To what standards should teachers be held?
I have a lot of friends who are teachers in Chatham-Kent, and beyond. Like all teachers, they have a responsibility to be good role models for their pupils. But how far should that responsibility go, and who sets such guidelines?
Did you know the Supreme Court has ruled that how teachers behave away from work is relevant in terms of their ability to educate? As for social media, the Ontario College of Teachers warns its members on how they use it.
The public school board in Ottawa has a guideline warning teachers against posting photos on social media containing certain topics. One is people doing drugs (duh!) another involves alcohol, and a third pertains to “scantily clad photos on the beach.”
Teachers can have huge influences on students’ lives, sometimes almost to a parental level. They are aware of the do-nots, such as don’t discuss weekend partying in front of the class, or recreational drug use, for those who opt to partake.
But to tell teachers not to post any photos involving alcohol? That’s a little extreme. It’s legal, for one thing, and like it or not it is ingrained as part of recreational life for a great percentage of adults.
Most parents drink in front of their children. Many have partied with friends in front of the kids – I’m talking New Year’s, Super Bowl, etc. Unfortunately, some get blitzed in front of their offspring on an all too regular basis as well.
But that school board is telling its teachers to make sure there’s no booze in any imagery they put up on their own personal social media accounts.
And then there is “scantily clad” to address. That’s extremely subjective. And is a woman in a bikini, especially a teacher, considered to fall into the faux pas category? What about a guy in a Speedo? Is there a double standard?
Would a topless woman qualify as “scantily clad” despite the fact it is legal for women to walk around topless if they so please in Ontario?
Chances are, if you put up photos on social media, people you might not want or anticipate seeing the images will be exposed to them. Given how so few people pay attention to their privacy settings on their social media accounts, kids can very likely wind up seeing what their teachers are posting.
Teachers are role models, and publicly paid ones. As such, they should be held to a higher standard. The public is paying and entrusting teachers to help shape our children.
But law-abiding activity is difficult to make professional judgment upon. That’s an interpretive grey area, unfortunately. Smoking weed, snorting coke – well, such activity is pretty black and white, as it is illegal.
As for what someone is wearing on the beech, unless it is to the point of illegality, then there is no place for judging.
Imagine the trouble – and wrongly so – an Ottawa teacher might get into should he or she be at a beach party on a warm summer evening, sitting around with other folks enjoying an adult beverage, and opt to take a group photo? That’s a fine gathering of friends for most everybody, but now a school board could take issue with capturing and sharing the moment?
Too far.
Family gatherings, happy and sad
I attended the memorial service for my Aunt Jane on the weekend. She was 93, and was never quite herself after losing her husband a couple of years ago. Now they are together again.
And speaking of together, while funerals and memorial services are sad affairs, they do indeed tend to bring family together. For the first time ever, and this unfortunately includes a good many funerals, all the first cousins from my father’s side of the family were together at one time, even all three from Nova Scotia.
It was also pointed out that every single cousin there, save one, has been out to visit the Nova Scotia side of the clan.
That one idiot who hasn’t been out east? Yours truly. Thanks for outing me, Geordie. I guess we’ll have to change that, won’t we?
Buy local, shop local
I put a post up on my Facebook page on Friday urging people to buy local and shop local whenever possible. I had seem some friends discussing the great deals they found online or out of town on Black Friday.
The response to my comment was huge, and the vast majority of it was in agreement.
We all shop out of town, and many of us shop online. There are items you just can’t get locally. And many folks enjoy a shopping excursion out of town now and again with family or friends. Understandable.
But if you take the vast majority of your big-ticket buying outside of your community, you are hurting it. Yes, the prices may be somewhat cheaper elsewhere, but considering our lower cost of living, many of us can afford the slight price bump here or there. In fact, many off cannot afford for people to take their business outside of Chatham-Kent.
Stop hurting our community. If you are harping about high property taxes and high unemployment, rethink how you shop and you can help contribute more to the local economy.
