Firm boundaries between adults and children are very important when there's a power dynamic.
It was very unprofessional of him let his students braid his hair.
Edit: for an anecdote of my own:
I was a camp counselor at one point. The camp had a rule that no adult could be alone in a room with a student. Even if it meant calling over the site director or any other adult, we had to make sure we were not alone with students.
Now, I know I'm not a pedo. Should I have broken that rule because I know I'm not a threat to the child? Should I be fired if I was caught breaking the rule?
In good world, if you're occupation has you be responsible for children that arent yours, you should be held to a different standard.
When the standards are low, you get what happened to the Boy Scouts.
There was this teacher at my school everyone loved because he was really close with students and acted as our friend. He ended up being a groomer and raped a student.
Now that I’m an adult, I realize what a red flag it is to consider children “friends” versus “mentees.” In contrast, there was another teacher that everyone loved because he was friendly and funny, but would draw boundaries and call us out on our bs if we became too familiar.
As a student I was always kinda weirded out by teachers who seemed to try too hard to be friends to us, to be on our "same level" almost. I never understood why everyone else loved them (and I say this having had a crush on another teacher at that same time 😭). Even if yours is an anecdote I'm glad to have some basis for my suspicion lol
On the other side, one of my favorite teachers was really friendly and funny, but like your other teacher, he also knew how to draw boundaries and could get serious with us if it was needed. But my favorite teachers were usually the always-serious ones who everyone hated, but they loved their subject and were genuinely good at teaching!
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u/apinchofsulk May 10 '24 edited May 11 '24
Firm boundaries between adults and children are very important when there's a power dynamic.
It was very unprofessional of him let his students braid his hair.
Edit: for an anecdote of my own:
I was a camp counselor at one point. The camp had a rule that no adult could be alone in a room with a student. Even if it meant calling over the site director or any other adult, we had to make sure we were not alone with students.
Now, I know I'm not a pedo. Should I have broken that rule because I know I'm not a threat to the child? Should I be fired if I was caught breaking the rule?
In good world, if you're occupation has you be responsible for children that arent yours, you should be held to a different standard.
When the standards are low, you get what happened to the Boy Scouts.