I just had an argument with my sister that solved absolutely nothing.
You know those days where you just want to fight with someone? Apparently today was that day for me. I'm blindingly pissed off, for no real reason. Well, I have a reason.
I feel like some people close to me are subtly telling me they disapprove of my choice to become a teacher. First it was my mother, who just doesn't get it, I don't think. She doesn't see the validity of student teaching. It's a class, so she has to pay for it. But she doesn't want to pay for it. She calls it a rip off and a blatant abuse of power by colleges everywhere. Just another ploy to squeeze money out of every person who comes through their doors as dewey-eyed freshmen and leave abused and disillusioned. In her mind, that's what it is. In mine, student teaching is a rite of passage, and a noble one at that. It's a point of pride that I get to student teach, and Mom is bitching about paying for it. It's the last fucking thing I have to do before I become a real teacher and start doing what I've wanted to do since I was in 3rd grade. Just shut up and do it. Please.
And now it's my sister, who says that my ethics training is bullshit. I've been learning about the line all teachers have to be aware of. You know, the one between them and students. There is quite clearly a line, and that line says this, "TEACHERS CANNOT BE FRIENDS WITH THEIR STUDENTS." Guess what? It's unethical and confusing to students, who will then see those teachers as not authority figures, but glorified teenagers like themselves. And then those teachers will lost their ability to teach those students. The line will be blurred, and then everything gets confusing. Teachers are guardians of their students while they're in school. Not friends, not people to get romantically involved with. Guardians responsible for their well-being. So excuse the fuck out of me for saying that a teacher who blurs this line needs to be reported. News flash: THAT'S WHAT I, AS A TEACHER, AM SUPPOSED TO DO. Oops, did you not learn that? That's right, you aren't learning diddly shit because you don't know what the fuck you want to do.
God, that pisses me off. Just because she likes this stupid ass teacher, I've crossed a line by saying that the relationship she has with two or more of her current students is inappropriate, because it is, my training is worthless. Fuck you, I've worked hard for this shit. I know what I'm talking about, and that teacher knows what she's doing is wrong. Why else would she ask her students to keep it a secret? Students don't go out to dinner with their teachers, no matter how cool they are. They don't then go to that teacher's house to visit. Definitely against the rules. And I love the two students I'm talking about. They're smart kids, and I know nothing untoward is happening. Hopefully, anyway. But they are not only endangering themselves by having an inappropriate relationship with a teacher. They are endangering that teacher as well. This can only end in disaster. Eventually someone will find out, and they'll tell others, and bad things will happen. That teacher can lose her job. Those students can get in serious trouble, and their grades can be brought into question. They could fail that class, possibly have to repeat a grade. And with them so close to graduation, I don't want to see that happen.
My anger is borne out of a concern for everyone invovled. Not because I have an axe to grind with that teacher, who isn't my favorite, I admit. I don't think she should be a teacher because of her tendency to develop inappropriate relationships with her students. This isn't the first time she's done this, and it won't be the last. Students are not potential friends. They are students, and teachers have to treat them as such.
So don't tell me my ethics training is bullshit. Go to college for four years, work as hard as I have, and then tell me my ethics training is bullshit if you still disagree. Until you've poured your sweat and tears into a degree and a dream the way I have, you don't get to tell me I'm full of shit.
Well, I feel better. I'm going to play some more Sudoku.
Ta, loves.
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