As I ambled through a staffroom recently, I overheard a teacher tell another that Reddit was one possible site to visit for school and classroom ideas. I made a mental note to check it out.
That wasn’t a great idea.
I found an entire thread dedicated to me. While it’s true that I uncovered the odd positive comment, much was vociferous and mean. Amongst the accusations with their ‘authors’ were:
“Absolute snake oil salesman” (idlehanz88)
“Just another puddle in terms of depth of anything he has to offer” (ungerbunger_)
“1 out of 10 stars” (bananaflax)
“Universally hated among actual teaching staff” (b3dl4)
“A charlatan selling a panacea to stressed principals” (kitheraran)
“Like all these wankers, he thinks he’s god’s gift to teaching” (deleted)
Momentarily, this hit me pretty hard. I know I try pretty hard to help all schools and, on the other hand, I know it’s not possible that everyone will experience my work positively. I’m also self-aware enough to know that I’m a bit of a people pleaser and more sensitive to verbal barbs than my 194cm frame suggests.
After I recovered my senses, I remembered that I have some feedback trustworthiness criteria. My friend Georgia Murch, who happens to be Australia’s leading feedback expert, has helped me shape these criteria. They are:
- The person providing the feedback needs to be known to me and knowledgeable about my best work.
- The feedback needs to be kind and honest. This rules out both overly mean AND overly nice feedback.
- I have to be able to do something with the feedback.
None of the Reddit comments meet a single criteria, let alone all three. And so, I’m duty bound to tuck my bottom lip back in and get on with the job.
I’ve resolved to not take my future feedback from Reddit, not because I’m a sook or because I’m frightened of criticism. It’s just not feedback I can trust.
It might be worth considering where you get your feedback and how it qualifies as worthy of your consideration…. before you consider it.
Keep fighting that good fight,
P.S. Our new School Culture Partnerships webpage went live this week. If you reckon yours would like to join the other 285 schools collaborating with us … have a gawk here.
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