Distance

A mini-rash of blog posts about professors and students and friendship [here (and scroll down) and here], based on this story in the New York Times (in the fashion section, of all places).

I started in academia 35 years ago (now, that's a scary thought), and, when I started, I was very nearly the same age as many of my students. I thought it was very important to create some social distance between myself and my students, and so I worked fairly hard at it. Now, I don't have to work so hard, but I maintain the social distance.

Part of my job (and the part, frankly, I like least) is to judge the performances of my students. That is sometimes not a pleasant experience for them. So friendship would get in the way. And so I avoid it. I don't have a page on Facebook or MySpace. I don't post pictures of my family or my (non-existent) pets. I don't write very much here about anything remotely personal. I don't socialize with students, mine or not. And, by now, it's standard operating procedure. It's worked pretty well for me for a long time.