Out of Control Cornell Instructor

umcp11
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:55:28 +0000

Look, everyone who is like, “OH THIS YAWN WAS OBVI DISRUPTIVE PROF FTW” is…not being very fair?

You can’t even HEAR the audio on the track so how would you know how disruptive the yawn is? The fact that the prof can hear it from the front means nothing. Lecture halls are extremely quiet and sound travels very easily. Furthermore, the fact that some students turned their heads is also not necessarily indicative of anything. I’ve watched it several times and they only turn around to look when the prof reacts (not yet verbally, but he’s staring randomly into the corner).

The yawn may or may not have been obnoxious. We don’t really know.

What I do know is that the reaction was extremely unprofessional. You’ve seen worse? Well, good for you. That doesn’t make it appropriate. Walking up and down the aisles and ranting for students to rat some kid out is totally disruptive and creates a feeling of acrimony in an environment that is supposed to be collaborative. The yawn MAY have turned two heads (if it even did this at all), but his outburst turned the entire class around in their seats. Furthermore I imagine they were very on edge for a significant part of the lecture following that.

There were MUCH more appropriate ways to deal with the yawn, even if it was disrespectful, such as, “That yawn was pretty loud. I’m going to ask you to yawn silently or leave. Thanks.”

When a person starts screaming because they feel “disrespected” they are abusing their position of authority. It’s bad behavior for a boss in the real world, and bad behavior for a college professor in the real world.