Just Joking

I served as an adjunct professor at my university alma mater almost 40 years after I initially enrolled as a student there.

That’s the good news.

The bad news was the end of course surveys which every student was expected to complete.

There was the obligatory number ratings, and the optional written feedback. Historically adjuncts receive lower numbers and less positive comments, (although as a rule the numbers and comments my students turned in were in line with the majority of our adjunct faculty).

However, one student survey, and one comment among the hundreds of students whom I was privileged to teach “kicked my rear end,” and, as a result, I came close to resigning from my adjunct position.

The comment? (drum roll)

… “Your course is a JOKE!”

There is an old adage,

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me.”

Well, that statement is pure baloney.

Those 5 words struck me like a sledge hammer. Call me “sensitive,” but it hurt me that even one of my students felt that way about my efforts.

While the student surveys were anonymous, I found myself wishing that I had the opportunity to speak to said student about the comment. No doubt, I would have provided him or her some information of which he or she was unaware.

Adjuncts often have a primary job elsewhere. As a result, given the demands of their primary vocation, and family commitments, adjuncts have less preparatory time available to them than fulltime faculty members. And throughout the nation, on a per course basis, adjuncts are only remunerated approx. a quarter the amount their fulltime peers receive for the same course.

I tend to think the foregoing bit of insight would not have had the least bit of impact on this student. I think anyone with such an “in your face” perspective would not have been swayed in the least.

However, I believe there is a lesson here, and my former student, whomever he or she is, has served as a negative role model to me. From that time forward I think I have been more sensitive about the words, verbal or written, which I use in my interaction with family, friends, acquaintances and strangers.

Though it has been almost a decade since I received that particular “nastygram,” I have never forgotten that unnecessarily rude comment, and the way it emotionally impacted me.

I simply cannot contemplate unnecessarily hurting someone the way I was hurt that day.

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 6