The Role of Teachers in Society - Term Paper Example

ification Essay Doors Teachers play an important role in society in shaping, molding and teaching future generations. Although teachers are paid less than professional athletes like Shaquille O’Neil or singers like Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace) they plan an incredibly important role in society and should be compensated appropriately. While teacher’s salaries are beyond the scope of this paper, educators today play an important role which should be acknowledged. Accordingly, while some professors are strict and spend little time motivating or encouraging students, others really do care and spend much time encouraging and motivating their students. What’s important, and something that we frequently forget, is that professors have personalities as well as their own lives outside of the classroom. Yes, believe it or not, professors have their own lives and some even their own families! Professors do not exist on this planet solely to lecture, scold and fail students . While the personalities of professors are varied, this research essay seeks to demystify the illusive Fordham University professor personality. This classification essay thus endeavors to place things systematically into categories and endeavor to discover the larger patterns of professors’ personalities by grouping ideas and concepts together. What does our classification of professor’s doors reveal about professors? The following will explore this important question with an eye to understanding the illusive personalities of Fordham University professors. Exploring the hallways of our University, I stumbled across a wide array of information on the doors of professors which led me to hesitantly conclude that yes, professors at our esteemed institute of higher education do have personalities! In the United States professors often seem preoccupied with lectures, exams and securing necessary funding for research projects. Little do we – the students – know that our professors have vibrant and often eccentric personalities. Looking at the eclectic doors of the professors of Fordham University, I had the opportunity to understand a little bit about what inspires professors and makes them tick. Exploring the doors of professors I determined that professionalism and humor were key to uncovering the personalities of professors. Following this, inspirational sayings were another important characteristic of the doors of profs as they sought to inspire the student body. Finally, unabashed departmental promotion was a characteristic which was viewed far and wide within the hallways of Fordham University. Time Management First and foremost, professors are obsessed with time. Yes, a near universal phenomenon on the doors of professors at this university is the ever ubiquitous listing of the professor’s office hours. What do the office hours say about the professor? That they are boring and that this is the only thing that they want to show the world? Probably not. Having the office hours displayed front and center shows to the world that these professors are professional, organized and on a schedule. Accordingly, as we all know, office hours are limited and students in a university such as this have very little direct one-on-one interaction with their professors. The physical display of the office hours then shows to students as well as the rest of the university community that this professor is available to meet and greet the student body as well as answer questions any of the students may or may not have. Thus, the visible display of the office hours on an otherwise naked wooden door signify a willingness to engage with the student body and alert them as to when this particular professor is available. As opposed to being boring, this sort of information clearly demonstrates that the professor takes his or her professional duties to heart and is willing to meet students during the prescribed times. Now that we have established that scheduling and professional responsibilities are important to professors at Fordham University, we have not really delved much into the personalities of professors, explaining who they really are. Are there any other hints on the doors of professors at Fordham University which provide insight into the minds of the instructors? Humor Comics. Yes, comics are everywhere on the doors of professors at our school. Do our professors have a sense of humor? Yes, these comics certainly allude to the fact that our professors may actually be capable of humor (!). Comic strips were a surprising treat as some were funny and others were downright unusual. What do comic strips say about professors? Well first and foremost they imply humor and the fact that professors can be funny or appreciate a good joke. For many students this is likely to be an eye-opening revelation and if one stops to take a look at some of the comics on the doors of professors it may actually humanize them in the eyes of the student community. While jokes are the modus operandi of the comic strip theme, some of the comics I discovered contained a more subtle, yet poignant message. Yes, some of the comic strips displayed on the doors of professors had another motive as opposed to simply making us laugh. Many were inspirational and it is to this theme that we now turn. Motivation It is often said that achievement and experience go hand in hand and that students “will rise to the mark you set. Accordingly, many believe that high expectations translate into high results, while generally speaking, the reverse is true. Students who are faced with low expectations for achievement generally achieve little and meet the expectations instructors set for them. The saying that students “will rise to the mark you set” implies that achievement and perceptions of people’s abilities go hand in hand and instructors must encourage their students to aim high and reach for the stars. If they do, and set the bar high, the students will meet these high expectations and succeed in school. Professors, instructors and teachers who do not expect much from their students generally achieve little in return and that is why it is important to set your expectations high. Due to this common perception that students must be encouraged to work hard and succeed and that positive reinforcement will translate into positive results, many professors displayed inspirational sayings on their doors. Thus, one door in particular displayed a Zen Calendar, a meditation calendar, a quote by the Reverend Martin Niemoeller, ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’ and a Mahatma Gandhi postcard. This professor’s door was obviously meant to inspire his students as well as the wider student body and his positive reinforcement was there for all to see. This particular door was not unusual but representative of the inspirational messages found on the doors of professors throughout Fordham University. Unabashed Departmental Promotion Finally, unabashed departmental promotion was a feature of the doors of professors at this university. As should be expected, professors promoted their respective disciplines and many professors seemed willing to attempt to persuade others that their discipline was the better than others or at least worth studying. Advertisements were used to promote many disciplines as well as information about why this discipline was the next “hot” thing at the school. Accordingly, sociology professors promoted their field as did scientists and philosophers. One philosophy professor included a newspaper clipping from the local university newspaper which promoted philosophy as the “next big thing at Fordham”. Departmental events were also prominently displayed on the doors of professor thus encouraging students to partake in the political science wine and cheese or the physics guest lecture. Departmental hand-outs as well as event posters were utilized to this end to emphasize why students should pursue this discipline. On the door of one philosophy professor was a poster which read, “does your major develop your mind?” Concluding Remarks After visiting nearly twenty professor doors I came to the conclusion that professors at Fordham University most certainly do have varied and diverse personalities. The experience of visiting their doors in order to gain a wider understanding of who these professors are and what makes them tick was incredibly illuminating and provided much insight into the hearts and minds of professors at this school. Exploring the doors of professors gave me new insight into the minds of professors at our school and I saw that professionalism (1) and humor (2) helped uncover the personalities of professors. Our third and fourth classification categories included inspirational sayings and unabashed departmental promotion. These classification categories reveal that yes, professors at Fordham University do have personalities (!) and that professors are diverse and eclectic as any other group. It just may take a little additional effort to uncover their personalities! Read More