What happens if you insult a professor

While it is important not to react defensively to rude student behavior if at all possible , it is important to respond immediately. Letting unacceptable behavior slide will only erode your authority in the classroom more. How you choose to address the problem will depend on the nature of the behavior as well as your individual style.

Upon encountering rude behavior, you might choose to address the class as a whole, delineating what is and is not acceptable for your class e. If the problem stems from one or two individuals, you might respond in a number of ways, beginning with a gentle admonition e. Some instructors might choose to take the problem student s aside after class to discuss the issue. While it is important to respond immediately and consistently, how you handle the matter will depend very much on the nature of the problem, the student s in question, and what feels most comfortable to you.

If you have a student or group of students who is belligerent or chronically disruptive, and other strategies do not work, consult your department head or Student Affairs for advice. This site supplements our 1-on-1 teaching consultations.

It may also happen in contexts where the student body is particularly aggressive or demanding, for example in some professional programs where students have considerable work-world experience and insist that courses have immediate practical utility. Some students may also seek to challenge the authority of or outright bully particular categories of instructors, for example young, female, foreign, or minority faculty. Asked 4 years ago. Active 3 years, 11 months ago.

Viewed 19k times. Should I respond - in that case, how? Improve this question. FerventHippo FerventHippo 1 1 gold badge 5 5 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges. If the lecturer was late, it is implied that he or she was also "confused. Joel I'd like to think that that were the case, but the phrasing implied how astonished they were that I would even consider the possibility of the classroom changing.

But I appreciate the angle! Surely, you have more important things to spend your time on. Just let it go. You are too sensitive regarding perceived rudeness. I'd simply write back "I've sent this e-mail after discussing the issue with others. I was not the only student wondering if we were in the wrong room. SolarMike I am not very concerned that the lecturer was late.

That happens. I was concerned that the lecturer responded to my e-mail - written in a friendly manner to ensure the lecture could proceed as soon as possible in case of a misunderstanding - by implying that I am the only one in the class that is not able to follow instructions. I would have appreciated an apology, but I don't consider this issue specifically rude.

Show 17 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. In short, their response sounds mostly defensive to my ear. They were basically trying to say, I was just 10 minutes late, and I don't think that there should've been confusion about the classroom location. The appropriate response might be to be supportive. And, that basically covers their side of it. Then there's your side of it.

The way I see it, you've got two approaches: ThorstenS. Improve this answer. Nat Nat 5, 3 3 gold badges 20 20 silver badges 43 43 bronze badges. Minor confession: Yes, yes I did answer this question primarily to make a Star Wars reference. I'd accepted ThorstenS's answer, but yours gave me some concrete suggestions in different situations, and also the Empire did nothing wrong.

Add a comment. Thorsten S. Ian Fleming wrote, "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, thrice is enemy action. And what happened to them, hm? Yes, "is it worth my time" is definitely the best advice in many, and especially this, situation. I can remember a time when you actually had to talk about someone's mother or call them a bad name to really offend them. People sure seem to have awfully thin skin these days. In a lot of cases, it exacerbates an already heightened defensiveness.

Instead of fixating on what this person did wrong or what their intentions might have been, try describing how their actions negatively impacted you. I want you to know that I appreciate the readings and your lectures.

However, some of the recent comments you made about [women, people of color, trans folks] have made me uncomfortable. I want to participate in discussions, but these comments have affected me and distracted me from doing well in class. Make sure you clarify that your intention is to further your education and cultivate classroom community, not necessarily critique your teacher as a person or professional.

Find effective allies who will support you. In my first year of graduate school, I took a seminar with a tenured faculty member.

During a project I spent three hours presenting, he openly shamed my field, gender studies, and was dismissive of my work. During our customary break in the middle of class, I shared my feelings with my classmates.

Together, we decided that it would be best if my male peers responded to his comments instead of me. Because they were men, the professor was less likely to interrupt or talk down to them. Together, they explained that gender studies is a necessary field because it analyzes power in the way that a lot of popular fields refuse to do.

Their allyship took the emotional burden of action off my shoulders and made the rest of the class—as well as the rest of the semester—easier to get through. Allies may be useful if you need to interrupt the cycles of marginalization that can happen in the classroom. By distributing both the work of speaking up and the alienation of doing so, allies can make college just a little bit more bearable.

A microaggression occurs in the classroom and you jump into action. You approach your professor for a one-on-one. But—your professor reacts really poorly.

Maybe they threaten your grade. What happens then? If all else fails, universities have anti-harassment laws and protocols on the books.

Across the country, students have used laws like Title IX to guard against sexual assault and harassment and make college a safer place for people of all genders.