JOLLY DAYS

Dear Teacher

Behind its innocuous surface this article about the effrontery of student's emails to their professors is an interesting sociological issue: how important is the artifice of deference?

The article itself takes the angle that some students adopt inappropriate manner and assertion in contacting their professors electronically.

…”Should I buy a binder or a subject notebook? Since I'm a freshman, I'm not sure how to shop for school supplies. Would you let me know your recommendations? Thank you!”

At colleges and universities nationwide, e-mail has made professors much more approachable. But many say it has made them too accessible, erasing boundaries that traditionally kept students at a healthy distance.

Well, okay, that question by the student was over the top. What do you expect in an entitled narcissistic culture? — some, with the warm encouragement of their percolating youth, with the clammy familiarity of insidious immaturity, will go over the top — comically so, as this article makes clear.

But what really got my notice were the sign-off paragraphs:

Meg Worley, an assistant professor of English at Pomona College in California, said she told students that they must say thank you after receiving a professor's response to an e-mail message.

“One of the rules that I teach my students is, the less powerful person always has to write back,” Professor Worley said.

The first chuckle here is that Meg, er, I mean Assistant Professor Meg, thinks she has the status to support this noxious demand of authoritarian deference. She teaches at Pomona College. Stanford, Harvard, I'll bet the professors there are far more accessible and down to earth than Assistant Meg. And, putting aside the obviously inappropriate emails exploited in this article — is it such a bad thing — a tearing down of false barriers? Should the focus be on decorous “thanks you's”? (Note the student quoted above who asked about proper binders said Thank You!)

A student's feeling that he or she can be, well, collegial, has merit — as is indicated by gifted teachers:

Still, every professor interviewed emphasized that instant feedback could be invaluable. A question about a lecture or discussion “is for me an indication of a blind spot, that the student didn't get it,” said Austin D. Sarat, a professor of political science at Amherst College.

College students say that e-mail makes it easier to ask questions and helps them to learn…”