Erotic charge 'is feature of good teaching'

A sexual charge between pupils and teachers is sometimes a feature of good teaching, an academic has claimed, following research that estimates as many as 1,500 pupil-teacher relationships develop each year. Pat Sikes, of Sheffield University, concluded that "erotic charges" were common in schools, particularly as a result of good teaching "which provokes a positive and exciting response".

Her 25-year study stressed that exploitative relationships were wrong, but added that it was not always a case of teacher exploiting pupil, the Times Education Supplement reported. Dr Sikes met her husband, David, at school when she was 14. He was 22, and a teacher. [...]

Last month, a 25-year-old geography teacher was found guilty of abuse of trust after kissing a 15-year-old boy. An English teacher, 30, could go to jail for having a relationship with a 16-year-old boy.

source: < Erotic charge 'is feature of good teaching' > by Riazat Butt; education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,5500,1640287,00.html; Guardian; 11 November 2005