Every now and then, students comment that a professor dislikes them. Well, the more commonly shouted phrase is “my teacher hates me!” While there are some “bad seeds” – instructors who should not be in the classroom-these are the exception and not the rule. Most of the time, student-teacher issues are the result of a simple miscommunication.
Believe me, every instructor on a bad day can really hope for the opportunity to really “stick it” to a particularly distasteful student; however, teachers are also professionals. And they tend to treat problem students as business people treat unlikeable clients – with civility.
Teachers know that the world is filled with people who do not get along. So, like most people, they deal with personality conflicts and challenges professionally. Honestly, successful students can take a page from professor’s notebooks and treat unlikeable professors with the same business-like civility. No one is required to like another person, but the system does demand a baseline level of respect and cooperation.
Issues usually are not this extreme. Frequently, a slight, often avoidable miscommunication can create a tumult for nothing.
A list of common online teacher-student miscommunication:
- A student does not read all the instructor’s comments on a test or assignment before confronting the professor about the grade. The student’s grades are often explained in detail, and many student questions can be answered simply by reading through them.
- A teacher or student writes and sends an e-mail too quickly without reviewing it, and a typo or spelling error can cause confusion and miscommunication.
- A student sends a phone or e-mail message to the wrong professor, leading to confusion.
- A student is unclear about school policies and assumes that all professors have the same rules about things like late work and extra credit.
All of these are simple mistakes that can cause a huge problem. So it’s good to take the extra time to communicate clearly and to err on the side of caution before attacking a professor. Even if a grade is incorrect (which can happen), if a student is belligerent and completely demeaning to a professor, it does not reflect well and could sour an otherwise comfortable relationship. Even worse, if the professor perceives that a student’s comments are threatening or menacing, a student can get into a great deal of trouble.
In nearly a decade of teaching and working with teachers, I have never found a single instance where they have held grudges or openly expressed dislike for a student. Usually, a teacher is simply too busy to really spend time on such drama. In the rare instance when a professor is really being unfair, you can discuss it with your advisor or a school administrator, and you can also complete a detailed survey at the end of a term. There is always a process to follow to make yourself heard. Just be sure you have a firm claim of unfairness, and it’s not simply a result of a miscommunication.
