2/13/21; Week 6, Response to “Personal Space Differences”

I grew up in a small town full of scientists who were geniuses. In general, everyone had a fairly large bubble around them. Looking back at church and school, there wasn’t a lot of hugging or closeness. In fact, I remember this one girl who stood out because she hugged everyone. It was really uncomfortable. Now, I live in Texas, in the city, and people’s bubble seems to be a bit smaller. I often find myself leaning back, taking a step back, or just feeling incredibly uncomfortable just waiting for the moment I can escape. I hadn’t given this much thought and honestly, I thought I was just a little strange. Now, I think about my family, friends from my childhood, and acquaintances from my home town and I think that a large part of my response to people getting too close has a lot more to do with the culture I grew up in. I see similar behaviors in those people. I will need to work on adjusting my response to students (and their families) as they may “invade” my personal space. I think that one thing I can do to help myself prepare is to find out where my students are from and learn a little about their culture. Knowing if they come from somewhere where personal space is shared a lot more will help me to be prepared for when they are closer to me. It will also help me to know who I need to give a little extra space to. Another challenge might be among students if the class is a mixed class of many cultures. One thing that can be done is to space student's desks out to give them all space. However, when working in groups this may be a problem. At some point, I think a short discussion on personal space might be helpful for the students. I would love to know how other teachers, both prospective and current, plan to help their students from mixed cultures understand the need for personal space. Or, how do you help the students who feel others are cold and distant because they need their personal space?