<p>ebeeeee,
Your point is well taken. Certainly there are students with real physical and emotional needs, and many compassionate teachers try to help. I’ve seen colleagues quietly take up a collection to help provide an opportunity for a student to whom it would not otherwise be available, and when I worked in a poor district I always kept snacks in my room for hungry students.</p>
<p>And epiphany makes a valid point as well. We have a very general background in adolescent educational psychology but by default end up expected to provide much more. At least six times during a recent parent-teacher conference day, what I really wanted to say was, “I’m sorry, but I am not a licensed family therapist.”</p>
<p>But I think the OP and others are concerned about a different issue, in which a few teachers encourage dependence and actually retaliate against students who don’t want that kind of relationship. My own daughter dealt with such a situation, and she finally decided she would take a lower grade rather than become one of the teacher’s groupies (D’s words). It was awkward for me as that teacher was a colleague, and my daughter just decided to let it go rather than try to get fair treatment at the risk of having the issue escalate.</p>