Teachers and Social Networking

It's hard for me to relate to how some people can be so indiscrete about posting compromising information on social networking sites. It may be because I am more private and reserved than most, but glorifying excessive partying and outlandish behavior in my generation and social groups was not an admired practice. I find it interesting that people don’t seem to realize the public nature of the internet, especially social networking and the ability of Google and other search engines to expose details of people’s lives better kept private.

I always felt I wanted to keep my options open for future opportunities, such as holding political office, becoming an FBI agent, or any number of other career paths. Working for the US Postal Service, which has a Code of Conduct very similar to the Teachers Standards regarding conduct, has also tended to temper my behavior and flaunting of behaviors I am not proud of. Discreteness is important to me; I dislike public displays of conflict and would never even discipline my children in public.

Today’s Oregonian has an advice column article written about a teacher who has allowed her high school students to be “friends” on her MySpace page. This teacher tells about the drinking and sexual escapades these children document on their sites and what a different culture they express in that they advertise and glorify such behavior. As a teacher, we are asking to be leaders, and as such, we sacrifice some personal liberties and freedoms. We have put ourselves up on pedestals and have invited public scrutiny. That scrutiny tends to be quite conservative and in many cases, hypocritical in that the same people that criticize usually have skeletons of their own in their closets. Nevertheless, this is a choice we make when we assume roles as educators, the same as when one asks to be a manager, politician, policeman, or many other similar leadership positions.

I think this teacher has put herself in a difficult position because she will feel a compulsion to address these illegal, immoral, or inappropriate behaviors with her students. The students are likely to react as if a trust has been betrayed; they aren’t likely to take their teacher’s advice and change their behavior based on her displeasure or reprimand. This teacher should instead remember children need moral guidance and character building instruction and try to incorporate these values into her daily instruction at appropriate opportunities. By telling stories, giving examples, and espousing the importance of making informed and mature life decisions, she should help her students learn to make good decisions so they will take these skills forward into their adult lives.