The Facebook Student

Today, a conversation started up between a few teachers and myself, although I did more listening then actually talking.  The topic was, on the surface, seemingly a venting episode of just things that students do that bother teachers, but as it continued, it progressively became more thought provoking.

A teacher was noting that his students have this skewed view of how a teacher's job is to be social and emotional support of the students.  It's not.  It's a hopeful byproduct, but that's not a teacher's 'job' description any more than a surgeon's job description is to help the psychological recovery of his patient.  Might he incidentally?  ....I guess.  But that's not his job.

A teacher is supposed to (1) teach you the material you need to know, (2) help you learn how to gather information and use it, and (3) ensure that you are learning and held accountable for the material you learned.  That's it.  They're not there to help you with your mother's boyfriend's sister's divorce.  They're not there to listen to all the commentary you feel is necessary to share during the instructional period.  And they're not there to be the bad guy.  They are there so that you have a place to go to learn the material and to be of use as a reference highly qualified in that specific subject area.

Now, how on earth does that relate to the "Facebook Student".  That's what I was thinking when the conversation started, because thus far, I hadn't heard anything that fell under that heading.  That was when the teacher talking said, "I had to explain to my students today that 'It is not my job, nor anyone else's job, to care about your opinion.  Your boss will not care.  Random people you meet will not care.  The general population does not care what you think.  They just need to you DO.'"  In his years of teaching, he was noting that he feels the progression and access of Facebook into the more mainstream and younger generations has caused young people to believe that everyone wants to know what they're thinking, all the time.  The instant access to Facebook now, also, via phone, has just enhanced that issue.  He feels that his students feel like they can interject into everything (even into conversations clearly not involving them) so much so that he has adopted "Facebook language" into his conversations.  These include,  "This was a private message.  You cannot like it.  You cannot comment.  It was private between me at _______."  "You may not like or share this test with another student."

If you do not work with students (or young people in general), you may not understand the value of what was said.  If you do, though, start taking notice of if the Facebook Student has integrated itself into their interactions.