The Waiting Room

Today, my students did something that really upset and angered me. I can't really blog about it because I may "out" myself. Needless to say, it was something that did not need to happen. If they had discussed it with me first, I could have helped them find a more productive way to express their point of view. Instead, their display was inadvertently disrespectful to me.

Unfortunately, I lost my cool and lashed out at them in a way that was unprofessional and out of character for me. I have been working on the issue in question for a while, and their display was not helping matters. But, I had no right to lash out the way that I did.

I did apologize to them for my handling of the situation. I told them that while I did not condone what they did, I should not act responded the way that I did. We ended up having a discussion about how what appears to be on the surface is not always the truth. And, that one can only control what goes on in their little corner of the world. Many of the students apologized for their behavior after they realized the impact that it had. And I recognized why they felt the need to do what they did. I just wish they had gone about it a different way that did not put me in a awkward position.

But, I am still frustrated. I am frustrated because it seems that many students and colleauges seemed to be all too concerned with what everyone else is or is not doing. I had one student complain that she thinks it's unfair that one of her instructors makes her and the rest of the class do more work in their course when previous instructors have not required as much work.

Really?

The instructor, with my blessing, is giving the students more challenging work, not as a punishment, but to help them and give them exposure to as many concepts as possible. He gives them ample class time to work on assignments and even works with students outside of class.

Sigh.

I don't understand it. Why are so many people so worried about what everyone else is doing instead of focusing on what they need to do? There is this climate of conspiracy, meaning that somehow many of the students think that there is some ulterior motive for decisions or policies. That despite honest and complete explanations, there is still something sneaky going on or someone is try to "get over" on them. Or worse, that just because they don't hear about the end result, nothing is done to resolve the problem.

Like I, or anyone else, have the time or energy to actively conspire to muck up peoples' lives.

All I wanna do is teach. That's it.