Sample of an Essay on Education

Should school teachers and personnel be allowed to socialize with students after school?

The principal goal of teachers is giving knowledge to their students, teaching them subjects, and preparing them for adult life in the long run. However , sometimes teacher-student interaction is not limited by the class room setting. Ergo, social media or face-to-face meetings provide a lot of opportunities for students and staff members to socialize on an educational and social basis. But there are opponents of such dual relationships who insist that they might undermine appropriate relationships. Over all, while there are a few advantages of after-school socialization, such as for example growing cohesion, continuous mentoring, and development of socialization skills in students, proper boundaries are essential to prevent teacher-student communication from undermining the educational process.

On the one hand, socialization between students and teachers or staff members plays a role in the success of the educational process, the social skills of the students, and the atmosphere in the class room. Encouragement of cooperation will generate prosocial behavior in students, which will enable them to establish contact more easily in future relations. Similarly, teachers and personnel may communicate after school while arranging the visit of some social or cultural events together whilst the extension of the curriculum activities. Obviously, teachers and staff members also possess the potential to offer advice, extra academic attention, as well as emergency aid in some particular cases. As an example, the teacher can also solve conflicts within the collective through personal interaction with students under consideration, which will prevent cases of aggression or social exclusion. As scholars note, socialization allows “building a caring relationship centered on mutual trust, so teachers are more inclined to help students, and students are more receptive to teacher observations” (Ungureanu and Stan 869). On that basis, teachers can become perfect counselors to address noneducational issues that may possibly influence students’ performance in school. Because there is already a bond between student and teacher, the little one may have more trust and feel much more comfortable to keep in touch with a teacher. At the same time, teachers who connect to students daily have more possibilities to notice any issue and help in advance or contact parents.

However, socialization might be inappropriate in certain contexts, specially if it contributes to subjective judgments that may violate the normal educational process or cross the line of student-teacher relationships. Thus, teachers should establish boundaries in after-school relations with students. Based on Anderson-Harper, such boundaries would be the “limits that allow for a safe connection” and exist in order to protect the relationship (Schneider, et al. 1). Consequently, violations of such boundaries through inappropriate or extortionate personal relationships “have the propensity to impair the teacher role, diminish the trust of the student, and end in emotional harm” (1). For instance , the Cyberbullying Research Center highlights the negative implications of personal teacher-student interaction outside of the school, particularly on social media: if your teacher adds some students on the friends list but not the others, “it could create a perception that those specific students are favored and may receive preferential treatment. ” Furthermore, close after-school personal relationships without proper check may possibly evolve in to flirtation or sexual relationships, which may have even bigger implications (Cyberbullying Research Center). Thus, staff members and teachers should know proper communication boundaries.

Over all, the communication between students and teachers or workers has positive potential because of development of social skills, an extension of curriculum activities, and the ability of teachers to supply advice, solve issues, or support the student. But it is necessary to preserve this socialization within adequate boundaries to prevent the influence of socialization on the assessment of students or transforming it in to overly personal communication.

Works Cited

Cyberbullying Research Center. “Implications for Teachers Who Socialize with Students On line, and How to prevent Them. ” Cyberbullying Research Center, 24 Mar. 2010, https://cyberbullying.org/implications-for-teachers-who-socialize-with-students-online-and-how-to-avoid-them. Accessed 17 Feb 2019.
Schneider, Eric F. et al. “Faculty Perceptions of Appropriate Faculty Behaviors in Social Interactions with Student Pharmacists. ” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, vol. 75, 4 (2011): 70.
Ungureanu, Cristina, and Andreea Stan. “Students As Actors in Teachers’ Socialization. A Sociolinguistic Study Within the Romanian Context. ” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol 76, 2013, pp. 868-872. Elsevier BV, doi: 10. 1016/j. sbspro. 2013. 04. 222. Accessed 17 Feb 2019.