How Rude!

   I have always had problems in the classroom and today was no exception. I tend to have problems with classroom etiquette, when it comes to raising your hand, the tone of voice I speak in (I tend to speak in a very loud voice), and dominating the class discussion. However, what made today different was that, instead of being told off by the professor, I was told off by a fellow student. She said that I needed to tone it down and that I was degrading the professor. However, what upset me most, was that I never even spoke to this student before, it would have been one thing if she was a friend, or even an acquaintance, but she was not. My initial thought  was that she was just plain rude.

  It all started today in art history class we were discussing Greek and Roman art. People were allowed to give input their observations on the artworks. When it came to discussing the busts of  Julius Caesar (the top picture ) and Pompey the Great (the bottom picture) which were both made made in the 1st century BCE  . Class discussion was open and I decided to voice my observations along with everybody else dd.

   While everybody else said that Pompey looked younger than Caesar, I disagreed. I noticed that Pompey had wrinkles. The only thing that made Pompey seem younger was his hair. He did not have the facial expression that one normally sees on competent leaders. He looked as if he was a lazy person who did nothing all day. The way I described it was that he was not better looking than Caesar and not idealized because, he had a big nose with worry lines, he did not seem to be relating to everyone but had a spaced-out look on his face. To me Caesar seemed more alert and engaged than Pompey. I guess the reason that I found Caesar to be more relatable is because I am not used relating to normal people but rather to politician-types.When I gave my input on both the statues someone did interrupt me to counteract my input on the size of Pompey's nose, which was also not perfect classroom etiquette on her part.  I might have called out a few times when it came to the statue of Augustus 14 AD which was when he died. How we supposedly knew it was after his death was because he was not wearing shoes. When a person asked if Greek had shoes (Augustus was Roman, and yes ever heard of gladiator sandals?) I said that gladiators (who were Roman) had sandals, and yes the Greeks also did and asked if the person ever heard of gladiator sandals. I was not degrading the professor but, maybe I should not have called out and let the professor respond to that one.

    I acknowledge the fact that I am not the perfect student. If I forget to raise my hand or offend the professor. I do expect the professor to give me some constructive criticism in response to my transgressions. One such example is, when last semester when my Classics professor professor was discussing the midterm I called out when he said that the lecture on The Odyssey was his favorite lecture. I called out to ask why. What I did not get was that when he said that it was his favorite lecture, he meant that a huge portion of the midterm would be on The Odyssey. The next lecture the professor called me up to discuss my calling out. Yes I was angry, however, he had every right to do so.

   I do not mean to be disrespectful, but I just do not understand what is appropriate speech. To me appropriate speech means that it lacks hate. I also tend to go too far when joking. Such and incident happened last semester when I made a stupid joke at a  fellow  Brooklyn College student. I just thought that it was a harmless joke. However, I was wrong because it turns out he told his mother. When his mother started being hostile towards me I just commented my observation that she did not seem in the mood to talk. She then said that I was not so nice to her son. Forget the fact that we are college students and he had his mother intervene, why could he not just tell me himself that he was offended by my harmless joke?

    Now back to what happened after the art history lecture. After the lecture, as I was leaving a fellow student came up to me and told me to tone it down. She also said that I was degrading the professor. My thoughts at that moment were, "that if the professor has a problem with me he can tell me himself.", that she is a fellow student and not the professor's assistant so who was she to tell me off like that?", and that I just thought that I was giving my intellectual input. I even spoke to someone I knew from elementary school about this and she agreed with me.My point is that I feel that students should not try to intervene in the student-teacher relationship the same with that parents should not intervene in peer relations.


PS. Although I thought that it was wrong for a fellow student to tell me off, I will take what she said into account. I will continue to work on my calling out and how I tend to take over a discussion (in and out of the classroom), along with my social skills.