phrases like "woman hoar." Grow up. Besides the fact that you're so wrong, attacking character gets you nowhere but in a court with a libel suit. Both HSN and The Subterranean allow writers to use pseudonyms, but that is where the similarities end. Anyone, teacher or student, can email The Subterranean to provide feedback regarding something printed, but no one can respond to anything said on HSN. While our identities are protected by anonymity, we differ from HSN posters in that we offer contact information to our audience. Additionally, while The SubT strives for journalistic integrity and report actions, HSN allows ad hominem attacks: personal attacks which just aren't cool. In fact, upon perusing the "evaluations" of various teachers, I found far more commentary about any given teacher's appearance and mannerisms than his/her actual teaching. I refuse to believe that our students' comments on HSN reflect the best that TN has to offer. It's time to stop attacking teachers based on how much we like or dislike them and focus instead on the quality of the job they're doing in the classroom. It's time we take ourselves seriously for once. If we don't, we can say goodbye to any chance we have of being taken seriously by others Comments? Questions? Feedback? Email Arthur Dent at ArthurdentTN@yahoo.com.	Archive Back Issues Why? Cartoons Poetry Random Rants Disclaimers Losers and Kudos of the Week Letters to the Editor Editor's Notes Picture of the Week
Back		Top

Arthur Dent

Recently, there has been much ado about a website called HighSchoolNation, where students can "evaluate" their teachers and administrators. I have heard a couple of people mention HSN and The Subterranean in the same breath, and it troubles me greatly because, while HSN is a "good idea gone bad," The Subterranean has stuck to its principles and not stooped to the kind of defamatory attacks one can find on HighSchoolNation.com.

According to HSN.com's webmaster, a student at Lowell High School in San Francisco, the organization's mission is to "give students a voice" in evaluating teachers and administrators. The webmaster goes on to say that "most teachers are hard working, good people that deserve higher wages, more respect, and better facilities." That being said, it is mind-boggling that he/she allows libelous content to remain on the website. Even more perplexing is that students, when given the opportunity to provide useful and important feedback about their teachers and administrators, choose instead to attack not only the lame and ineffectual, but also some of the hardest-working staff we have.

HighSchoolNation started off with a noble goal and innovative means, but through slanderous attacks by many unscrupulous Terra Nova students and their ilk across the country, the site has been reduced to drivel. It is upsetting to see students waste an amazing opportunity to improve the school community, instead choosing to refer to teachers with ridiculously stupid phrases like "woman hoar." Grow up. Besides the fact that you're so wrong, attacking character gets you nowhere but in a court with a libel suit.

Both HSN and The Subterranean allow writers to use pseudonyms, but that is where the similarities end. Anyone, teacher or student, can email The Subterranean to provide feedback regarding something printed, but no one can respond to anything said on HSN. While our identities are protected by anonymity, we differ from HSN posters in that we offer contact information to our audience. Additionally, while The SubT strives for journalistic integrity and report actions, HSN allows ad hominem attacks: personal attacks which just aren't cool. In fact, upon perusing the "evaluations" of various teachers, I found far more commentary about any given teacher's appearance and mannerisms than his/her actual teaching. I refuse to believe that our students' comments on HSN reflect the best that TN has to offer. It's time to stop attacking teachers based on how much we like or dislike them and focus instead on the quality of the job they're doing in the classroom. It's time we take ourselves seriously for once. If we don't, we can say goodbye to any chance we have of being taken seriously by others

Comments? Questions? Feedback? Email Arthur Dent at ArthurdentTN@yahoo.com.