Faking It

Remember Student A? I finally reached the end of my (rather limited) patience with hir and summoned hir to a meeting with me today.

When s/he arrived in my office, I refrained from saying what I really wanted to say, namely, "Grow up and stop acting like a brat in my classroom."

But professors can't say things like that to their students, of course.

What I actually said in a warm and accepting tone was, "So, I've noticed that you've seemed rather uncomfortable with class discussions whenever we talk about critical approaches to the Best Man Ever. Do you want to tell me about it?"

This opened up a nice conversation in which Student A had the opportunity to "feel heard."

Let me be perfectly care: I could not care less whether s/he feels heard. My goal was purely pragmatic: I just want to be able to teach my class without wanting to hit hir at the end of the hour.

And if that means that I have to pretend that I actually care about Student A when I don't, so be it.

I'll fake it if I have to.