This week we have seen the chaos and excitement of students returning to BYU-Idaho. We have had a nice break, but I think everyone is ready to get back to work. I can hardly believe that this will be my third year of teaching! It has been comforting to look back at the last few years and see how far I've come as a teacher. I am infinitely more confident in front of my students, and every semester I am able to make subtle changes to my teaching style that are yielding good results.
Some things, however, still have not changed.
Ever since I came here as a teacher, I have run into problems because of my age. I'm almost 26 now, and it's still happening! Here are a few instances from the past few days:
- I went to the library to check out a few books, and the student employee told me I could only have them for two weeks until the head librarian corrected him.
- I went to the bookstore surplus sale this morning to buy some shelves for our garage. While I was in line, one employee was quite condescending to me, telling me that he has priority for the item we both want, and he questioned how I even found out about the sale. When I went to pay for the items, I tried to put them on my account, and the employee didn't want to let me because student's aren't allowed to do that.
- I went to the gym today to check out a locker for the year. I ran into several roadblocks with this one. The first person asked me, "Are you in a P.E. class?". Sheesh. The second person, someone who has known me and my family for decades, kept telling me that lockers were not available until next week. I knew that wasn't true, so I asked her if there were any lockers left in the employee locker room for me to get next week. She gave me an incredulous look and said, "You're not a teacher, are you?!?" She had to look me up before she believed me. Even after that she kept asking me questions and acting surprised when she found out that my husband has a full time job on campus (I'm sure she was expecting him to be a student), and that we were actually homeowners. Once I convinced her, it was amazingly easy to get a locker!
I love working at BYU-Idaho, and I feel so fortunate to be in the position that I am. There are many wonderful people here, but even the best people sometimes act in a biased way towards gender, race, or even age. What I experience is really not a big deal compared to what others go through, but it has been a good lesson to me to treat all people with respect, whether they are teenagers, college students, middle-aged, or elderly.
I'm really not complaining. I hope I am mistaken for a student for many years to come! (knock on wood). It has just been very interesting to observe.
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6 comments:
Chad had the same problem there! We thought it was so funny.
I don't know if you have an office at school, probably, but you could always hang your diplomas there. My lawyer friend that looks young set up a sweet office and once he hung his diplomas no one asked again, "Are you sure you're old enough to be doing this?" or "How old are you?", etc.
In the meantime, just start saying, "That is so nice of you!" or "Looking young runs in my family!" haha.
I have the same problem...and it has nothing to do with BYU-Idaho. Luckily (or un-luckily) I am balding quite quickly, so I look a little older than 26. I also keep a beard going, and over dress most of the time to keep the illusion going. I keep telling myself that I am going to show up on the first day of class and pretend to be a student, and see if I can get them to tell me things about the teacher.
Getting through school quickly definitely has its disadvantages.
Yes! Definitely tell them that looking young runs in your family. ha ha.
This morning at our meeting we hadone teacher (very young looking) introduce himself and tell about similar problems to yours. We then had another new teacher stand up (very middle-aged looking, but who just barely graduated) tell about having just the opposite problem. All the time he was a student everyone thought he was the teacher.
I hope you didn't let that condescending guy get the goods. Did You?
I always get that too--not because I'm a teacher like you, but people look at me like, "you're too young to be a mom", etc. Anyway, it's annoying I agree, but in a few years we'll be grateful! Good luck with the new school year! I'm sure you're a super teacher.
Hey! we just stumbled upon your blog. We hope you guys are doing awesome, we need to get together again sometime soon!
My good friend, Marilee Bass, gets this all the time. She teaches in the Horticulture Department, and she (unlike you) is only 4'11"!
I'm sorry you've been treated like that! You're one heck of a teacher and performer, though! :)
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