dragonbook

60 UNIT IX HOW TO SLAY A DRAGON— OR AT LEAST KEEP FROM GETTING TOASTED DEALING WITH PROFESSORS AND OTHER HAZARDS Dealing with college professors can be intimidating, and it is a rare freshman who, in their first weeks of classes, can visit a professor’s office or ask questions of a professor without some trepidation. It’s especially difficult to talk to a professor when you haven’t done well on an assignment, and some students can’t get through the experience without tears. But, though it may sometimes be difficult, learning to interact with professors both in and outside the classroom is a vital college skill, a key part of college success. The first thing to know about professors is that we want you to succeed. The second is that there are some kinds of students we tend to favor. We favor students whose political, cultural, and economic beliefs are like our own because so much of what they say has to us the ring of truth. We favor students whose political, cultural, and economic beliefs are unlike our own because their challenges to our ideas keep academic life fresh and exciting. We favor nontraditional students because we have so much in common with them, and because they bring with them memories of our shared past. We favor our traditional students because they are so like our own sons and daughters, and because they are our great hope of touching the future. We favor our female students because we wish them well in a world where conflict over the proper roles of the sexes has made it so difficult for them to know what kind of choices to make.