Teachers and students both have one thing in common: they go to school for 7 hours every weekday. Teachers teach students the curriculum they need to graduate, and the kids try their best to pay attention and understand everything. Some teachers and students tend to form great relationships with each other, while others don’t, and this raises the question: Should students treat teachers as their friends?

This question tends to stump a lot of people, with some saying yes and others saying no. On one hand, students can build great relationships with the teachers and get to know them on a personal level.

They chat with each other in every class and can understand each other on a new level, with teachers being able to figure out what allows students to learn better, or what extra support they may need. As for the students, they can help teachers so they can get service hours and potentially get extra credit on an assignment or test, but that is unlikely.

Senior Bradley Joseph gave his thoughts on the topic. “I think that students should show respect to teachers, but not treat them as friends, because many bad students could take advantage of that and ruin it for the good students.” He makes a very good point. Students who do good in the class are going to end up having everything ruined for them because of irresponsible behavior.

But on the other hand, teachers may feel like the students are being disrespectful to them, because most students tend to talk to their friends in very explicit ways. Some teachers don’t want to talk to a student who might have a D or an F in their class, and some students don’t want to talk to teachers they think are failing them on purpose or just dislike heavily.

Financial Literature and Sports Coach, Mr. O’Neil, gave a great response. “I don’t think teachers should be friends with their students. Teachers have to enforce rules, discipline students, and grade. While it is acceptable to be friendly, it is not advised to be friends.”

Mr. O’Neil and Bradley Joseph both made great claims as to why students should not be friends with their teachers, with one stating that other students will be penalized, and teachers need to make rules as to student-teacher relationships.

Personally, I think that students can have teachers as friends, but the teachers should be careful as to who they get close to. Teachers should understand how certain students act around others, and if they are kind and respectful, then they can get along, but they should stay clear of the ones who get into trouble often or are failing the majority of their classes. What do you guys think, should students be able to be friends with teachers?