To echo what some others have said, I think Jonas and Rachel have already helped prepare us for many of the classroom incivilities (CIs) we may encounter when we begin teaching. Yet I’m grateful to Boice for pointing out that CIs can go both ways: we’ve all had those professors who appear rude, arrogant, and unconcerned with students’ wellbeing; since we’ve experienced what that feels like as a student, why would we demonstrate the same behaviors we used to hate after we become teachers?
Strangely, I’m also encouraged by Boice’s claims that the best teachers (in terms of lowest numbers of CIs, but I think also in other areas) are not the novices but those who’ve been teaching for many years. This takes away some of the pressure to be perfect from the start, reminding us that teaching, like so many other things in life, is a skill which we must develop over time. Starting off on a positive note by conveying to your students that you care about them and want them to learn in your class is (or at least seems to be) a fairly straightforward piece of advice, as does giving teaching feedback to and receiving it back from peers. Both we and our students can benefit from knowing we’re not in this thing alone.
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