The fantastic Education Wonks posted about a site called “Rate My Teacher.” I’d been there before, a few semesters ago, when my students mentioned it to me. Before that, I had no idea such a thing even existed.

Then I guess I sort of forgot about it, till the Wonks mentioned it tonight.

I’m torn. Part of me is horrified, because the potential for misuse is great, and because a teacher who is ‘easy’ isn’t necessarily a good teacher. Quite the contrary, in fact. A student’s perspective isn’t always accurate. It also seemed like a great website for exacting a very public kind of revenge, not that such a thing would ever have occurred to me when I was a kid.

But there is also that part of me that thinks the whole concept is kind of cool. I went to the site’s counterpart, “Rate My Professor,” and found myself on there. Thankfully, the students who had a hard time finding my class must have an equally hard time finding a website because none of them had commented. And a huge ‘thank you’ to those students who did.

Besides which, any website that publishes a list of the funniest ratings has simply got to be cool. I mean, check out this list, which I swiped directly from the ‘Rate My Professor’ website:

You can’t cheat in her class because no one knows the answers.
His class was like milk, it was good for 2 weeks.
Houston, we have a problem. Space cadet of a teacher, isn’t quite attached to earth.
I would have been better off using the tuition money to heat my apartment last winter.
Three of my friends got A’s in his class and my friends are dumb.
Emotional scarring may fade away, but that big fat F on your transcript won’t.
Evil computer science teaching robot who crushes humans for pleasure.
Miserable professor – I wish I could sum him up without foul language.
Instant amnesia walking into this class. I swear he breathes sleeping gas.
BORING! But I learned there are 137 tiles on the ceiling.
Not only is the book a better teacher, it also has a better personality.
Teaches well, invites questions and then insults you for 20 minutes.
This teacher was a firecracker in a pond of slithery tadpoles.
I learned how to hate a language I already know.
Very good course, because I only went to one class.
He will destroy you like an academic ninja.
Bring a pillow.
Your pillow will need a pillow.
If I was tested on her family, I would have gotten an A.
She hates you already.

Click on over there and see what the web-savvy kids are saying about your kid’s teachers. Don’t believe everything you read, but it’ll give you an inkling.

I mean it. Don’t believe everything you read. Don’t believe everything you hear, either. Or see. Or feel. Don’t assume. And remember, many of those comments were made by students who did poorly in a class and blamed the teacher for it.

There is also a forum on both websites where parents can make comments. Don’t, however, make the mistake of thinking that just because a person is a parent, that person will be objective and reasonable on a teacher-rating website, because, you know, any teacher who doesn’t give special privileges and exceptions to Junior and Misti Dawn is a bad, bad teacher.

Anyway. Go and have some fun. Pretend it’s fictional, because a lot of those ratings are pure fiction if ever I’ve read any.

I do think, however, that enough of them are legitimate to make the whole concept legitimate.

I will keep watching it. If any of my students post negative stuff about me, I will change my mind.

My husband and my brother are on there, too. All of us are perfect. I’m clicking over to look for my sister now.

Ask your kids about these websites. Chances are they’ve known about them for years. Isn’t that the way it usually is?