I know a few. Here're a few categories into which they fit nicely. And, just for the sake of clarity, I may or may not be referring to particular people and may or may not be referring to combinations of particular people's poor qualities. Also, just because I use masculine or feminine pronouns does not mean that I am indeed referring to males or females. Glad I could clear things up there...
1. The movie English teacher wannabe: Think Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society... Michelle Pfeiffer in... that movie where she reads Dylan Thomas to a classroom of gang members... I can't remember the name of the movie. Not meaning that she looks or acts exactly like them, but approaches teaching as if her class just might be as life-changing as the classes taught in those movies. And I guess it could be... if you consider filing a new degree program just to avoid her life changing.
2. The professor-hat-wearing high school teacher: He stops people who get up to go to the bathroom demanding a reason why they are leaving the classroom. He lays out ground rules that if you have to go to the bathroom during the last 10 minutes of class to just take your stuff with you and don't come back. Along with that, he demands that if you get up in the middle of class and think you are going to be gone for a while that you should let him know. All of these things remind me of my high school days when the teachers were having trouble with the boys staying in the bathroom too long during class, so they limited them to 2 minute bathroom breaks. Seem harsh? Yeah, it did to me too. Well, after a while, the boys got smart and said that it wasn't fair that they had to dash back and forth while the girls had no time limit whatsoever. So what happened? We girls got limited to 2 minutes as well. Lots of fun. I remember literally sprinting back and forth to the bathroom. And yes, this act does extend into the college atmosphere, although not so often.
3. The politician: How about a professor who traps you in her office and rams every controversial political issue down your throat in about 5 minutes time? I visited a professor in her office a while back. Bear in mind that she was well-aware of our differeing opinions on various moral/political issues. In the short time that I was in her office, she brought up abortion, gay rights, equal treatment of women, and the overall stupidity of right-winged thought. She also managed to bring up that she did not believe in the divinity of the Bible and pointed out several Biblical principles which she basically said were ignorant. Now, maybe it was just my imagination, but it certainly felt like she was trying to get me riled up. Is it really a professor's job to start arguments with students?
4. The queers: If you're gay, be gay on your own time. I don't want to hear about it. Your escapades are not appropriate for classroom discussion and I certainly don't want to hear you flirting with gay students. Both situations are highly innappropriate and unprofessional and I would be just as disgusted by a heterosexual individual doing the same things. OK, maybe not AS disgusted, but I still wouldn't like it.
5. Environmentalists, Feminists, and other various and assorted circus folk: Shut up, already. I'm gonna cut down a tree and beat up your mom with it because when she and whomever else conceived you she wasn't in the kitchen where she should have been.
6. Winers: You only make $91k a year. Wah...
*No professors were harmed in the writing of this critical blog entry. If you're offended, go grade some papers.
*Written on 10/18/2006
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