curious .... just friendly?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2004
curious .... just friendly?
1
Mon, 01-29-2007 - 5:47am

yesterday I got a friendly email from a former student of mine, which reminds me of what happened many months ago ....

The last academic year I took up a new post teaching graduate courses at a school. To make a long story short the responses were not as good as I expected -- a few students liked me very much, but owing to various reasons a number of students were so unhappy that they almost wanted to filed a complaint to my boss. It was such a nightmare that I actually revealed to some that I was very hurt and misunderstood. A student -- one of the smartest and most articulate -- emailed me what he thought about the course (including some negative remarks), but also offering me a lot of comfort and kind words. At one point I actually suspected that he was one of those "unhappy" ones and was being a hypocrite, because he did skip some of the required evening classes (a hint of discontent). Not only after that, he sent me e-card for the new year and joined the "friendly" group. I therefore promised not to hold grudges against him.

In the second semester I taught only an elective course and only those who loved me enrolled in it. This student nonetheless audited most of the classes -- to my surprise -- because if he were indeed so interested in the material he should have formally enrolled in it. As I became more friendly towards him he actually sent an email to me filled with compliments, such as that I was highly original, inspiring and very impressive. From tme to time he so brought me pamphlets of cultural events held on school campus -- which have some relation to what I had been teaching. In the last class or so, he brought another one, and suddenly dropped a hint that I should be joining him to attend it. As I was very busy I turned it down -- but later I casully mentioned to my friend, who suggested that the guy is interested in me. Owing to my previously bad experience I was actually very skeptical about other people's positive comments and kind words, and always suspected ulterior motives in the speakers.

could it be so? I am relatively new in the profession. Could it be that he was simply friendly? (as he is one who is very dedicated to his campus life and I also saw him handing the pamphlets to his coursemates, too)

The email I got recently is from him, a casual note, though he's finished the program and left school for a long time.

FYI, hes a few years younger than me.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-21-2005
Mon, 01-29-2007 - 8:52am
I don't see any indication that he's "interested" in you, but even if he were,