Summary for Educators

Fundamental Dilemma Facing Every Teacher: Managing Academic and Emotional Roles in Classrooms By Larry Cuban, December 28, 2025

In this reflective essay, education historian and former superintendent Larry Cuban examines a tension that sits at the heart of classroom practice but is rarely resolved: the ongoing need for teachers to balance their academic role with their emotional role. Cuban argues that this dilemma is not a flaw in teaching nor a temporary challenge that can be “fixed,” but rather a permanent condition of the profession—one that must be continually managed through judgment, compromise, and self-awareness.

Cuban begins by clarifying what he means by a dilemma. Unlike a problem, which has a clear solution, a dilemma involves choosing between two or more deeply valued commitments where pursuing one inevitably limits the other. Drawing on economic and social science concepts such as tradeoffs and satisficing, Cuban explains that educators, like all professionals, must make choices that involve both satisfaction and sacrifice. These choices are not once-and-done decisions; they resurface daily, embedded in routines and relationships.

He uses a familiar analogy—balancing work and family life—to illustrate how dilemmas function. Most people value both career success and personal relationships, yet time and energy are finite. Any choice involves compromise, and even well-chosen compromises can unravel over time, requiring reassessment. Teaching, Cuban argues, operates in precisely this way.

Within U.S. age-graded schools, teachers face two powerful and competing imperatives. First, they must fulfill the academic role: knowing their subject, teaching required content and skills, and evaluating student performance using consistent criteria. This role demands a certain professional distance. Teachers must judge student work fairly, even when emotional factors—such as effort, personal struggle, or likability—pull them toward leniency.

At the same time, teachers are expected to enact an emotional role: knowing students as individuals, understanding their backgrounds, interests, strengths, and vulnerabilities, and building trusting relationships that motivate learning. Cuban emphasizes that this expectation is not incidental. Strong relationships help teachers engage students, foster persistence, and create classroom conditions where learning is more likely to occur. Emotional connection, in this sense, becomes a foundation for academic growth.

The dilemma arises because these two roles pull teachers in opposite directions. Academic judgment requires distance and impartiality; emotional connection requires closeness and personal knowledge. Some teachers respond by leaning heavily toward one side. Cuban describes educators who define their role narrowly—“I teach math; I’m not here to befriend students”—as well as those who prioritize relationships so strongly that they risk blurring professional boundaries, hoping that likability alone will drive learning.

Neither extreme, Cuban suggests, is sustainable or effective. The challenge is to find a workable balance and to keep adjusting that balance as circumstances change. Skilled teachers develop what Cuban calls a classroom persona: an intentional blend of voice, demeanor, gestures, routines, and expectations that communicates care while maintaining academic rigor. This performance is not artificial or manipulative; students, Cuban notes, quickly detect insincerity. Instead, it reflects thoughtful, genuine practice shaped by experience.

Importantly, Cuban stresses that there is no permanent solution to this dilemma. Even teachers who manage it well must revisit their choices continually over the course of a school year and across different groups of students. The work is demanding, emotionally taxing, and intellectually complex—but it is also central to what makes teaching a profession rather than a technical task.

For educators and school leaders, Cuban’s message is both sobering and affirming. The tension between caring and judging, closeness and distance, is not a personal failure or policy gap. It is a defining feature of teaching itself. Effective practice lies not in eliminating the dilemma, but in recognizing it, reflecting on it, and learning to manage it with integrity over time.

Original Article

Source: Cuban, L. (2025, December 28). Fundamental Dilemma Facing Every Teacher: Managing Academic and Emotional Roles in Classrooms.
https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2025/12/28/fundamental-dilemma-fac...

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Prepared with the assistance of AI software

OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (4) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com