"Rate My Professor" And Other Contrasts

I attempt to build a rapport with all of my professors (mostly through popping in during office hours), not just the ones I find handsome or charming.

Although, I've yet to find a professor who I didn't see as interesting since they tend to be deep thinking, complicated and driven people--and, comfortably, they are liberals.

The Engl 201B professor is like most people--if you sit still enough, silent enough, he starts opening up and talking about himself. I just left Engl 201B professor's office, where he told me about how the health of his parents is declining. And he was noticeably upset.

The English instructor, however, is very different. He hardly ever offers personal information or personal opinion on certain texts, and usually it is to answer a direct question (sometimes he even averts the inquiry, reminding me of Clinton when she was asked by the debate mediator about her special favors for people who donated to the Clinton Foundation--sometimes he just politely dodges). Usually if I make an effort and take an interest, after a few months, I know someone better.

That said, the English instructor's biggest asset (something that he does better than anyone else I've met) is his ability to relate to a younger generation. I hate to call them "eighteen-year-olds" because some are slightly older than that. He talks to them like they are people, not just students, casting aside some formalities while holding on to certain, necessary boundaries. He can engage them, joke with them and get them to laugh and to discuss with him and among themselves. He does this better than even I do (I feel that the whole class of Engl 201A doesn't like me, with the possible exception of one student, for whom English is a second language). On "Rate My Professor" website, there is not a single, negative comment about him on it (at least not since I last checked). All is lavish praise.

Concurrently, I feel like he lumps me into this "student role," for which I cannot escape. I'm sure there are many reasons for this, the most obvious being that I actually am a student in his class. In response, I spend way too much time trying to impress him with my writing (in the atypical hope that he will see me as primarily a writer, not someone who is "beneath" him as all students are a caste below their professors). My mother has noticed this, and told me a couple weekends ago, "Just write the damn essay already!"

My Engl 201B Professor obviously likes me. He smiles when he sees me, and he puts up with my many remarks in class, saying once at the end of our period, "Thank you." I'm assuming he was referring to the fact that I carried most of the conversation. Other students in the class have warmed up to me as well. One of my mates, who sits in the front row with me, asks every day, "What did you think of the reading?" For a seventeen-year-old at a community college, he is unusually articulate, and has scored higher than me on a couple of quizzes, getting a 100% on each.