I can completely empathize with you. This week I've bee mistaken for a student twice, and that's with me in full professor garb (dress pants, heels, jewelry and makeup) so it's not like I was dressed like a student. The part that accepts the idea that women are supposed to look young wants to be flattered, but the rest of me just gets cranky.
Another young prof here. I have the same problem. Sometimes it's the students, sometimes it's other profs (who say "Oh! I didn't recognize you RL, you look like a student" and I want to say "fuck you, you look like a dinosaur." but I don't. To their face.) I also get a lot of "Oh it must be hard for you to control the call, being so young and all." Um. Nope. They act up, you kick them out, fail them or whatever it appropriate and they never do it again.
What I really wonder is if the one student has pulled this before "I'm ESL make it easier for me"-and I only say that because I've seen it at the big Uni I was a TA at. But be pleased that you helped at least one of them to find the resources she needs to be more successful!!
I still get students who ask me how old I am (and their parents, too!), and students still mistake me for a student. Part of this is because I look young for my age. Part of this is because I'm at a university with a good population of non-trads. And it's not unusual for me to have students older than, or about the same age as, myself in my undergrad classes. After about three years, I think I've reached a point at which I command authority in spite of the fact that "I don't look old enough" (male enough?) to be a professor. I think a lot of that has to do with the confidence that I've developed throughout the tenure-track (and not necessarily with being a *total* hard-ass at the outset, which was the way I went to compensate for my lack of confidence at the beginning). Whatever the case, I feel you in this post, but know that even if you don't start going gray at any point in the next five years, that it will still be better in five years than it is right now.
I meant, after about three years I think - not I think I've. I've been here for 6. Woops 
(Also, dude, get tenure. It makes a whole world of difference. I love me some tenure.)
I might look youngish, and I sometimes get asked if I'm a student, but for the most part I don't look all that young. (If by "young" we mean early thirties). But I'm female and of color (no accent, though). And I get the male power thing all. The. Time. So I don't think this is only about you looking/being young. In fact I'd argue that it might have *more* to do with your female gender. (Note the differences of the students are gendered differences and not, as you point out, ethnic ones. And the "toxic" female email student would probably not act up in this way if you were male, esp. an older "distinguished graying" time.
As I've said so many times on my own blog, women profs are nice or bitchy, male profs always simply 'know their stuff.'
[And I don't look like a dinosaur!]
Thanks so much for the comments, all. Yes, I agree that this is a gender and age thing, and in most ways I agree gender is probably the bigger factor. It just really stuck in my craw that one student emailed my TA that I was "young and inexperienced." I think the main reason this bothers me beyond the discrimination piece is that when it comes to pedagogy I have more training and experience than many of my older colleagues. So when I stand up there in front of students, I am quite comfortable that I know my shit.
There is a positive update to that story: my TA chewed the student out a little, told her she wouldn't be responding to any more emails, and the student actually replied with an apology.
Go TA!!!!
That would have stuck in my craw, too. Grrrr. We have your back, though, Kate. You rock.
Thanks . Yeah, my TA rocks... as do my readers!
Hi, is the first time that I am reading your blog.
I found things very interesting one of them is an explanation of why I already have gray hair. My first language is not English, as you can note easily.
However I have been teaching since eleven years ago, at undergraduate level, to students which speak in Spanish, all of them live at the same country and most of them very close to mom and dad, even more lectures and workshops are always in Spanish, I must to have that I have lived that experience several times, and that a high percentage of students believe that I'm guilty because they were cheating!!
Sometimes, and some students have spoke at dean office, [one of the university in that I have tough has a particular dean called university environment dean, and them try to help to student with the college life] and one formal complain is that teachers are bad and they believe that can prove it because they have cheated, and they have been caught. So, in my opinion it is a even more common situation.
I don't know why, but insolence is frequently a fingerprint of dishonest people. Maybe the first student felt overstressed with so many changes and tasks an was a little and temporary "crazy" but second one is a cheater. My many gray hairs said it, and they know, because were obtained after starting to teach.
Don't worry about this, be a teacher is a complex tasks but many times is really satisfactory.
Fifteen quail just dashed across the street in front of my window. I love my new place.
With rare exceptions, college professors are not hired because of their teaching abilities. Having some teaching experience - a different matter entirely - might be a consideration in some cases. No matter how much you know about your field nor how competent a teacher you think you are now, I expect that you will be better at it with another ten years experience. That's not to say that older teachers are much good at teaching, just that they are better than they were earlier.
Don't worry about being too young to get the respect you should. If you are a good teacher, you will get better. If you're not, the students will find a way to learn anyway
I too have considered graylights. Great post and funny comments. I agree that it's often related to gender schema. Especially with male students and colleagues who came from countries where women are rarely in positions of authority.
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