since it's not about MY ACTUAL STUDENT, I can blog this
It's Sunday (today). The phone rings. Caller ID shows an actual name and not "unknown," so I answer it thinking that if it's a wrong number I can at least tell them so, or if it's one of my friends calling from someone else's phone, I won't miss the call.
The person on the other end was neither of the two options.
caller: May I speak to Professor Julie Meloni?
I'M NOT A PROFESSOR. I ranted about people using "professor" without actually having the rank, over here. But whatever.me: [puzzled] This is Julie.
caller: Hi, I'm [name] and I'm a [sport] player and was out of town until this week and I see you have an opening in your class at [time].
WTF? While it's true that it's schedule adjustment time and technically in my class I have one seat, I have a waitlist. Plus, um, what the fuck?me: [not even politely] I have a waitlist.
caller: Oh, but...
me: [interrupting] Could you tell me how you got this number?
If she was given the number by someone, I want to know who it was.caller: In the phone book.
me: Ah. Just so you know, this probably isn't the tack you want to take with faculty, calling random people at home on a Sunday evening.
/makes mental note to remove name from phone bookcaller: ok, thanks!
Shall we examine just how many things are wrong with this exchange?
[I should reiterate that moving forward I'm not going to talk about my actual students or class except in very general ways like "fun!" or "I gave a crappy lecture," because I am not an anonymous blogger. Heck, even if I were an anonymous blogger I probably wouldn't be any more specific than that. I have
an outlet for venting. But this student...sheesh. Not actually mine.]
Labels: teaching
