Can Teachers Be Required to Have 'Authentic Relationships' with Students?
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why mandating 'authentic relationships' between teachers and students confuses professional performance with genuine emotional connection.
Key Takeaways
- Authenticity can't be mandated - Requiring genuine emotional connections crosses the line from professional expectations into personal territory
- Professional warmth is the right standard - Teachers can be caring, respectful, and supportive without being forced into 'authentic' relationships
- Performance vs. authenticity matters - A teacher can be professionally excellent without sharing personal feelings with every student
Transcript
Can teachers have quote-unquote authentic relationships with students?
I saw this comment today that a student's IEP specified that the teacher was supposed to have an authentic relationship with them.
And that struck me as funny wording because I totally understand needing to have unconditional positive regard.
I understand needing to have a reset.
I understand needing to send the message to students that we like them that we care about them that we're glad in class We're glad they're in class that day, but like that's not authentic, right?
Sometimes we're not glad sometimes the relationship is strained Because of the students behavior and we need to as adults be professionals and get over it Why would you call that an authentic relationship?
How would you mandate that someone have an authentic relationship?
With a student that sounds like a very strange thing to me So I'm curious if you've ever seen this as an IEP goal or accommodation or I don't know exactly how it's appearing in the IEP But like mandated that the teacher has an authentic relationship with the student.
It's not authentic It can't be authentic because it's it's a professional performance, right?
We are putting on a show to convince our students that we like them Even if we don't write because students often give us lots of reasons to legitimately not like them And again, we have to get over that as professionals.
I don't know am I thinking about this wrong?
Let me know what you think