Comments on: Brain Asplode

By: yami

yami — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 15:41:00 +0000

Yeah, I was kinda thinking of “says a lot of solicitous things when I’m not doing well” vs. “is brisk and businesslike and does not ask me how I feel about the material”.

By: Moebius Stripper

Moebius Stripper — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 19:00:00 +0000

I’m guessing that your notion of “warm and nurturing” is somewhat distinct from “gives me lots of marks and tells me I’m doing well even when I have no concept of the material,” though. I’m not knocking genuine, run-of-the-mill warmth and nurturing, and I’ve even been known to act that way on occasion.

By: yami

yami — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 16:32:00 +0000

I like to be warm and fuzzy and nurturing, at least on good days, so that’s not so bad… but WORD on the “isn’t it cute?” reaction. It’s one of those things where you can never quite tell reality apart from paranoia, too, which makes it way aggravating.

By: Moebius Stripper

Moebius Stripper — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 22:44:00 +0000

God, I can relate to the “get older” thing. I’m no longer a grad student - I’m a college instructor who is younger than many of my students. At the end of last term, I started dressing like an adult, and damned if it didn’t make all the difference.
Of course, there’s the related issue that when my students discover that their non-traditional (young! female!) math instructor isn’t warm and fuzzy and nurturing, they react (it seems) with more indignation and hostility than they would if they were studying under an older, male professor who is no less warm or nurturing than I am. My grad school experience was similar (where was that post…oh, here) - I was surrounded by sensitive male classmates and professors who thought that they were just the SHIT for working alongside a wo-man, but there was always this underlying sense of “isn’t it cute?” to their interactions with me.