The Luxury of Knowing
We could hardly have known it at the time. Known that there might be a way that we, as teachers, could keep track of how some of our students were doing long after they exited our classrooms for the last time. Of course, there are some teachers who couldn't care less. Just a few, in my view. But for most of us, we care about the people our former charges are becoming. When I retired from full-time teaching I knew very little about Facebook. Other than it involved being "friends" with one's peers, it was mostly used by college students and had just begun to infiltrate the universe of high schoolers. That was only 10 years ago. Since stumbling on to my own account on Facebook, mostly to sign an Amnesty International petition, I've been able to have contact with a few hundred students from about 25 years ago to the present. I rarely ask them to friend me, as a sign of respect for their privacy. But if they find me and request "friendship" I wil