Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Students Making Comments about One's Appearance

I'm not sure if there is much to say about this, but I wonder how others deal with students making comments about their appearance. Sometimes I have students who comment on whether I have new shoes, my hair is different, they like my shirt, etc. The comments are never really offensive or hugely inappropriate; if they came from a friend I wouldn't think twice about them. But sometimes they do throw me off and make me feel self-conscious, especially when they are made at the beginning of class. I try to dress as uncontroversially for class as possible, plain pants, button-down shirt, "sensible" shoes. So I think part of it really just is student's curiosity about me as a person and trying to have some sort of more personal interaction. So, I'm not entirely sure if I should stop it by saying something about it or just ignore it as they are not made with ill intent.

5 comments:

  1. Try this one on for size (no pun intended): After I have taught two class sessions one day, a student slips me a tiny piece of paper on the way out of the room. On it is written the following words: Your zipper is open -- really. And my zipper was open -- really.

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  2. I occasionally get such comments. If it's just a passing comment, I usually just say, "Thank you," and move on. If it's, e.g., made in front of the whole class, I usually make a joke about the student trying to get an "F for flattery." That seems to make clear that such comments are not entirely welcome. It helps, though, that I joke with my students a lot, and so I'm pretty sure no one's ever taken that as a serious threat.

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  3. David, that's great advice. It only really bothers me when it's said in front of the class and I do joke with my students, so that is particularly helpful.

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  4. Hmm, that's a tough one. Are these male students? You can use it as a teaching opportunity..

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