I often face an uphill task when interacting casually with superiors (teachers, lecturers, tutors and teaching assistants). I believe that we should always respect and maintain a teacher-student relationship with them. However, it appears that the boundaries of such a relationship are getting blurred.
I noticed that my peers tend to treat teachers as friends. During my secondary school time, I have friends who treat teachers as close friends. They went out for meals together outside school, visited the teachers’ homes during festive seasons and discussed personal matters with the teachers. I find it hard to be like my other friends. First, I am not that sociable and second, they are my teachers.
Also, in university, there are students who playfully tease their teaching assistants. I feel that they are being disrespectful towards their teaching assistants. I feel awkward whenever I see my friends interacting so well with their teachers while I am keeping my distance.
I agree that there is nothing wrong with being friendly with teachers. If the teachers are fine with interacting more intimately with students outside classrooms, that is fine as well, as long as students and teachers know what they are doing. However, how does one maintain a student-teacher relationship in this case? Or am I too rigid in my thinking?
I noticed that my peers tend to treat teachers as friends. During my secondary school time, I have friends who treat teachers as close friends. They went out for meals together outside school, visited the teachers’ homes during festive seasons and discussed personal matters with the teachers. I find it hard to be like my other friends. First, I am not that sociable and second, they are my teachers.
Also, in university, there are students who playfully tease their teaching assistants. I feel that they are being disrespectful towards their teaching assistants. I feel awkward whenever I see my friends interacting so well with their teachers while I am keeping my distance.
I agree that there is nothing wrong with being friendly with teachers. If the teachers are fine with interacting more intimately with students outside classrooms, that is fine as well, as long as students and teachers know what they are doing. However, how does one maintain a student-teacher relationship in this case? Or am I too rigid in my thinking?
I think this issue relates with the term 'professionalism'. As teachers, they should conduct themselves professionally by portraying a well-respected image. I do not sense any violations for students to mingle with teachers. However, teachers who are too casual and intimate with students could be detrimental for both parties in the long run.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, I respect your principle of respecting teachers. Even though you claim to be a social outcast, I believe you possess your own unique personality. As a start, you can try asking lecturer or teaching assistants more questions relating to school work. Eventually, you will get comfortable conversing with them.
Most of the students and teachers behaved well in a student-teacher relationship.However, there are some instances where students crossed over the forbidden side and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteI will say in Singapore,there is still a very fine line that separates the relationship between students and teachers.
I believe that there is nothing wrong with what you are doing.You are just giving the teachers their respect.
As I observed from my teachers, sometimes when they get bored with teachings, they will say some random things or ask some gossips to spice up the relationship between them and students. Teachers are also humans anyway,you can probably treat them as someone close to you ,but as long as you show them proper respect in communication,I think it will turn out fine.Cheers!
Sometimes I do forget that teachers are humans too. They seem to be on a whole different level, intellectually at least. I do get intimidated by them sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if my question is too trivial or my thinking is too immature.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Rauf and Pinxuan for your suggestions. School work is a good start. However, I seem to talk too much about school work. There is this TA who gave us her MSN address if we need to consult her. I am still deciding whether to add it in or not. While she is a really really good TA, I do not want to bother her too much, especially if what I talk about is always school work. Ok, I must say that my life mainly revolves around work now. It is not healthy, but it is what I have to do for the moment.
Hi, Jackson.I don't think your question is too trivial because as a student, we do need to communicate with teachers or lectures.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I believe that there is no standard to draw a boundary between student and teacher.This is much depend on the personality of both sides.Some teachers need more respect while some may want to build a closer relationship with students as friends. I agree with Pinxuan that teachers are human too and it is easier to communicate with students if they are 'friends'.
one of my friend told me that she likes to make friend with lectures in polytechic as she could get more tips for exam. But I don't agree with her. I think we can be friend with teachers and of couse sometimes we may know more because of this but I just feel bad to do this intentionally.
Mee Hiong, I know exactly what you are talking about. This is exactly why I am undecided. Basically, my mind is stuck at work. So I talk mostly about work. Also, I do not want to ask too much from the tutors/TA/lecturers, which I think can happen if we are on overly good terms.
ReplyDelete