The Compliment

There is an odd dynamic that sometimes occurs between a student and a professor. As part of my role, I often travel with students to conferences and other off-campus events. This give a wonderful opportunity to get to know each other as people, outside of the traditional professor/student interaction.

For some students this interaction sparks increased academic performance, for others it creates a situation where they do not have the life experiences necessary to separate "work" from "social". For students that are not able to determine what behavior is appropriate in different situations it can lead to a real disappointment when the professor/student relationship is expected. In the "social" situations the students tend to be more likely to reveal personal information than the professor. Sometimes a student will realize this and start probing for information.

A common line of questioning I encounter is related to age. This is something I have never revealed. At first I left them wondering because I was too close to their age, and now because, well, it is not so close. I received an compliment (or at least I see it as a compliment recently) when a student realized that his questioning was not leading to a satisfactory response... "I don't know how old you are, but I do know that you can drink like a 25 year old."