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I'm puzzled as to why that's odd. Are teachers not supposed to like classic rock music?
I have noticed, in the few years I've worked with public-elementary-school students, that teachers don't comment on the students' clothing. I wonder if that's in the job description or the training...
Posts: 1785 | Registered: May 1999
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It isn't odd in itself, it is just that it feels odd to have a teacher get into a conversation about your shirt.
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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Doesn't seem odd to me. Everytime I see a person with a shirt of a band I like I talk to them, even though I am shy. On a train some girl was wearing the exact same Dir en grey shirt I was wering.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Jon, not to go all geezer on you, but that probably brought back great memories for your teacher.
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I had a psychology professor in college who was lecturing about peer pressure in the media ask why I was wearing a Hard Rock Cafe shirt. I told him it was the only thing clean and I had to do laundry after class.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Shortly after my sophomore year of college, I came into a small video store in my hometown to encounter my favorite middle-school English teacher. He was renting porn.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:Shortly after my sophomore year of college, I came into a small video store in my hometown to encounter my favorite middle-school English teacher. He was renting porn.
That would be disturbing.
quote:I have noticed, in the few years I've worked with public-elementary-school students, that teachers don't comment on the students' clothing. I wonder if that's in the job description or the training...
There's a lot of focus now on not getting too personal with students...fallout of the lawsuits over inappropriate behavior with students I guess. We're not supposed to touch or hug students, for example - that's especially emphasized in those of us going into secondary education. That's going to be tough for me because the youth I work with at church always come up to me and hug me, and I'm a physical-contact kind of person, I hug friends when I see them after a while, and such. But, I understand the need for a professional distance to be maintained.
My daughter who is a high school freshman has a computer applications teacher who constantly talks about what the girls are wearing and asks where she can buy it, etc. It annoys my daughter. She says she wants the woman to be a teacher and teach her about computers, not be a shopping buddy.
I think it's difficult for teachers now, you want to be a positive influence and want the students to be comfortable around you, but your role is teacher, not friend. Some go too far in the direction like my daughter's teacher, and then you can be too far in the other direction and be completely unapproachable. You have to find that happy medium and it can be tough.
In fact, if any teachers here have any suggestions as to how they do it, I'd love to hear them.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I think it's actually pretty easy, or at least it's grown easy for me over the years. I genuinely like kids and find them interesting, but I also have no interest in being friends (or being 13 again, or being part of their culture). I think I project a pretty strong message of "I really like you! But I'm not like you...I'm a grownup." So I might compliment kids on something they're wearing, but I wouldn't be interested in knowing where to get it. (With the possible, though unlikely, exception of purses & shoes.)
It's probably also easy for me because I'm *not* a hugger. When I did youth group with my husband, the kids always hung all over him, while I was usually more distant. (And, btw, I always found youth group boundaries much more difficult to negotiate than I do school boundaries.)
Back to the OP--it's like when my students are like, "You've heard of the Simpsons?!?!?!? You actually watch it?" Uh, yeah...since it started when I was 15...
Or even better, a couple of years ago my 7th grade girls were all, "oooooohhhh Johnny Depp is soooooo hott!" Yes, he was hot when I was in 7th grade too.
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Yes, he was hot when I was in 7th grade too.
