ARTICLE
Oct 9, 2007 - From the Chronicle of Higher Education, a column by Ms. Mentor.
A reader writes,
Is it weird and cheesy for professors to be on Facebook, sending social notes to their students after a long day at school?Ms. Mentor reply:
My colleague ("Brando"), in his mid-50s, has a Facebook site connected to the 60-plus students we see every day in our very intense program. I wonder how Brando has time to "play" with students like this on the Net. Is this a newfangled ploy to establish popularity and "coolness"?
I struggle to make students understand that I'm not instantly available by e-mail. Brando's site undermines my efforts, and students haven't a clue as to how sad this really is. In our big university (8,000), he is the only faculty member on Facebook.
Even the youngest instructors, those fresh-faced 25-year-old prodigies, are officially grown-ups.TT - This passes for profoundness in mentoring. If Ms. Mentor cared, she take the time to find out just how many teachers have become involved with their students through social networking sites and those e-mail exchanges. Not to mention the cell phone or IM exchanges.
They must cast off childish things, and hang out with their elders.
That does not mean Facebook.com, a cheerful, teenagey venue in which students create groups ("Metaphysicians Who Barbecue"), post photos, and leave greetings on each other's "walls."
Ms. Mentor does wonder why Brando, some 35 years older, is hanging around in that adolescent playground. Ms. Mentor thinks he should be playing with people his own age, rather than appearing to be desperately lonely or in need of some illicit lovin' that could wreck his career and derail the aspirations of students. Since his colleague Carla cannot stop his "weird and cheesy" behavior, Ms. Mentor will direct him bluntly: Knock it off. Now.
A teacher isn't a friend. He or she isn't a confidant. They are not substitute parents. And, in particular, they are not playmates. There is no need for a teacher to give a student their e-mail address or cell phone number. Or invite a student to their home. The problem is that many teachers come from the university culture that includes non-stop partying and loads of uncommitted sex. The real world, by comparison, is boring.
Like our Peter Pan press that never wants to grow up, the fun-addicted student, coupled with a culture that prizes youth over wisdom, hipness over thoughtfulness, results in a Peter Pan teacher - whether 26 or 50 - who looks for excitement in the workplace. And it isn't with other adults who are more responsible.
The only reason a teacher would have a MySpace or a Facebook page that was accessible to students is because they crave adulation from the easy to impress or friendship from children. And that makes them poor role models right there because they are not teaching their students appropriate boundaries.
It isn't weird or cheesy. It's pathetic and dangerous.
