There are many ethical implications of teacher-student relationships. The first issue is age. While some students are of legal age, most are too young to have a legal relationship with an adult. Another issue is an unfair advantage for said student in that teacher’s class. If a teacher is having a relationship with a student, he or she will likely not grade that student’s work fairly. He or she may be more harsh so that no one assumes anything, or the teacher could dish out better grades to gain the favor of that student. This is a serious conflict of interest! It is unfair to the other students for a teacher to have a relationship with one student. A teacher’s job is to teach a whole classroom full of students, and this is a very difficult task if the teacher is distracted by one particular student.

Now you’re thinking, I didn’t say I have a relationship with my teacher; it’s just a crush! I know, I know. But typically, a crush wishes it were a relationship, so I wanted to lay some consequences on the line before we delved into whether or not it is wrong to have a crush on your teacher. A recent episode of a popular television show about a show choir covered this very topic. A student had a crush on the show choir teacher and the results were not in her favor. The teacher felt very uncomfortable and the student was blinded by her “love.” It was not very fun for the teacher to confront the student, and when he did, she felt very immature.

While feelings are often uncontrollable, they can be dangerous. Remember these things when you develop a crush on a teacher, and try to keep things professional. Your crush is probably more harmful to the teacher than it is helpful to you.