Was my professor out of line, or am I overreacting?

I think overreacting. It can be irritating when someone calls us out for our attitude, but really it's helpful in the end. On the one hand it may be embarrassing to be the certain of attention, but on the other maybe the bigger concern is that others see you that way too.

The thing about strangers is that they often cut through the b.s. we tell ourselves about how pleasant or unpleasant we are. When you have someone you barely know commenting on your negativity, it's time to ask yourself whether it's working for you. And you've got to wonder how pleasant you are to be around for friends and family.

I've learned to take criticisms of me for being too negatively right to heart. I stop there and figure out where I got off track. Nearly every time that you get criticized for being a downer you are, in fact, being a downer and causing discomfort and possibly even hurt to the people around you.

i can see where ur comming from, but they do that alot. when he said that he was hoping that you would smile. but when you didn't he replied back with the second comment as "my joke wasnt funny to her I guess". he was trying to make you smile, that was it. next time you walk in class smile at him, it will break the ice between yall and will garentee you a better grade in the class.

its funny how ur the second person that I told that 2 cuse it happen with my best friend. lol.
she smiled at her professor when she see him and he said that now she makes his day to see a wonderful smile every morning.

Yeah, a bit of a rude comment but the time to say anything about it has passed. Perhaps that's a good thing because any reaction would only worsen the comment and make it more memorable for everyone. Let it go.

Unfortunately, pissing off professors isn't a good thing (even if you're in the right). Unless his comments continue, just leave it alone.

Over reacting. I used to have a physics professor that would ask questions in class, and if you got picked on to give an answer and it was wrong, he would say, 'heh, wrong. Human suck' I thought it was the funniest thing. My friend used to get upset about it. We had to go get help from him during his office hours, and he was the nicest guy ever; he ended up writing a ref letter to my friend; the thing is, everybody has a different sense of humor and many professors are kind of geeky so their sense of humor is twisted.


I normally choose to see things with a good sense of humor. Innocent people are being killed out there; people are starving in africa; people have lost their homes in storms or earthquakes; people are dying from cancer. And you're upset cause you're told you don't smile? Give me a break.

Unhappy people tend to do, well, unhappy things to others. Just ignore your "professor" and move on. Other good things in life are waiting for you. Please excuse his action. And no, you don't have to smile more just because he said that, especially to him.

Something actually happened to me like this before but from a friend's friend. It was at a bday party and one of this girl whom I hardly know turns to me and said, "you don't smile much huh." In my mind I was thinking what a b*tch. I hardly know you and you say that to me? Smart move. I personally don't like that opening line either because 1, it's just arrogant to say that the other person don't smile much when you hardly know them, 2, it implies that they're unhappy, grumpy, "below" you. We all have bad and good days, sometimes we smile sometimes we don't. These people just have to learn to deal with it. We don't smile for them, period. Hope that answers your question.