Professionalism
Submitted by Oliver on May 26 2000 01:29:35
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I made this post on another forum, but I'd like your opinion as well. It concerns a discussion I was having with one of my female friends today. Normally I wouldn't be bothered so much by this, but it cut my shirtless bikeride in half today; I felt self-consious and that is something that hasn't happened in a while. To use an example, if I were to take my YF to a WWF match and then be seen on TV, very likely I would have a phone call or two by parents of my students or a meeting with my administrator to discuss the inappropriate activity I engage in outside school. Yes, I know it is no one's buisness of my off-the-job activity, but there's the paranoid society we live in that probes the teacher, especially male, of any activity that might appear questionable or outside the professional image of a teacher. I could make the same arguement about a female teacher clubbing. No, I don't have a problem with it, but if one person does, it becomes the center issue. My friend made the suggestion that, as a teacher, it is outside the professional bounds of my relationship with a student to attend such activities as thier baseball games, paino recitals, birthday partys, etc. To do so makes me more the child's "friend" than teacher. I had always thought of supporting a child in an extra curricular activity was an honorable means of gaining the child's trust. I've always enjoyed the privalege to enjoy my students' accomplishments even outside the academics. Am I in the wrong for such a mindset? How do those of you who have kids or who are teachers feel about a teacher comming to his students' sporting events or even birthday parties. Is there a difference between these two? My personal opinion is as it always has been, those who have nothing better to do than to witchhunt me for caring for my student are the ones with the problem, not me. However, that student is also the child of the parent with the issue, and nowdays it is risky to accept an invitation from a child to attend his/her b-day party. I wish it weren't; yes it is stupid, but it is the unfortunate reality we live in. I look to Christ as my example, who went out to the people to preach and teach; he met them on thier territory to witness. Church does that as well in the form of missions, but there is still the sactuary of God's House where people come to worship. I see the classroom as my "house of learning" but who am I to do differently than Jesus did and meet my students in thier territory too. Please post your thoughts. I'd like to hear your take on this issue too. Blessings, Oliver |
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