'U Can't Talk to Ur Professor Like This' (nytimes.com) 486
Millennial college students have become far too casual when they talk with their professors, reads an opinion piece on The New York Times. Addressing professors by their first names and sending misspelled, informal emails with text abbreviations have become common practices (Editor's note: the link could be paywalled; here's a syndicated source) among many students than educators would like, Molly Worthen, an assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill adds. From the article: Over the past decade or two, college students have become far more casual in their interactions with faculty members. My colleagues around the country grumble about students' sloppy emails and blithe informality. "When students started calling me by my first name, I felt that was too far, and I've got to say something," Mark Tomforde, a math professor at the University of Houston said. Sociologists who surveyed undergraduate syllabuses from 2004 and 2010 found that in 2004, 14 percent addressed issues related to classroom etiquette; six years later, that number had more than doubled, to 33 percent. This phenomenon crosses socio-economic lines. My colleagues at Stanford gripe as much as the ones who teach at state schools, and students from more privileged backgrounds are often the worst offenders. [...] Insisting on traditional etiquette is also simply good pedagogy. It's a teacher's job to correct sloppy prose, whether in an essay or an email. And I suspect that most of the time, students who call faculty members by their first names and send slangy messages are not seeking a more casual rapport. They just don't know they should do otherwise -- no one has bothered to explain it to them. Explaining the rules of professional interaction is not an act of condescension; it's the first step in treating students like adults.
Daycare for adults (Score:3, Interesting)
This is basic stuff, and they graduate high school without learning it. What did they put on their college application, a plagiarized form letter?
Re:Daycare for adults (Score:5, Funny)
This is basic stuff, and they graduate high school without learning it.
First day of Junior Engineering in the eighth grade, the instructor told us that "Yo!" wasn't an appropriate classroom response. We also got advice on brushing our tongue when brushing our teeth and using deodorant.
h8 crymes (Score:4, Insightful)
nuf sed
Humor aside, your instructor was correct. Professional life requires the ability to effectively communicate to a large audience. Appeasing your friends and acquaintances is not the same thing. Sadly we have had educators claiming what "you" want is all that matters, to the detriment of millions of students.
Re:h8 crymes (Score:4, Insightful)
Sadly we have had educators claiming what "you" want is all that matters, to the detriment of millions of students.
I don't blame the instructors for that. I blame the parents. If parents don't expect their children to behave, the children will have no expectations to follow. I grew up in a household that children were expect to be seen than heard or else the belt came out. Teachers always marveled how quiet and polite I was.
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I don't agree that you need a belt either.
It is not only not needed, it is counterproductive. There is overwhelming evidence [nih.gov] that corporal punishment tends to produce kids that have worse behavior, poor impulse control, are more likely to resort to violience, and more likely to end up in prison.
Disclaimer: I have whacked my son a few times, but I am not proud of it. My daughter, never, not once.
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There are similar problems with children who are never punished and let run wild as well.
You can punish a child without resorting to hitting them, and "letting them run wild" is not the only alternative.
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Hear, hear!!!
Goodness, I wonder when it was that what used to be common sense and basic public etiquette disappeared?
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There is a difference between "beating" which is abuse and the use of corporal punishment for children.
I would posit that many if not most of the problems we see with recent generations is due to sparing the rod, so to speak, entirely.
In ever since this trend, we've seen the loss of general civility in public, much less respect of those in authority and our elders.
Re: h8 crymes (Score:5, Insightful)
Language doesn't just transfer direct meaning, but also signifies social status, politeness, education etc. Having a lack of social graces will make your boss hate you and your professors not treat you seriously. It just reflects that we live in a society with socially-enforced hierarchies, and that is not going away any time soon (nor should it)
Re: h8 crymes (Score:4, Interesting)
Language does more than(1) transfer direct meaning, but also signifies social status, politeness, and(2) education(3). Lacking social graces will make social interactions difficult(4). It (5) reflects that we live in a society with socially-enforced hierarchies, and those are(6a) not going away any time soon (nor should they(6b)).(7)
1. Eliminate negatives in your writing.
2.The last point in a list should be conjoined with "and".
3. Reserve "etc" for lists where the points are already stated elsewhere
4. State only what you can prove.
5. Eliminate filler words such as "just" or "like".
6a & 6b. Singulars and Plurals in sentences must agree.
7. Remember to end your sentences with a period.
If you believe people who speak one way are better than people who speak another you are an uneducated person with outdated ideas.
Figure it out.
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Language does more than(1) transfer direct meaning, but also signifies social status, politeness, and(2) education(3).
I wouldn't comment but since you corrected the previous poster:
"But" used as a conjunction must contrast the previous statement or declare all other possibilities impossible. When you change a positive to a negative you should also check the statement which follows.
"Language does more than transfer direct meaning, it also signifies social status, politeness, and education."
If you believe people who speak one way are better than people who speak another you are an uneducated person with outdated ideas.
Practice what you preach and state only what you can prove. There is no evidence to correlate a person's opinion on language to their ed
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When, pray tell, was that?
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When, pray tell, was that?
Probably the 16th century when Shakespeare started writing for the unwashed masses, as English was the commoner's language.
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Chaucer was two centuries earlier. His stuff sure doesn't look like Latin to me, but that's not really the point.
Re: h8 crymes (Score:4, Informative)
English is a Germanic (which is the grouping for all languages dominantly descendant from Old Norse) language with strong Gaelic influences and minor inclusion of vocabulary from other language groups including Latin and Greek, but also including Cyrillic, Japanese, Chinese, aboriginal Australian, the whole range of 15th century American cultures, and a fair splattering from less widespread language groups.
English is a Germanic language, but neither it nor the Germanic languages in general descent from Old Norse [wikipedia.org]. Rather, Old Norse is one of several Germanic languages, and more or less contemporary with Old English [wikipedia.org]. Modern English has some indirect influence from Old Norse via the Vikings (and even more indirectly via the Normans), but both languages evolved from Proto-Germanic [wikipedia.org], English via West Germanic (with a lot of influence fron Northern Germanic), Old Norse more directly from Northern Germanic.
Re: h8 crymes (Score:5, Interesting)
This is about language.
My mother graduated from high school and swore like a French whore. My father graduated from the sixth grade, joined the Army and built buildings, swore less than my mother. I didn't learn language until I was in the sixth grade and my classmates taught me all the swear words to fill out a barnyard. However, behavior, politeness and desire to sit down prevented me from using language around adults.
Specifically, English; which is an evolving language and has been since it separated from the Latin language.
English was for commoners. Latin for priests. French for royalty. And drawings of penises for the illiterate.
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English was for commoners. Latin for priests. French for royalty.
Probably the 16th century when Shakespeare started writing for the unwashed masses, as English was the commoner's language.
Only until the thirteenth century, actually. Once King John lost Normandy in 1204, and once this was accepted as a permanent situation, there began a conscious effort at "Englishness" in order to differentiate themselves from the French enemy, and the nobility began to use English. Since that time, (say, 1300), English has been the common language of the English people of all classes, although many French words had been adopted. By Shakespeare's time, (b. 1564), English was spoken by all Englishmen as their
Re: h8 crymes (Score:4, Insightful)
Horseshit. This isn't about behaviour or politeness. This is about language. Specifically, English; which is an evolving language and has been since it separated from the Latin language.
English as an evolving language has nothing to do with how people are addressed or the formality of the approach. The professor isn't complaining about people who "could care less" or who use the phrase "begs the question" in an outdated form. The only complaint is the casual approach. It's not more efficient, it's not more evolved, it's not less effort, it's just downright impolite.
He's complaining about a social construct, so your "English is evolving" is completely irrelevant.
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Re: h8 crymes (Score:5, Insightful)
That is all true yet irrelevant.
There is polite or formal speech, which is what professionals should use unless they are certain that casual communication is appropriate.
If one of the primary purposes of college is to prepare young adults for employment, then enforcing "office manners" is a reasonable measure.
Using text shorthand in an email is on par with wearing a T-shirt to an interview. It's not illegal, and it may be acceptable in some circumstances---but in most cases it is not wise.
Yo dawg that b phat ya feel me. (Score:5, Insightful)
yo dawg that b phat n shit
ya feel me dawg
Words have two types of meaning, both connotation and denotation. Two words may have the exact same denotation, but quite different connotation.
The primary purpose of clothing is clothing is to cover the skin. Other purposes of clothing, such as "saggin" pants, dress shirts, and lab coats include communicating information about one's values, role in the current context, and standards of behavior. Certain clothing suggests that the wearer believes snitches get stiches, other clothing indicates the opposite.
Similarly, the tone of language communicates all of the above and much more. If you are unable to understand the difference between "yo dawg u b trippin" and "Sir, I believe your perspective may lack appropriate context", you may be lacking an essential skill. The two sentences convey quite different connotations, though the same denotation.
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I would love to see a rap video where someone in saggy pants goes "Sir, I believe your perspective may lack appropriate context"
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Putting 'cause, with the apostrophe like that, is informal, but perfectly grammatical.
Using cause for because without an apostrophe to indicate the missing syllable IS wrong, however. It's also frustrating because cause, as in cause and effect, is pronounced differently from the last syllable of because. I prefer "cuz" to "cause", but autocorrect has gotten rid of that, it seems.
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Very few professionals need to communicate with a large audience. "Yo!" will suffice in general if it is in common usage.
The professors are forgetting that their job is to provide the service their customer (Their student) is paying a lot of money for.
If you want to dictate everything about this relationship, then become like Google and provide your service for free, take it or leave it.
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Junior engineering in junior high school? What sort of stuff did they teach?
Re:Daycare for adults (Score:5, Insightful)
This is basic stuff, and they graduate high school without learning it. What did they put on their college application, a plagiarized form letter?
Are you kidding?
40% of American High School GRADUATES (yes, graduates) can't read or write. They get graduated anyway. Front cover of Time Magazine.
These little assfaces get participation trophies for showing up and told that everyone is a winner. They think that they're ahead of their peers for knowing how to plagiarize a form letter.
And sadly, they're mostly not wrong.
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Well, it doesn't even prevent you from becoming president (with some luck, if the other candidate is even worse).
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How many of those graduates go on to college? Are you talking about the same group of people?
I'm not even sure this is the topic, it seems like the topic is the lack of formality and arbitrary forms of respect.
Re:Daycare for adults (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you have a source? I would expect at least a link to the issue of Time that had such an article.
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I suppose technically it qualifies as that [clipartfest.com].
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http://www.nationalreview.com/... [nationalreview.com]
no, just #blacklivesmatter 100 times.
because fuck standards.
Re:Quite appropriate (Score:4, Informative)
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Well, learn how to fucking make them then. I'm too busy with the career kickstarted by a BSc from one of the world's top five business schools.
Lol, yeah, sure you are. And I just got hired by NASA to be a door gunner on the Space Shuttle.
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1) you aren't paying the professor. You are paying a company (University) to provide a service. The professor is the employee of the university, not the employee of the students.
2) not understanding the above is why you are a shit person to be around, and why you will not be missed. Ever.
Don't talk like that to ANYONE (Score:5, Insightful)
If you want to be taking just mildly serious, don't talk like that to anyone.
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Re:Don't talk like that to ANYONE (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Don't talk like that to ANYONE (Score:4, Insightful)
It works when other "professionals" are watching and the "professional" you are talking to has fears about their status and the ability of other "professionals" in their periphery to attack them and gain status.
Otherwise, familiarity and vernacular are the lingua franca that bridge the gaps between apparent status, position, privilege, race, creed, and sexual preference.
My take is if it is a graded exercise, feel free to grade their writing. If it is not a graded exercise and you are looking at a text or an email written in the spare time the student has available, be a human being and relax. As long as their message is decipherable with negligible effort, reply as you would to any eloquently worded prose. You might even want to pump it up a bit, choose some big words that challenge them. Make em bust out the ol' dictionary app to figure out what you just wrote. There is more than one way to educate. Example is one.
If the purpose is to educate the student, and the student is engaged enough to initiate conversation about that process, aborting the conversation by rejecting that interaction in the infant stages with complaints about their writing style might leave their embryonic relationship with you, the material, and your class, stillborn.
Once you have a relationship it is easier to correct, or let's call it what it is, influence the individual. Common ground, common purpose, reciprocation, and familiarity go much farther than authoritative edicts, accusations of ignorance, and pejorative pronouncements. If you are a professor and you haven't learned this you may be in the game for the wrong reason. You are a dick and no one is helped by your presence, least of all yourself.
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Maybe it shouldn't matter, but in the real world it does matter a lot. It absolutely affects interview results, and it is very probably affecting promotions and raises in many jobs. If you're not in the sports or entertainment industry then best advice is to speak properly.
Dude (Score:5, Funny)
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cuz ur paper wuz g@y, lern 2 spell n1gga!
Re:Dude (Score:4, Funny)
Depends on the school... (Score:3)
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I went to a service academy; the instructors were called Sir or Ma'am - and in the third person as "Dr. ____" or by rank.
Re:Depends on the school... (Score:4, Interesting)
The community college I went to was pretty laid back with most instructors being called by their last name. The other community college in the district was more uptight with instructors insisting on being called "Instructor" before their last name. Never understood that stick-up-the-wazoo attitude, as they were teaching the same material and getting paid the same rate.
I'm a full time engineer who has taught a few classes. I felt like things worked better when I wasn't really positioned above the student. I taught the classes as I'm an engineer and I'm going to try to bring you up to the same level of knowledge. How you e-mail me, how you address me, I don't really care as long as it isn't offensive. When we get to homework or projects, I will tell the students up front it better be written up properly or it will be graded down. But there is time for being formal and time where it just doesn't matter.
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The teacher is a person who has knowledge of something important to the student and is in the service of imparting that knowledge. This is not a symmetrical situation, unlike working with coworkers who sometimes teach you and sometimes you them, in the class the flow always goes from the teacher to the student. Taken to the extreme, knowledge is sacred and if its transmission allows the student to survive and progress in their lives it needs a structure to direct that flow. The "archetypal" structure is alw
Re:Depends on the school... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't mind if my students (Cambridge) call me by my first name. Formality can be polite, but it can also be a barrier to free exchange of ideas and that has no place in a university. I'd be very surprised if MPhil or PhD students didn't call me by my first name.
That said, if you write me an email and can't be bothered to write in grammatically correct sentences then you've obviously decided that your time writing the email is more valuable than mine reading it and I'll respond accordingly, if at all.
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I don't mind if my students (Cambridge) call me by my first name.
That's perhaps even simpler in languages with T-V distinction, since not all formality disappears when using the first name. Nevertheless, at my local uni branch, some teachers have apparently dropped the Vs regardless (bidirectionally, that is).
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What is a "T-V" distinction?
Re:Depends on the school... (Score:5, Informative)
You are Eric Raymond AICMFP (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/s... [catb.org]
"We've found by experience that people who are careless and sloppy writers are usually also careless and sloppy at thinking and coding (often enough to bet on, anyway). Answering questions for careless and sloppy thinkers is not rewarding; we'd rather spend our time elsewhere."
It's not Millennials (Score:5, Insightful)
The only person I know who uses "U" and "ur" in serious correspondence is over 50 years old. It's not a millennial problem. It's an idiot problem.
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Indeed, where I work the email I get from on high is frequently littered with abbreviations and acronyms. Granted most of it wouldn't be mistaken for leet speak but it's the same attitude of expecting everyone else to understand what they mean so that they can be lazy. The number of spelling and grammar mistakes is also appalling, given that they are using the same email client as I do which handily identifies spelling and grammar mistakes.
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Also, today's new college students are generally not millennials, since that is defined as being born between 1980 and 1996.
It's exactly like people complaining about the MTV generation with their short attention spans [xkcd.com].
No (Score:4, Insightful)
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Students unable to communicate correctly should not have been admitted to college, because they shouldn't have received their high school diploma.
I graduated from the eighth grade, skipped high school and went to community college. I had college-level reading comprehension but fifth-grade skills in everything else. I didn't learn to properly communicate until I took Small Group Communications in my last semester.
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It's not about that.
They're using modern speech patterns and etiquette. They're talking casually, which means using slang and first names. The mode of slang in text is ugly grammar, and that's not the thrust of it.
"When students started calling me by my first name, I felt that was too far, and I've got to say something,"
They're upset because it's not old-style etiquette.
I don't recall ever working for an employer where I called my superior Mr. anything. Go back 100 years and you called your boss Mr. Foreman and his secretary Ms. Goodbody. Today you just call your manager by his first name, hold informal
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Nobody's explained to you that you talk up to your superiors with honorifics and formalized speech. Nobody's explained this because it's a history lesson. This is also why we didn't teach you how to make tithes to your Earldom.
liek yeah bro u know it dis is the way we talk at each other now proper eglish is ancient history dude btw why u fail me? i did the homeworkz and shit... i dont get it plz help i cant fail my dad will kill me lol okbye c u monday
Re:No (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is, some teachers could almost be accused of "promoting" overly casual correspondence with the kids in an attempt to look "hip" and to "connect with" the students.
My son's sarcasm and lack of correctness took a nose dive the last year of elementary school, his teacher was a bad influence and encouraged sarcasm, and lack of respect for authorities. Something we've seen continue into middle school where we are confounded by the teachers there who seem to find my son's lack of respect for them amusing. (he doesn't understand why he can't come home and use the same lack of respect and sarcasm towards us that his teachers find amusing). I don't think some of these teachers realize the disservice they are doing the kids.
When they get a job in the real world, 9 times out of 10, their employers won't be impressed with sarcasm, lack of proper communication skills, and lack of respect.
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You should realize that sarcasm is our bodies natural response to stupidity. Maybe your child is not the problem?
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No. It is not the job of college professors to correct students unable to communicate correctly. That was the job of the high school teachers. Students unable to communicate correctly should not have been admitted to college, because they shouldn't have received their high school diploma.
Fuck, can't give you a +1 because I commented. But damned straight. Send them back to high school and make them get another participation award.
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Send them back to high school and make them get another participation award.
B-But, how would that be fair to the kids who didn't participate?
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Then send them to Indian diploma mills.
(S)he who pays the bills... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd never have used a professor's first name unless the age gap was minimal, and they had explicitly said it was OK... BUT... we walked half-way across campus in 95-degree heat in 90% humidity, to a temporary/portable building that sat maybe 30 students... Then we get told that unlike just about every other class we'd been in, this philosophy teacher (a condescending hippy, ironically, enough) didn't allow drinks... I watched an argument get pretty heated once, and started wondering, hey, who's paying who to be here?
In my experience (Score:3, Interesting)
People have gotten much more informal with EVERYONE. They have no respect or perception of authority or seniority.
Hell, 10+ years ago, Scrubs even did an episode where the (older) Kelso was trying to get through to this overweight girl about the dangers of surgery and she basically talked over him and Google'd everything as he spoke and he went on about how back-in-the-day, being a doctor "meant something" and you got things like free hair cuts, not to mention RESPECT.
So if a comedy show noticed this 10+ years ago, it's been going on for a lot longer. I've gotten far in life simply by treating everyone with respect. People notice and appreciate it when you go out of your way to recognize their inherent human dignity.
It's not necessarily unintentional (Score:2)
Students addressing their professors by their first names isn't necessarily a sign of entitlement, poor manners, or bad judgement. On the contrary, it is sometimes a clumsy attempt at social engineering. You try to make the professor think of you as a friend or peer, and that makes it less likely that your "friend" will give you a bad grade.
As a means of manipulation, it doesn't cut much mustard in engineering. Very few of my colleagues would tolerate it, and very few students I have met attempted it. B
This Isn't The Problem (Score:2, Insightful)
Doesn't really matter that they talk to their professors....
The problem is that they are writing papers like this. And communicating to potential employers like this. There's an entire generation if kiddiespeaking illiterate sons of bitches that can't figure out why their attempts to get meaningful employment go unanswered.
It goes both ways (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It goes both ways (Score:5, Insightful)
Two different problems. (Score:2)
This is 2 different problems.
1) Not being able to write appropriately. "U" isn't a word, and using it as such is never appropriate. When you write a formal report, it should be using appropriate words and phrasing.
2) Calling an instructor by their first name. I'm not sure I can understand the problem here. If I hire a plumber, do I have to address him by some weird title, or can I simply call him by his first name? Why is it different if I hire a teacher? Does the teacher address the students as Master/Mist
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So you start out calling people by their first name, then gradually start calling them by their title over time?
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Calling someone by a title doesn't indicate respect, it indicates obedience.
I don't demand that others call me by a title. And I've never requested it of my students either, but then again, I teach in a professional setting where we assume people are adults and don't use childish tricks like this to make them "prove it" to us.
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No, using a title doesn't show respect, it shows obedience. And "etiquette" was long ago ignored by those very same institutions.
As for "Look it up sometime", I'm pretty sure I see neither respect nor etiquette in your response, so it seems rather ironic that you'd be defending it.
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OTOH, "the" is properly spelled with thorn (the letter of the alphabet). But some young wags started spelling it with "th" or sometimes "y". Note it is still correctly pronounced as "the", not "yee". The latter is a word (spelled "ye" now but once spelled "ge") that has fallen entirely out of favor except in a few very formal and somewhat ritualistic settings.
Of course, formal writing generally should avoid the latest trends, yet it would be quite confusing (and annoying) if it insisted on Middle English. T
Teacher Truth Bomb (Score:3, Informative)
Look to your left. Now look to your right. None of you are going to have jobs after you graduate, and you'll each be in debt for a couple of hundred grand. So it doesn't matter how you fucking address the fucking professor. You're still gonna be fucked.
nobody told them (Score:3)
> They just don't know they should do otherwise -- no one has bothered to explain it to them.
Or, their parents have explained it to them, like, a bazillion times, and they just roll their eyes and do whatever the hell they were going to do anyway.
meh (Score:2)
I was in college in the mid-90's and forms of address were part of departmental culture. For one of my majors, we addressed professors by their first name. The other, "Professor." My students now call me either by my first name or Professor, and I don't particularly care which. Academics who need the social validation are not particularly charming (the worst are PhDs who insist on being called "Dr." in their off-campus lives).
Yeah (Score:2)
Question ? (Score:2)
Do the professors and instructors address the students as Mr. or Ms. Student ? Show the respect you demand and you will often find the respect you deserve. My advisors always addressed me as Sir or Mr. except in the most informal of circumstances. In the later years we were on a first name basis outside of campus but always a formal basis in class, lecture or lab.
Respect goes both ways (Score:2)
Whatever works (Score:3)
My teacher introduced himself as "Professor Blank", so I called him that. OTOH, I had no problem with him calling me by my first name. I never really thought of myself as a "Mr. Magnon" anyway.
Proper communication isn't dead (Score:5, Insightful)
I know it's fashionable to have flat, zero-hierarchy organizations and brief communications styles, but I can tell you from 20+ years of working, clear spoken and written communication is not some irrelevant concept from a bygone age. I'm not one of those people who demands respect simply because of a rank or power dynamic, but I will have a lot more respect for someone who addresses others politely, states their opinions like adults, listens to others' points of view, and can write clearly. It also works both ways -- in my experience I have been able to get much further in having people see things my way than colleagues with more abrupt communication styles.
I am firmly in the introvert crowd, and not a salesy type in the least. But, no matter how introverted you are, learning a few common social courtesies is critical to being successful in any setting. I'm not even talking about ladder-climbing brown-nosing style success -- I know part of the reason I'm kept around and allowed to do interesting technical work is that my bosses know I'll make them look good and be professional; in short, they don't have to worry I'll say something stupid.
Re:Personalized personal pronouns (Score:4, Insightful)
It's almost as if both instructors and students prefer to be addressed in ways which make them comfortable and feel they deserve that basic level of respect.
Re:Personalized personal pronouns (Score:4, Funny)
Henceforward you will address me as "my lord", "sire" or "your majesty". Failure to do so will result in failing this class.
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yes. ...
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In class, I would almost never say "well, remember what she / or he said." Normally I would say "well, remember what Jane / or Jim / or you [pointing] said."
This is because like most people (in my experience), I only tend to use 3rd person pronouns when people are absent.
Moreover, what if their pronoun were "they"? Can you imagine how uninformative, unclear, or even ridiculous, it would be to say, "well, remember what they said?"
So I have never understood this request, unless they are demanding me to refe
Re:Personalized personal pronouns (Score:4, Insightful)
But on the other hand, some students are starting to demand that professors address them according to the personal pronouns with which they personally identify.
To which all professors should respond with some variant of "You're welcome to your own self-image, but I am not required to participate in it."
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What I don't understand is why people don't think it's polite to not address people the way they want to be addressed. With a very few exceptions, I don't give a crap about other people's sex organs or gender or whatever, so why not call people what they want to be called?
Re: Personalized personal pronouns (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'm also a 'technologist who works with academics' and I find your comments bizarre. That 'three-five minute self-introduction of themselves' is the part where I like to listen most clearly, as understanding where someone is coming from, their context, what they're working on, what they want to solve, is the single-most important thing to ensure I'm giving them effective solutions that they are actually looking for, i.e. that I'm going to be offering something of value to them.
And knowing someone's title is
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the usa is ranked round 23rd in math and god knows what in literacy
*Around
your all doomed there ok , if you want to teach kids that might actually learn move to another nation
*You're
I'd also like to see proper sentence capitalization, and punctuation usage other than excessive exclamation marks. Really, do 13 exclamation marks somehow add more to a sentence than a single one?
Overall I give that post a D. While comprehensible, it needs a lot of work.
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I think you missed the point. It appears AC was deliberately making as many mistakes as possible.
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Do you address them by their first names? That didn't used to be the case either you know. If you want them to call you Mr. Lastname, you should be calling them Mr/Ms Lastname as well.
I teach in a professional setting, we would never dream of asking our students to address us by anything other than our first names, they're adults, and we treat them as such.
Insisting that they use a title to address you, while not doing so in return indicates that you are trying to demonstrate that you are "better" than they
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And here's the thing. Years ago it DID go both ways, teachers addressed their students as Mr/Miss, and students addressed their teachers with titles as well. But many years ago teachers stopped using titles with their students, and now they are upset when the students do the same.
If you don't think it's respectful when a student uses your first name instead of a title, then don't call them by their first name either.