Dear Professors,
During my time at SMU, I have had so many wonderful professors that I don’t even know where to begin. You have helped shape me, develop my thinking and turn me into an adult. It all starts with you. When I walk into a classroom, ready to accept whatever knowledge you’d like to cast upon me that day, my mind is a delightful piece of damp clay, ready to be molded by your intelligence. So often, my mind becomes a beautiful piece of pottery by the end of a semester. This process is glorious, really.
There are, however, some of you that take my piece of clay and stomp on it. You grab it harshly and dig your fingernails into it. You throw pieces of my clay brain against the wall, and put some other bits underneath your shoe while you stomp around the room with your antics.
Professors, let me tell you something. I’ve done the math (Actually, my friend did the math during a class that has nothing to do with math, in between surfing the web and picking her nose, because she was so bored beyond belief with your “lecture” that she had to do SOMETHING to keep her brain occupied). It boils down to this: if I am in your class for three hours per week, the cost of tuition means that I pay approximately $104 per HOUR to occupy a chair.
Here’s the thing: If I want to occupy a chair and learn nothing, I will drag that chair to the tanning pool at Dedman Center for Sports and Recreation and listen to some of the conversations that take place there. If I pay to come to your class to get educated, please at least ATTEMPT to EDUCATE me!
I know some people will read this and think, “Girl, college is what you make of it. If you want to learn something in classes where you don’t like the professor, make it happen for yourself. Engage somehow!” Well guess what? It’s a little hard to engage in learning when the person in front of the classroom is raving about the best meal they ate this week with their Chihuahua. (This has literally happened to me in a classroom setting).
And if I go home with notes from the lecture to study and it includes things like, “Professor encourages us all to become his fans on Facebook,” I can’t say with anything resembling confidence that I’m going to be prepared for a test on the subject.
At which point, yes, I will open up my textbook and learn the information from someone else that actually did research and knows what he or she is talking about. But do I need to pay SMU $104 per day, three times per week, to read my textbook? I don’t think so.
Another thing that you may do sometimes, professors, is discourage your students with the angry facial expressions you wear when students say something you disagree with. It may sound like a small thing, but hear me out: I can handle constructive criticisms that help me improve my writing. I can handle less-than-exceptional grades on papers or projects because I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. But I can’t handle a dirty look or a wince when I interpret poetry or music or what-have-you in a way that you don’t agree with.
If your class is about something that is not always concrete, and a student comes up with an idea that is different than exactly what you had in mind, please at least try to encourage the fact that the student is thinking for themselves and challenging one of your ideas. Then help them to understand why their idea may not be correct. Embrace the idea that someone under your wing is confident enough to develop his or her own thoughts.
If you discourage your students from challenging you, you are discouraging them from being able to develop the individuality that earns people jobs.
You are hindering their ability to think and speak with confidence. If you want your students to agree in a mind-numbing fashion with you and never ask a question or make a disagreement in regards to something that you said, go teach a classroom full of dolls or puppies. Better yet, buy a bunch of bobble heads and put them on your dashboard so that when you drive, you get what you want in the classroom: a bunch of people nodding in agreement with everything you do.
Lastly, professors, please keep in mind the concept that everything really does start with you. Students don’t come to college for the parties, for the socializing or for the naps that they can uncomfortably take in a tiny desk. We come here because we are all striving for the same thing: knowledge.
Yes, we want jobs, we want stability and we’d even like a little bit of money. But we aren’t here because we want to the fast and easy road to earning any of those things. We want to be able comprehend and question. If you create a classroom where in we feel we cannot meet any of these goals, we feel cheated and somewhat disheartened.
Sincerely,
A Student
Katrina Leshan is a junior majoring in classical guitar performance. She can be reached for comment at [email protected]
