Weez Blog

How very true! Are you ever surprised by students in the same context, i.e., running into someone outside of one of your classes at a place you wouldn't think they would be, or doing something you think they wouldn't?

It has always seemed to me that teachers and professors take on a super-human persona, even more so than parents I think. Most people simply cannot comprehend their instructor being anything else but an instructor; someone who knows right from wrong; someone who has all of the answers; someone who expects them to behave and do their best.

This reminds me of a quote (not sure how accurate I am) from the father in Calvin and Hobbes:

"I always thought adults had all of the answers. Had I known the whole thing was ad-libbed I would not have been in such a rush to become one."

Reminds me of my days at Purdue when I was a PhD student and TA. One semester I ran into one of my students at a local dance club, and she was pretty surprised. She kept saying to her friend, "Ohmigod, it's my TA!"

Little did she know that my stomach was churning all weekend. I kept thinking, but not saying, "Ohmigod, it's my student! My authority is totally shot." Whatever. By midterm, we'd seen each other at the bar half a dozen times, to the point where we'd just smile knowingly and nod at each other.

Unlike George, I know that many of my students are reading my blog. I have a link to it from my course blog, and, yeah, it's still kind of weird. Strangely enough, I probably won't feel comfortable talking about that dissonance on my blog or my teaching blog. I'll have to think about that.

I guess the question becomes a matter of whether or not humanizing someone aids or detracts from credibility?

Would students think any less of their professors if they knew that the professors celebrated snow days too?

Given there are some things I don't want to know about any human being - whether or not they are in a position of authority over me: penchant for biting toenails, cross-dressing proclivities, or addiction to lima beans. the rest of it goes back to perception of character through a trail of clues.

How much of meat space is mediated by virtual persona?

Like Chuck, I find that I'm not comfortable discussing some of the boundary issues surrounding professorial image and responsiblity in a context where students are passive or active participants. I am considering starting up a private discussion space (or blog), invitation-only, for those interested in exploring the topic.

I'd be interested in such a discussion, I think, Liz, although most of the time I just relax and figure, fine, they'll see I'm just a regular person, that'll help them achieve what they want without thinking they need to be perfect. I'm so young a teacher anyway I figure I don't have to prove my authority yet.

I suppose I could have taken the opposite approach, huh? Oh well.

One of my students is an aerobics instructor at my gym. I love the reversal of following her steps instead of her following mine. Though I wasn't so pleased with meeting another student naked in the changing rooms of the gym. We discussed blogging and pedagogy while putting on our sports bras. I think I acted reasonably nonchalent.

I'd be interested in the participating in the private discussion, primarily because I am clueless as to what is potentiallly discomforting about discussing it this one. (And suspect I should get a clue pronto).

Actually, I'd be very interested in students' perceptions about the subject. Carlo speaks well for his peeps.

Do we develop a unilateral code? Professors unite? Students can let us know where their line of discomfort lies?

Growing up, my instructors did not exist outside the school setting. I could not fathom that these teachers, these all knowing, tall-as-trees creatures lived in little houses just like mine in little towns just like mine. I don't know what I thought; maybe they just lived in their classrooms, or in some smart-person mecca that is only visible to other smart people.

I'm slowly getting older, inching ever closer to my professors. One day, I might just be considered their peer. It's an alien thought.

I enjoy the professor-as-peer motif. The professors I respect and enjoy the most are the ones who I perceive to be the most human. Picture a hypothetical instructor as a friend and peer, guiding and shaping you through your courses. Sounds like a pretty constructive learning environment to me.

Going to hit "Post" on this before I change my mind and delete it again.

I too don't see why professors would feel uncomfortable discussing student-to-professor relationships along with students. In my mind, students should have a say in what goes on as well... after all, aren't they the ones who the college is for? The professor's role, I think, is to serve the student by teaching them what they know.

Now, before I get sidetracked...

I really appreciate being able to see my professors as people and not as some high-up instructor person. I like to know about people's lives. I like to converse.

Last year, my favorite class and my favorite professor was my Writing and Lit professor. Why? Because he didn't just instruct us and then leave, he was a person I could talk to as a person, relate to, and be friendly with. I also learned a lot from his class.

Well that is my say. Hopefully I haven't stepped on any toes in saying this.

Ted, I think I know who you speak of, but if not I had the same experience with my Writing and Literature professor and especially the professor I have had for all of my psychology courses up until this point - I could sit down and talk to her about anything and relate back to course material if I chose to, and I found great value in that.

Most of the professors I've had for my IT classes have proven to be much more than people who simply lecture and assign homework; they tend to share personal insight on what they are discussing and give meaning to the outside assignments. That does not make me want to complete homework any faster but at least it provides additional merit in actually accomplishing the work besides receiving poor test grades for lack of studying. :-) In any case, they are just as interesting outside of the classroom and I think it's a great thing to be able to meet them as people in a setting that is not laden with stress, immature students and deadlines.

Fascinating discussion. My student days are more than 20 years past, and the one course I taught (Operating Systems at a four year community college) is more than 10 years back. I tried to be more like Carlo describes about his IT instructors and share my perspective as a person and a working professional.

I'm really interested in the idea of collaborative learning where people of differeing levels of education and experience learn by working on development tasks together. Something magical can happen when we allow ourselves to drop the masks and roles a little; the passion that brought us to our field can shine through and motivate the students more than any text or lesson.

I still remember an experience after leaving one of my linguistics classes and continuing to talk with the instructor (he was fairly young, but I don't think he was a grad student TA). I don't even specifically remember anything about the topic, but I'll never forget the feeling of his enthusiasm for the ideas. It is most memorable because of its uniqueness, which is really sort of sad.

Incidentally, I came here because of a link from Wealth Bondage ( http://www.wealthbondage.com/2003/08/28.html#a910). Over there, there is an ongoing discussion about blogging behind masks, and connecting to the idea of "carnival", a time out from our daily roles where we can take on other masks and play around with the boundaries and roles. This might be a better way to go with this than actually taking it private. I won't go into more detail in this comment, so if you're interested, check out the discussion over there.

Read in Bakhtin's book on Rabelais something quite striking about Carnival. The priests no less than the peasants participated. In one instance, related by Bakhtin, the priest fornicated on the altar with a parishioner in front of the whole congregation at midnight, and the next day, being Ash Wednesday, went along the altar rail, "Remember man that you art dust and into dust thou shalt return." I have really been thinking about how that would have felt to the parishioners and the priest. Could it have been sublime? Seeing how the priest has been transformed, and now, having mastered his own Dionysian frenzy, can be our spiritual master too?

Went for hundreds, if not thousands of years, this kind of Lupercal, Saturnalia, festival without footlights, cakewalk. At what point did we become so insecure in our authority that we have to hide behind our professional roles all year, every year?

I am not defending fraternizing with college kids, or breaking the bounds of propriety, but asking whether there is room in all of that to admit that we are all human -- dust to dust, and dung to dung.

An other way to get the needed privacy is to treat the underlings as invisible. That happens alot in wealthy circles where charity is discussed among the invisible Mexican waiters in their red monkey jackets.

All I am saying is - Stop the Action. Rewind the tape, professors. And ask your self what you have learned from your instinctive need to shut the door, go into closed clusters, and discuss only there why you can't talk more plainly with students. Among the students, presumably, you will not even want to discuss the gesture of withdrawal itself. That too must be invisible, for it is visible/invisible mark of power.

I started a long winded post about my spin on teacher/student relationships, but ended up posting it over in Profirving's blog.

It's worth the read since most of it still applies to you, Elouise.

http://www.rit.edu/~ciiics/talkingstick/archives/000024.html

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