Have you ever wondered about occupational stereotypes? I am referring to those predilections that are common to particular professions – some of these assumptions are shockingly correct while others do not always pose true. Have you heard the common notion that doctors (male) are often skirt-chasers and nurses (female) are promiscuous? Well, I leave you to judge the correctness of that assumption.
Now to the subject at hand – who is a university academic? Commonplace definition – he/she is someone who likes to read, I mean read and read again. However, is this presupposition always true?
In a static system such as the one we have in Nigeria – a place where curricula changes without the lecturer changing his notes. Someone who graduated in the 1980s may present identical notes given by the same lecturer to students a decade later.
That being said, there are actually university lecturers who do nothing else than to read and write. I mean they have no social life, no home life just a book life. Those are the types you meet in the hallway – “Sir, let me help you with those books,” the student eagerly offers. “Uh,” (he looks at the student strangely for some seconds. Then he snaps back to reality). “Oh, don’t bother.” He replies, craddling the books to his chest like a dear little infant. He enters his office and disappears under the pages of the book. He had promised himself just a little while earlier that he would be home on time for supper – just to make the madam smile before her face returns to its characteristic leatherliness. For the book-loving female academic, she is likely a single mother or married to one of the saints from the apostolic era.
Then to their ludicrous appearance – have you ever wondered why most university dons have a problem staying in sync with present-day fashion trends? You may say they are too bookish to notice their appearance but is this really an excuse?
There is that lecturer who comes to class in the same batik shirt throughout the week and that up and down that resembles an ifa priest costume. And their hair – it is as if there is a consensus for old school afro amongst them. That’s usually okay since it serves as a ready pillow when they doze on their reading chair but when they stop combing it – it becomes an eye sore. It cannot even pass for the dreadlocks that the female lecturers often turn to.
Have you ever stopped to wonder why their fashion-snobbery does not extend to their taste in cars? At least, ever since the government upped their earnings to a sizeable amount. If you are car-hunting, a university car park might be the right place to start.
What about their jaw-breaking vocabulary? They come to class reeling off big words that set the air flowing in wrong directions. The object is to teach and not mystify or confuse students. Maybe, that’s why they prefer ‘lecturer’ over ‘teacher’ – that gives them the leeway to bewilder the students into literary stupor.
Are these stereotypes true of every university academic? That I cannot say. So, I invite you to refute or accept them.
ifeywrites 