"You’ve never in your life looked at your friends and thought, 'Those two
should date,' or 'Those two should break up.' Ever? EVER? We spend
more time with students than we do with our own families sometimes.
You’re asking us to not notice dynamics." - girlwithalessonplan, on "shipping."
It's short for "relationship." Teachers are said to be "shipping" students when they arrange seating so that friendships and/or love interests can develop. It can also involve special groupwork assignments, tutoring or that sort of thing. I'm not sure how commonplace this sort of student sorting is, but I don't see anything specifically against it in any student handbook I've come across to date.
"I don't want to know anything about my students' sex lives," California math teacher Darren blogged recently. "As far as I'm concerned, they don't have any. I don't see how any good can come from my having such knowledge or being involved in any way. I want to stay as far away from that as I possibly can."
tralalalala1234 wrote that more often than not, teachers "'antiship' because a kid's grades start dropping when he starts dating."
Yep. The ol' "make trouble and you can't sit next to your friend" method of classroom direction. Classic.
Have you heard of this phenomenon before?
Never heard of it!
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy! But I don't think it's terribly common. At least I hope not.
DeleteNot in relation to classrooms, but there are several "fan" websites where people who are fans of a particular show and its characters write about shipping of those characters.
ReplyDeleteReally?! Wow. I feel like I've been out of the loop then.
Delete