COLUMN: In touch with the students

From Siona Listokin's, "Think Different," Fall '00 From Siona Listokin's, "Think Different," Fall '00My History professor made fun of my column in lecture two weeks ago. It took me a minute to realize what he was talking about -- 9 a.m. classes require long brain processing time, and tenured profs rarely mention the DP in class. College brochures usually list a school's student-faculty ratio to highlight the opportunity for personal attention from professors. Student ratings almost always include a mark for teacher accessibility outside the classroom. But neither a perfect one-to-one student-faculty ratio nor a million office hours can compare to the very simple act of professors trying to relate to their students. Reading the school newspaper and being aware of campus events are a start to understanding students. I had a teacher who was so on top of the alcohol policy fiasco last year that I thought he had a personal stake in the outcome. Before lecture, the class would discuss developments and we would bounce ideas off each other. While our conversations did not impact the final policy, the professor seemed less alien to us. He seemed to care about an issue that was obviously important to his students, making it more pleasant to learn from him. It is understandably difficult for professors to relate to their younger students in today's environment. Teaching is not the top priority in most academic departments; the tenure track demands publishing, networking and acting very unkid-like. Classrooms are not where great teachers are cultivated at Penn -- they are on lecture circuits and government appointments and bookstore shelves. So it is no wonder that professors seem like little more than booming voices at the front of the lecture hall. Sometimes it is hard to tell if those Ph.D.'ed creatures that run in and out of the room are even warm-blooded like the rest of us. Sadly, this alienation results in the loss of a great opportunity for both professors and students to learn from each other. Professors need to stop before they walk into their classrooms and wonder what is going through the heads of their 20-year-old students. I feel happily surprised when teachers acknowledge things like the Ivy League basketball championship or Spring Fling. Yet these are events that everyone involved in the Penn campus should at least be aware of, from assistant professors to department chairs. Students and faculty can relate to each other in matters outside of the classroom. I have friends who took their professor to New Deck after class for a quick beer. They describe their weekly half-hour conversations as one of the most important learning experiences they had at Penn. I am not suggesting that professors must drink with their students in order to promote better mutual understanding -- I just think it would be nice if this were not unheard of. When I was very young, my mother, an Art History professor at Rutgers, used to bring me to her class to meet her students once or twice a semester. (True, that was only when my baby-sitter was sick.) It was an altogether humiliating experience for me, but my mom liked it. Her students saw that she was a flesh-and-blood human being with a normal life beyond campus. As a college student now, I can imagine how such a simple act can change the chemistry of a classroom. It is similar to the sense of community I feel on the rare occasions when I see a professor at student concerts and athletic events. Or the sense of appreciation I have when I see professors reading the DP. It signifies that the faculty cares about what its target audience is thinking. It acknowledges that yesterday's frat infraction or midnight fire drill is part of today's class lesson. Professor McDougall, thank you for reading our school newspaper. Thank you for your comments on my column. Intentional or not, it was nice to learn that our student shenanigans are being noticed by the in-house adults. I'll see you in class.