Dear Professors
I have deliberately made up an imaginary name for your college in order to avoid getting “Assanged.” You know who you are!
Every day I get a call from a dear friend of mine who is a student at your institution and every day I have to hear about the evil that is perpetrated at your college. Why do I use the word “Evil?” Let me explain.
You see, dear aged and esteemed professors. It is evil to harass and bully young women on a daily basis. When you are a professor, you are expected to teach. There is a very logical and rational economic cycle that occurs – You are paid therefore you teach. Someone is buying your services. You deliver said services. What you DO NOT DO under any circumstances is scream at and bully your customers.
But in the teaching profession, there is a curious thing that occurs that makes it different from most other economic transactions. As opposed to say buying a cell phone service, in which you are paying someone to give you a service and that is that, teaching actually gives you control over a person’s future career.
This is because of the weight that marks and grades are given in our education system. Because you hold the power to grade a student, you hold a special status in terms of service providers. To subject said students to humiliation on a daily and regular basis because you hold such a power is just plain cruel and can be likened to making your employees shine your shoes everyday under threat of immediate termination.
But what is worse is some of the reasons that you give for your behavior.
The "This is How It is in the Real World" excuse is laughable. I thought you were intelligent people! That line of logic is about as valid as the excuse that women get raped because of how they dress. Do you teach your students how to bribe officials as well? Because that also happens in the real world! But you don't approve that behavior, so you don't teach the "Art of Bribes", right? But you do shout at and demean women as part of your course. Does this mean you justify that kind of behavior in the real world?
You see, you cannot justify certain behaviors by comparing them to perceived reality. Bad behavior is bad whether it happens on the job or in the classroom. There is simply no excuse to scream at an adult who is in your power (because you control their grades) other than to get some kind of sick perverted pleasure from the whole exercise. People deserve respect and the only way you can change things is if you start being the change yourself.
Am I trying to tell you how to do your job? Absolutely! Currently, I think that you are no better than an animal handler who kicks puppies for a living because he happens to have the key to the room where the dog food is stored and what is worse is that this behavior on your part has spawned generations of cowardly students who go on to become groveling, brown-nosing employees at prestigious media institutions nationwide.
You claim to promote free speech and creative thinking yet your students are embarrassed and vilified every day if they make the mistake of thinking outside the box. All your students are scared of approaching you with their concerns and the ones that do make the mistake of talking to you can look forward to being shouted at by your colleagues for weeks on end.
And why? Because you are such big shots in your chosen professions? Because you have “made it big”? You are not big shots. You are people who like to scare young girls for a living. You are simply bullies and giving you the respect that should be accorded to teachers is absurd.
In closing, I would like to say that all those former and current students that seem to respect you actually do not. They are either scared of you or you have managed to convert them into bitter husks of their former selves.
Only thugs and goons get respect from people by scaring and threatening them (your city's political scene has taught you much, I see) and professors should not.
And to the students of Dikhaya College, let me say this – taking abuse and saying you deserve it makes you no better than the thousands of battered women who go back to their husbands on a daily basis.
You are victims and you need to stand up for your selves. No one, not your boss, professors, husbands, fathers or mothers has any reason to raise their voice at you, especially when you are just learning and trying your best.
Finally! To the Male professors of this college – Hey Big Men! Stop bullying girls, huh? Don’t be such pricks!
