I had to message my daughter’s old dance teacher today to let her know we were switching up the classes a little bit. I never really had a problem with having her on my Facebook friends list, even when my daughter was in her class, but dance was only for an hour a week, I was there the whole time, and there were no parent-teacher conferences where I had to hear about everything my daughter was doing right—and wrong.
Would I put my daughter’s kindergarten teacher on my friends list if I got a request? I don’t know.
It’s not like I’m posting anything outlandish on there that would make us look bad (I hope), but I like to retain a degree of privacy and avoid offering up the opportunity for something I said to be misconstrued and then used to affect the teacher’s opinion of my daughter and my family. We’ll email each other if there’s something that needs to be discussed between conferences, but Facebook feels a bit too personal.
Going the opposite direction, what if I saw something on her teacher’s page that I took the wrong way? I really like her teacher now, and I’m sure I’d like her if I really got to know her better.
Since we don’t really know each other as friends, though, what would happen if she added a status update that made me like her less, possibly because I didn’t know the full background behind what she said?
I don’t feel the need to know all about her personal life. Lots of people vent about their jobs, but what would a parent think if they saw their child’s teacher doing it because she forgot to customize who could see that particular update? I get it, but I still wouldn’t be too thrilled.
What do you think? Is friending a teacher too personal or is it a good way to really get to know the person in charge of your kid for so many hours per week?
Photo credit: Fiduz
