Professors cursing in the classroom is unprofessional and acts as a distraction from the lesson they’re trying to teach.
Think back to your first semester as a college freshman. In one of your classes, you probably had a teacher utter some sort of curse word. Many teachers seem to use more “adult” language in order to welcome their students to the adult world or make them feel more relaxed in a new, more mature environment. They may be trying to make students feel like they can relate to them, or even that they are “cool” and more approachable.
While I have many professors in my department that I feel close to and have a good relationship with, a professor’s primary job should be to prepare us for the professional world and the environment in which we learn should reflect that.
In many professional workplaces, cursing can raise the occasional eyebrow or even get you fired. Even when cursing is more accepted in a given workspace, it can still cause problems. According to an article on achrnews.com, several court cases have occurred in the past few years related to employees cursing in front of customers, or at employers or other employees.
This begs the question as to why it is acceptable for professors to curse in a space where we are supposed to be learning to behave in a more mature and professional way.
I feel that teachers who choose to curse simply for shock value or to prove a point can be cheapening or even losing their intended point altogether.
In my personal experience, most college students still have the reaction they did when we were younger, i.e. “oh, Miss ‘So and So’ said a bad word” accompanied by a few giggles. Even when not said aloud, some students still seem to have that general reaction which can take away from the very point a professor was trying to emphasize and cause the attention of their students to be lost, all over trying to get a cheap laugh.
“I think at that point, it doesn’t make you seem like you have a point, it just makes you seem arrogant and not as smart as you want to be,” junior exercise science major Haleigh Caldwell said. “I mind only if it’s excessive, every other word or constantly dropping things that may be insensitive to other people.”
While I know many students would disagree, I still feel more comfortable and have more respect for professors who don’t need to turn to more colorful language in order to get their point across.
