Head2Head - Teachers should NOT be Facebook friends with students

Written by: Kaylee Heinz '12

Millions of Americans log in to Facebook.com everyday. Many of these people are students and teachers who want to connect to friends and other people they may know. The question is though, should teachers and students be friends on Facebook?

There are students who would like to friend their teacher and don’t really think anything of it. However, we have all seen the news stories where inappropriate relationships between teachers and students can ignite because of Facebook. In my opinion I do not think it is suitable to be Facebook friends. I think there is a fine line between your professional and personal life and that should never be crossed.

With teachers and students being friends on Facebook it may become very easy to cross this line. On facebook, you get to see everything, and I mean everything! When you click on someone’s wall you can find out almost anything you want to know about someone. This isn’t healthy for teacher/student relationships because a student usually identifies a teacher in terms of their teaching abilities, teaching skills, tolerance, patience and numbers of other positive characteristics. But on Facebook, the student could see photos of a teacher partying and having a good time. After seeing something like that, the student could have a very different opinion of teacher and may not take them as seriously.

I do not believe that teachers should be friends with their students on Facebook on a personal note. Instead, I would recommend an account or group especially created for a certain class or subject. This account should be limited and only serve certain purposes that involve understanding class material. I think that teachers should allow students to post questions about material, post pictures of class trips or pictures, homework requirements for the week, deadlines and etc.

There has to be a line drawn between teachers and students being friends on Facebook. I don't think teachers should be friends with their current students until they graduate high school, unless they are friends on a classroom Facebook page, and not a personal page. Before requesting a past student on Facebook, give would give it some time after graduating. This will give the student time to get some plans in line for their future and to hopefully start college.

When it comes to teachers being friends with students of Facebook, I believe it is unacceptable.