A relatively staid (for me) combination of items today for no other reason than I felt like wearing a suit. Shock! Horror! Gasp! Yes. I'm so ashamed. The shirt collar is a bit rumpled, but not offensively so. Unlined in other words. I smoothed it later in the day.
Typically, I have been wearing full suits on Mondays when my hybrid courses meet face-to-face during the 2024-2025 academic year. Not consistently every week, but most of them. It certainly sets a more formal tone than many students are used to in the college classroom these days, creating a bit more distance between us.
Some might view that intentional boundary negatively. I do not. After all, I am not their bud, bro, or BFF. Old school? Indeed. My function is to try to teach them something and, in the process, cultivate a bit of critical thinking along with collaborative problem-solving.
The suited approach certainly seems to keep more of the little darlings focused and on task with the lesson plan for the day rather than on their phones. They tend to mind their P's and Q's a bit more when the person at the front of the room looks like an adult instead of a 50-something masquerading as a 20-year-old who rolled out of bed 10 minutes ago.
-- Heinz-Ulrich
Bravo, Heinz-Ulrich, for the example you are setting for your students, and that ensemble is just about perfect. No, drop the "just about"; it is perfect.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for you kind words, Charlottesville. We try. Lord knows, we try. as a colleague and friend in another department on campus sometimes observes, "Too many students pay an awful lot of money to skip classes" and otherwise avoid doing anything but the bare minimum. Reading is something very few actually bother/seem able to do in the 21st century. Again and again, their writing well illustrates that point since the two competencies are, like it or not, inexorably linked.
ReplyDeleteKind Regards,
H-U