How www.ratemyteacher.ie affected my life

'I have been a teacher for 37 years and last January, I implemented a decision I have been considering for the last two years. I informed my board of management that I would be retiring at the end of the school year, both as a teacher and principal of my school, a position I have held for seven years.

"Over the last month my mood has vacillated between excitement at building a whole new life and the sadness of leaving behind all that I have loved as an educator of children.

"Having survived the stresses and tensions of the industrial dispute of recent years I was looking forward to a relatively relaxed last few months at work when, out of nowhere, came a phenomenon that has torn my life apart and has undermined the very basis on which our education system is based. I refer to the publicity generated by the TUI condemnation of the ratemyteacher.ie website.

"Within a period of less than a week, personal comments about many of my teaching staff appeared on this site. I was advised that the site had a moderator within my school who vetted the entries. This anonymous moderator could be any student, from any class within the school, who now had the power to determine what comments the site, would carry about my colleagues.

"The rules of this site state that offensive comments will not be aired, yet within days deeply offensive comments appeared regarding a number of my colleagues, that left them psychologically shattered. Following complaints, these comments were removed, but were replaced by new deeply personal comments within hours, which were then removed, following further complaints.

"Teaching children is based on a relationship of trust. Children being children, require discipline and structure in their lives. Good teachers guide children through their adolescent years, enforcing standards regarding both school and homework, which ensure that those children grow into well-rounded educated adults. How many of us resented the strict teacher, only to realise the enormous benefits we enjoyed from such attention when we grew into adulthood?

"What teacher will dare take any action to discipline or correct a child, knowing that their professionalism could lead to an outburst of invective on the Internet that same evening? Where will that leave our education system?

"As I nervously checked the site again this evening, to see if any further hurtful comments had been made about the teachers in my care, I came across a number about myself. They celebrated the fact that I was retiring and one expressed sorrow that I had not done so earlier. After 37 years of giving my all to the children in my care, these sentiments, expressed by a handful of anonymous students, whose behaviour I may have reprimanded, will stand as the public judgment of my life's work."