This article wasn’t written by me. But it could have been.
If a crisis occurs in my department, I know the email will fly starting at 5 am, and there will be meetings and ridiculously overwrought machinations by everyone. I skim the email, take the long way around the building to my office, sip coffee, and wait until the “decision” comes through. They’ve all wasted a day in hand wringing and I’ve appropriately just had my say when the final news came down. Some of them I can imagine scrambling to their computers to write the latest post for College Misery about the trauma!
What I’m saying is that this is an important profession and we do important work, but it’s just a job, people. I think that a lot of you would be a lot happier if you’d just relax a bit. If your student doesn’t staple his paper? Staple it. What’s the big deal. They take a phone call in class? You mean you’re that insecure that you can’t just shut them down and keep going. And seriously, what’s the deal with being upset when a student asks for next semester’s books. You don’t have a link to the bookstore you can send them?
This academic is completely right. People are too overwrought and drama-queenish. I’ve been following the College Misery website for years for the same reason many people enjoy fantasy and science fiction: it is entertaining to observe a reality that is completely different from yours while being at a safe distance from it. And finally there is a post I can relate to.
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