I have finally found America’s worst website

Well, after years of often pointlessly scanning what must amount to thousands of websites, I think I might have finally stumbled upon the most worthless one of all. Not only is its content truly banal, but I think its very existence is indicative of both the decline of our education system and the degree to which parents have abrogated their responsibilities. "What is this dreadful site?" you might well ask. Some pornographic imagery site? Some English-to-Latin swearword converter? Some infantile chatroom (redundant) where you can use 'like' as every other word? Some war game simulator where you can slaughter innocent zombies as they ply their merry way through Armageddon? No, those would be relatively benign when compared to:

www.ratemyteachers.com

Before I proceed to denigrate the site in some detail, let me just refresh your memories of my, now ancient, Geezer Geek education with a few bullet points:

• All I ever knew about any of my teachers was their surname and the prefix "Mister"
• Every one of my teachers wore a black, master's gown and the whole class stood up when he entered the room
• No one dared speak in class and corporal punishment was accepted by all
• You ONLY passed your exams if you got the right answers, NOT just because you "tried hard"
• No calculator and ALL written work was done in ink with a fountain pen ... etc. etc. etc.

Well, now let's take a look at what the pampered little darlings of today's education system get to do in their overly generous spare time ... they get to RATE THEIR TEACHERS! As if any sane person could give a damn about what some idiot teenager thinks about the person whose job it is to make them LEARN. Here's how the site works - ANY idiot student can select any teacher at their school and rate them 1-5 in 'Easiness', 'Helpfulness' and 'Clarity'. This then results in an overall 'Popularity' rating.

Oh dear lord, what have we created in our school system?

Easiness? EASINESS?? ... Learning is supposed to challenge you to excel, NOT encourage you to drift through because it is easy. How are you going to survive in the real world, and what makes any student think that their biased, unobjective view of a teacher is worth even the pixels on which it is displayed?

What is even more appalling is the idiot student can then enter a comment ANONYMOUSLY and say anything they like about the teacher. Let us take a look at some of these inspired, intelligent comments, with my cynical responses in parentheses:

• i dont like her too much!!! she is very very strict!!! and her quizzes are like tests!!! - (Well, what a shame you have to study, and perhaps you could work on your spelling and grammar)
• u r the best ms b me and cody think ur the coolest - (hmmm, where to start on this one?)
• i had her last year, and she wasnt all that! - (and neither are you 'all that', my ignorant little friend)
• She is not stickt at all. - (Perhaps she could be a little more 'stickt' next year)
• shes my boyfrends mom and my bro had her and said she was cool - (Cool? Cool?? Cool???)

And the list goes on and on and on. In almost every case, the English is atrocious, the spellings are those of a 3-year-old, the comments are at best worthless and at worst defamatory and insulting to people who give their every waking hour to attempting to educate the next generation.

Thinking of the old Klingon proverb "Revenge is a dish best served cold", and the fact that www.ratemystudents.com is available for purchase, perhaps we geezers should pool our resources, acquire the site and donate it to the Association of American Educators. I wonder what comments THEY might have!

Glyn Meek, with 40 years of experience in the technology industry, has earned his curmudgeonly outlook.