Being Uninhibited: The Threat and the Promise

I can say in retrospect that it was one of the most unforgettable classes of students I ever taught. The first class meeting set the tone for the semester. They had come together to take Psych. 101, Introductory Psychology. The course was scheduled for the evening and so drew together a group of sixteen part time evening students who had full time day jobs. For the most part, I had long been established with the Graduate School and this was the first undergraduate course I had taught in years.

The chemistry of that class was established from the very outset. They seemed so awed and quiet that I guessed there was an underlying level of shared anxiety. As I went through my opening discussion about the nature of the class and the requirements my secondary concern was not to scare them off. I really hammed it up with real life illustrations of the points being made and a succession of related jokes.

To further soften them up and get to know one another they were requested to introduce themselves to the class by giving their name, what motivated them to register for this particular course and what kind of work they did.

This went swimmingly. Most were here because it was a required course for their program. Several responded that they wanted to better understand people. About half way around the rotation we reached a woman who was older than the others. She stood up and said "My name is -------     ------- and I'm an alcoholic."  I stood there transfixed waiting to see if she was joking. She and the rest of the class just looked my way. It was then up to me: should I laugh or question if she was serious? I thanked her and moved on to the next student. Everyone followed my lead and took the surprising information right in stride. 

Nothing would shock this class going forward and they could feel free to say what they thought or felt without fear of embarrassment. It turned out really fine.

On the evening of the final exam, I had stepped out of the room leaving one of my graduate students to monitor the test. Ordinarily, students leave one by one as they complete their exams. Not this time. When I returned to collect their blue books some 15 minutes after the tests completion time they were all there waiting outside on the steps. They didn't want to leave without saying goodbye. The warm chemistry of that class was something I always tried to recapture with succeeding classes.