Letters to the Editor

When is it OK to touch a student?

Oct 31, 2007 1:58 PM

To the Editor:

This is in reference to the Sept. 6 Speakout column, “Being denied the privilege to teach,” by Leonard Brown. Assuming that the accusation of wrongdoing is as he stated, “I have been charged with having made physical contact with a student during a science demonstration because I asked her to push her hands up against mine with all her weight,” I would have to plead guilty to such unseemly conduct, too.

I was a member of the physical science department at Benjamin Cardozo HS for 16 years (I have been retired now for more than 20 years). My principal field was in earth science. As part of a demonstration of the Earth-moon gravitational system I invited a student to help me demonstrate the relative motions of this system by holding hands and swinging around one another as we moved across the front of the room. The class enjoyed the demonstration.

By this little dance the student learned to visualize the complex relationship of the Earth and moon revolving around a common center of gravity located in space between the mass of the earth and the mass of the moon. Any demonstration that can clarify the many abstract and mathematical concepts in the physical sciences is to be applauded.

Now, as to appropriateness of physical contact between teachers and students, I have always believed none to be appropriate when it is in any way, no matter how innocent, an expression of a sentiment. We use praise and approval to reward achievement, that is all.

In this instance, however, having students participate in illustrating the laws of motion is pedagogically sound.

Irving Horowitz, retired