We, we, we

WE have had an oncology professor over the last couple weeks who has been getting on OUR nerves.

Said professor has a habit of, upon hearing any tiny hint of whispering or chatter in the classroom, abruptly stopping the lecture and stating the following:

"WE are having some issues with whispering today. WE are going to need to stop the whispering, or take OUR whispers out into the hallway, because WE do not want to bother OUR colleagues who are trying to learn."

Now, I appreciate the sentiment. I'm all for respecting your peers, acting professionally, and encouraging people to pay attention to the lecture.

But besides the fact that WE are not a group of 7-year-olds (and the few class clowns who used to act like 7-year-olds as freshmen have since matured), I have several other issues with this instructor's complaint:

1. Vet students historically do not respond well to condescension from their instructors. Experienced instructors (and/or human beings with a modicum of common sense) should know this.

2. This professor is lecturing to OUR class for the first time in 2.5 years. Hence, SHE is not part of WE.

3. WE have been sitting in lecture together for multiple hours a day, 5 days a week, 16 weeks a semester, for 5 1/2 semesters. WE have developed our own methods of policing each other, settling issues of noise in the classroom, and silencing the chatterboxes. If WE had not figured out how to do this on OUR own, WE would have killed each other by now.

4. She is a terrible lecturer. She attempts (and sometimes succeeds, yet in a way that feels like failure) to get through 70+ text-heavy PowerPoint slides in each 50 minute lecture period. She speaks so quickly that she literally completely drops words out of her sentences. I have never heard anyone do that before. It's quite remarkable. While WE would all love to pay attention and learn something important about cancer, WE certainly cannot take notes because in the time it takes to jot down 2 sentences, she has sped through the next 3 slides.

Okay, time to step off soapbox. Man, venting feels good! Hooray for OUR last oncology lecture tomorrow (and let's hope WE don't feel like chatting during class).