If you walk into a classroom 10 minutes late and say, "Sorry, folks--I've been putting out fires all morning," 5 out of 10 undergraduates will think that you have literally been putting out fires all morning. (Panicky Paula: "what??? zomggg! Where were there fires?!??!")
::headdesk::
One of my colleagues has been telling students for years that he charges $350 for an A in the class. He recently checked his RMP comments and discovered that at least two recent students thought they could not make an A in the class unless they paid him.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet $350 his dean will eventually hear about that joke and will reprimand him.
ReplyDeleteFor one of our professors, it was a box of donuts, and the special snowflake was actually a "special" snowflake if you get my drift. Poor girl... We're just waiting for that to percolate upward to burn that prof's ass...
ReplyDeleteRidiculous to criticize students for interpreting you literally. The exact meaning of your words is that you were putting out actual fires - maybe you're a volunteer firefighter in your spare time. If that's not what made you late, then be specific instead of using a vague and easily misunderstood metaphor. Or just apologize and tell them the delay was unavoidable and leave it at that.
ReplyDeleteLet me guess...
ReplyDeleteRachel had no idea what "putting out fires" meant either?
I think it's rather sad that we can no longer expect college students to know common idiomatic expressions, and if we find it amusing that they can't see the forest for the trees we're just being "ridiculous."
"What forest?! We're in the city!" *lol* [/sarcasm]
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ReplyDeleteNo worries, Prof, Meanie--maybe Rachel meant to be sarcastic.
ReplyDeleteAnd if she didn't? ZOMG, THE SNOWFLAKES HAVE ALREADY ARRIVED AT CM. GOD SAVE US ALL.
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ReplyDeleteWait, it's snowing?! But how can there be fires in the snow?????
ReplyDeleteI simply meant that it's always best to speak concisely and say what you mean if you have even the slightest doubt about the intellectual capacity of your audience. From the context of your post, I can see that you were just using a cutesy, exaggerated term for "dealing with urgent matters." You may think that whatever you were doing was just as difficult as "putting out fires" but is that really an accurate analogy for what you were doing? Were lives in danger? Was property destroyed by an inferno? I am just suggesting you try communicating with more precision and less folksy hyperbolic metaphors.
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ReplyDeleteSeriously, Rachel? This is how people talk. Not just college professors, but pretty much everyone. These kids are going to get jobs where their bosses will use, as you term it, folksy hyperbolic metaphors. Their friends will say things like this. Their parents almost certainly do. It's a common mode of speech. If they are unable to comprehend it, then they are going to have no end of troubles trying to communicate. This is absolutely a failing on the part of the students, not on the part of the professor.
ReplyDelete(Note: I am myself an undergraduate, starting my sophomore year in the fall. However, I used to work in administration at a different school, and my boyfriend is ABD and teaching. So I know full well how bizarre and entitled students can be.)
I should also point out that I'm what they call a non-traditional student, so the traditional students tend to be somewhat baffling to me in thought process and behavior.
ReplyDeleteWould that be an acceptable excuse for one of your students to arrive late? Because he or she was "putting out fires"? Would you accept the phrase "putting out fires" in an English composition assignment about, let's say, Pride and Prejudice? For example, "Darcy occupies himself with putting out fires after Elizabeth tours Derbyshire." I am not saying your students aren't idiots to misinterpret the metaphor, just that good communication skills are desirable in faculty as well as in students. Why not set an example for students? It's hard to enforce the "do as I say, not as I do" rule. But maybe you allow your students to sprinkle their written work with hyperbole and folksy expressions and accept exaggerated metaphoric excuses from late and absent students.
ReplyDeleteOh, Rachel is Programming Patty from RYS...
ReplyDeleteExplains EVERYTHING!
Rachel, dear, most profs deal with students being 10 minutes late EVERY SINGLE FUCKING CLASS.
Wake up.
This post isn't about giving an excuse, snowflake...it's about students not knowing a common colloquial expression.
Most profs would follow up a student using that expression with a concerned "Is everything ok?" or just tell the student to try to pull him/herself together and get ready for class.
Duh.
Aww shucks. It's okay, Kimmy & Meanie! Though you two are clearly MADE OF AWESOME, Rachel is just a fucking dumbass.* Ka-smaaaaaack!
ReplyDelete*"Rachel is just a fucking dumbass" is an example of "speak[ing] concisely and say[ing] exactly what you mean." See me setting a good example? Yeah, yeah, go me!