More Teachers are Going to Prison: How Teachers & Staff are Violating Their Boundaries with Students in 3 Phases

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash — This is what “boundary violation” looks like. Over time, we wear the wires down, weakening student and teacher defenses.

Ah, boundaries.

Those magnificent, invisible lines are made to separate adults from children to help both parties understand their place in society.

Yet, more would-be grown-ups should be able to express them appropriately.

Over the decades, we have had an influx of staff ranging from gym teachers to librarians be habitual line steppers creating a world of confusion for themselves and the students.

Many want to relive (or newly live) a second childhood to capture lightning in a bottle they supposedly missed during their early education.

The rabbit hole gets deep, my friends. And it’s time we jumped down it.

The Surface Level — Allowing Students to Call Teachers by Their First Name.

To many, this may seem petty, but I’ve seen firsthand how dramatically shifts student-teacher dynamics over time.

For numerous reasons, campus cultures have hopped on this first-name basis bandwagon with their students.

It is silly and dangerous for campuses to allow this in the name of equality and self-expression among staff and students.

Yet this is merely a gateway drug leading to young pupils overstepping their bounds, a fruitless pursuit of immature respectability.

These consenting adults fail to realize that such an allowance completely dissolves the authoritative respect between students and teachers.

The acknowledgment of Mr. and Mrs. accompanied by the last name is the first line of defense in establishing the barrier between these individuals. These titles serve as a mental reminder to the students who they are and who you are.

Early childhood and now secondary students today lack the emotional maturity to separate times of seriousness with times of leisure when on campus. As educators, it’s our job to set this in stone.

Again, this isn’t to say that you will transform into a heartless tinman with no personality. Yet, we’re responsible for spelling out times of…