You are what you type.

We all grew up knowing that you are what you eat. Everything that you put in your body makes up the magnificent, or otherwise, temple that it is. Likewise, if you are a teacher, you are what you type.

There are a group of North Carolina teachers who are in hot water right now over their Facebook status postings, pictures, and other comments. Basically, they are learning a very hard lesson--what you put out into the world will come back to you ten-fold. Did no one sit these children down and explain to them that you don't even talk about students in the check out line at the Publix, because there may be ears listening to you? Did no one sit them down and tell them to keep their mouths shut?

The answer is, apparently not. In this world of media, our personal thoughts are out there for everyone to see and read. Right now, anyone visiting my Facebook page knows that I'm contemplating the lit review that's hanging over my head. What they won't read is about the more adult activities I might wander into later on this weekend (all of which are perfectly legal, FYI--so stop imagining the worst!). Do I edit myself when I visit my page or even my friends' pages? Of course I do! I'm a public educator. The key word is public. We are public servants and we must set an example for children that is above reproach, for the most part. We do have private lives, but when you post those pictures on the Internet for everyone to see, those lives aren't private anymore.

These young people made some unfortunate decisions. They made their private lives public. They invited people to search for them and read their personal thoughts about their jobs and their lives. But the fact remains, they chose to put those things out there for all to see. I leave school frustrated every now and then (and sometimes more now than then), but I don't vent about my children on my networking sites. I don't call my school "ghetto" or the children I work with "chitlins" (as they chose to, in very poor taste). Nor do I think that these thoughts are anywhere near appropriate for public posting.

It is a hard lesson for young educators to learn. They have to leave the wide open world of college, where just about anything is okay, and come to a society that expects you to be perfect and chaste---or at the very least to not have a life outside of school at all. It is the sacrifice that we make. It isn't easy. It's why I choose to live in another town from where I teach. But it is what we must do.