At the dawn of the ‘70s, students’ hair grew longer, their clothes became funkier, and their relationships with teachers become much more informal.

 

Denise Wolford, Class of 1976, remembers having close relationships with her teachers.

“The teachers that we spent time with out of class became our friends, and many of them where younger so it was easier to relate to them,” Wolford said. “We talked about life and relationships.”   

According to Robin Moller, Class of 1972, teachers during the ‘70s experimented with a new way of teaching.

“Relationships with my teachers in junior high school, and with my parents’ friends, had been pretty formal,” Moller said. “But in high school, it seemed like we were being invited to communicate with our teachers more as peers. English teachers were breaking new ground with stream-of-consciousness writing and discussion of feelings.”

As a teacher during the ‘70s, Marilee Rogers, Class of 1961, saw the clear boundaries from the decade before fade away.

“I’m sure that some [teachers] crossed the line, but the line was cloudy then,” Rogers said. “We had not been trained in harassment. We were in a touchy-feely time, so giving hugs was common.”

According to Rogers, this relaxed educational environment did not hinder learning and she maintained the respect of her students.

“I think that one of the strengths I had as a teacher was because I liked the students as people, they were more likely to respond to me than feel intimidated or threatened,” she said.

Moller also recognized that this relaxed environment helped fuel students’ learning.

“I think some people really thrived and grew in that environment,” she said. “The rest kind of toyed with it around the edges, getting used to the idea of being actually listened to and taken seriously.”

Rogers often had to balance being a teacher and a friend to her students.

“A group came by after the Junior Prom because they had no place to go until the 5 a.m. breakfast,” she said. “They should not have been on the road, so I figured it was safer to give them coffee, or let them sleep, than chase them away.”

However, some teachers stepped outside their role as authority figures.

“There was a group of teachers who smoked pot with particular groups of students and I suppose did other recreational drugs as well,” Wolford said. “They would meet off campus, outdoors, and at homes of teachers.” 

According to Rogers, the tighter restrictions placed on teachers and the harassment laws passed at the end of the decade fueled the change toward more formal teacher-student relationships.

“We’ve gotten to a point where everyone is paranoid if a male teacher is alone in the room with a female student and vice-versa,” Rogers said. “I regret that it has gotten to the point that every behavior is suspect, such as giving a hug or patting someone on the back.”

According to Wolford, teachers don’t have all of the answers.

“I started high school very innocent and thought that teachers were to be respected, that they where full of knowledge, and could do not wrong,” Wolford said. “But as my father always said, ‘Every generation is raised by amateurs.’”