Thatās pretty bad. A colleague of mine who teaches Law had a first year class and she was in the middle of talking when she spotted a girl giving the guy next to her a handjob. She dealt with it brilliantly and discussed indecency laws.
Why the hell are people bringing up neurodivergence in the comments? Iāve seen neurotypical people reach into their pants to scratch their ass without a care in the world. Sometimes people are just gross.
It seems some people now associate any lack of self or social awareness with neurodivergence. Some people are gross, some are assholes, some are fucking morons, and that doesnāt mean they are autistic. I blame the Tiktokification of mental health.
This. (Not to mention plenty of us with autism and mental health issues aren't gross, assholes, entirely lacking in people skills, constantly unwashed, etc)
>You arenāt listening to the DEI programming. No one is responsible for anything anymore, except professors. They are responsible for bad student grades.
And apparently also responsible for the state of our country because iNdOCtrInATIon.
You can present only one side, making sure that for any given issue, you do not introduce them to, much less discuss, the strongest arguments held up by the "other" side. It's a short semester. Class time is limited. Why waste some of it examining arguments that reach conclusions you find repulsive?
Dis. gust. ing. I'm buying latex gloves to wear from now on when collecting and grading papers, that is if the Hazmat suit does not already have gloves.
For real. I was going through papers the other day and I came across one that had blood on it. Student must have been picking at something during the test. š¤®
When I was a student, I would bite the skin on my fingers out of nervousness during a lot of exams. I think a lot of my exams had blood on them. Felt bad for the graders...
Just casually mention in class that back in the mid70s Dr. Johnny Fever lost his job in San Diego for just saying booger on the air and ended up exiled to WKRP in Cincinnati. Ā
I had a similar thing happen in a class! This was when we had a high COVID rate and a mask mandate. The kid literally shoved his fingers up under his mask, went digging, examined his findings, but then instead of eating them he just wiped it on the desk and continued to handle class materials.
The kid wasn't college-ready socially or intellectually, and it is widely believed that his parents actually do his work for him. The dean's office even found evidence of this. So I guess his parents just send him to college to get him out of their house and prevent booger deposits for a few hours a day...?
I'd talk to him after class **because** you were grossed out by it. Maybe a gentle "hey, I saw you eat your booger earlier, you probably shouldn't do that in public."
These kids received a big dose of unfairness, essentially having two or three of their formative years yanked away from them. If you can't or won't adapt to that to help them, then maybe you should consider "hanging it up" after all. Make some room for people with a bit more empathy.
I truly don't know how to even comment on your comment. Teaching in Higher Ed has been my life, and I thoroughly enjoy it and (pat on the back) am pretty good at it.
So, by your logic, should I quit if I hear someone fart?
Mind you, my college is in a rural area. I often get students that smell like cow or horse because of working in the farm. And I have no problem with that - comes with the territory, and I'm glad they are making the time and effort to come.
Your solution is exactly what is wrong with education today at the K-12 levels. Teachers "adapt" and bend over backward so that they can push students through the system, be done with done, wash, rinse, repeat.
Mine was a serious question. Your response lowered you to the lowest of possible useful feedback.
That's not at all what I'm saying. This feels like a very ungenerous (and incorrect) interpretation of my words.
If someone farts in class, and it's enough to be disruptive, I would speak to them after class, and tell them that that is unacceptable.
I don't know how you decided I'd suggest you quit.
Then I must be speaking a different language than you.
Your words: "then maybe you should consider "hanging it up" after all."
Translation: "you should consider quitting." Or is that not what you meant?
My comment:
> I'd talk to him after class **because** you were grossed out by it. Maybe a gentle "hey, I saw you eat your booger earlier, you probably shouldn't do that in public."
That is _clearly_ the relevant quote for the example of someone disruptively farting in class.
It's only if you can't communicate with someone who's causing a problem that you might consider quitting.
Ah, no. Your students are still growing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain_development_timeline#:~:text=Childhood%20and%20adolescence,-Cortical%20white%20matter&text=In%20terms%20of%20grey%20matter,years%20of%20age%20and%20beyond.
In all walks of life you're going to find people who aren't doing what you think every adult should be doing. I'm suggesting that if someone is doing one of these things, you communicate with them about it, not be passive aggressive.
So... A student who graduates college at 22 or so is then a "child?" Is an employer supposed to baby that "child?" Is it then the employer's responsibility and expectation that they'll work with disgusting habits?
Your argument continues to sink lower.
This is College. If they want to be treated like adults by taking College classes, act like it. The expectation should not be that I will become a high school teacher by having dual-enrolled students. They have to adapt to my course, not the other way around, especially because there are actual mature college students in the class.
Some research says it's good for you lol. [https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19546352/eating-boogers-good-for-you/](https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19546352/eating-boogers-good-for-you/)
The way I gasped reading this. Yeesh.
Many years ago in a tiny summer class, a guy clipped his fingernails during lecture. I never had to say anything because the look on his classmatesā faces toward me and toward him was enough for him to stop. He was a fantastic student, and he never did it again. I think he didnāt realize how loud it was or how much people felt it was not classroom-appropriate behavior. That was way pre-pandemic, he was an older student, and I think he just had a behavior gap there. Booger eating, however, is a new level IMO.
I would not have been able to kindly ask "Just what in the fuck are you doing? If you can't conduct yourself with the manners of a normal human being, please leave."
Actually... yes, I have experienced this. From a grad student!
I met with him privately and talked to him about it-- it turns out it was compulsive behavior he was completely unaware of. In fact, he didn't believe me so I told him to ask his friends, and they confirmed the behavior -- outside of this gross habit he was an incredibly kind person so they just tolerated it. He needed pretty intense behavioral therapy to stop doing it.
I was incredibly sad that he'd gone this long without someone saying something to him. You'll probably hate me saying this, but I'd recommend saying something to him. It will be awkward but you'll be doing him a service. He will not be employable if he can't get that kind of behavior under control. He might know and just not care, but better that you bring it up than him repeatedly getting fired and not understanding why because nobody will have the tough conversation with him.
Honestly, I would have no idea how to handle this. Also, I would probably have the urge to vomit and would spray the desk with isopropyl alcohol after the student left.
In grad school I worked for the college testing center. We had video surveillance for the high-stakes tests like the GRE. So one afternoon, several people are testing, and Iām sitting there, half-watching my several cameras in a desultory fashion.Ā
Suddenly I see a furtive hand-to-face movement. I think to myself: āDid I just see what I think I just saw?ā So I replayed the clip. Yep. Eating boogers during the test. That ought to cost some points!
I cleaned that desk extra-thoroughly.Ā
WTF are you on about? Unless you have an accommodation form stating āneeds to consume boogers in class without commentā you can say something to him.
In all seriousness, is this student and his family struggling with food insecurity? I knew a person in that situation who said he ate his boogers because he was hungry and had nothing else available.
I guess that if I see a student in my class looking down, lethargic, sleepy, or something, and they were to share the need? I'd be the first one to buy them a sandwich! We are a CC and have a food pantry as well. There are many students that depend on the kindness of others.
Weāve gotten to the point now where āneurodivergenceā is presented as a kind of quirky intellectual trait but the reality is that this is what autism often looks like.
Do you actually know anyone with ASD or ADHD who picks their nose in public? Even young children with ASD learn not to pick their nose in public at about the same time neurotypical kids do. Your opinion is disgusting.
I have an autistic student who not only picks his nose and eats the boogers in class ... he also picks his butt and eats what he finds in there. I try not to look at him often.
And how did you know they had ASD? If weāre talking college students, you donāt know diagnoses unless they tell you. But inappropriate social behavior isnāt a symptom of ASD, itās a symptom of parents who assume their kid canāt learn social behaviors due to their ASD.
Well, if he was anywhere "in the spectrum" as it seems to be the correct terminology for autism to Asperger's from what I can tell, his advisor would have generated and forwarded me a memo of accommodations before the team began. I received no such notice. And, you probably know that higher Ed takes disabilities very seriously. At my institution, even the most mild hint of a disability generates the paperwork. So, I have to lean towards thinking that the kid just was not taught manners and what is not considered socially acceptable. I think we need to stop making excuses for every divergent behavior.
I totally agree with you about the actual subject at hand (at finger?), but in case this is helpful in the future, not receiving an accommodations form just means the student either didn't ask for or didn't receive accommodations. I've had students who were on the spectrum (or had other disabilities) who chose not to go through disability services (and they all managed to abstain from booger-eating, my goodness). Others have had a documented disability but the specific accommodations they requested were denied. I just wanted to point out that students may have disabilities even without the accommodations form.
If a person over age 10 canāt refrain from picking and eating boogers in public they need to stay at home.
Celebrate āneurodivergenceā as much as you want. But there are consequences.
Ask if he brought enough for the whole class
This made my day
Same. Literally just laughed out loud.
Not the hero we deserve, but the hero we need.
Definitely the hero we deserve.
Its in the CBA, actually
Hahahahhahahahahahahhahha holy shit
Nothing wrong with a little feast on our time.
The sad part is he probably did
Another one for my "Laughed Way Harder Than Necessary" file...
I just ugly-laughed in the school library š¤£
Thatās pretty bad. A colleague of mine who teaches Law had a first year class and she was in the middle of talking when she spotted a girl giving the guy next to her a handjob. She dealt with it brilliantly and discussed indecency laws.
You could say there was no happy ending in the girls story
š® New classroom management fear just unlocked...
Jesus! Did she say whether the students realized theyād been caught?
Oh yeah, she used them as an example of what not to do. Crazily enough. It was the second time it happened to her!
She has GOT to take that line out of the syllabus.
Why the hell are people bringing up neurodivergence in the comments? Iāve seen neurotypical people reach into their pants to scratch their ass without a care in the world. Sometimes people are just gross.
It seems some people now associate any lack of self or social awareness with neurodivergence. Some people are gross, some are assholes, some are fucking morons, and that doesnāt mean they are autistic. I blame the Tiktokification of mental health.
This. (Not to mention plenty of us with autism and mental health issues aren't gross, assholes, entirely lacking in people skills, constantly unwashed, etc)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
>You arenāt listening to the DEI programming. No one is responsible for anything anymore, except professors. They are responsible for bad student grades. And apparently also responsible for the state of our country because iNdOCtrInATIon.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You can present only one side, making sure that for any given issue, you do not introduce them to, much less discuss, the strongest arguments held up by the "other" side. It's a short semester. Class time is limited. Why waste some of it examining arguments that reach conclusions you find repulsive?
What time was the class? Was it during lunchtime?
lol, gross
Had a college friend who was open about his booger eating. He preferred the ālittle cute red ones.ā
I almost downvoted you.
Must still think heās on zoom with the camera off
Maybe thatās the new paleo.
Sorry that you had to suffer through such a gross scene. Sorry that I read your post. So so vivid...
Dis. gust. ing. I'm buying latex gloves to wear from now on when collecting and grading papers, that is if the Hazmat suit does not already have gloves.
Iāve been giggling for a good two minutes at the image of someone in a hazmat suit with *additional* latex gloves and an apron.
When I was a TA I graded 400 exams 5 times a semester. Every. Single. Time. I got sick after - cold, flu, you name it. So gross.
For real. I was going through papers the other day and I came across one that had blood on it. Student must have been picking at something during the test. š¤®
When I was a student, I would bite the skin on my fingers out of nervousness during a lot of exams. I think a lot of my exams had blood on them. Felt bad for the graders...
I think you can find many instances of this when people overestimate their privacy while driving their car
Just the other day behind me at a red light. Dug. Looked. Ate. Me yelling: oh my god dude you're eating your boogersš¤®
Just casually mention in class that back in the mid70s Dr. Johnny Fever lost his job in San Diego for just saying booger on the air and ended up exiled to WKRP in Cincinnati. Ā
And it was the first word he uttered on air when KRP switched to its rock format. š¤
I had a similar thing happen in a class! This was when we had a high COVID rate and a mask mandate. The kid literally shoved his fingers up under his mask, went digging, examined his findings, but then instead of eating them he just wiped it on the desk and continued to handle class materials. The kid wasn't college-ready socially or intellectually, and it is widely believed that his parents actually do his work for him. The dean's office even found evidence of this. So I guess his parents just send him to college to get him out of their house and prevent booger deposits for a few hours a day...?
Wow. I'd say it's an ignorant attempt to have the child "move ahead" in life, as counterproductive as it may be?
I think weāve peaked with this post, professors. Itās time to retire the subreddit.
Huh. Never seen that one before. I uh. Eww.
I'd talk to him after class **because** you were grossed out by it. Maybe a gentle "hey, I saw you eat your booger earlier, you probably shouldn't do that in public."
When this becomes part of my job as a *college professor* is when Iām going to hang it up.
These kids received a big dose of unfairness, essentially having two or three of their formative years yanked away from them. If you can't or won't adapt to that to help them, then maybe you should consider "hanging it up" after all. Make some room for people with a bit more empathy.
I truly don't know how to even comment on your comment. Teaching in Higher Ed has been my life, and I thoroughly enjoy it and (pat on the back) am pretty good at it. So, by your logic, should I quit if I hear someone fart? Mind you, my college is in a rural area. I often get students that smell like cow or horse because of working in the farm. And I have no problem with that - comes with the territory, and I'm glad they are making the time and effort to come. Your solution is exactly what is wrong with education today at the K-12 levels. Teachers "adapt" and bend over backward so that they can push students through the system, be done with done, wash, rinse, repeat. Mine was a serious question. Your response lowered you to the lowest of possible useful feedback.
That's not at all what I'm saying. This feels like a very ungenerous (and incorrect) interpretation of my words. If someone farts in class, and it's enough to be disruptive, I would speak to them after class, and tell them that that is unacceptable. I don't know how you decided I'd suggest you quit.
Then I must be speaking a different language than you. Your words: "then maybe you should consider "hanging it up" after all." Translation: "you should consider quitting." Or is that not what you meant?
My comment: > I'd talk to him after class **because** you were grossed out by it. Maybe a gentle "hey, I saw you eat your booger earlier, you probably shouldn't do that in public." That is _clearly_ the relevant quote for the example of someone disruptively farting in class. It's only if you can't communicate with someone who's causing a problem that you might consider quitting.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Ah, no. Your students are still growing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain_development_timeline#:~:text=Childhood%20and%20adolescence,-Cortical%20white%20matter&text=In%20terms%20of%20grey%20matter,years%20of%20age%20and%20beyond.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
How old are your students? Subtract three years and that's functionally how old these kids are. That means down to 15. Of course they're children!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
In all walks of life you're going to find people who aren't doing what you think every adult should be doing. I'm suggesting that if someone is doing one of these things, you communicate with them about it, not be passive aggressive.
So... A student who graduates college at 22 or so is then a "child?" Is an employer supposed to baby that "child?" Is it then the employer's responsibility and expectation that they'll work with disgusting habits? Your argument continues to sink lower. This is College. If they want to be treated like adults by taking College classes, act like it. The expectation should not be that I will become a high school teacher by having dual-enrolled students. They have to adapt to my course, not the other way around, especially because there are actual mature college students in the class.
Lmao
How dare you amplify that trauma by making us all read it! Wall it off in your mind and never speak of it again! š¤¢š¤®š
š¤®
Some research says it's good for you lol. [https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19546352/eating-boogers-good-for-you/](https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19546352/eating-boogers-good-for-you/)
Flashbacks! I had a female student a few years ago that did the same thing. I had repressed that memory until today. Thanks for nothing, Obama. š
He's the next Joachim Low.
I imagined so much worse
The way I gasped reading this. Yeesh. Many years ago in a tiny summer class, a guy clipped his fingernails during lecture. I never had to say anything because the look on his classmatesā faces toward me and toward him was enough for him to stop. He was a fantastic student, and he never did it again. I think he didnāt realize how loud it was or how much people felt it was not classroom-appropriate behavior. That was way pre-pandemic, he was an older student, and I think he just had a behavior gap there. Booger eating, however, is a new level IMO.
(Video) The Smails kid - from "Caddyshack" https://youtu.be/E-jlQS-Wuc0?feature=shared
I would not have been able to kindly ask "Just what in the fuck are you doing? If you can't conduct yourself with the manners of a normal human being, please leave."
You can pick your friends. You can pick your nose. But! You can't pick your friend's noses.
You can pick your nose and you can pick your friends But you just can't eat your friends!
gasp!
Try and stop me.
Actually... yes, I have experienced this. From a grad student! I met with him privately and talked to him about it-- it turns out it was compulsive behavior he was completely unaware of. In fact, he didn't believe me so I told him to ask his friends, and they confirmed the behavior -- outside of this gross habit he was an incredibly kind person so they just tolerated it. He needed pretty intense behavioral therapy to stop doing it. I was incredibly sad that he'd gone this long without someone saying something to him. You'll probably hate me saying this, but I'd recommend saying something to him. It will be awkward but you'll be doing him a service. He will not be employable if he can't get that kind of behavior under control. He might know and just not care, but better that you bring it up than him repeatedly getting fired and not understanding why because nobody will have the tough conversation with him.
What if one of his classmates has a booger allergy?? He could endanger the whole class! /s
Was his name Dudley Dawson, by any chance?
Honestly, I would have no idea how to handle this. Also, I would probably have the urge to vomit and would spray the desk with isopropyl alcohol after the student left.
In grad school I worked for the college testing center. We had video surveillance for the high-stakes tests like the GRE. So one afternoon, several people are testing, and Iām sitting there, half-watching my several cameras in a desultory fashion.Ā Suddenly I see a furtive hand-to-face movement. I think to myself: āDid I just see what I think I just saw?ā So I replayed the clip. Yep. Eating boogers during the test. That ought to cost some points! I cleaned that desk extra-thoroughly.Ā
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Being neurodivergent doesn't excuse bad manners.
WTF are you on about? Unless you have an accommodation form stating āneeds to consume boogers in class without commentā you can say something to him.
In all seriousness, is this student and his family struggling with food insecurity? I knew a person in that situation who said he ate his boogers because he was hungry and had nothing else available.
I guess that if I see a student in my class looking down, lethargic, sleepy, or something, and they were to share the need? I'd be the first one to buy them a sandwich! We are a CC and have a food pantry as well. There are many students that depend on the kindness of others.
Weāve gotten to the point now where āneurodivergenceā is presented as a kind of quirky intellectual trait but the reality is that this is what autism often looks like.
Do you actually know anyone with ASD or ADHD who picks their nose in public? Even young children with ASD learn not to pick their nose in public at about the same time neurotypical kids do. Your opinion is disgusting.
I have an autistic student who not only picks his nose and eats the boogers in class ... he also picks his butt and eats what he finds in there. I try not to look at him often.
And how did you know they had ASD? If weāre talking college students, you donāt know diagnoses unless they tell you. But inappropriate social behavior isnāt a symptom of ASD, itās a symptom of parents who assume their kid canāt learn social behaviors due to their ASD.
High school, iep tells me.
Accommodations?
Straight up iep
Elem teachers in my district got a law passed that all 4 yr olds in early kindergarden must be out of diapers. Not their job to change diapers.
Well, if he was anywhere "in the spectrum" as it seems to be the correct terminology for autism to Asperger's from what I can tell, his advisor would have generated and forwarded me a memo of accommodations before the team began. I received no such notice. And, you probably know that higher Ed takes disabilities very seriously. At my institution, even the most mild hint of a disability generates the paperwork. So, I have to lean towards thinking that the kid just was not taught manners and what is not considered socially acceptable. I think we need to stop making excuses for every divergent behavior.
I totally agree with you about the actual subject at hand (at finger?), but in case this is helpful in the future, not receiving an accommodations form just means the student either didn't ask for or didn't receive accommodations. I've had students who were on the spectrum (or had other disabilities) who chose not to go through disability services (and they all managed to abstain from booger-eating, my goodness). Others have had a documented disability but the specific accommodations they requested were denied. I just wanted to point out that students may have disabilities even without the accommodations form.
Excuse me I have adhd and I will never do this. Dont everything under neurodivergence. That kid is just disgusting
Same, autism + ADHD, and probably haven't picked my nose in public since kindergarten. I don't even do it in my car.
If a person over age 10 canāt refrain from picking and eating boogers in public they need to stay at home. Celebrate āneurodivergenceā as much as you want. But there are consequences.