I've been Googled!

I’ve been Googled! So I ran some searches, did some digging and found out what I already knew. . . I’m not a very interesting guy. I found out that everything I am on the web for is volleyball related:

http://www.madmanvolleyball.com/id2.html
http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/apr/27/nemesis-wins-u-15-challenge-cup-title/
http://www.underdogportland.com/Schedule.asp?leaguechoice=1274
http://www.excelnwvolleyball.com/mobile/18-black-d1.html
http://www.avpnext.com/tournament.aspx?id=1011

Everything about me has to do with playing volleyball or coaching volleyball. I guess I found my MySpace account too but that wasn’t really that surprising.

I live a pretty tame life so there is nothing on the web that I am ashamed of or could reflect on me negatively. What is there to worry about when you’ve never drank, done any drug and refuse to dance cause you’d look stupid?

I think a teacher’s personal life is a teacher’s personal life and should be exempt from examination. Obviously the argument is that a teacher is in a position to influence children but so are the employees of companies to advertise to children. Are we examining the lives of executives that pump information into our children’s brain every day? No. Are we examining the lives of parents and friends parents that influence our children every day? No. A teacher is a citizen of the United States and should be afforded the same rights and privileges as any other citizen. Obviously it is easy to come up with extreme examples of how this philosophy could be strained but if the teacher is doing the job and doing it well I don’t care what she does in her off time.

The article we read on social networking sites wasn’t too surprising. I had been hearing about these stories for years. What I found really interesting was the court cases that had established a teacher’s rights. I was very interested to read about the balance between first amendment rights and the schools ability to run efficiently. Unfortunately I feel like this is another situation when the politics dictate policy over fairness and common sense. The politics demand that teachers be held accountable to unfair standards. I wonder if the same standards would be in place if parents had to be held to the same standards in order for them to be enacted on teachers.

For me the best way to protect my job is to be who I am. As long as I continue to lead a lifestyle that is positive then I will minimize the possibilities of being affected by negative things on the internet. There is no way to truly protect yourself if someone is out to ruin you then it is more than possible. However I will continue to lead a positive life and continue to view everything on the internet as public accessible. What more can we do?