Friendly places,
with little judgment or control.
Students call them
Stan, Becky, & Nick.
Students discover their grades
together with their professor.
"We're all in this together."
Proffie says, "I'm with you. I want to help you."
This all sounds good.
It sounds like the mood therapy has worked!
But these classrooms are casual,
so much so that they often evaporate.
They all talk about what they feel or think,
not what they can prove.
"If Troy's feeling is valid, then so is mine.
I can just say and believe whatever."
It makes for high evaluations, I can tell you.
I've seen the numbers.
When a student writes, "I love Dr. Stan
,"there might be a problem.
Why are they in our classrooms?
To love us? To find us "amazeballz."
Becky has told me she has a loveless life,
except for in here classroom.
She said one day, "If I didn't have the support
of my students, I don't think I could make it."
"I appreciate them so much;
they have helped me through some rough times."
In my head, I said,
"How did the study of Political Science go?"
I'm interested in how Tingle's post will hit some people. I've raised similar ideas to colleagues and these ideas seem very very polarizing.
ReplyDeleteMy bet is that proffies who are Facebook friends with their students will be offended. But that's just my bet.
Yes, I suspect this one will reveal some pretty different answers to "why we teach." To me -- an introvert who generally likes her students, but is in it more for the ideas than the personal interactions -- this makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteI *hope*, however, that most people will agree that the sentiment expressed in these lines is inappropriate: "If I didn't have the support of my students, I don't think I could make it./I appreciate them so much; they have helped me through some rough times." We all have times when most aspects of our lives seem to be falling apart, and one thing -- be it work or a particular relationship or a single activity -- is the bright spot that helps us carry on. But this strikes me as an inappropriate mixing of the personal and the professional, and, even if one accepts that the two can sometimes overlap in appropriate ways, then it strikes me as an inappropriate reversal of roles, the equivalent of a parent looking to a child for nurture and/or support. Becky needs to build a life independent of the relationships she builds in the classroom (but I can guess one reason why she doesn't: the all-consuming nature of the work. But that's just another argument for doing whatever is necessary to keep it from being all-consuming).
Tingle won't say what he means. Kiss-ass proffies are assholes.
ReplyDeleteIn my classes, my students hate me and respect me. That's the appropriate combination. You can smell the fear and anxiety in my lecture hall, and those students come out razor sharp and ready to deal with this backwards world.
I'm preparing an army of well-schooled and engaged thinkers.
Anything less and you are ruining the professoriate.
I have facebook friends that are students--but I only allow former students. That I happen to like. I have student friends I've known for 20 years. But the friendship really only happens after the student is a student.
ReplyDeleteWhat on earth is/are amazeballz? How do you pronounce it?
ReplyDelete2. amazeballs
ReplyDeletea douchey/hollywoody way to say amazing, originated by a Youtube comedy duo named Jessica and Hunter and popularized by blogger Perez Hilton
OMG seeing LiLo at Hyde last night was AMAZEBALLS!
3. Amazeballs
The superlative used when a friend shares such exciting news with you that no other word embodies the excitement you feel over it.
Friend: After 10 months of desperately searching for a job, I found the most incredible job and start on Monday!
You: Aah, that is so amazeballs! I could not be happier for you :)
- from the "urban dictionary"
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete