Speaking Out.

This affects many of the people who read this blog, but I am tired of holding it back.

Many of you worship the ground on which a former professor of ours walks; however, if you knew the truth behind this person, you'd change your opinion of them.  I'm using "them" and "they" and the like.  Albeit, I'm doing so grammatically incorrect, but oh well.  It's a blog not a piece of award-winning literature.

Several of us (myself and folks that read this blog) all had one particular professor that we thought was cool, intelligent, and interesting.  Little do you all know, this person talked about you behind your back TO OTHER STUDENTS (myself included.) 

You would bring in your newest short story, poem, or chapter from a novel you were working on, and while this person commended you for your creativity and efforts, they would then bad-mouth you to us and other students while visiting this person in their office.  They would call you naive, ignorant, stupid, immature, and they would call your "works" that you cherished so much "pieces of garbage" and "disgustingly sappy."  Yes, those are exact phrases.

For some of the students that were pursuing careers or graduate school after undergrad school, they had an opinion of you guys, too.  "Spoiled."  "No common sense."  "Snobby."  "Elitist."  Yep.  Those are words they used to describe you, too.  They would also tell us that they knew you needed something from them (a reference, perhaps? a phone call?) but that they were "taking their time" because they "didn't know what to say without lying." 

When a fellow student of ours went into this person's office and started bad-mouthing another to this professor, the professor (instead of trying to stop the student) would join in and call the other student "weird," "clingy," "an emotional wreck," "borderline stalker," and "not someone you should be around."  I am now and forever will be great friends with this person. 

As for two other students, when I spoke with a professor as to how interesting one of them was and how sweet the other was, how I thought they'd make a good couple (now married,) this professor would make a sour face at me, and say, "well they're both rather immature" and "I guess they'd be good together since they're both so oblivious."

I know that our university was based on honesty and integrity, but I think our university needs some sort of system in which students can make complaints against professors and remain anonymous.  Something like doctor/patient confidentiality would work, but I am sure that the university, in all fairness, would want the professor to defend themselves as well. 

And while I am not religious, perhaps there is a reason why The Bible taught others that the practice of idolatry will bite you in the ass one day?