Does kissing your professors ass really work?
A look at todays relationship between students, professors, and grades
Just as a freshman I can already see it, students kissing up to their professors in hopes to get better grades throughout the course. Some of it is obvious, other forms not so much, but regardless it’s present throughout the college atmosphere.
The Professor’s mentality
Professors are not stupid! Professors had to go through many years of intense college education and earned doctorate degrees that the average person probably couldn’t aquire. So when a student comes in saying they like what their professor is wearing or that they love how the professor organized their powerpoint slides everyday it’s clear to the professor what the end game for the student is. These types of compliments constitute the obvious side of the ass kissing that occurs in college.
The other side is much less obvious but is still very much a part of student culture. this technique really is not considered kissing up but its a technique that is definitely used by students. Rebekah Nathan’s The Art of College Management explains this technique perfectly when she describes the best ways to get to know your professors. “They think the world revolves around their subject, so they want you to voice an opinion. So give them what they want and you’ll get what you want too!” Students act like they are interested in their professors courses and go to as many office hours as they can in hopes to get better grades.
The Most Important Thing to Students: Grades
In order to understand why students kiss up to their professors we must understand the motives of students. Just about everyone can relate to the stresses of grades as almost everyone has gone to high school, but by being in college students grades matter ten times more. Good grades equal a good job, bad grades equal loads of student debt with no way of paying it off. Nathan describes this relationship between students, grades, and professors perfectly when she says “Their interest in grades leads to close surface connections with faculty, while, like some earlier student cultures, they harbor a private disdain for the professoriate curriculum.” Students kiss up to their professors with a fake relationship in order to get the grades they want.
Does it Work?
So when students kiss up to their professors does it actually work? Well obviously the more obvious type of kissing up is not going to work but the other type is used all the time and with great success. Ultimately if you are respectful and make sure you are known by your professor you might get a little help with your grades, but I think all professors would agree with me when I say grades are earned not given.
Nathan, Rebekah. “ The Art of College Management.” My Freshman Year. (2006): 107–131. Print. 109 117
http://www.educationquest.org/blog/how-to-communicate-with-your-professors/#!mostrecent
