Yesterday my political science professor, who I used to respect and admire, singled me out in class, because he disagreed with my reasoning for not liking a political policy.
It'd be fine if he disagreed with me, but the man literally berrated me on being ignorant, even though I was confirmed right when I looked up the policy and consequences of the policy after class on PolitiFact and Snopes. He went after me for around five minutes of an hour long class and continued even though I told him that I didn't have the immediate sources and numbers because I wasn't expecting to be having this debate, especially not during the first five minutes of class.
The worst part is a good near half of the class literally laughed at me in front of an acquaintance in said class and another peer I respect. On our way out. Both my acquaintance and peer ignored me.
I'm so ashamed for even voicing my concern with said policy. I feel so defeated and lousy. I've already taken a semester off due to my diagnosed anxiety disorder and mild paranoia and now I don't even want to show my face in class. I can't even complain about it on Facebook because the professor is a Facebook friend of mine and I'm too embarassed to delete him. On top of this, I have a processing disorder where it takes me incredibly long to both solve simple equations and to figure my shit out.
I was humiliated in front of the entire class and I have no time to get over it before my next class tomorrow. It's too late in the semester to change classes and I don't know how I'm ever going to go back there yet, but I can't afford to drop this class.
Written by
ALittleHurt
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9 Replies
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Hi my reading of this is that the class laughed at a funny situation and a diversion from a maybe boring class and not necessarily at you. If it had happened to someone else you might have laughed too. Maybe your peer etc. didn't know what to say to you afterwards, or maybe they had other things on their mind.
The fact is you know you were right and I am willing to bet the teacher looked it up as soon as you left and is also aware of this too. You are not the ignorant one - he is. Go back to your class and give him a confident look and a smile. Show you are the bigger person. He will have more respect for you after this.
I agree with this. Having been out of college for umpteen years, I can remember when professors showed signs of unexpected behavior. One time I had a professor write "jerk" on a test, and this was grad school. I continued to show up at class and held my head up anyway. Continue in class, and continue to show how smart you are. This is not a contest.
Back when I was an undergrad, I was rather embarrassed and sometimes afraid to enter the classroom or lecture hall late. Instead I would just skip the class if I thought I might be late.
Returning to college in my late 30's, I took a programming class where the lecturer was a young grad student. In a lecture hall of 100+ students, he was sarcastic and condescending to me and just about any other (male) student who asked a question in class.
I still like taking classes at the university when I can fit them into my schedule. Even in my mid-40's I have had professors talk down to me.
One of my most embarrassing moments was not at a college but at work. One time I accidentally forwarded the entire inbox of my personal email to every staff and faculty member at the high school where I teach. Hundreds of emails sent to every single adult on campus. If that in itself wasn't embarrassing enough, at that time I was going through a divorce and doing the on-line dating thing with all kinds of embarrassing conversations in those emails. After that happened, what could I do? I worked with all these people daily. All I could do was keep my chin up and try not to let it bother me.
So I can relate at least somewhat. Keep your chin up!
Thank you for sharing your story and offering a shoulder to lean on. Unfortunately, I missed the class due to traffic, but I'll deffinitely make the next one!
I even got a chance to meet up with my acquaintance (who was also skipping) and we vented and agreed about the situation.
It just happens to be the only class I'm taking this semester, so even if the situation escalates in the future, I'll have no choice but to keep attending anyway.
It seems as if the majority of professors feel they know more than you or feel you should know certain things and also feel like your the idiot and forgetting how they got where they are at now. I have had this done to me on more than one occasion but I don't let it bother me. I know I am smart and all they are doing is showing how ignorant they really are. Don't give up. You're smart!
Love your embarrassing story KI-100! How awful and well done for holding your head up.
ALittleHurt one thing I forgot to add is that maybe there was something to do with the battle of the sexes here as well? I have found men generally hate women arguing back with them which is maybe why he overreacted. Especially if he knew you were right
He asked my opinion on a policy that we had covered previously in the last class. As soon as I stated that I didn't think the policy was strict enough, he started going after me.
I've never seen him shut down a student like that. He usually just ignores them or points out the error in their logic, but when he went after me, he was nearly yelling. He's been incredibly patient and civil with other female students, but was radically different with me.
I'm mostly over it now. After writing this and taking a moment to calm down, I met up with the acquaintance from class and we talked about what happened and vented about how obnoxious the ordeal was.
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