The Most Perilous Alliteration Ever!

This piece recounts the tale and the takeaways from an incident where a simple, unintended, and unnoticed alliteration in a student's final presentation slide nearly led to her expulsion and jeopardized not only my employment but also the positions of senior university officials.

Introduction: A Close Call with Your Career!

It's rare to feel like your whole life, or in this case, your career, is flashing before your eyes. This often happens to people during a life-threatening situation or a really close escape from danger. They say they can see their entire life in a moment, whether they're in an emergency room, driving on a highway, or gripping tightly to a seat or someone's hand during a stormy flight!

However, sometimes, we might experience a moment where it feels like our careers are flashing before our eyes. A single encounter, decision, or minute could mean the difference between keeping a government job 2024 or losing it, between success and being let go. In today's world of social media, where almost every student has a camera (since many are on their phones during class), those of us teaching are always one small mistake away from becoming a negative viral sensation on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, etc.

As we've seen in various cases across the country, no matter the teaching level, a career can be quickly ended by a comment that might be seen, rightly or wrongly, as offensive. Because incidents in the classroom can now be easily recorded and shared online, a teacher's name and their school can become trending topics on social media within minutes.

This reality often forces school administrators to impose stricter punishments than they might have otherwise, thanks to the evidence from student photos or videos. Since social media posts can last forever, and employers often search online for information about potential hires, any incident can permanently affect someone's career.

But let me assure you, the story I'm going to tell you has a happy ending! No one, including myself, got into trouble because the incident was prevented by luck. As a management professor with over 30 years of experience, I always try to make my classes engaging and encourage my students to be creative in their presentations. I emphasize the importance of substance but also recognize how creativity and humor can make a presentation memorable.

However, this week, I prevented a situation that could have ended my career and negatively impacted the student involved and possibly higher-level administrators if it had occurred in my class! It was only by chance that a student asked me to review the graphics in her PowerPoint slides, which led me to see her final slide. This slide, if shown, could have caused a huge uproar on social media because of its insensitive message. Had it been presented, it would have been a disaster for everyone involved.

In this article, I'll share this cautionary yet hopeful story and discuss what it means for how we, as educators, should handle classroom presentations. It's a tale of a near career-ending event that offers insights on how to navigate the risky but necessary part of teaching in today's social media-driven world.

The Student Presentation and the 3-Word Phrase That Was Missed (Luckily, by Everyone)!

So, what happened? Let me tell you the story. In my management class for juniors, students have to do a semester project. It's supposed to be easy: take a management idea we've talked about and show how it works in real life. Most students pick something from their job, but others choose something from their personal life, like a club they're part of, their family, or even themselves. Over the years, students have used what they've learned about management, leadership, and communication in various real-life settings. They share their findings with the class, and everyone learns something valuable from each other's experiences, whether good, bad, or somewhere in between. It's a great way for everyone to learn.

Now, let's talk about the presentation that's the focus of this story. A few days ago, at the end of class, we had some extra time because only 3 out of 4 students presented. As the class was ending early, one student came up to me. She was a young woman, about 21 or 22 years old, and she had a question. She was supposed to present in two days and wanted to show me her slides early, which is rare. Most students finish their presentations at the last minute!

I was impressed she was ready early and curious to see her slides. She told me she was going to talk about ethical decision-making in her job as a preschool teacher. She was worried about some "funny" kid photos in her presentation and wanted to make sure they were okay. I checked her presentation from her USB drive, wondering if there might be anything in the photos that could be a problem, and if the kids in the photos were her students. She assured me they weren't her students and that she was just a bit worried about how the photos were set up.

After looking at her presentation, I saw there was nothing to worry about. The photos were fine and showed a lot of creativity. They were the kind you see in memes online. Her first slide was her title slide...