Teddy Bear Landmines & Faculty Research

A Teddy Bear Landmine is one that is ever so cute, yet tries to blow you out of your socks, in a purely adorable way of course. At our university apparently not all of our students are that used to having faculty who are heavily involved in research. I was afraid that two of them would break out in tears from my brief absences. All of my other students were actually relishing a bit of a break from me; after all, the semesters are quite long, and I do drive them pretty hard. I think I heard one of them muttering an emphatic YES under her breath when I told her I’d have to be gone for a class session. Go figure. This is actually quite trivial compared other things in my life right now. I just thought I’d share it with other professors out there who may have insignificant allegorical landmines popping underfoot as they tend to more pressing matters.

Oh yes, how did I handle this new blip on my radar screen? It now appears in my syllabus and on the first day of class I tell students if they can’t handle a professor who does a lot of research, they need to drop my class now, you know, the old “my way or the highway” thing.