It truly takes someone special to be an educator. A good educator is patient, knowledgeable, kind and, most importantly, supportive of their students. When I came to college, I was terrified to walk into my first college class. Fortunately, I had some amazing teachers throughout elementary, middle and high school. I always knew that they truly cared about my education and weren’t just there because they got paid to be. When I got to college, I encountered the same type of educators that I was used to– ones that cared about what their students learned from them and got out of the class.
People put this idea in your mind that college professors are ruthless, terrifying, and hateful, and that’s what I was expecting to encounter when I came to college. Those rumors, for the most part, were incorrect. The majority of the professors at my university really do care about their students. With that being said, I wasn’t expecting to have any problems this semester, but it seemed that one of my new professors had other plans…
This new professor that I had wasn’t like any that I had ever encountered before; they were rude and they discouraged me from studying what I have spent nearly a decade focusing on. They singled me out, ridiculed and humiliated me to the point where I was at my wit’s end. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. It seemed like there was no way to please this person. That’s when I was reminded that I shouldn’t let this professor have that type of control over me; that I shouldn’t let one professor discourage me from pursuing something that I had been working so hard toward for the past nine years.
That’s when I made the decision to fix it. I’d given this professor the chance, thinking that maybe they were having a tough week, but now I’m determined to resolve this issue by myself.
There are two purposes for this article: the first is to encourage someone else that may be going through a similar situation, and the second is to remind educators and other people, in general, to be mindful of what they say to others. You never know what someone is going through, and it’s important to think about what you say. You can’t take back what you’ve said after you’ve said it. In my case, my professor discouraged me by humiliating me and putting me down all of the time.
College students are adults and the majority of us expect to be treated as such, but that doesn’t mean that you can be hateful to all of us all of the time. If we’re making the effort to go to class, participate in class discussion, and do the work, know that we do care and we’re trying even though you may think we’re not. It’s not fair to treat someone that is respecting you with disrespect in return.
For those college students like me, know that you are not helpless. Don’t be afraid of your professor. If they’re a good educator and they truly care about you, they’ll hear you out. Open up that channel of communication and don’t let the semester proceed with unresolved issues. Communicate, listen to each other’s side of the story and work together to resolve any issues or differences. Students are not paying lump sums of money to be bullied for doing what is expected of them. They don’t deserve that. As a matter of fact, nobody deserves that.
Most importantly, speak up and stand up for yourself. You, your interests, and your passions matter. Students should be at college to learn and better themselves and professors should be there to aid their students in that journey.
To the educators that care about helping a student succeed and move forward– thank you! The little things that you do and the things that you say don’t go unnoticed and are truly appreciated.
To the teachers and professors that tend to criticize and ridicule their students– that teaching style doesn’t help anyone succeed. Also, remember that some students won’t have the confidence to talk to you about how you’re treating them. So, if you see a student disengage from your class then you may want to consider if there’s something in your teaching style that is discouraging that student. We’re not in college because we have to be, we’re in college because we choose to be. What you’re doing now is affecting our future.
