I have a solid rule in my house, no Facebook until you’re 13. Period. I just didn’t think it felt right to allow my kid to enter a fake birthday in order to meet the Facebook terms and create a profile. It seems hard to approve that and then say you can’t lie about other stuff.
But in many ways, I wish I hadn’t made the rule. I can’t back down now so thankfully a September birthday will solve it all very shortly. But when I got this e-mail from a totally awesome HPISD teacher, I wondered if the remaining holdout parents of 12 year old 7th graders should give in and let it go, you know, for academic reasons. Maybe I should have given in sooner.
I have a class Facebook set up and encourage the kids to add me as a friend. I am on for about a half hour to forty-five minutes a night a few days a week and tutor through Facebook. It allows the kids to ask questions, check on homework and assignments and get time with me once school is out.
This is a teacher who is spending her own time in a strategic cyber-locale to help kids succeed in her class. Rock. Star. But should parents let their kids lie to be more academic?
Author
