Hear me out. I'm sure you've had a bad experience with a professor before, whether it was on a personal level or you just didn't particularly like them. But we fail to remember that the fun facts they put in their slideshows during syllabus week about themselves are true. These professors are real people with real problems and real families. We need to consider this when we provide insight about them to others, or even when we're thinking about them to ourselves.
They read their reviews in the student feedback and RateMyProfessor. They want to improve their teaching style for their classes and overall, they want their students to succeed. They use the feedback they receive to make changes and increase the success rates of their students. They don't want to see that they had "an annoying voice in lecture" or that they were "just flat out rude." If they had to cancel their office hours and it was the only time you were available to meet with them, I guarantee it was nothing personal against you. Perhaps their children were sick, or perhaps they had a doctor's appointment that got rescheduled at the last minute. These things happen to us too, and they're out of our control. We need to cut our professors some slack.
With that being said, in regards to the professors we don't care for, we still need to be respectful towards them. So often I will see people in big lecture classes talking while the professor is, playing on their phone and ignoring the lecture entirely, or even getting up and leaving in the middle of class. We don't have to like our professors, but they take time out of their schedule to create their lesson plans, so the least we can do is provide them with our utmost attention.
Even if you have to miss a class or an exam because of something out of your control, let your professors know. Communication is key, and they will appreciate that you reached out to them. 9 times out of 10, students will not show up and won't say anything. These people are willing to work with you! Take advantage of it.
Another thing to take advantage of is their office hours. Whether you're showing up to the ones they have scheduled or you make an appointment, professors enjoy when students make time to talk to them. Sometimes professors go for extended periods of time without talking to people, so even dropping in and saying hello to them could make their day. You don't have to become best friends, but it always helps to be nice.
I speak from experience (not in a literal sense, as I am not a professor) when I say all of this. Just today one of my professors canceled class because she wanted to eat lunch (and because half of the class was missing and she didn't want them to miss out on the lecture). It was a win-win situation for everyone, and we all appreciated it a lot. Keep all of this in mind the next time someone asks you how your professor was for a class they're thinking about taking.
Be honest, but be respectful.
