Teacher's Pet

 In the last blog I wrote a little about professors hanging with students, though not dwelling on the overtly lecherous and harassing behaviors.  There is definitely plenty of that around, sadly, but I don't get to see much of that going on and only hear stories from afar and usually of the past.  But I have also seen the students as the aggressors, though I must admit this was far more common when I was a young professor, so I'll have to rely on distant memories here.

I know I'm just an average looking guy, so that a student being inappropriately forward based on attraction was probably an uncommon and naive occurrence.  Yet when I was early in my teaching career there were a significant number of females (and even a male or two) who acted inappropriately, which I can only interpret as often being attempts to ingratiate themselves for the purposes of bettering their grades.  This was confusing for a short time, and rapidly became irritating as it is so insulting.  I can remember, for example, when some female students would dress purposely provocatively, presumably in the hope of positively influencing their grades.  I used to label them, generically and disparagingly, the "three button broads," as one common practice was to unbutton the third blouse button so that it was "Hello sailor."  I can even remember teaching in one of those tiered horseshoe-type rooms where one young woman a row or two up apparently "forgot" to wear panties that day and was seated in a less than lady-like pose.  I suppose such behaviors might influence a few, as there are too many professors, young and old, that abuse what little power they have or have little regard for morality.  But I have heard the phrase "I'll do anything for an A" ("How about studying?" was the response) and long ago learned to always keep the office door open when a co-ed enters.  There were some students that used to give gifts of some sort, and while I suppose that's usually well-motivated and innocent enough, it always made me quite uncomfortable (if accepted, I'd often give the gifts away).  You just have to look at students as "scenery."

So what I'm trying to communicate here is please don't flirt or worse with your professor.  Beyond being inappropriate, it really is insulting to us and demeaning to you.

Image from imdb.com