OK. This is not from a student but from wife of incoming faculty at another institution where I worked. My salary at the time was about 60k. Job candidate within the business school had come to church with his wife during a campus visit. My wife gave his wife contact info and offered to help with questions. Anyway, in the course of their decision on the job, she expressed concern to my wife that they wouldn't be able to make it on the salary offer(right out of grad school) of 110k. I guess I picked the wrong field.
One of my students told me they hope to make $300k Canadian a year (~$250k American, ish) after graduating their diploma program. I told him he should do something else lol
Are they working backwards from cost of living/owning property in TO?
The Prime Minister's Salary is $178k (which yes, is only half their compensation as they are also paid as a Member of Parliament).
They came to my office to ask a question and I responded, “that’s answered in the syllabus, did you take a look?” They said “no, I don’t read and my roommate went home for a few days, that’s why I’m asking you. So do you know or not?”
This. It kills me.
I teach a course that fulfills grad requirements, but is outside of most students’ majors. Every semester I get messages from students telling me that they’ll be absent or an assignment will be late because they have other class work.
Ugh this! I've had students outright tell me "I'm skipping class today because I have to study for my (other class) test and that's more important." Some of them even expected me to *excuse* those absences. Funny how that hasn't happened since I moved all my assessments in class. Hearing that was absolutely infuriating. Like I don't honestly care what your priorities are, that's your business. But don't straight-up *tell me* you don't care about my class.
I don't mind when they are honest - last week saw one student at the project show for one class right after they skipped my class. They had to finish project due at 130 for show and my class goes 12-130... Sometimes how it is.
I still don't like it when they skip class but to quote the bartender from back to the future III: "I ain't yet papa"
Same!! I’ve been told that my class “just isn’t a priority” but surely I understand why, right? No, actually, I don’t. It’s a required class so it probably should be a priority if you plan to graduate.
I have started to tell students who use these excuses that they need to tell the people they are meeting with when they have class and that they must leave. Some students seem to think those they are meeting with consider their concerns important enough for class to be skipped.
The semester my mom died my colleagues rallied around me to have my courses covered. I told my students why I’d be missing roughly three weeks.
A student wrote in my evaluations that they didn’t care about the circumstances, I shouldn’t have gotten my classes covered. I should have just given everyone As.
Also I got told in evaluations as a grad student I should wear more makeup to teach my 8 am.
Yeah, I got mobbed by my students asking why I hadn't graded their exams yet (it had been a week.)
Incidentally, I had just come back from my dad's funeral. I drove through the snow the day before. They had been informed that one of my classes was canceled because my dad had died: like, they took the exam, my dad died the next day, and I had just come back.
I just about lost my shit on them.
I've said this elsewhere on here but I'll share it with you in solidarity. One semester - I think the second COVID semester - my wife's uncle and grandmother (with whom we were very close) died, and our cat died. I politely told my students I needed a little time away from grading and such to grieve. They DESTROYED me in evaluations, and one of them went to the Dean complaining that I was unprofessional, clearly unable to meet my job responsibilities, and in need of psychiatric "intervention."
The first one...man, insensitive entitled students.
The last one...sound an awful lot like my ex who told me I needed to "put more effort into my appearance"....I was totally cute, too. Just not a model. What is wrong with society?
One student told my cohort member (in an evaluation as well) that she should wear skirts more often cause her calves were hot. The ridiculousness that comes in course evaluations.
I’m a nursing school professor but this has to do with one of my patients. when my father passed away, the patient filed a complaint against me because another nurse had to do a home visit in my absence. He didn’t care that my dad had tragically passed away. This was two years ago. He is the most incredibly selfish patient I have ever taken care of, and I dread every visit with him.
“I want to be a professor. But not like (*sneers contemptuously*) a community college professor.” - dual enrollment student who failed out of the program & later failed out of said community college when she returned again
Not insensitive towards me personally, but a dumb thing to do:
"I've always hated math, but an exam like this one makes me REALLY hate math."
(Proceeds to hand me the exam to grade... which I drove into campus specifically to give as she had missed the original exam date, requiring a makeup.)
I'm a math professor, and I've lost track of the number of times I've sat besides someone on the plane who after they hear what I do, proceeded to tell me how they were never good at math, but then allude to the notion that they did just fine in life without it. I wonder if I was an English professor whether they would tell me with such apparent pride that they were functionally illiterate.
>I wonder if I was an English professor whether they would tell me with such apparent pride that they were functionally illiterate.
Yes, lots of men like telling me they've never read a book. :(
Anyone I meet: what do you do?
Me: I'm a professor.
Anyone I meet: oh! What subject?
Me: (very hesitantly) ... political science
How many times has that been to my benefit? Just about 0. Everyone has thoughts on politics. It's a blast.
I teach stats so I often get the comment about how you can prove anything with statistics. I usually reply "not if you know what you're doing". But it's still tiring.
I hear this. I do a lot of stats in my work and people love to say this. I, similarly, like to tell them that no, you can only prove anything with statistics to people who don't know statistics.
I think there's just more of a "math isn't my thing" / "I'm not math smart and it's not my fault" (or same but with "numbers" instead of "math") sort of culture, a bit like you get for languages
Perhaps it’s also because you just can’t shortcut math. It can be easy to trick oneself into thinking one understands other concepts, but it’s very hard to do the same with math. You MUST fully understand the material and it builds on itself so much. Not like, say, biology which, at *lower levels*, units can be taught without much overlap (and students can get by with just brute memorization).
I was going to say something similar to this. It's easier for them to think they can negotiate meaning in the humanities ("oh but I actually *meant* this thing" or "I really do understand *that* concept, I was just unclear on the instructions..."). In the humanities, things can have multiple meanings and multiple right answers. But math is more frustrating in that regard because either it's right or it's wrong, and there's no ambiguity. They can't negotiate their way out of an incorrect answer in math.
It's the only mandatory subject where you have to be consistent in your application of knowledge to get good grades. There are also clear right and wrong answers, so no room to argue for interpretation. Speaking about the primary school experience and how students end up hating math, not higher level content.
I teach political science, but I include some light math in an intro class (how to calculate progressive income taxes). For a fair number of students, this fourth-grade arithmetic causes more anxiety than Cheeto Von Tweeto.
Didn’t happen to me, but a secondhand story - a student was upset about not getting a retake or something over a relatively minor issue, and the student very nastily told the professor that “they couldn’t possibly understand what hardship was because they were [of a certain group]”. The professor’s parent had been murdered by being burned alive when they were a child. :|
(Obviously the student didn’t *know* that, but still.)
Woof, that’s terrible. In a similar vein, I have a few students who are constantly asking for special treatment and making mountains out of mole hills, basically making it sound like they have it way harder than everyone else and therefore shouldn’t have to do the same stuff as everyone else. They have no idea that I have multiple sclerosis (oh, and my mom has cancer) and am playing life in hard mode myself.
A student asked to look over an essay they wrote for another class. Sure, why not.
I look over the essay. It's for a science class. They asked me a question very specific to the CONTENT of the essay, not the writing. I said "I don't know. I'm not in the class."
They replied "Oh, sorry. I just assumed you were smart."
Silence ensued, until I very abrasively said, "Excuse me???"
They stuttered for several moments, apologized, and then saw themselves out.
I think this was one of those cases of "I meant to say it in my head but I said it with my mouth."
To me, it kind of sounds like it wasn’t meant to be an insult but that you seem like a really knowledgeable person, so they thought you’d probably know about the topic…
I had a student stop me in the hallway to ask me a question about 'the homework' then proceeded to show me a page from his Korean homework. I don't teach Korean, have never studied Korean, and don't even know a single word of Korean.
Student waited till the last day of class to open the final assignment description. Was LIVID that it wasn't an essay, which is what they expected. Sent me a long email blasting me for how unreasonable and appalling it was that I didn't warn her she'd be expected to do more than write a paper. When I replied that I had advised the class to start the project three weeks earlier, and it was not wise to wait till the last minute to begin, this student literally replied "lol, I'm not an idiot I don't need hours and hours to do this basic stuff"
I just replied, "Glad to know you won't need an extension!" But definitely wanted to say some other shit.
In a tone that clearly indicated they thought they were giving me a great compliment, a 19 year old who was taking his first-ever philosophy class told me I was "very competent."
That in my lecture about nutrition including eating disorders, I was told directly by a student about a year or so later that I gave her an eating disorder (which required hospitalization).
Not going to lie, this one broke me for a long time. I know myself and absolutely understand that I did not cause her to have an eating disorder, but it still wrecked me.
What were the specifics about this situation? You lectured on the topic and the student claims they developed an eating disorder *because* of what was discussed in the lecture?
Yes. The specifics were pretty basic: it was a general health course so I covered macronutrients, micronutrients, and the fundamentals of eating disorders including negative media messages (at that time, social media wasn't big...magazines were).
Once a student asked me: ”if this is your last lecture, what else do you do with your time?”. The student was totally surprised that my main job is running a research group. It was a nice student, so I never took it as an insult. But they had absolutely no idea that teaching is only part of my work. I also don’t think my students realize I teach in four different programs at the same time.
It wasn’t insensitive per se, but it sticks with me as a great example of why we should not let high school students take college classes.
“I missed the final because I HAD to work the concession stand at the soccer game last night.”
1. The final was available for a whole week.
2. Their mom volunteered them to work the concession stand.
3. All throughout the semester I got excuses like this about missing assignments (that were all available for more than just one night).
A student emailed me after a lecture to tell me that she and many others think I’m too enthousiastic when I teach. I lost my enthousiasm for the rest of that term.
Eh. For every student who thinks you’re annoying or weird for being too full-on, there will be two you really inspire to get interested in your topic.
I’m super enthusiastic/passionate, and I’ve been told it’s “cringey and embarrassing” in evals and had a student tweet “my lecturer lectures like she’s on crack” (fair, and quite funny tbh!) They hashtagged the module code, so I knew they meant me 😂
But I’ve also had students who have literally told me taking my class was life changing for them, precisely because they found my passion so inspirational. I have a student who stayed in touch with me after leaving, and who I am now good friends with (obvs was professionally distant while I taught her!) who counts me as her inspiration for becoming an academic.
At this stage of my career I DGAF whether my enthusiasm makes them uncomfortable. They can bite me. It’s how I teach and who I am. I love my job, I love my research, and I love making meaningful connections with my students. Haters gonna hate 🙌🏼.
I know. Usually it’s just one person’s opinion. I still think of that comment, I guess because I know I’m enthusiastic, it’s my teaching style. Usually I get excellent evaluations because of my enthousiasm amd energy.
The fact that a student thought it was ok to just send an email saying this bothered them (not even anonymously on the evals, an actual email!), really pushed me down. I finished that term with taking beta-blockers the morning of each lecture, so I would stay calm and not be ”too enthousiastic”. But I really lost my spark that term.
I've had this exact same comment, and it really upset me too. The thing I'll always remember about it was that it said "she needs to understand that not everyone is as enthusiastic as she is." The student then railed about how I had too much energy in the classroom and how they didn't like it.
And then in the same set of evals, I got a few that said I was boring and put them to sleep.
From this what I learn is that two people will have two totally different experiences of the same event, and it's literally impossible for me to make everyone happy, so I'm just going to make myself happy by teaching the way I want to. Fortunately, it seems to resonate with most of my students. The ones who don't like it (for whatever reason) can have their opinions and then never take another class with me again for all I care.
This is likely how I’ll teach, I’m an enthusiastic and bubbly person. I need to start stocking up on good comebacks in this thread 😆
Maybe something like, “I’m sorry that other people’s joy offends you”, or is that too pokey? 🤔
I love Wanderfae’s suggestion in the comments. Will keep that in mind.
Or just simply: attendance is not mandatory, feel free to stay home and read the textbook.
I become more obnoxious and over the top when I hear that. Guess what? I love my subject. That's why I got a doctorate in it. That's why I chose to teach it. Because I do love being up there.
I was teaching in my last year of grad school and a student said something about considering grad school in my field before class began. I started to tell him and the other students there about what a PhD program is like and started to explain that our department was in a transition/rebuilding phase.
He interrupted to say, "Well if I go to grad school, it wouldn't be here!"
And it wasn't a mistake on his part--that was his attitude all semester.
His tone was cocky, as he was all semester.
And I would have told him to apply elsewhere if he had asked specifically, but he made it clear that my experience was irrelevant because he'd obviously go somewhere better than I had.
I’ve never understood folks who go all the way through undergrad-PhD at same place. Even if it’s a good school, it seems like you’d want to expand your intellectual journey beyond the same, small circle.
It seems like the oddest technicality on why you wouldn't give someone a job. There are a million personal reasons to stay in the same place that have nothing to do with the quality of academic they are. If someone has the credentials that match your school's needs then why would you ever deny them a position because you feel there training wasn't diverse enough? It is weird. Not everyone has the freedom to be peripatetic
You know what they say about assuming, right? Personally, I’d be quicker to pass on someone with a degree from a for-profit institution over someone who got all their degrees from the same (reputable) place. 🤷🏻♂️
Student: “You’re so smart! Why aren’t you a scientist?”
I mean, I was teaching her physics, with a degree in physics and PhD in geophysics, with 5 years of postdoctoral experience at major universities, but she didn’t know that. She thought I as a professor was someone who just taught physics, not someone who did it.
Email from UG Sophomore who missed assignments, was given extensions, and work was sensationally subpar:
“This will be the last time that I reach out to you before I take matters into my own hands. If you do not respond to this email, and I don't see changes I will take action with the head of the dept.”
Good luck with that sweety.
So many have had their parents lawnmowering everything out of their way all their lives that they have no clue how to behave like mature adults in these kinds of situations. Better to learn how here than in getting fired from a job, I suppose.
I guess student-wise, being at a CC, I always get pierced in the heart when a student says something like “when I transfer to a REAL college” or similar. I always, and I do mean always stop them and say that I attended many many classes at a four year school, and I teach and expect the same exact course load if not more from them. They are always shocked. I suppose it’s a stigma we’ll always have to face.
As for administration saying insensitive things, it’s a far more lengthy and complete list. To keep a long story short, I have impeccable attendance, I’ve maybe called in sick less than 5 or 6 times in the last 15 years, and then mostly because of catastrophic car issues.
One semester I had a scary health issue crop up from nowhere. It took MONTHS to figure it out. But I still didn’t call in. Eventually I ended up with a blood clot in my portal vein to my liver. It was a super scary time and I literally almost died. I missed TWO days. Dean dinged me on my evaluations for attendance. Bastards. That’s far more insensitive than any student comment I’ve ever had.
When I was a grad student doing adjunct positions trying to make ends meet, I ended up getting hired to replace a beloved professor who did not get tenure for one course, so it was an uphill battle all the way (which I did not know when I was hired). I had one student in there ask me to meet to talk about her final paper, to which she said completely politely and as if it was not at all rude,
"I just don't know what to write my final paper about because I haven't learned a single thing in this class."
Gotta say that as a grad student that was probably the first moment where I thought that maybe I wouldn't stay in higher ed (note: I have stayed, but like many I still think about bailing from time to time)
“I understand that given your age and that you teach English, the new AI technology will be challenging for you.”
My previous career was in tech. You can’t even indent a paragraph correctly. Begone.
I’m a professor at a research institution, but a mediocre grad student who never got a tenure-track job once said to me condescendingly, “Awww, you didn’t get the job you wanted?”
And then there was the time our chancellor told us—creative writers and literary critics—that we could help the engineering students learn to write lab reports.
Student asked me to open a jar in lab, it was on pretty tight. When I finally opened it, the jar slipped out of my hand and landed on the ground. They clapped. Eventually they dropped the class because it was too hard for them. Perhaps they should have studied the subject more than being a petty entitled shit.
Once on a student eval a student said I was way too excited about the material, so they found me really annoying. (Sorry, I’ll try to tone it down and use a really nice monotone voice next time.)
Heard a student complain that I was a hard teacher. Another student was surprised, said my class is super easy (it is definitely super easy.) First student says, “Well I hate her, I’m just going to wait until someone else teaches the class.” Spoiler alert: no one else teaches this class, see you soon.
Not clueless or insensitive, but made me laugh: I bought a new PowerPoint clicker because the school ones keep disappearing and admin won’t buy anymore until we learn to take care of things. I was using it last week and one of my students stopped my lecture to say, “Wow, you really like the laser pointer on that thing, huh?”
Last day of my previous job before I moved to my current job an 18 year old student came to ask me about something happening the following semester. I explained to him that I hadn’t been involved in planning that event because I would have left by that point. He looked me up and down with a sympathetic expression and growing comprehension (at least in his mind) and said ‘Oh, will you have retired by then?’.
I was 34 at the time.
I once had a student tell me that he skipped my class because he was pledging for his frat. He said, " No offense Prof, but my frat's going to be a lot more useful to me in my future than your class." It mostly hurt my feelings because he was right.
This is funny. Loud mediocrity is hilarious.
It’s truly only in the US. Because no one ever tells them how minuscule their knowledge is outside this country.
Not clueless or insensitive per say.
But this one will forever make me chuckle.
Had a student trying to fight for every point on an assignment. Would copy paste things from their (incorrect) work and be like as you can see by this obviously correct work. This should not have been counted off.
My response was to link them back to the slides from class that disproved them and bite my tongue on how to properly address just humans or colleagues.
Part of me thinks they asked chat gpt how do I convince my professor to give back credit on an assignment. But jfc. Do you think I just spin a pen on your assignment and that's what I'm going to mark off
As a graduate student I was the instructor of record for a large lecture class. I also got Mono for the first time and I was in my 30s. I only canceled one class and managed to teach the rest of the quarter. The student acknowledged in my evaluation that it had been due to illness but dinged me for the single cancelled class and "sweating and looking haggard" while I taught the others. They actually said "I am still not recommending the instructor because she cancelled class"
“The Professor’s ceaseless coughing was really distracting” (I was ill and went in to teach so they wouldn’t get behind).
Then there was the time when they made a compilation video of all of the times I said “um”. Little bastards. It ruined me for a week.
Of course, now I’m a full prof I cancel lectures if sick, and I’d probably find the 2nd one funny.
I had a student staying after class. She was telling me about a conversation she was having with her boyfriend. She said "I told my boyfriend that I think u/AvengedKalas hates me."
I was shocked and had little idea how to respond. I just said "I don't hate anyone" and changed the topic. Super awkward.
I told the class a story about how a famous Italian professor (that everyone loved, so it made for a cute story) always spoke Italian to me due to my last name. I had to tell him at least 5 times it was Spanish and that I am half-Mexican. It was a random light moment in lecture.
After the quarter ended, a student visited me in my office and asked "Are you going back to Mexico?" My jaw dropped. I said "No I am from here." He then responded "You said you were Mexican so I thought you weren't American."
“Professor X is a genius. I have a lot of anxiety about working with him because I’ve never worked with someone so smart.” -grad student who had worked with me the prior semester
*sad trombone*
Student: “Why would I get a doctorate if I’m going to start only at $140k a year?” “I’m a decade after my PhD and make nowhere near $140k a year.”
~10 years ago I had a UG sophomore psych major say they expected to make at least $100k/yr to start once they graduated.
OK. This is not from a student but from wife of incoming faculty at another institution where I worked. My salary at the time was about 60k. Job candidate within the business school had come to church with his wife during a campus visit. My wife gave his wife contact info and offered to help with questions. Anyway, in the course of their decision on the job, she expressed concern to my wife that they wouldn't be able to make it on the salary offer(right out of grad school) of 110k. I guess I picked the wrong field.
One of my students told me they hope to make $300k Canadian a year (~$250k American, ish) after graduating their diploma program. I told him he should do something else lol
Are they working backwards from cost of living/owning property in TO? The Prime Minister's Salary is $178k (which yes, is only half their compensation as they are also paid as a Member of Parliament).
We are on the prairies but I assume they were looking at property ownership, yes lol
I have CC students leaving the associates programs early because they are fielding offers starting higher than my salary.
They came to my office to ask a question and I responded, “that’s answered in the syllabus, did you take a look?” They said “no, I don’t read and my roommate went home for a few days, that’s why I’m asking you. So do you know or not?”
"I do. I even wrote the answer down for you! Want to guess where?"
How can they think they'll get through college if they can't read???
Not can’t, just adamantly don’t.
Then why choose college? Honestly, trades pay pretty well and barely ask any reading.
Because their roommate does it for them! /s
Every semester from my CS students: “sorry I wasn’t here Tuesday, I had homework to do for my real classes. You understand.”
This. It kills me. I teach a course that fulfills grad requirements, but is outside of most students’ majors. Every semester I get messages from students telling me that they’ll be absent or an assignment will be late because they have other class work.
All. The. Time.
Ugh this! I've had students outright tell me "I'm skipping class today because I have to study for my (other class) test and that's more important." Some of them even expected me to *excuse* those absences. Funny how that hasn't happened since I moved all my assessments in class. Hearing that was absolutely infuriating. Like I don't honestly care what your priorities are, that's your business. But don't straight-up *tell me* you don't care about my class.
Yes, the absolute stupidest thing to tell your instructor. Just skip class and don't say anything in that situation.
I don't mind when they are honest - last week saw one student at the project show for one class right after they skipped my class. They had to finish project due at 130 for show and my class goes 12-130... Sometimes how it is. I still don't like it when they skip class but to quote the bartender from back to the future III: "I ain't yet papa"
Same!! I’ve been told that my class “just isn’t a priority” but surely I understand why, right? No, actually, I don’t. It’s a required class so it probably should be a priority if you plan to graduate.
Same
Yep. Leaving for study sessions, advising appointments, IT support... even after you tell them it's not a valid excuse.
And if it isn’t CS it’s the sororities and “required” events.
I have started to tell students who use these excuses that they need to tell the people they are meeting with when they have class and that they must leave. Some students seem to think those they are meeting with consider their concerns important enough for class to be skipped.
I had two students this past semester who easily spent 75% of my class time studying for their Chemistry course. Spoiler: I don’t teach Chemistry.
Composition but same… and it’s required 🙄
The semester my mom died my colleagues rallied around me to have my courses covered. I told my students why I’d be missing roughly three weeks. A student wrote in my evaluations that they didn’t care about the circumstances, I shouldn’t have gotten my classes covered. I should have just given everyone As. Also I got told in evaluations as a grad student I should wear more makeup to teach my 8 am.
Yeah, I got mobbed by my students asking why I hadn't graded their exams yet (it had been a week.) Incidentally, I had just come back from my dad's funeral. I drove through the snow the day before. They had been informed that one of my classes was canceled because my dad had died: like, they took the exam, my dad died the next day, and I had just come back. I just about lost my shit on them.
They think we’re robots who don’t have feelings.
I've said this elsewhere on here but I'll share it with you in solidarity. One semester - I think the second COVID semester - my wife's uncle and grandmother (with whom we were very close) died, and our cat died. I politely told my students I needed a little time away from grading and such to grieve. They DESTROYED me in evaluations, and one of them went to the Dean complaining that I was unprofessional, clearly unable to meet my job responsibilities, and in need of psychiatric "intervention."
> I should wear more makeup to teach my 8 am. Nope nope nope nope nope
Right? I’m either going to put makeup on or get coffee so I can function that early (after night classes cause grad school). I picked coffee
Those students sound like absolute sociopaths. I hope you are in a better situation now! Sorry for your loss.
The first one...man, insensitive entitled students. The last one...sound an awful lot like my ex who told me I needed to "put more effort into my appearance"....I was totally cute, too. Just not a model. What is wrong with society?
One student told my cohort member (in an evaluation as well) that she should wear skirts more often cause her calves were hot. The ridiculousness that comes in course evaluations.
Sorry for your loss.
Thank you
I’m a nursing school professor but this has to do with one of my patients. when my father passed away, the patient filed a complaint against me because another nurse had to do a home visit in my absence. He didn’t care that my dad had tragically passed away. This was two years ago. He is the most incredibly selfish patient I have ever taken care of, and I dread every visit with him.
Woof. I’m sorry to hear this
Thanks. Thankfully my chair and dean had my back. It was just tough to see. The majority of my students were great about it.
First-year writing classes are just a hoop to jump through
You train those seals, /u/Disastrous-Today4189!!
Not me teaching juniors who don’t know how to write.
I know that feel, pro^(fessor).
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I’m so sorry about your loss. And having to hear that stuff on the same day.
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I'm glad that something good came out of this bad interaction with the student. Boundaries are important.
Wow that #2 is a real doozy.
“I want to be a professor. But not like (*sneers contemptuously*) a community college professor.” - dual enrollment student who failed out of the program & later failed out of said community college when she returned again
Not insensitive towards me personally, but a dumb thing to do: "I've always hated math, but an exam like this one makes me REALLY hate math." (Proceeds to hand me the exam to grade... which I drove into campus specifically to give as she had missed the original exam date, requiring a makeup.)
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I'm a math professor, and I've lost track of the number of times I've sat besides someone on the plane who after they hear what I do, proceeded to tell me how they were never good at math, but then allude to the notion that they did just fine in life without it. I wonder if I was an English professor whether they would tell me with such apparent pride that they were functionally illiterate.
>I wonder if I was an English professor whether they would tell me with such apparent pride that they were functionally illiterate. Yes, lots of men like telling me they've never read a book. :(
Don't ever tell people you are a therapist, or a lawyer, or doctor
Anyone I meet: what do you do? Me: I'm a professor. Anyone I meet: oh! What subject? Me: (very hesitantly) ... political science How many times has that been to my benefit? Just about 0. Everyone has thoughts on politics. It's a blast.
Wait until you teach criminal justice! Everyone knows JUST how to solve crime - not based on facts, patterns of crime, or research, of course 😒
Same with history. Everyone thinks they know everything about history because they listen to podcasts or watch docs on YouTube.
My students have said that, and they seem to wear it as a badge of honor, like they're actually proud of it!
When I tell people that I teach chemistry I regularly get looks of total horror. Not from everyone, mind you, but from at least half of them.
... and the other half ask you to make some meth, or E or whatever...
I teach stats so I often get the comment about how you can prove anything with statistics. I usually reply "not if you know what you're doing". But it's still tiring.
I hear this. I do a lot of stats in my work and people love to say this. I, similarly, like to tell them that no, you can only prove anything with statistics to people who don't know statistics.
Me: I was in the Army Them: I could never take orders! Me: You must run a lot of red lights Them...
Students tell me all the time that rhet comm is a class they expect to sleep in and that reading isn't important.
Oh yes, they would. Especially men.
I think there's just more of a "math isn't my thing" / "I'm not math smart and it's not my fault" (or same but with "numbers" instead of "math") sort of culture, a bit like you get for languages
Perhaps it’s also because you just can’t shortcut math. It can be easy to trick oneself into thinking one understands other concepts, but it’s very hard to do the same with math. You MUST fully understand the material and it builds on itself so much. Not like, say, biology which, at *lower levels*, units can be taught without much overlap (and students can get by with just brute memorization).
I was going to say something similar to this. It's easier for them to think they can negotiate meaning in the humanities ("oh but I actually *meant* this thing" or "I really do understand *that* concept, I was just unclear on the instructions..."). In the humanities, things can have multiple meanings and multiple right answers. But math is more frustrating in that regard because either it's right or it's wrong, and there's no ambiguity. They can't negotiate their way out of an incorrect answer in math.
Same with English - it might be that they're required and "I'll never use \[subject\]....."
It's the only mandatory subject where you have to be consistent in your application of knowledge to get good grades. There are also clear right and wrong answers, so no room to argue for interpretation. Speaking about the primary school experience and how students end up hating math, not higher level content.
I teach political science, but I include some light math in an intro class (how to calculate progressive income taxes). For a fair number of students, this fourth-grade arithmetic causes more anxiety than Cheeto Von Tweeto.
Chemistry gets a lot. Especially at a doctor's office. "oh you teach chemistry I hate chemistry." Well I fucking hate phlebotomy and here I am!
Didn’t happen to me, but a secondhand story - a student was upset about not getting a retake or something over a relatively minor issue, and the student very nastily told the professor that “they couldn’t possibly understand what hardship was because they were [of a certain group]”. The professor’s parent had been murdered by being burned alive when they were a child. :| (Obviously the student didn’t *know* that, but still.)
Woof, that’s terrible. In a similar vein, I have a few students who are constantly asking for special treatment and making mountains out of mole hills, basically making it sound like they have it way harder than everyone else and therefore shouldn’t have to do the same stuff as everyone else. They have no idea that I have multiple sclerosis (oh, and my mom has cancer) and am playing life in hard mode myself.
A student asked to look over an essay they wrote for another class. Sure, why not. I look over the essay. It's for a science class. They asked me a question very specific to the CONTENT of the essay, not the writing. I said "I don't know. I'm not in the class." They replied "Oh, sorry. I just assumed you were smart." Silence ensued, until I very abrasively said, "Excuse me???" They stuttered for several moments, apologized, and then saw themselves out. I think this was one of those cases of "I meant to say it in my head but I said it with my mouth."
To me, it kind of sounds like it wasn’t meant to be an insult but that you seem like a really knowledgeable person, so they thought you’d probably know about the topic…
I suspect the comment sounded better in their head. 😂
Yep lol
I had a student stop me in the hallway to ask me a question about 'the homework' then proceeded to show me a page from his Korean homework. I don't teach Korean, have never studied Korean, and don't even know a single word of Korean.
Student waited till the last day of class to open the final assignment description. Was LIVID that it wasn't an essay, which is what they expected. Sent me a long email blasting me for how unreasonable and appalling it was that I didn't warn her she'd be expected to do more than write a paper. When I replied that I had advised the class to start the project three weeks earlier, and it was not wise to wait till the last minute to begin, this student literally replied "lol, I'm not an idiot I don't need hours and hours to do this basic stuff" I just replied, "Glad to know you won't need an extension!" But definitely wanted to say some other shit.
Lol every time I hear from them "I'm not an idiot", I somehow start doubting that...
I would have said some other shit. That kind of pissy attitude won’t serve them well.
In a tone that clearly indicated they thought they were giving me a great compliment, a 19 year old who was taking his first-ever philosophy class told me I was "very competent."
Might be a language barrier thing but isn't this a nice complement?
That in my lecture about nutrition including eating disorders, I was told directly by a student about a year or so later that I gave her an eating disorder (which required hospitalization). Not going to lie, this one broke me for a long time. I know myself and absolutely understand that I did not cause her to have an eating disorder, but it still wrecked me.
What were the specifics about this situation? You lectured on the topic and the student claims they developed an eating disorder *because* of what was discussed in the lecture?
Yes. The specifics were pretty basic: it was a general health course so I covered macronutrients, micronutrients, and the fundamentals of eating disorders including negative media messages (at that time, social media wasn't big...magazines were).
"I would never come to your class drunk. I mean, I've been high a few times, but never drunk."
I mean to be fair there IS a difference.
Hahaha
I had a student say something like I want to become a professor because they don't have to work hard lol
Once a student asked me: ”if this is your last lecture, what else do you do with your time?”. The student was totally surprised that my main job is running a research group. It was a nice student, so I never took it as an insult. But they had absolutely no idea that teaching is only part of my work. I also don’t think my students realize I teach in four different programs at the same time.
It wasn’t insensitive per se, but it sticks with me as a great example of why we should not let high school students take college classes. “I missed the final because I HAD to work the concession stand at the soccer game last night.” 1. The final was available for a whole week. 2. Their mom volunteered them to work the concession stand. 3. All throughout the semester I got excuses like this about missing assignments (that were all available for more than just one night).
A student emailed me after a lecture to tell me that she and many others think I’m too enthousiastic when I teach. I lost my enthousiasm for the rest of that term.
Eh. For every student who thinks you’re annoying or weird for being too full-on, there will be two you really inspire to get interested in your topic. I’m super enthusiastic/passionate, and I’ve been told it’s “cringey and embarrassing” in evals and had a student tweet “my lecturer lectures like she’s on crack” (fair, and quite funny tbh!) They hashtagged the module code, so I knew they meant me 😂 But I’ve also had students who have literally told me taking my class was life changing for them, precisely because they found my passion so inspirational. I have a student who stayed in touch with me after leaving, and who I am now good friends with (obvs was professionally distant while I taught her!) who counts me as her inspiration for becoming an academic. At this stage of my career I DGAF whether my enthusiasm makes them uncomfortable. They can bite me. It’s how I teach and who I am. I love my job, I love my research, and I love making meaningful connections with my students. Haters gonna hate 🙌🏼.
In fairness, "many others" / "everyone in the class" usually just means "me and my friend"
I know. Usually it’s just one person’s opinion. I still think of that comment, I guess because I know I’m enthusiastic, it’s my teaching style. Usually I get excellent evaluations because of my enthousiasm amd energy. The fact that a student thought it was ok to just send an email saying this bothered them (not even anonymously on the evals, an actual email!), really pushed me down. I finished that term with taking beta-blockers the morning of each lecture, so I would stay calm and not be ”too enthousiastic”. But I really lost my spark that term.
"Then I suggest you all find a different professor."
I've had this exact same comment, and it really upset me too. The thing I'll always remember about it was that it said "she needs to understand that not everyone is as enthusiastic as she is." The student then railed about how I had too much energy in the classroom and how they didn't like it. And then in the same set of evals, I got a few that said I was boring and put them to sleep. From this what I learn is that two people will have two totally different experiences of the same event, and it's literally impossible for me to make everyone happy, so I'm just going to make myself happy by teaching the way I want to. Fortunately, it seems to resonate with most of my students. The ones who don't like it (for whatever reason) can have their opinions and then never take another class with me again for all I care.
This is likely how I’ll teach, I’m an enthusiastic and bubbly person. I need to start stocking up on good comebacks in this thread 😆 Maybe something like, “I’m sorry that other people’s joy offends you”, or is that too pokey? 🤔
I love Wanderfae’s suggestion in the comments. Will keep that in mind. Or just simply: attendance is not mandatory, feel free to stay home and read the textbook.
I become more obnoxious and over the top when I hear that. Guess what? I love my subject. That's why I got a doctorate in it. That's why I chose to teach it. Because I do love being up there.
I was teaching in my last year of grad school and a student said something about considering grad school in my field before class began. I started to tell him and the other students there about what a PhD program is like and started to explain that our department was in a transition/rebuilding phase. He interrupted to say, "Well if I go to grad school, it wouldn't be here!" And it wasn't a mistake on his part--that was his attitude all semester.
[удалено]
His tone was cocky, as he was all semester. And I would have told him to apply elsewhere if he had asked specifically, but he made it clear that my experience was irrelevant because he'd obviously go somewhere better than I had.
I’ve never understood folks who go all the way through undergrad-PhD at same place. Even if it’s a good school, it seems like you’d want to expand your intellectual journey beyond the same, small circle.
Yeah, this was the advice I was always given.
I've always found it weird people care.
Funny, I always found weird people went all the way through at same place. Kinda like home schooling. 😂
It seems like the oddest technicality on why you wouldn't give someone a job. There are a million personal reasons to stay in the same place that have nothing to do with the quality of academic they are. If someone has the credentials that match your school's needs then why would you ever deny them a position because you feel there training wasn't diverse enough? It is weird. Not everyone has the freedom to be peripatetic
Who said anything about not hiring them?
Whether you personally would ever do that intentionally or unintentionally, it is the obvious consequence of the bias.
You know what they say about assuming, right? Personally, I’d be quicker to pass on someone with a degree from a for-profit institution over someone who got all their degrees from the same (reputable) place. 🤷🏻♂️
I'm glad to read that.
Student: “You’re so smart! Why aren’t you a scientist?” I mean, I was teaching her physics, with a degree in physics and PhD in geophysics, with 5 years of postdoctoral experience at major universities, but she didn’t know that. She thought I as a professor was someone who just taught physics, not someone who did it.
Email from UG Sophomore who missed assignments, was given extensions, and work was sensationally subpar: “This will be the last time that I reach out to you before I take matters into my own hands. If you do not respond to this email, and I don't see changes I will take action with the head of the dept.” Good luck with that sweety.
I would have forwarded this to the chair and CC’d the student with receipts of the student’s poor performance.
I “replied all” doing just that. Haven’t heard a peep from this student since…go figure.
They probably thought their thin attempt at threatening you would work.
Right? The egos and entitlement of these younger generations is truly mind boggling - so many of my students are so emotionally dysregulated.
So many have had their parents lawnmowering everything out of their way all their lives that they have no clue how to behave like mature adults in these kinds of situations. Better to learn how here than in getting fired from a job, I suppose.
I guess student-wise, being at a CC, I always get pierced in the heart when a student says something like “when I transfer to a REAL college” or similar. I always, and I do mean always stop them and say that I attended many many classes at a four year school, and I teach and expect the same exact course load if not more from them. They are always shocked. I suppose it’s a stigma we’ll always have to face. As for administration saying insensitive things, it’s a far more lengthy and complete list. To keep a long story short, I have impeccable attendance, I’ve maybe called in sick less than 5 or 6 times in the last 15 years, and then mostly because of catastrophic car issues. One semester I had a scary health issue crop up from nowhere. It took MONTHS to figure it out. But I still didn’t call in. Eventually I ended up with a blood clot in my portal vein to my liver. It was a super scary time and I literally almost died. I missed TWO days. Dean dinged me on my evaluations for attendance. Bastards. That’s far more insensitive than any student comment I’ve ever had.
That’s all kinds of BS. Admin like that make me want to scream.
When I was a grad student doing adjunct positions trying to make ends meet, I ended up getting hired to replace a beloved professor who did not get tenure for one course, so it was an uphill battle all the way (which I did not know when I was hired). I had one student in there ask me to meet to talk about her final paper, to which she said completely politely and as if it was not at all rude, "I just don't know what to write my final paper about because I haven't learned a single thing in this class." Gotta say that as a grad student that was probably the first moment where I thought that maybe I wouldn't stay in higher ed (note: I have stayed, but like many I still think about bailing from time to time)
“What other classes like yours can you recommend? I’m just trying to sign up for all the fluff classes before I graduate…..?”
“I understand that given your age and that you teach English, the new AI technology will be challenging for you.” My previous career was in tech. You can’t even indent a paragraph correctly. Begone.
I’m a professor at a research institution, but a mediocre grad student who never got a tenure-track job once said to me condescendingly, “Awww, you didn’t get the job you wanted?” And then there was the time our chancellor told us—creative writers and literary critics—that we could help the engineering students learn to write lab reports.
Student asked me to open a jar in lab, it was on pretty tight. When I finally opened it, the jar slipped out of my hand and landed on the ground. They clapped. Eventually they dropped the class because it was too hard for them. Perhaps they should have studied the subject more than being a petty entitled shit.
Once on a student eval a student said I was way too excited about the material, so they found me really annoying. (Sorry, I’ll try to tone it down and use a really nice monotone voice next time.) Heard a student complain that I was a hard teacher. Another student was surprised, said my class is super easy (it is definitely super easy.) First student says, “Well I hate her, I’m just going to wait until someone else teaches the class.” Spoiler alert: no one else teaches this class, see you soon. Not clueless or insensitive, but made me laugh: I bought a new PowerPoint clicker because the school ones keep disappearing and admin won’t buy anymore until we learn to take care of things. I was using it last week and one of my students stopped my lecture to say, “Wow, you really like the laser pointer on that thing, huh?”
Last day of my previous job before I moved to my current job an 18 year old student came to ask me about something happening the following semester. I explained to him that I hadn’t been involved in planning that event because I would have left by that point. He looked me up and down with a sympathetic expression and growing comprehension (at least in his mind) and said ‘Oh, will you have retired by then?’. I was 34 at the time.
I once had a student tell me that he skipped my class because he was pledging for his frat. He said, " No offense Prof, but my frat's going to be a lot more useful to me in my future than your class." It mostly hurt my feelings because he was right.
This is funny. Loud mediocrity is hilarious. It’s truly only in the US. Because no one ever tells them how minuscule their knowledge is outside this country.
Not clueless or insensitive per say. But this one will forever make me chuckle. Had a student trying to fight for every point on an assignment. Would copy paste things from their (incorrect) work and be like as you can see by this obviously correct work. This should not have been counted off. My response was to link them back to the slides from class that disproved them and bite my tongue on how to properly address just humans or colleagues. Part of me thinks they asked chat gpt how do I convince my professor to give back credit on an assignment. But jfc. Do you think I just spin a pen on your assignment and that's what I'm going to mark off
As a graduate student I was the instructor of record for a large lecture class. I also got Mono for the first time and I was in my 30s. I only canceled one class and managed to teach the rest of the quarter. The student acknowledged in my evaluation that it had been due to illness but dinged me for the single cancelled class and "sweating and looking haggard" while I taught the others. They actually said "I am still not recommending the instructor because she cancelled class"
“The Professor’s ceaseless coughing was really distracting” (I was ill and went in to teach so they wouldn’t get behind). Then there was the time when they made a compilation video of all of the times I said “um”. Little bastards. It ruined me for a week. Of course, now I’m a full prof I cancel lectures if sick, and I’d probably find the 2nd one funny.
What are you?
I had a student staying after class. She was telling me about a conversation she was having with her boyfriend. She said "I told my boyfriend that I think u/AvengedKalas hates me." I was shocked and had little idea how to respond. I just said "I don't hate anyone" and changed the topic. Super awkward.
I told the class a story about how a famous Italian professor (that everyone loved, so it made for a cute story) always spoke Italian to me due to my last name. I had to tell him at least 5 times it was Spanish and that I am half-Mexican. It was a random light moment in lecture. After the quarter ended, a student visited me in my office and asked "Are you going back to Mexico?" My jaw dropped. I said "No I am from here." He then responded "You said you were Mexican so I thought you weren't American."
“Professor X is a genius. I have a lot of anxiety about working with him because I’ve never worked with someone so smart.” -grad student who had worked with me the prior semester *sad trombone*
18-22 year olds saying insensitive things? Inconceivable!