I had two very different interactions with two very different students tonight. The first was with a young woman whom I had to tell several times to stop talking while a test was in progress. On the third or fourth time, I made her move to a seat in the front row.

She told me, “If you talk to me again like that, I will go off.” It wasn’t said angrily, but in a matter-of-fact tone, as if we were friends and she was advising me not to see a particularly bad movie.

The second was with a new student: young, gay, attractive, and flirty. He wanted to introduce himself, make a good impression, bat an eyelash or two.

In both cases, I was suddenly and uncomfortably aware of my position of authority. It’s a tenuous little dynamic, one that relies on the acknowledgment of both parties involved. Either situation would have been a non-event in any other context, and yet in the classroom each seemed to require some form remediation on my part, and to present an opportunity to indulge in something inappropriately satisfying. I backed off from both students, probably a mistake in the one instance but not in the other. It just seems like a road you can’t un-walk.