Jerry Herron, professor of contemporary American culture, commented about the popularity of student Web sites such as www.ratemyteachers.com. The Web site, which allows students and parents to anonymously sound off about teachers and administrators, has gained a huge following -- and as many detractors. School districts across the country and around the world -- about 750 of them in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom -- have barred students from using the site while on school grounds, including many in metro Detroit, including Novi, St. Clair Shores, Troy, Wayne-Westland and Chippewa Valley. Such sites feed the American obsession with ratings and contests, Herron said. He doesn\'t consider that a negative. \"These are signs of a healthy democratic impulse that doesn\'t get expressed in the usual way -- voting and running for office,\" Herron said. \"And they tend not to be forums for the cranky and disaffected looking for commiseration.\"