You know what I find to be both wildly distasteful and completely disrespectful? Losing your cool in the classroom. And I’m not just talking about getting a little frustrated or failing at holding back a laugh – I’m talking about screaming and swearing at a classmate. While the professor is still in the room.
This, dear reader, is what happened during my 10:10am class on Friday, and I was unlucky enough to get stuck in the middle of it. And by middle I mean the literal seat in between them both. In my Rhetoric and Law class we’re engaged in mock trials, and my partner and I started our mock trial on Monday. During this class, we were focused on direct and cross examinations, which started to go pretty well, until one of the “lawyers” of opposing counsel attempted to use their visual aid. They wanted to enter a document as a piece of evidence, and my partner, who does mock trial and is extremely good at it, objected to it. They got into it, my partner slapping on objection after objection, opposing counsel making argument after argument. I’m biased, but my partner did an amazing job and I don’t think that the evidence should have been admitted, but the judge was being really nice and was probably tired of hearing them go back and forth, so she admitted it into evidence. This was what started the problem that day.
Direct and cross ended, court was adjourned, and the judge banged the gavel (which will forever be cool to me). As soon as that was over, the same person who worked really hard to get their evidence admitted shot up out of their seat and screamed “Rob (my partner’s name) you aren’t F******G ENTITLED TO ANYTHING JUST BECAUSE YOU DO MOCK TRIAL! You made me almost not be able to use my visual aid and lose points!” I was personally shook because I would never expect anything like this from anyone, especially not in college. We’re all adults, and we know that there are right ways and wrong ways to handle situations. Sometimes reasons are bad because they make you look bad. The professor was a few feet away, too.
Here’s what I took from the experience (aside from an updated view of the person who had the really bad outburst). When you’re going up against someone who is extremely skilled at what they do, it should motivate you and encourage to come correctly, making sure that everything you have is solid and question-proof. It shouldn’t discourage you and make you make yourself look bad in front of the professor. It shouldn’t make you want to throw a tantrum. Nobody is ever entitled to anything just because they planned for it or just because they wanted it. And it’s mind-boggling to realize that there are people who need to learn that. All I can say is I hope that my classmate is proud of what they did, and I wonder if our professor will take off points for their behavior. Would you penalize a student for acting this way?
Indigo,
Well, what happens in court if a lawyer uses this language and tone? I do think they needs to be a level of respectfulness in the classroom and i hope your professor talks about it.
*opens blog post immediately after reading the title* *sees that it’s about the memorable Rhetoric and Law class of MWF at 10:10am* *Knows the characters involved in this story despite not being in the class*
Okay Indigo, seriously, thank you for posting about this with an all important title to grab my attention. Outbursts like this are completely unacceptable, especially between grown adults in a college classroom. Aside from the fact that I know who this professor is, have taken the class, and understand the “stressful” situation that the opponent found himself to be in, yelling expletives and portraying complete disregard for you and your partner is absolutely ridiculous. Let’s just say this…if I were the professor, homeboy would lose points. A lot of points.
Just to respond to your follow up questions – the professor didn’t say anything, but the classroom went silent and an awkward tension filled the room. My teammate just laughed. He has a habit of getting under people’s skin and he’s quite competitive, so he didn’t really seem to mind. He thought it was funny. It was honestly a very unprofessional outburst that shouldn’t have happened. Thanks for your comment!
Still unbelievable! Thank you for the answers! great post!
That is VERY uncalled for and the perpetrator of the incident can’t do that in a real court room! This upsets me very much! I do have follow up questions! What did the professor say! What did you teammate say! I agree with you they should prepare a better argument not have a hissy fit at the end of class!