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“It was close to the end of the year and there was lots of conversation about how people were going to celebrate over the holiday season. I am not a health teacher but I do believe that I have a responsibility to correct false information and try to give some good advice on how my students should look after each other and keep as safe as possible. |
“The lesson was going well until the conversation veered off into the area of drugs like ecstasy and speed. I know very little about those drugs and let them know what I thought about them and their inherent dangers. A small group of students, who appeared to know far more about these drugs than I did, then started to talk about how they were no worse than alcohol and that they were sure that I had experimented with drugs like cannabis when I was younger.
“They then came out with a direct question, asking me whether I had ever used cannabis. It’s a question I should have been prepared for but wasn’t. I ended up looking very foolish and very guilty. I think it also affected how I was seen by the students.”
I WISH I’D KNOWN...
Regardless of which subject they teach, teachers should tell their students to always speak in the third person. Issues around duty of care, as well as concern for the teacher’s own privacy, make it important that personal details are not discussed in the classroom.
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