"I pay your salary!"

[nuttylawprofessor]

If you ever feel like saying something like this to your teacher or professor, don't. Just walk away. No good will come of it. The professor isn't going to change his policy/approach/attitude. And you're going to end up looking like a great big spoiled brat.

 

[Imzadi]

Sounds like you had a bad time with a great big spoiled brat.

 

[nuttylawprofessor]

Sounds like you had a bad time with a great big spoiled brat.

For once, not me! I've had 2 or 3 who've tried this line over the years. This year, many colleagues are dealing with great big spoiled brats. The faculty email list is ablaze with war stories. THE SEMESTER JUST STARTED!!! Things aren't looking good for the class of 2013.

 

[book_junkie]

Now, this was drawn in 2003, so I'm sure the guy's taxes went up a bit, but still...

 

[Sparx]

Mouthing off to a professor is like mouthing off to a police officer. Yes, you can legally do it, but its just not a good idea.

Be glad you're not in my university's English department! Last spring I was in a class where several of my classmates were having problems with the professor (has taught for more than 25 years, the last 17 with my school).

Most of the class agreed that there was a problem, but there was one particular student who was the ring leader. He was a nontraditional student and always seemed to be just a little bit off of whatever we were talking about. He would CONSTANTLY make comments (when he bothered to show up, that is) about the material, but they were wrong and he didn't like being corrected. I'm sure everyone has met someone like this guy. He was definitely impressed with his own intellect and if anyone said anything that wasn't completely praising him and how special and smart he was, he threw a grade-A hissy fit.

Well this guy failed the first three essays. Our entire grade was 4 essays which were spread over the course of the semester. He decided to fabricate this petition and circulate it through our class. I want to make sure this is right, so I just looked in my email (I saved it) and there were 25 items on the petition, every single one was a lie. Fantastical lies actually, like the professor was more than 25 minutes late more than 10 times? Seriously? I never missed a day of the class, so I know who was there and who wasn't. The class never started late. This petition guy was usually late, but our professor was never late.

Well the majority of the class signed this petition and sent it to the English Chair who I'm sure got a good laugh out of it. It was riddled with grammatical and spelling errors.

And while that particular guy failed my class (I only know this because he told EVERYONE! multiple times!) our professor is teaching 5 classes this semester, like usual. I am taking the professor again and he often jokes about when he was petitioned for a redress of grades by a gaggle of angry underclassmen. Clearly, it did not ruin his life.

 

[Imzadi]

Well the majority of the class signed this petition and sent it to the English Chair who I'm sure got a good laugh out of it. It was riddled with grammatical and spelling errors.

I hope the English Chair corrected it in red font and sent it back.

 

[DisneyFed]

Boy, if I had a nickle for every time I've heard this in my 17 years of Law Enforcement


It never worked for them....

 

[Sparx]

I hope the English Chair corrected it in red font and sent it back.

Oh I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when she found THAT in her mailbox.

 

[golfgal]

And people wonder why those of us that know better are all over a 4th grader's mom for undermining what the teacher is trying to teach in class....

 

[eliza61]

Now, this was drawn in 2003, so I'm sure the guy's taxes went up a bit, but still...

LoL.

 

[ban26ana]

People tell me this all the time. I either tell them that they need to start paying higher taxes, or I explain that I pay my own salary. I work for the police department in the town that I reside.

 

[Carly_Roach]

If you ever feel like saying something like this to your teacher or professor, don't. Just walk away. No good will come of it. The professor isn't going to change his policy/approach/attitude. And you're going to end up looking like a great big spoiled brat.

It isn't just the teachers. My DH (police officer) has heard that line more often than he'd care to. His favorite comeback when it gets to him?

Public drunk: "I pay your salary, bub."

DH: "How can you pay my salary when I make more money than you do?"

 

[golfgal]

I am trying to come up with a job where the general public DOESN'T pay your salary and I can't thing of one. If you work for a major corporation, the people that buy/use your products pay your salary.

 

[palavra]

I've seen this posted quite a few times on education/teacher threads here. I'm a teacher at a private school, and some parents have a similar line of reasoning at our school, only we here that our slalries are paid through tuition.

 

[Liberty Belle]

A student came to school last year and said, "Do you work for my mom?" I said, "What?" He replied, "My mom says teachers work for her." Well, I explained to him about taxes and principals and superintendants. When he repeated it to other teachers and administrators, it didn't go over so well.

 

[kamik86]

I will say I have been in a few classes where the teacher was talked by admin. to over student comments. The bigger one was a college class where the adjunct instructor apparently "didn't know" that it isn't ok to send a file with everyones grade on every assignment to let the class know how they are doing. You have to send only the students grades to each student. He even RANKED the list so it took you only a glance to know the best and worst students.

The class was a Software Engineering class taught by the Computer Engineering department but our SE professor got this message forwarded by half the class and our dean, the professor, and the CE department dean had a nice long meeting before the next class where he apologized profusely. He didn't get fired but obviously got a warning of some kind.

The other was a professor who was known to be REALLY late getting work back. Like this is a 10 week course and stuff you did in week 3 may come back my week 7 (too late to withdraw if you failed so you wouldn't know in time to do so) and since all the biggest projects and stuff are due in week 9 and 10 we were fairly certain he didn't grade the last 5 weeks of work in the 2 weeks before grades came out... so how was he getting our grades?

After like 2 years of complaints like this on our evaluations he started mentioning at the beginning that he was making a "concentrated effort" to get work back earlier and it started coming back much sooner... Now since it took that long I'm assuming he didn't decide based on reviews to be a better teacher and I know that year a few people that didn't do so well did go though the process then makes the teacher have to explain your grade to you in detail so I'm wondering if he got in trouble as well.

That being said pulling something like in this thread for a teacher you just don't like or because you dont' want to do the work isnt' ok. But when the teacher is doing things clearly against the schools policy (privacy and the school had a policy that a major grade must be back by the withdrawal date in every class) then something like this is ok.

 

[Hercules10]

Most all in the public sector have heard this. I always respond with "Can I have a raise then? Haven't had one in years!".

 

[tlbwriter]

"I pay taxes too, so I pay my own salary."

"Oh, really? So, where do YOU work? Walmart? Huh. Guess what. I shop there, so I pay YOUR salary!"

"My boss pays my salary too. But unlike you, HE can fire me. So I'm a lot more concerned with what he wants than with what you want."

Love that cartoon!

 

[Disney Doll]

My stock response to that line is "Well, then I'd like to talk to you about getting a raise".

 

[MomRN]

Nurses hear this from time to time also... (and usually from patients with Medicaid)

(I'm not putting down anyone with Medicaid, I've even been there myself, but do find it ironic that you say you are paying my salary, but I am paying for your Medicaid.)