happy hayrick

damn, this reliance damages stuff is getting confusing. i still have twenty pages of contracts ahead of me this evening, so i'll get right to the point.

i guess i always figured that eventually the profs would catch wind of this piece-of-shit blog, but i am still not happy that it has happened.

what would possess someone to tell our professors about menlovian? i'd imagine that the student who emailed pitler or told schneider was the same one who (in sixth grade) reminded the teacher that she had forgotten to assign that night's homework.

ultimately, however, i'm mad at myself. here's why:

it's true that i haven't said too many mean things about our profs on this blog, largely because i have basically liked all of them very much. i've been a sebok worshiper and a nan fanatic. i've always been a staunch robyn-defender, and though i bust on hella and pitler, i've always apreciated them as well for their sense of humor and the great stories they tell. and so far this semester, gora and jones seem to be fairly cool and interesting, and poser is turning out to be pretty much the greatest thing since sliced bread.

and i feel that 95% of menlovian's readers have always been respectful in what they write about our profs because, like me, they tend to like our professors overall. i'm not saying that people here aren't critical - they are, but there's nothing wrong with criticism. what worries me though is the mean-spirited comments, especially those that have surfaced in the last several weeks, particularly as grades have been coming in.

i sense that the vast majority of these vitriolic comments have been written by just a small handful of "anonymous" posters. i know from my conversations with you all both in and out of class that the majority of would never speak so scornfully about any of your classmates or professors.

but a few people have, and a few people still do, and a few of these people post these things on my site. and i have allowed them to do so. though i've preached "kind and gentle hayrick" throughout the five months of this menlovian experiment in terms of how we write about each other, i have allowed some pretty nasty things to be posted about our professors. for this, i am sorry.

what it boils down to is that our professors are part of the hayrick. the civility we extend toward one another should also be extended to them.

pedagogical criticism is fair game. so are good-natured observations about a professor's mannerisms, lecturing style, or personality. and of course, there's nothing wrong with complaining about how assignments and exams. i mean, if not here, where?

but what's not cool are personal attacks on a professor, wishing for a professor's death, or professing hatred for anyone at BLS. i should never have allowed these things to be posted on my blog; from now on, they will be deleted immediately.

***

these three weeks have been pretty much the longest three weeks of school i've ever experienced. fortunately, there's just one more class with poser, and then we can all enjoy what will hopefully be a nice weekend.

on a positive note, a triple-nomination sent to me this morning has brought us to a total of 19 nominations for wonderful people. (that is, 19 different people, four of whom were nominated more than once, for a total of more than 25 nominations!)

thanks to everyone who contributed. i'll be introducing you all to six more of your wonderful classmates throughout next week, starting first thing on monday morning. see you all then.

***

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