College bullies exist and you’ll never guess who they are.
PROFESSORS. That’s right. Professors are the biggest bullies on college campuses.
It is the first day of class. The professor starts out by introducing themselves. Next, they want to get to know you a little better, so they go around the room and ask everyone for their name, class year, major, career goal, and maybe a few additional things. You HATE public speaking with a passion. It is one of your biggest fears, so you begin to rehearse everything that you are going to say. “I’m Heather. I’m a senior Criminology major. I want to go into law enforcement.” You’ve written down everything that you are going to say, because you know that when it gets to you that you aren’t even going to remember your own name. It’s finally your turn. Your face is fire engine red. You can feel how red it is. You are talking so fast that hardly anyone can understand you. You don’t care though, because you just want it to be someone else’s turn. That was probably one of the worst three seconds of your life, right?
You are sitting in class paying attention, but you still have no idea what’s going on. You read the chapters for this week, but you had trouble grasping the concept because the textbook is so confusing. The professor asks a question about the reading. A few members of the class raise their hand to answer, but you are not one of them. The professor calls on you to answer the question even though you clearly did not raise your hand. Your mind starts racing to think of an answer. Your heart starts racing because you are freaking out. You have no idea what the answer is. Your face starts turning red. The professor is completely embarrassing you in front of a lecture class of 50 students. You feel more stupid than you already did before the professor called on you. You respond to the answer with “I don’t know.” The professor calls you out for not paying attention or reading the chapters, but you were paying attention and you did read the chapters. Like, thanks professor for making me feel like a complete idiot in front of the entire class. I’m sorry that I’m not a genius.
I’m pretty sure that some professors are out to make your life miserable.
Why do they call on the one person that doesn’t raise their hand? It’s obvious that they do not know the answer.
If I did not say something in my presentation it’s because I did not find it in my research. Do not question me about it. I do not know. If I did, it would have been in my presentation.
Public speaking is one of the biggest fears of Americans. Stop torturing your students. Stop embarrassing them. It is not necessary. It makes them feel stupid.
