The classroom bully

"But what happens when a student's brain has a few ideas in it already and is not simply waiting to be filled with every opinion the teacher has? Well, if the teacher is the exact opposite of the "To Sir, With Love" type, she can try humiliating the student in class. And in the old days, that probably would have worked, because high school pretty much was a student's whole world and such an incident would have seemed like the end of it.

But a teenager with a blog is a teenager whose world has already expanded..."

One of the fascinating things about blogging is that it gives everyone on the planet a potentially enormous voice. Take for example the ongoing saga of Cecile duBois, the nom de blog of a 14 year-old blogger who was blasted by her teacher for having an opinion. Unfortunately for the teacher, Cecile's mother also blogs. Still more unfortunately for the teacher, Instapundit and several other heavy hitters in the blogosphere picked up on the story of the blog-empowered student who fought back. So, beware all you classroom bullies (who are frequently the large person at the front of the class): 50,000 people may be reading about your small mind before the end of the day.