I just finished a week of training in Ohio for a class I will be teaching this next school year. I joined 17 other teachers under the instruction of two other educators who had extensive experience with curriculum. This post is not at all about the training itself, but one element of the experience that I still find troubling, an issue that has been troubling me all year.
Near the beginning of the last school year I had a blog post voicing some frustration over the near paranoia that schools are experiencing with teachers having contact with students outside of the classroom. In our district we had been directed to disconnect from our students and former students as much as possible. We were told not to initiate phone calls or texts with students (whether past or present). If we responded to a text message to a student we were instructed to include our principal in the exchange. If we answered or returned a phone call from a student, we were told to notify our principal. Of course giving rides to students was forbidden as well. And lastly, we must "unfriend" students on Facebook and deny requests to be their friends.
There is a degree of reasonableness to all of this, I understand. Ultimately, the district is trying to protect teachers, students and itself, from inappropriate associations. I get that. But I changed jobs 8 years ago so I could live in the same community where I taught. I was tired of only seeing my students during the school day and not being able to connect with them outside of class. Living where I teach provides me the opportunity to know my students (and former students) as friends, as neighbors, as participants in the youth group in our church. Living where I teach has allowed me to teach the friends of my children, to see my students in the grocery store and around town at a wide variety of events. It has allowed me to attend sporting events and concerts of students. It has given me the chance to be a part of special events alongside my students and I have even been able to do short term mission trips with my students. In short, living in the same community where I teach allows me to know students and former students outside of the classroom and it allows them to know me.
But here is the problem...
While at training this week, I was reminded of why school administrators may not want students to know their teachers outside of the classroom. Teachers are often different people when they are not in the confines of a school. I was appalled this last week at the language that was deemed acceptable during our training. Vulgarity and profanity were common and only once did I hear an instructor make any attempt to stifle it (and it was a very weak attempt). Instead instructors often found the language humorous and, apparently, appropriate for our situation. Throughout the time there were also references to drinking and inappropriate sexual conduct that received more than a fair share of laughs. While this language did not dominate each day, it was, nonetheless, common and accepted. I can't imagine any of the teachers allowing that to occur in their classrooms with their students, but for some reason, in a class of "adults" the language is allowed to change. I did not participate in evening meals out (I was a late addition to the class and spent my evenings trying to get caught up), but, from conversations about previous evenings, it was clear that drinking was a part of the nightly fare. I can't speak to excessive drinking, but joking comments about getting drunk and being drunk were made. Whether those were completely in jest, or not, I can't say.
My point to all of this is to simply say that after the training was finished, I was sadly reminded of why such seeming paranoia can overcome a district. Do I want my son or daughter to see their teacher drunk or even drinking? Do I want them to hear their teacher tell dirty jokes? Do I want them to view the teachers' filthy language or questionable pictures on Facebook? Do I want my kids to see that teachers have different expectations of their students than they are willing to conform to themselves? Some might not see a problem in all of that, after all, they are just being "real" and students should be okay seeing that. But if being "real" is acceptable out of the classroom, why isn't being "real" acceptable in the classroom?
I got into teaching because I wanted to have a positive influence on the students I taught, but I never believed that the influence should only be isolated to the classroom. I have always wanted my students to see me as a man of integrity (not just a teacher of integrity), both in and out of the classroom. If they see me in the grocery store, I want them to know that what they see in me and what they hear from me, will be consistent with what they see and hear in the classroom. When my son or daughter's friends come to our home, I don't want them to be surprised by what they see and hear, I want them to be reassured that I am still the same. When the neighbors see me in the yard or walking my dog, I want them to see the same person that they would see at my school.
A teacher once told me how nice it was to live out of town from the school where he taught, so he could just be himself without fear of his students observing him. My heart sunk when I heard that said out loud, even though I had actually observed it lived out for many years. I cringe when teachers find such a double life not only acceptable, but normal and even expected. Because of that, districts try to shield students from seeing the truth of teachers' double lives. Because personal integrity (in and out of the classroom) and moral consistency are no longer expectations of teachers, or even in society as a whole, we must put up barriers to shield our students from seeing beyond the school day. What a sad statement about where education has gone.
It is no longer the expectation that a teacher or a coach or an advisor should be a role model for students. Instead we expect that the job of a teacher or a coach, is only about the subject that they teach. It is about communicating the right information, about passing tests and winning games. Sadly, the job of a teacher or a coach no longer has a moral calling, it has become just another job and students must look elsewhere for role models.
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