Jazzperous™

I was called in to my boss today who wanted a serious chat with me. Apparently he got a call from a parent of my students yesterday who had things to say about me having students as friends on Facebook. I had a couple of photos of students and a couple of photos of collegues aswell. These are now removed and and I have put up harsh privacy restrictions for my students. It is indeed my bad, I shouldn't have published photos of students on Facebook. They weren't many, but a couple.

So far so good and I totally respect the complaints. But I was also questioned about whether I should have students as friends on Facebook or not. I have had this discussion before with many people and I always say the same thing. First of all, I am not the one who requests friend add, it is always my students who do that. Secondly, I don't give a rats ass if they would see pics of me when I was little, of my family or whatever. I don't even care if they read this blog. Why? Simply because my privacy is something very little and something I keep only to myself. That's is privacy to me. I have very little to hide and the things I want to hide, I would never share with the entire world on Facebook or even my blog. The rest, I am happy to share and I can't be bothered if a 14 year old kid in Stockholm, knows my birthday, where my parents' summer house is or what my sweet nephew look like. And really, how much does this 14 year old even care himself? It's not as if he would browse through my profile page "Now, let's see, what does Jesper's nephew look like? And what about his parents?".

My boss can't understand this. Fine, fair enough. We have different views on privacy and I can buy that. Being a friend on Facebook is not the same as being best pals and I can promise none of my students think that. But if they feel good about having their teacher as a friend on Facebook and I don't bother, why shouldn't I accept the friend request? Nothing has changed in my relationship with them when I meet them at school. It's just plain BS that I would lose authority or respect just because we are friends on Facebook. I tell you what it is: it's goddamn paranoia and negative thinking.

We don't need more of that in the world today. We don't need to build more walls, we need to tear them down. We need to losen up and open up. We need to be honest to one and another and we need to take care of eachother. With privacy comes paranoia, I believe. I am not saying that we should tell everyone our secrets and inner private stuff, but we shouldn't be afraid of sharing thoughts and feelings with other people. Instead of replying "That's not your business" to the question "How are you?", we should open up and say the truth. Then it is up to the asker to decide whether he or she wants to continue listening.  No wonder the world looks like it does when everyone is so frakking afraid of open up, showing their real faces and protecting their privacy with every action needed.

I don't believe in professionalism as a status thing. Perhaps that's why my students like me. Teachers who work hard on keeping up appearance as a professional teachers have little to gain, I think. Teachers who dare to be personal, who dare to be honest and truthful to everyone, including their students, recieves much more respect.

So, (too much) privacy is something bad. It creates walls and fears. I don't want that. I don't need that. And I will prove everyone saying I am wrong, that I at the end of the day is right. I just know it because I am frakking awsome!