Pressure to fit in - Do professors need to conform?

Like Melanie, I was shocked that there were so little negative reviews of Schooled. The protagonist is a selfish hypocrite who uses her role as a private school teacher in Manhattan turned tutor to do good. Now isn’t that a bit disconcerting? Why would she invest her time at a wealthy private school if she truly wanted to help the children? Even though someone in class did bring up a valid point that these students actually do need a lot of help as their parents are usually disengaged with their lives and they are just pushed through the system. If this is true, I would have hope for our protagonist Anna to delve into these topics instead of only commenting on the spoiled tendencies of the children and the grotesque behaviors of their parents. 

I think that Melanie raises very important issues – why does Anna feel that she has to conform to the ways of her students? Melanie sites the strong fashion sense of many of our Colby professors. Some rock styles that are not the norm by any means of the Colby students, yet do they feel pressure to fit in? I think this would be a very interesting topic to go into with the Colby faculty.

Here’s a possible outline of this project:

-       Interview Colby professors about their lives outside of Colby versus their lives inside the bubble

o    Do they feel pressure to conform to Colby standards of dress and etiquette

o    Do they change their demeanor when on campus? Especially when they are engaging with what appears to be affluent students?

-       Create some sort of range for the dress of professors

o    Maybe a photo essay with willing professors – outdoorsy, stylish, quirky

o    Brief bio underneath their picture maybe even put some of the labels they’re wearing in the description

-       Find out if there is a different pressure to conform in different departments – academic, deans, campus life….

I think that the professors on campus are sometimes left out of our discussion on class and race. As students, we are pressured to confront these issues. We are constantly asked to contemplate how we identify on social issues, but I am also interested how professors identify.