It would be considered sexual harassment now, but back in the day when I was a student it was common at some Christian schools and even at Calvin College for insecure male teachers or professors to needle students who threatened their insecure ego.
These teachers would take cheap shots in subtle ways about a student's "manhood" or "masculinity". One way they would do this was to raise their eyebrows and say "very creative " in response to a thought you shared or something you wrote, etc.
Sometimes they'd just do it one-to- one. Other times they'd do it in public, even in the classroom. It was definitely not appropriate for sure but they would get away with it back then as part of their "bully pulpit."
Because back then these self- proclaimed so-called "manly men" deemed "creativity " to be a non-masculine trait.
Or in some cases if a professor couldn't get away with doing something demeaning himself, he would encourage another student to do so. At Calvin College and Seminary if they called you 'dude' that was also a little bit of a slur.
For example, a professor might be speaking with one student and they might say about another student "oh, he's a dude," with an insinuating tone. And encourage that student to marginalize the other student as a dude.
And this would also help take the light off of that professor who might be the actual less-than -virtuous person. It would especially help them if they could pit one student against another.
One of the most egregious professors in this regard at Calvin Seminary was Roger Greenway (Bob DeVries may be second. Cal Van Reken was up there as well). They actually considered this unethical behavior as "gamemanship".
Roger above all was highly threatened by my alpha male presence and more than once took some little unethical and inappropriate cheap shots at me such as the above. Or was intrusive.
One time we had a banquet at the beginning of the year, and I had to go make a phone call. This was before cell phones, so I had to find a public phone. And we were at a public restaurant, not at the Seminary. So I stepped out for a few minutes. IT was an important phone call that couldn't wait. When I came back he was demanding, " Where were you? Where'd you go?" as if it was any of his business. I didn't even know him at that time.
I didn't even know his name. I didn't even know he was a professor. This was a banquet for new students, including professors and other staff as well. There were a lot of faces that I did not know at that time. I was not new to Calvin College; had already gotten my bachelor's degree there , but I was new to Calvin Seminary.
He took an over- the- top special interest in everything about me which felt weird; even in this case taking special interest in why I was absent from the banquet for 5 or 10 minutes.
What if I had been in the restroom with diarrhea or something? Is that his business as well ? This isn't like we're in elementary school or kindergarten where the teacher has to know everything about the kid like a parent. This is basically graduate school.
Roger actually made the mistake of continuing to take shots at me even after I had left Calvin Seminary, and all the more stupidly, he did so in writing. And once I find that letter that I still have somewhere, I will post it as evidence.
But you see these low- level professors* would use the word "creative" & other similar enigmatic words because it's ambiguous enough to use as "double speak." This way they are covering their tracks and they can deny that they meant anything derogatory, if confronted by a complaint, or a superior investigating their behavior.
"Dude" passed as doublespeak in that regard as well because you could argue that it's an affectionate way of talking to a fellow person.
Roger Greenway has passed away, so I won't go on and on... I won't go on any further, but it's worth mentioning because there might be some professors still trying to get away with this this sort of bully behavior, and maybe some students can pick up a few tips from this information. Greenway was part of the reason that I decided to transfer to a different Seminary.
Don't allow professors to take advantage of you. They have ethical responsibilities and obligations that come with their teaching position; and belittling students is a violation of those ethical standards.
*Note: It's usually only a small amount of professors who need to use this kind of unethical "classroom control", (or even outside the classroom in some cases). It's the professors who do NOT have real great command of their content, or don't have any real command at all. So they begin struggling for class control; feel insecure , and begin belittling students as a way to silence them.
Coincidentally, both Roger Greenway and Bob DeVries may have been hired more for "legacy" reasons, or nepotism ( ie sons of professors or pastors) rather than any real great academic command or proficiency. I'm not sure about Cal Van Reken.
