Should teachers avoid friendship with students?

[kensei]

This is a tough one. My instructor is 72 and Im 40ish. I have always seen him as a father figure. he is friendly but not a friend, more of a father. I have seniors that are around my age and we see eachother as friendly but I try and keep my distance socially because of family obligations.

My students and juniors are friendly with me, but again their is a bit of a distance. we like eachother and think of each other as family, and we would do anythign for each other, but we are not daft enough to get to chummy socially.

I think it is very important to be friendly and sociable. The "Family" is important in Karate. But I also dont think that you should be zipping out for beers and clubbing with your students...especially at my age. I feel that you need to be much like a family and make it relaxed, but not so relaxed that ettiquite is compromized.

No student would walk up and slap me on the back and say "Hey waz up Sensei" ever! but they would come up and shake my hand and chat, and kids tend to like me and come and hug me and stuff...which is weird because adults find me somewhat unaproachable and intense...NO idea why, LOL.

[Nidan Melbourne]

we should avoid being "buddies" with students in a 'teacher-student' fashion as it can portray you in a different manner and they won't take you seriously.

But my sensei is good friends with most of us senior adult students (Black Belts only) as we are treated as equals and he sees us as colleagues and as students. we don't joke around during class or anything like that. he allows us to have a laugh during class and still remain focused