教育日誌コミュのBoundary Part 2: Knock Knock Manner

During my meeting with a student, my office door certainly was widely opened. There was Hakkiri-kun standing and started speaking to me. My student was surprised and did not know what's going on. I said to Hakiri-kun, "Hi Hakirikun, we are still in a meeting. Can you wait until we finish?" Hakiri-kun did not say anything but closed the door.

After the meeting, I spoke to Hakiri-kun if he immediately needed to speak with me. He answered, "yes". Since he needed to speak with me and opened the door without knocking, we discussed about the importance of knocking the door and how to not distract someone who is in a meeting: 1) getting hold of an administrator or some staff who can help him send a message to me that he wants to meet with me immediately, 2) if no one is available to help him, he can softly knock my office door and wait until I give him a signal to come in, and 3) If he hears the signal, then he immediately explains me that he needs to see me and if I'm available to meet with him after the meeting. We discussed why it's not appropriate someone opens the door without knocking, that a student may be speaking to me about his/her issue and the privacy needs to be kept, and it can be a huge distraction. We also discussed that it is important to practice the manner and Hakiri-kun understood the process and could do better job next time.