Profanity in class is appalling

When did it become OK for teachers and students alike to swear or talk about inappropriate topics in class?

I grew up going to a private grammar school and didn't even learn most swear words or vulgar concepts until I entered a public high school. Students in my high school used to be suspended for using vulgar language that I've heard repeatedly this semester by my own professors.

Now I go to a severely liberal college, where I've learned that people really do say whatever they want to. It's quite impolite and I'm asking for a little consideration with word choice from everyone, please.

I've heard three of my five professors here swear in class. One out of those three also talks about sex casually to his students. I know they're the teachers; it's their rules that apply, so if they want to swear or talk about inappropriate topics, they can. As a result, students feel they can use profanity just the same.

This is my first semester at Buff State. I've heard teachers use swear words of all types, even dropping a cuss word in class and pausing to hear the laughter from the students. I'm not laughing; I'm appalled. The first paper I was told to write this semester was asking if sex is out-of-date for a class that has nothing to do with sex. Not only did I feel uncomfortable, but I also felt disgusted and confused as to why I'm paying for a class in which I'm assigned to write about a topic with such profanity. That's just the assignment. I could also fill you in on intimate details of my professor's marriage. Feel outraged? Me too.

Teachers are role models. Teachers helped shape me in to the person I am today. I developed my morals, learned my life lessons and was led by example all throughout my school years, with much help from my teachers.

I can name teachers who taught me never to swear. I can name teachers who would never tolerate a swear word in their classroom. Now I can also name teachers who not only pardon swear words in their classroom, but also use them casually or humorously in their lectures. Not only does it make me uncomfortable, but it also disappoints me knowing that my classmates look up to these professors as profoundly successful and accomplished people who cuss as if they never learned not to and talk about sex as if it isn't a private and inappropriate topic.

Maybe it's my upbringing that sheltered me from swear words. I'm not naive enough to think that they don't exist or that there isn't an extremely frustrating or scary circumstance where one may slip. I just don't think the classroom is a proper place to exercise them. In addition, the only time I ever spoke of sex in front of a teacher was in health class in high school. I was taught that it's a sacred act of love, not something that can or should be joked about by my professor.

I even feel inappropriate talking about these topics for a school newspaper, though I don't seem to have much company with that uncomfortable feeling. I hope that for their students, teachers can please have the same consideration, respect and dignity with their language as I was always taught to have for them.

Colleen Young can be reached by email at young.record@live.com.