Professor Bans College Students From Saying ‘Bless You’ In Class

[Harmony 2]

Friendly reminder: Comments should be about the topic of the thread...Moreover, replies should be respectful of differing points of view, even when we vehemently disagree! Thanks

 

[Nova]

I'm sorry, Harmony2. Thank you for correcting my error.

I guess I'm a little taken aback by the vehemence here.

We all agree a 1% grade deduction is excessive; we all agree a syllabus can be put to better use.

I have yet to receive an answer to my question as to why it is polite--or even necessary--to interrupt someone who is speaking, just because a third-party has an involuntary response?

 

[wfgodot]

Class en masse should just issue forth with a shouted "GESUNDHEIT!" and get on with the lesson. But to h*ll with this "bless you" nonsense.

 

[Nova]

Very funny, my friend. I don't understand the sentimental attachment to "Bless you" either. Personally, I'd rather everyone ignore me when I sneeze, yawn, belch or fart in class. But trust me, there's no way students would let any indiscretion pass without mocking me in reply. In their shoes, I'm sure I'd do the same. LOL.

 

[Tawny]

You won't get an answer because there isn't one, IMO. If the professor isn't interrupted by the sneeze itself, how are a couple of "bless you"s soooooooo much more disruptive? And if he/she IS interrupted by the sneeze, are a couple of "bless yous" just THAT much more disruptive? Or is the professor on a power trip that makes him/her think it's ok to grade students negatively for being polite? That's a rhetorical question, I don't expect an answer.

And I have been in classrooms more stressful than you'd think. Just because a person's opinion differs does not mean that person lacks the life experience you have. JMHO.

 

[TrackerSam]

I'm sorry, Harmony2. Thank you for correcting my error.

I guess I'm a little taken aback by the vehemence here.

We all agree a 1% grade deduction is excessive; we all agree a syllabus can be put to better use.






I have yet to receive an answer to my question as to why it is polite--or even necessary--to interrupt someone who is speaking, just because a third-party has an involuntary response?

I fail to see the interruption. Most teachers wouldn't even notice, much less make a big deal out of it. In his own words he states " We are taught that it is polite to say ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes. However, if you say this while I am talking, it is NOT polite, it is very rude!”

 

[TrackerSam]

You won't get an answer because there isn't one, IMO. If the professor isn't interrupted by the sneeze itself, how are a couple of "bless you"s soooooooo much more disruptive? And if he/she IS interrupted by the sneeze, are a couple of "bless yous" just THAT much more disruptive? Or is the professor on a power trip that makes him/her think it's ok to grade students negatively for being polite? That's a rhetorical question, I don't expect an answer.

And I have been in classrooms more stressful than you'd think. Just because a person's opinion differs does not mean that person lacks the life experience you have. JMHO.

What life experience? Some of us have taught and all of us have been students, a sneeze and a bless you are not disruptive IMO.

 

[Tawny]

What life experience? Some of us have taught and all of us have been students, a sneeze and a bless you are not disruptive IMO.

We're on the same page, Sam. I agree with you 100%.

 

[FredFlintstone]

this is good, we should keep superstitious beliefs out of educational establishments and government

 

[Tawny]

IMO, in this day and age, it has less to do with superstition and more to do with empathy/sympathy. I personally feel that saying bless you/gesundheit is a way of saying "I empathize with your tickly nose and/or allergies". We are all human, we all know the torture a sneeze can be LOL!

 

[JeannaT]

Has anyone, ever in their lives, been in a situation where blessyous after sneezes caused an actual interruption? If that IS the case, say in an area with a lot of mildew or ragweed and there is an awful lot of sneezing going on, and the class decides it's clever to keep saying Bless You like the Waltons say "good night" to everyone at the end of the day, it can be dealt with.

It's highly unlikely that this professor actually was experiencing disruption during class from "bless yous" but rather, it is a continuation of the tearing down of traditional Christian and middle class values in America, and students have sat there and taken it before out of fear. "God's Not Dead" is kind of a poorly done movie, a little trite and cliche, but the point is a good one. You don't have to sit there in your chair and parrot back what a professor tells you to if it goes against your belief system.

 

[JeannaT]

And once again, cooler heads prevailed. This toad has removed his ban on saying "bless you" and no students have been disciplined for it. Sometimes, shining the light on lunacy is enough to fix it.

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=5868

 

[Tawny]

Other infractions include sharpening your pencil.

Sharpening the utensil you use to take notes is a bigger problem than not taking the notes? And if your pencil breaks, another infraction is asking for handouts (i.e. can i borrow a pen?)

How does he expect students to function? LOL

I DO agree with turning off your cell phone and not arriving late. Those are obvious. I can't get over the sharpening pencils thing in a classroom though.

 

[JeannaT]

Other infractions include sharpening your pencil.

Sharpening the utensil you use to take notes is a bigger problem than not taking the notes? And if your pencil breaks, another infraction is asking for handouts (i.e. can i borrow a pen?)

How does he expect students to function? LOL

I DO agree with turning off your cell phone and not arriving late. Those are obvious. I can't get over the sharpening pencils thing in a classroom though.

I don't know anything more about him, but I would guess this is a guy whose been bullied all his life and how it's his turn. And he's going to take it out on the students in spades.

Looking at his bio, he got his under grad and masters at Penn State, and Doctorate at Kent State, so he's probably among the most prestigiously educated professors they have to choose from. In any case, jerks like that make students miserable - better to have someone educated at a lesser known university who acts decently and respectfully. At any rate, the college is still looking in to it. Prayers he won't be offered tenure.

 

[JeannaT]

Interesting - 4 reviews on "rate my professor". 2 green smilies before the stupidity of outlawing bless you, 2 red marks after the heavy handed "bless you" thing.

Gotta love rate my professor. Through communication, we can all get rid of horrible professors.

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1599501

 

[Nova]

You won't get an answer because there isn't one, IMO. If the professor isn't interrupted by the sneeze itself, how are a couple of "bless you"s soooooooo much more disruptive? And if he/she IS interrupted by the sneeze, are a couple of "bless yous" just THAT much more disruptive? Or is the professor on a power trip that makes him/her think it's ok to grade students negatively for being polite? That's a rhetorical question, I don't expect an answer.

And I have been in classrooms more stressful than you'd think. Just because a person's opinion differs does not mean that person lacks the life experience you have. JMHO.

The difference is that we all assume the sneeze was involuntary, so nobody's going to fault a student for that.

The chorus of "Bless yous" is entirely voluntary and a willful interruption of someone who is speaking (whether the speaker is I or another student). And why is it necessary? (You keep saying "a couple of bless yous" when I have told you time and again that a chorus of bless yous often erupts and takes several minutes to subside.)

You are right: i was wrong to make assumptions about your educational background, and for that I apologize.

But put your self in my place for a moment: I used to have 2 hours (minus a break) to explain Sophocles' OEDIPUS and Aristotle's POETICS to 17 and 18-year-olds. And I had to explain the play as a dramatic work, not the "lesson on fate" students are taught in high school.

To do the above, I had to walk students through both works, step by step, explaining Greek beliefs, problems with translation into English, etc. and so forth. And I had to do so with enough humor to hold the attention of teenagers, while also allowing them to ask questions so they didn't get lost.

An interrupting chorus of "Bless yous" required me to back up, find a suitable place to start over and think of something entertaining to recapture the attention of the class.

And still I ask: why is saying "bless you" so important? Why does acknowledging a sneeze justify interrupting someone who is speaking, someone who has spent hours organizing the material so it will make sense to teenagers and now must re-organize the material to account for the interruption?

 

[Nova]

I fail to see the interruption. Most teachers wouldn't even notice, much less make a big deal out of it. In his own words he states " We are taught that it is polite to say ‘bless you’ when someone sneezes. However, if you say this while I am talking, it is NOT polite, it is very rude!”

And he is right. Your point?

 

[Nova]

What life experience? Some of us have taught and all of us have been students, a sneeze and a bless you are not disruptive IMO.

I don't know what your experiences are, but I know mine over hundreds of hours in college classrooms. Once students are allowed to chatter among themselves--even if only to say "Bless you"--you've lost them for a significant amount of time.

Again, I didn't deduct any grades, however my rule was "you can talk to me, but you can't talk to your neighbor while I'm speaking". Anything else was unmanageable, because I really couldn't follow 70 private conversations between students, whether they were responding to a sneeze or the material itself.

 

[JeannaT]

I don't know what your experiences are, but I know mine over hundreds of hours in college classrooms. Once students are allowed to chatter among themselves--even if only to say "Bless you"--you've lost them for a significant amount of time.

Again, I didn't deduct any grades, however my rule was "you can talk to me, but you can't talk to your neighbor while I'm speaking". Anything else was unmanageable, because I really couldn't follow 70 private conversations between students, whether they were responding to a sneeze or the material itself.

This is all water under the bridge. The rightful indignation of the public has caused him to rethink his ridiculous set of rules, and the school is investigating further. Done and done.

 

[Nova]

Has anyone, ever in their lives, been in a situation where blessyous after sneezes caused an actual interruption? If that IS the case, say in an area with a lot of mildew or ragweed and there is an awful lot of sneezing going on, and the class decides it's clever to keep saying Bless You like the Waltons say "good night" to everyone at the end of the day, it can be dealt with.

It's highly unlikely that this professor actually was experiencing disruption during class from "bless yous" but rather, it is a continuation of the tearing down of traditional Christian and middle class values in America, and students have sat there and taken it before out of fear. "God's Not Dead" is kind of a poorly done movie, a little trite and cliche, but the point is a good one. You don't have to sit there in your chair and parrot back what a professor tells you to if it goes against your belief system.

YES, I HAVE BEEN IN THAT SITUATION. I've explain as much in several posts.

But I think we're finally getting to the heart of the matter! This is like the phony "War on Christmas", where certain Christians recite their perceived grievances.

FTR, "God" was never a forbidden word in my classes. In fact I taught a course on "Religious Ritual and the Origins of Theater" for years. Whether a students says "God bless you" or "Bless you" is neither here nor there to me. (I taught college, so I didn't have to deal with restrictions on religion in the classroom.)

And in fact I found myself actually teaching Christian theology every semester because the beliefs are so central to classic, Western plays and so many students nowadays are raised without any religious education.

But I doubt that even Jesus would have appreciated a 5-minute chorus of "Bless yous" during the Sermon on the Mount! Think about it for a moment: how that important rhetoric would have been ruined by such an interruption.

(ETA No, I'm not comparing one of my lectures to the Sermon on the Mount. The point is appropriate behavior when someone else is speaking.)