Francis Parker is a small establishment with only about 320 students in the Upper School. Within its walls, rumors and information spread like wildfire. The events that occur over the weekend are often hot topics of conversation throughout the halls on Monday morning. These stories inevitably reach the teachers through students who share personal relationships with them.

Upper school English teacher Cory Zeller believes that part of the mission of Parker school is to form close relationships between the students and teachers. “I think that the model of having teachers double as advisors and the small class sizes really lends itself to teachers forming relationships with students,” Zeller said. “I would even say that we are encouraged to get to know our students as people and realize that they are more than just the person that we see in the classroom for 50 minutes.”

Upper School English teacher Mike Mahany believes that the dynamic between students and teachers at Parker is overwhelmingly beneficial to both sides. “One of the things that I like most about Parker is the informal relationships that I form with students,” Mahany said. “I think that it helps in all sorts of ways. I think it helps in the classroom, it helps if I ever have to do any discipline thing, also if I need to ask a student to do something in the hall, they are much more willing to do so if we do share a personal bond.”

Despite the small class sizes, teachers are not always able to establish a relationship with each of their students. “It’s hard to build a close, personal relationship with every student, but I try really hard to do so,” Mahany said. “I also think if I have a close relationship with four or five students in the class, and not with the other ten, that can be hard because the students don’t feel part of the community that I try to build in the classroom.”

Forming relationships with students, at times, is easier said than done. “So I try hard to have something — some kind of inside joke or some kind of schtick with everyone in the room,” Mahany said. “So when I see them in the hall I have something individual that I can talk to them about. I try not to pick out three people who everyone else will think are my favorites.”

There is a large discrepancy between students’ willingness to open themselves up to the classroom. “I definitely have to gauge a student’s ability to take a joke, as some deal with being joked with in the classroom better than others,” Zeller said. “Especially when something comes up in the classroom that is causing tension and unrest with the students, I will sometimes use comedy to release that tension so that I can move on with the class.”

Junior Senna Gardner believes that things that occur outside of Parker’s walls should stay there, and not transgress into the classroom. “I do believe that it is important that kids have an opportunity to have a life that is outside of school,” Gardner said. “Outside school life should not be talked about in Parker classrooms.

Many teachers at Parker end up being a pair of ears to listen to students’ problems. Teachers who are trusted by the students that confide in them hold a great responsibility to respect the privacy of that student and also to not allow their perceived view of that student outside of the classroom translate into how they view that student academically. “It’s one thing to know something, but it is different if that teacher is judging a student differently with that information,” Zeller said. “Evaluating student work in the classroom, and weighing that with how that person has a personal life. I don’t conflate the two things.”