One of my students brought his mother by yesterday. The student is graduating in a week or so, and had taken a couple of classes from me. He had done well, and we had a nice teacher/student relationship.
I could tell right away it wasn't going to be the same with the parent. I got the kind of visual once over that Heidi Klum gets on a regular basis, except mine was much less appreciative. What can I tell you? I'm rumpled. I don't wear ties. I have a fast-growing beard that makes me look like I forgot to shave once 2:00 p.m. rolls around.
This sort of situation happens to me a lot. It's worse in the spring and early fall, when I'm still wearing shorts and Hawaiian shirts. One parent actually said to me, "You look like Mark Harmon in Summer School" in a frosty, Emily Gilmore voice. "Oh, I liked that movie!" I responded, which was--apparently--the wrong answer. Wrong, wrong, wrong. To be honest, he's better looking, but my shirts are much nicer.
I know I often create these startlingly poor first impressions, because I can sometimes win some of the battle back when I open my mouth. Thank God I have learned not to talk to parents like I'm still at the beach in Southern California. "Dude, The Winter's Tale just rocks!" is not really what parents want to hear from a supposedly effective University Professor. I save that for actual classroom time.
I never get all the way back, though. It's always the nice but slightly puzzled smile in parting, and I can hear the beginnings of the conversation as we walk away from each other. "That is your English professor?"
5 years ago
6 comments:
Oh Please. What self-respecting parent of an American University student would expect a three piece suit and pipe English professor? You are supposed to be eccentric. If you looked otherwise it would be very disappointing. All the good teachers always look odd. That's how you know they're good!
I thought "slightly rumpled" was the quintessential description of an English professor.
Hmmm. Is this something a laundry service could fix? They'll wash, iron and return them on a hanger if you pay them!
Or perhaps you fully cultivate the rumpled look? Any self-respecting retail clothing worker would be happy to help you combine the right plaids and checks...:-)
Pearl
Oh, ironing. I've heard of it, of course. :) Really, I'm not above using said iron from time to time. The results just don't last on me. (The same goes for razors.)
Just so you all know, I have been asked (more than once)
--if I smoked a pipe
--why I don't wear jackets all the time
--if I used to have a British accent
which leads me to think that a lot of people still think I should be Mr. Chips. Seriously.
Okay. There is "Life of the Higher Mind" rumpled, and then there is louche-rumpled. Which one are you?
(P.S. Loved the Emily Gilmore reference! I thought of you the other day . . . my little daughter was sick and she spent the entire day on the couch watching Gilmore Girls, Season 4.)
Bah! Everyone knows the best profs are rumpled! Plus, the only tweed jacket I saw in four years in the Ivies was the thrift-store one I wore (because I was a pretentious git).
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