Professionalism, respect, and school values
By Olivia Morrison ‘24
“Adult bathroom only” sign in Upper Dant.
Courtesy of Olivia Morrison ‘24
At Catlin Gabel School (CGS), there is less separation between faculty and students than one could find at other schools. Students refer to teachers by their first names and the campus lacks a lot of adult-only bathrooms, including faculty-only bathrooms.
Head of the CGS Upper School, Aline Garcia-Rubio, stated that the values at CGS were inspired by the organization Black Mountain College. “One of the premises about that college was that it was a community in which all participants were willful participants on equal footing and everyone was a learner even though there were faculty members,” Garcia-Rubio said. “My hunch is that equal access to facilities came from that.”
There is debate about if structures like this are conducive to student’s learning or not. Some believe that there need to be established boundaries between students and teachers to promote respect, while others think that students and faculty being on a similar level promotes an inclusive learning environment.
Senior Maia Whittaker, who is in her first year at CGS after attending public school in Seattle, said that calling teachers by their first names was one of the first things she noticed at CGS and how it can create a “friend-student relationship rather than a teacher-student relationship.”
She also disagreed with the idea that students and teachers should be on the same level because that can create a lack of respect and contribute to bias in classroom situations when it comes to grading.
Having boundaries set, such as calling teachers by their last name, can create more of a professional environment, and decrease favoritism.
Social Studies teacher Mickey Del-Castillo added, “I don’t think I am a superior, but I am a teacher so I think the relational dynamic should be focused around the work.” He said that “familiarity” should not be believed to be the way a student will do better in a class.
Del-Castillo, who has worked at several public schools in addition to CGS, chooses to go by Mr. D in the classroom. He said that in most other schools, there are often penalties when students don’t address teachers by their last names and it speaks to the respect for the profession of teaching. “You may not necessarily like the teacher, but you will respect the profession that they are doing,” concluded Del-Castillo.
Not only does it command respect, but Del-Castillo says going by his last name provides “proper levels of distance and professionalism” in the classroom and allows him to have his “professional identity” and not his “personal identity at work.” He continued, “Anybody calling me by my first name feels like an invasion of my personal life.”
The boundary and privacy that going by one’s last name allows is also provided by things like faculty-only bathrooms.
During an assembly on Thursday, Mar. 7, Head of the Upper School Aline Garcia-Rubio announced that there would be two designated faculty-only bathrooms on campus, one on the second floor of Dant and one in the Upper Library. After Spring Break, the number of bathrooms fell to one, leaving only the bathroom in Dant.
The decision came from faculty members during a faculty meeting and requests from members of the faculty forum, an organization made up of faculty members (excluding members of the administration) that represents employee interests.
The concern about faculty-only bathrooms came from the fact that bathrooms are spaces that feel more vulnerable to everybody, faculty and students alike. Unlike the Lower, Beginning, and Middle Schools, the Upper School did not have any bathrooms that were designated as faculty-only.
Whittaker said, “I definitely was wondering why there wasn’t a faculty-only bathroom because I know as a teacher I wouldn't want to be using the same facilities as kids.”
Del-Castillo added that “sometimes adults do need adult time…the same way students need to be away from faculty” and that separate spaces allow faculty to feel like they “don’t have to be in a personal space with students.”
Of course, environments like that of CGS, inspired by Black Mountain College, have their benefits. Students can get help from their teachers more easily and may feel more comfortable asking questions. The trust created between a student and a teacher can lead students to higher levels of engagement and higher academic achievement.
These factors can help create a tighter-knit community where there is mutual respect between students and faculty. But the question remains: are these values the best way to keep the thin balance between maintaining the small, connected community while still ensuring individual respect of faculty and teachers?