One More Week

One more week and the semester will be finally over! My last class on Thursday ended the same way it started ... with little fanfare. I ended my Tuesday night class by telling my students how much I appreciated their work and committment to the class. I didn't do that with the other section. I simply finished up a few more points about my research, fielded some questions, handed out the final exam, and passed out the evaluations. And that was that.

Tonight I'll have my first batch of finals from my Tuesday night section and another one this Thursday. And then I'll turn in my final grades and that will be the end of it.

If there's one thing I have noticed about students at George Mason University, it's their hospitality and courtesy. Almost all my students referred to me formally as "professor" even though I indicated that it wasn't necessary. When I was teaching in Los Angeles, there would always be someone asking how I should be addressed, or in some cases, students would simply call me by my first name without asking. Not so at GMU. I don't think it's about respecting authority per se, but it seems to be about not being presumptuous. There is a practice of care among these students -- well, my students anyway -- that is markedly distinct from students in Los Angeles.

There's really only three conditions that I demand people to address me formally with my title. First, if it's a formal / public event such as a fundraising dinner for a community organization, or a panel organized by students on campus. Second, I hate it when people bastardize my last name. I can only take that nonsense for so long. And finally, only my enemies address me as "Professor."