In the context of a high school teaching scenario, self-disclosure on the part of the teacher can be damaging – not least because it leads to excessive familiarity, which we should aim to avoid. Some forms of disclosure, such as describing the study habits and techniques we successfully implemented when we were students, may potentially be helpful to our learners – so, of course, there are levels to this! Revealing a personal story of pain and tragedy, however, may be not an appropriate activity for a lesson.