Fear Me, For I Am Student!

[bloodyrosemccoy]

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I think I’m bullying one of my professors.

 

I’m not doing it on purpose, I swear. It’s just that I tend to get excited in classes that interest me, so I toss in my two cents either by raising my hand or, in direct violation of everything I learned in elementary school, blurt it right out. It’s difficult to curb this, and while it may be a sign of an Inquiring Young Mind, it’s also dead obnoxious when you’re a teacher trying to get through a lesson plan.

 

I try to assess each teacher’s response to this, and back off when necessary. But sometimes it’s hard to gauge it without asking—and I haven’t asked this one yet what she thinks. What it looks like she thinks, though, is that I’m actively mugging her every time I even raise my hand—a response I never have experienced before from any other teacher.

 

It’s not just me, though. She seems to take everything personally, from late arrivals to the traditional Two Minutes Of Class Left Gathering Of The Belongings, and she gets very sad when people sit on the fringes of the class instead of in the middle. Today I had picked up a newspaper and set it on the desk next to me, and I removed it from there to clear the desk for a latecomer. She looked at me so tragically that I felt a surge of guilt—as though I had heard her thinking, “Oh, god, she’s going to do the crossword in class! Am I that boring?”

 

A teacher with a response like that makes me feel like a great big lout. I need to ask her if she minds, in case there’s something I can do to make it easier for her.  But her sensitivity—that’s her own problem.

Comments

[cjtremlett.livejournal.com]

Is she new to teaching? In which case, it's pretty forgivable. If she's been teaching for years, though, it's obviously a problem and it's her problem. Of course, you can talk to her about your wanting to blurt things out and how she would prefer to handle it (if it was me, I'd say go right ahead unless I'm answering someone else's question!). If you put it in the light of your enthusiasm for or interest in the material, it can't hurt.

If she's a newbie as a teacher (or a relative newbie), she should be able to get over that oversensitivity. Or find ways to use it. I had a prof last term who is a nervous sort of person, and very nervous in front of the class. Evidently, his first term teaching, this made for a lot of awkwardness. By now, he's learned to use that, to blend it in with his warped sense of humor, and made it part of his charm as a teacher. Perhaps this woman can find a way to do something similar with her sensitivity.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Not very new--I had her last year one term, as well. But yeah, she's on her own. I forgive her anyway, because some people are just like that. ;)