The Dilemma On Teacher - Student Relationships

It has always been a dilemma for me whether i will put a student under my wing or not.

Ethically speaking, I should not, for it might cause some preferential treatment for the student.
I don't know, but most stories about good teacher-student relationship are the ones in which the teacher and the student formed a bond as friends.

Unfortunately, reality will tell us that it is rather difficult, because other people might think that you have a romantic relationship.

I am rather bored with the way I teach a lesson. I am smothered by the curriculum, or by the design that my school enforces us to use in our lesson plan.

I want to teach them not just language, but also little truths in life, like, let the gays be. Teaching them respect, I think goes a long way than teaching them grammar. Taking the issue about gays as an example, I cannot tell them to respect gays and the things that they do, if the whole system in which we live in forbids us to tell anything about gays.

How am I going to teach things about life if the system itself stops us from doing so?

I really want to fit my way of thinking to my everyday lesson. But if you are in a Catholic school, injecting liberal ideas into your lesson would be rather difficult. Not with all the observations and faculty rating sheets.

So, if I cannot do it with my whole class, I will do it one student at a time.

But you see, I have another problem: taking a student under my wing would look as if I have a romantic relationship with the said student. Add to that the perception of the students. They might think that I am playing favorites.

*sighs*

It is really tricky, you see. And I only have three months to impart something on my students. Respect. Respect. Respect.

As a teacher, you would actually see the real intelligent students. No, not the bright students, because the bright students aren't necessarily good thinkers. So I have this certain student, and I really want this student to be taken under my wing. This student doesn't answer the knowledge and comprehension questions during class discussions, rather this student dominates the discussion whenever I ask the higher-level thinking questions. You might not find this overwhelming, but when you are stuck in a classroom with brilliant but passive students, a student who actually thinks through your question and answer you will make any teacher's day.

I want to have a day with that class wherein they are just giving their ideas, contradicting each other, synthesizing each other's ideas and coming to respect each other's opinions.

How I wish these students of mine are more communicative.

And how I wish I would have that day, wherein they are really thinking intellectually, not to please me, but to please themselves and their thirst for not knowledge, but for learning.