In today’s technology-driven world, the ways in which students and teachers communicate outside of school have rapidly increased.
As expressed by faculty members in the article “Teacher throwback: then and now” on Page 8, it took a former student coming back to Glenbrook North years later as a teacher for that student-teacher relationship to vanish.
It has become somewhat common for students and teachers to use Facebook to communicate outside of the classroom. However, communication through Facebook reduces the necessary professionalism in a healthy student-teacher relationship and, therefore, students and teachers should not be Facebook friends.
While Facebook can be used as a tool for communication, posts and photos give students an inappropriate glimpse into the private lives of teachers. In doing so, students’ perceptions of teachers’ professionalism is lost. Should students and teachers need to communicate with one another outside of the classroom, emails can accomplish all that Facebook can without opening the door to the viewing of each others’ social media activity.
Once a Facebook friendship is established, teachers can also delve into the social behavior of students. Teachers have no place putting themselves in the position where they have access to view posts of their students, regardless of whether the online persona of students includes good or bad behaviors. Should teachers have access to viewing the personal lives of students, the social perception teachers may have of a student might spill into the classroom and damage the learning environment.
Some may argue that a Facebook friendship between a student and teacher can be beneficial when limited to academic purposes, but the countless social features on Facebook don’t solely restrict teachers and students to viewing academic material on each others’ profiles.
Though it has become common for coaches, sponsors and advisors to give students their cell phone numbers to contact for quick communication, cell phones do not provide students and teachers with the ability to view each other’s private lives through posts, comments and photos uploaded online. Unlike Facebook, cell phone communication between students and teachers does not give students and teachers unwarranted exposure into each others’ personal lives.
A strong student-teacher relationship is necessary for successful academic learning. Facebook friendships between students and teachers are unnecessary and breach the mentor-mentee boundaries that are created in classrooms.
Facebook may be a relevant social communication tool, but that does not mean it must cross paths with student-teacher relations.