In reference to professors, we often hear the classic, “I pay your salary, so fix my problem” scenario coming from students. With this mindset, regardless of a student’s intentions, they, even if just for a brief moment, have reduced their professor’s personhood. This may sound extreme, but if we analyze the situation in totality, that is simply the reality. By making such comments and portraying this attitude, students communicate that their professors have become a tool for their degree requirements. Simply put, we mustn’t treat others like this. Our professors are so much more. Our education is so much more.

I fear in the college environment, the humanity of professors is often overlooked by students. They are treated by students as simply “instructors” and not people. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to become best friends with your professors. Rather, what I am saying is that it is imperative we acknowledge their personhood in totality. Being a professor is simply a “mask” they dawn for the day. Outside of the classroom, they are so much more.

On the other hand, I fear there is far too little relationism. There is far too little engagement. We are doing a grievous disservice to ourselves this way. We — not our professors — are turning ourselves into passive repositories, into which we expect our instructors to dump heaps of information to regurgitate later. In doing so, we are telling ourselves and the world that we are nothing but mindless robots willing to lap up the information presented to us and then spit it back out. Is that what an exemplary education sounds like to you?

I implore us all to become more relational. Let us ask more questions. Let us engage with the wisdom our professors provide. They are not tools; they are people in totality. And you are not a repository. You are an inexhaustible person; act like it.