The ratemyteachers website is the internet equivalent of the graffiti at the back of the class. Read it and weep, writes Dublin teacher Mary Hosty

In the early days of my teaching career, I fell into one of the many traps that await the inexperienced or unwary teacher. I would spontaneously combust with enthusiasm every time I entered a classroom.

Each night I prepared with meticulous care a lesson that would dazzle with its brilliance and which couldn't fail to ignite the interest and enthusiasm of my students.

One day, as I straightened the desks after a particularly dazzling class on the poetry of TS Eliot, I found - carved out in rough straggly gouges by something like a Beckett penknife - five truly horrifying words: Hosty is a narky bitch!

The words stung hideously. "And after all I've done for them!" I instantly wailed to a sympathetic colleague. I could barely face that class the next day and spent a good few lessons trying to identify the treacherous individual who had done the carving. I never found out. But I learned a few valuable if obvious lessons:

Teaching is not about teachers, but about students

A balanced and reflective approach to the needs and demands of students is very important - both for the pupil and for the teacher.

Never seek out any surface where a student has the opportunity to scribble anonymous graffiti about oneself.

Which leads me to the whole business of ratemyteachers.ie.

It is, in my view, the internet equivalent of the desk at the back of the classroom. In time it is to be hoped that everyone who has expressed an interest in or opinion on the subject - students, past pupils, colleagues, friends, acquaintances, parents of students, rival schools, old boyfriends/girlfriends and the media will simply lose interest in this site and move on. But don't bet on it.

For me, the huge popularity of this site raises a number of important issues. Deceased, seriously ill and long-retired members of the teaching profession have been listed on the site. Clearly, some past pupils are logging on - and not all of them hastening to sing the praises of their old teachers.

It would appear that the law is currently ill equipped to deal with this kind of unchecked public comment on the internet. And whereas a classroom desk or a toilet door can be replaced, a cruel comment may hover on the internet for years - with no form of redress for its victims.

Here's a confession. I held opinions of my teachers when I was 17, which I would have been embarrassed about when I reached 26, and horrified to even think about now. I think I may have hated every one of them at some brief point and it was only when I was many years out of school that I was able to recognise how kind and patient and inspiring many of them were. I would not like those half-formed views to be carved forever on the internet.

The website also raises the question of evaluation of our educational services. Of course students should have the opportunity to evaluate in some way the quality of service provided.

But anonymous evaluation by students alone may fail to take into account all relevant factors when striving to give a fair and balanced analysis of individual teachers. For example, some of the following issues might be overlooked:

• Course content and structure

• Provision and division of educational resources

• Social, cultural, economic and other factors relating to student background

• Timetable and the physical environment of the school

• Level of commitment of fellow classmates

• The complexity and significance of adolescence itself as a factor in the student's own vision of the world and his growth towards maturity.

Only if factors such as the above were taken into consideration, could the rating of any teacher be considered as applicable in any meaningful way.

Many versions of this website exist in the business world - chat rooms where disgruntled employees have a forum to express views on their bosses. It is often the disgruntled who air views anonymously. The gruntled (if we can call them that) use other, more open, methods of tackling grievances.

But teachers - we just weren't trained for it. We don't have agents and managers and Max Cliffords coaching us on how to deal with waves of "unsolicited and unnecessary internet comment".

There is no module in the H Dip detailing exactly how one should respond to anonymous 12-year-olds who have taken it upon themselves to rate our clarity, easiness and general helpfulness - and posting it not just to their classmates but to everyone on the internet.

It is something new to us and we need to take a step back and see it for what it really is. It is graffiti - completely anonymous, furtive and not always fair.

But there is an escape route. My advice? Log on to www.ratemyteachers.ie now using a Hotmail account and give yourself a great big anonymous virtual slap on the back.

Give yourself 10 out of 10 for clarity, helpfulness, easiness, knowledge of subject, colour of eyes, physique, age, sense of humour, dress sense, general physique, colour of highlights, choice of perfume, repertoire of jokes, tone of voice, ability to function as a stand up comic. These are the criteria on which teachers are often rated.

Show solidarity. Remaining on the site, give every one of your colleagues - yes, even the one you had that stand-up row with at the photocopier last week - a great big 10 in every category you can think of.

Consult your local webmaster. He may very well be a student in your school, possibly even your local moderator of the ratemyteachers website. Ask him to design a website called www.ratemystudents.ie. Pay him ludicrous amounts of money so that he will construct it to your exact requirements. Get on that brand new website and give every one of your students a great big 10 across the board while adding in some of your own random categories.

I trust you get the general idea. As for me - I still remember the graffiti on that desk all those years ago. Nowadays, if I see one that looks like it might have my name in it, I walk away and do my level best to ignore it. Teachers - try doing the same with this awful website.

Mary Hosty is a guidance counsellor at Greenhills College, Walkinstown, Dublin