LINK TO CARTOON A while back, at a previous University I decided to maintain a more professional, vertical relationship with students. I got into the habit of learning and using peoples surnames and prefacing them with either "Mr." or "Ms" as appropriate. I felt that this gave better impact from statements such as "Mr. Smith, put down the Wuperman expostulator and step back".
I realize that other professors, if they learned names at all, preferred knowing student's given names. To each their own I guess.
It does however speak to what happens next. Years of formality mean that the students themselves resist the dropping of the formality long after the student - teacher relationship is over. I would hate to think the the longest lasting piece of information that my students retain is the intuitive feeling that if they call me by my first name I will give them a lower mark on their next test.
And that brings me to the next topic addressed by cartoons.
Students often tell me that me and my class play the roll of evil villain in their dreams. Just what am I supposed to do with that information? It is like this sequence of cartoons from Sheldon ...
1 comment:
Heh. When I first read that phd comic I sort of thought of you.
Though Prof. smith has reminded me of you in many ways before.
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