Flirting and pupils' efficiency

Young teachers always have a lot of responsibilities but no experience. They have to do a lot of things at once and without errors: they must give the new material sensibly, they must find the right psychological approach to the class, try hard to be objective and unbiased, respect each pupil's personality, and to find the golden middle in the relationship with the class in general and each pupil particularly. All these tasks are brought upon a young teacher simultaneously and require professional attitude from him/her. All mentioned tasks are very difficult to bring into life and especially difficult it is to be unbiased and to find a golden middle. And here all problems begin.

What does a young teacher know? He/she knows a lot about theoretical foundations of teaching, different teaching methods and the subject itself. But all these theoretical knowledge are very often helpful in concrete situations.

Young teachers don't have pedagogical experience but they have experience of communication with their peers and with representatives of the opposite sex. Lack of pedagogical competence is often made up with practical skills of communication of everyday life.

One of the most powerful and effective way to make somebody do something is banal flirting. Young teachers often resort to it because this is often the only way for them to establish rapport with the class. In the majority of cases pupils' reaction to flirting is strong and rapid and it really encourages a young teacher and makes him/her feel more self-confident and gifted to work with children. Besides, teacher sometimes simply want to control the class without resorting to screams and shouts. Exciting, thrilling and passionate teaching can create an erotic charge in the classroom. Some teachers unconsciously use flirting as an integral part of their teaching. However, they often tend to confuse psychological and physical level of relationships.

If flirting ends in flirting, it's OK, but you can never know how your relationships will develop, that's why it is dangerous. You can resort to flirting only if you know that you are strong enough to resist temptation, otherwise you'd better avoid such a risk. The matter is that sexual relationship is always a wrong thing to do, because it can never be equal — the power imbalance inevitably gets in the way.

So, flirting as a method of teaching is a powerful if risky way for a young teacher. It is always better to weigh your abilities, fortitude and weaknesses before you use it in your practice!