Otherwise, teens wouldn’t be discriminated against on a daily basis–both legally and informally.

Just because some are vociferous doesn’t mean they are right - and it definitely doesn’t mean that their views represent the majority.

Don’t forget your roots: the silent majority is often silent, and right.

I think you are misunderstanding my statements. The student/teacher relationship can apply to any student (regardless of age) with their teacher, including online. In fact, it does apply if the student online is actually a student of the teacher. I am not talking about students generally in this case, I am talking about the specific relationship between a student and his or her teacher.

The other component is approaching all people (who are not a teacher’s specific students) without assumptions, regardless of age.

@Darren: If it wasn’t socially acceptable, he wouldn’t have had majority support of his issue.

I personally found it to be done in poor taste, but it still is “acceptable.”

Though the specific laws may be related to only the US, the ideas are mostly universal. Sure, they might have crazy drinking laws over in Scotland: but there is still a line drawn in the sand where one reaches the adult.

Quite to the contrary.

In truth, I found it to be done in incredibly poor taste given the timing and frame of reference taken.

Related to this post, you may have forgotten that not all participants in our international classroom are governed by statutes set forth by the 26th Amendment. To Belshaw himself, for example, the Constitution of the United States may very well mean nothing - or worse, it may represent a time when one country rebelled against his own. Furthermore, drinking age, driving privileges and other rites of passage are varying and differ by culture and geographic location.

These issues are complex, to be sure. I just hope we can all stick together long enough to learn while the learning is good.

Arthus, I understand your argument that students may be of any age (15 or 52), but I see that as at least a bit in conflict with your statement that, “while [teachers being entrusted with well-being of students] is true, it does not apply online since almost none of your students are online.” If you’re saying that students (of any age) should be treated equally on the Internet, I don’t know that it makes sense to then imply that that should happen anyway because few are actually online: either the argument has merit, or it doesn’t. (For what it’s worth, I think the interaction and such are important, though it is important to evaluate individuals.. individually, and they may not all be equal.)