Elizabeth Kramer | The Informer

One of my biggest pet peeves is when students ask professors if their papers are graded. Some students even ask the question the class after the paper was handed in.

I’m sorry, are we back in first grade believing that teachers don’t exist outside of the classroom?

Professors have lives and they don’t revolve around us. They have families to spend time with and other obligations to attend to. Most of them are doing research or writing their own papers for their field of interest. Not to mention they have several other classes that they have to grade things for.

Let’s make some calculations: a five page paper times the twenty students in the class equals one hundred pages of reading and grading.

Imagine if the readings you had to complete for your classes were written poorly, terribly organized and not even factually supported. That is probably what about fifty of those hundred pages look like, and the remaining fifty no doubt have numerous grammatical errors, structural issues and citation errors.

It’s not easy and it sure as hell is not going to get done in 48 hours.

In my opinion, there is nothing ruder than students asking when their assignments will be graded because it basically implies that the professor is not putting enough effort into the course, and that is entirely false.

These professors put an incredible amount of time and effort into planning each and every lesson. Summarizing Macroeconomics or Microbiology or American Foreign Policy or an entire century of history or any other subject in one semester can’t be an easy thing. They have to decide what information is most important and relevant to you, decide what order the information should be taught in and in what way they can convey the information so that you understand it.

They have to choose the books and the readings that are most appropriate and create assignments that will make you think more deeply and make connections between events or concepts that you might not have made otherwise. They have to create PowerPoint presentations and exams and a Blackboard page for each of their course. They have to prepare labs, simulations or other class activities to get the students engaged.

This is all before the semester even begins! Within the first couple of weeks they are expected to memorize a boatload of names and majors and begin giving these lectures and assignments they have so meticulously planned out.

Then, not until all of this has been in progress for a while, they need to start grading assignments. All of a sudden they have sixty midterm papers stacked on their desks that need grading. Then at least one student in each of their classes asks them the following day if they are graded yet.

Here is where I commend professors the most. Because not once have I witnessed a professor go off on a rampage, as I surely would if I were in their shoes.

With extreme calm professors respond that no, unfortunately they do not have them all completed yet but they will make sure to have them back to us within a week or two. Some of them even apologize.

Then there are always the couple of students who sink their shoulders and sigh heavily to imply that this is an exorbitant amount of time and it is so incredibly unfair that they have to wait so long.

The world does revolve around them, after all.

Maybe it makes me so angry because I come from a family of high school teachers and I have witnessed how hard my parents and sister and aunts and uncles work outside of the classroom to make sure things run smoothly in the classroom.

Maybe it is because I have seen how much they care for their students and want them to do well and want to provide them with the best possible feedback so that the students improve and learn something valuable and are prepared for the next year.

The debate rages on about whether or not teachers and professors should have higher salaries. Well, we can’t change how much our professors are paid, but we can change how much they are appreciated.

I urge my peers to remember, the next time they are tempted to ask when they are getting their papers back, that professors are people too.