To Know You is To...

A few months ago at a "parent-teacher meeting," when I was speaking to a student's mother, she admitted that she knows who I am. She reads my blogs. At first I was flattered, then

Gevalt!

I had better be more careful. Do I really want to let down on my "image?" I teach high school boys, who don't read English, unless they're forced to. The chances of their looking at my blogs are rather slim. But I have to be careful about my bosses and the students' parents or anyone who can put two and two together.

It isn't quite the same situation as described in a New York Times article, which concentrates on how some professors are using facebook to appear more human to their students.

Maybe I'm of a different generation. Some of our authority is derived from "mystery." Being a teacher is sort of being inhuman. Students shouldn't think of us as throwing out the garbage, having imperfect children, etc.

I don't know what the law is now, but when I was a kid in New York City, teachers couldn't teach in the district they lived.

But about the article, I can't get something out of my mind. It brings back what I heard about a college a few decades ago. A number of young female undergraduates began dating some of their teachers. In those days, "living together" was less accepted, and there may have been rules against staff-student relationships. A number of these couples married, but the marriages didn't last. The girls got divorces along with their diplomas.

I don't see why university students must see more than a "family picture on the professor's desk." Professor-student socializing shouldn't be the norm. I have a feeling that is the aim of some...

Cll me old-fashioned, but I think it's inappropriate.