Knowing your weaknesses

I do an exercise with my students where I send them all over the campus to get signatures from workers in the various offices. The purpose is to make them physically find those places so that they get to know the campus and where things are located. I always thought the purpose was a no-brainer. So I get this email:

Hello Professor Grace,

I am e-mailing you to notify you that when your students come in to get a signature on the scavenger hunt pamphlet that you send them around with, they do not ask questions about what the office does or what services we provide. They just come in and say “Hey can we get a signature?” Then they walk out. Some of the offices in Student Services I know have been asking them “well why do you need a signature?” to try to get them to tell us what they are doing and to ask questions but the students have been coming in so frequent that our staff having to ask them becomes irritating especially when offices are busy. I just wanted to email you and notify you of what is going on. If the students do not ask what the office does or what services they provide and/or what the difference is between one office or the next I do not find a benefit to the exercise.

BS

Ha! I just now noticed her initials. LOL.

So here's the thing. Many other teachers of this course send their students out on similar "scavenger hunts." I used to sign the students' papers when they came to my tutoring service, so I know that some of them have their students ask questions, but some don't.

So when I started teaching, I, too, sent my students around, but in my class we also make special visits, or have special visitors from the different places. They don't have to ask questions. They find out throughout the course.

To say I had a problem with this email is to put it mildly. I was livid that some part-time tech in student services was taking me to task over an exercise I was doing with my students. Had she simply asked me nicely about the exercise and whether or not I wanted the students to ask them questions, there would have been no problem, but she didn't. She didn't show me any respect as a teacher who knew what she was doing, instead questioning my judgement with that last "I do not see the benefit to the exercise."

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. What bothers me is that it bothers me. Something is not right with me when an ignorant email like this can send me into such a rage. When I stand back from this I can understand some of what is bothering her and recognize that in her irritation she didn't think her email through very well, or doesn't know how to communicate diplomatically. She may be young. I don't know who she is. So what if she got irritated with something I made my students do? That's her problem, not mine, yet I made it my problem. I didn't send her a nasty email back, at least. I stated the benefit just as I stated it in the opening and nothing more. And I'm calm now and letting it go. But I want to get to the point when things like this are nothing more than a curiosity to me.