Strategic Engagement – Learning to Read and Handle Your Teachers

It’s that time of year when students have begun figuring out their teachers (or professors) and are making decisions about how to handle assignments.  What happens when your worldview diverges significantly from that of your teacher?  Here are three strategies:

1. Give the teacher what she wants.
2. Stick to your guns and come out blazing.
3. Disguise your beliefs with a neutral tone (NOTE: Some courses require a neutral tone as part of communicating within that area of study).

What my experience (23+ years as a full-time student and 15+ as a college professor) has taught me – you must determine the appropriate strategy in each instance.  There isn’t one strategy that is inherently most effective.

You must keep in mind the following factors:

1. The primary objective is learning.
2. A secondary objective is earning a grade, maintaining or strengthening your GPA.
3. It is highly unlikely that you are going to persuade the professor to change his mind in any significant way.

So you need to identify and understand your professor.  There are those who are:

1. Challenging but fair – They will grade your work based upon its response to the criteria for the assignment rather than on whether you agree with them.
2. Neutral – You can’t figure them out, so taking a stand for the purpose of agreeing or provoking is a shot in the dark.
3. Indoctrinators – You must express agreement with their positions and meet the criteria for the assignments in order to do well in their courses.  (Of course, my perspective is that agreement with the professor should not be one of the criteria for success in a course.)

My advice: Don’t lose sight of your objectives.  Don’t be overconfident in your persuasive skills.  Don’t miss opportunities to learn through disagreement.  Don’t waste your energy – it is still unwise to throw your pearls to the pigs (to paraphrase Jesus).  Never let a teacher or professor be your impediment to learning.  Or, less idealistically, there are some courses you just need to complete on the journey to your degree – don’t let them be a bigger issue than necessary.

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