I’ve been in classes where children used this opportunity to be completely rude to the teacher. I can understand using it in common, every day life situations, but a classroom is large. I’ve also been in plenty of company meetings - no one interrupts the boss with a “bless you” across the room. I’ve been a Christian for most of my life — I see nothing in the Bible about needing to ward off evil spirits from a sneeze. That’s just hocus pocus. It’s a nice custom, and that’s it.
At my last job where I was in “cubical-land Hell", I had a co-worker in the cube next to me who would not just say “bless you” but would yell out very loudly over the cubicle wall - “God Bless You Sister!” and if I or anyone else who sneezed in earshot of her didn’t immediately reciprocate with a “Thank you”, she’d yell out even more loudly, “I SAID, GOD BLESS YOU SISTER” until she was “thanked”. And if I sneezed more than once in a row, she’d say it for each and every sneeze and would expect a “thank you” each and every time.
I have seasonal allergies, and yes I take allergy meds but I still would sometimes sneeze 5 to 6 times in a row, several times a day on a very bad high pollen day or on the first day when they turned on the heat in the office – the dust. So that was 5 to 6 “God Bless You Sister!”’s and 5 to 6 “Thank you”’s repeated throughout the day. And it didn’t matter if I was on the phone or talking to someone else or how disruptive it was to others. And to make matters worse, after the 3rd or 4th sneeze she’d say something like “Lordy. Sweet Jesus! How many times am I going to have to say, “Bless You” to you today”?, as if by her saying it, it would actually make me stop and that she was becoming annoyed by having to say it so many times. She’d also yell over the cubical wall, her various health cures and home remedies to which I would also have to acknowledge, feign interest in and thank her for lest she became offended.
FWIW, if you haven’t guessed, this co-worker was Black and she was supposedly deeply religious, although I don’t know of what denomination, but mostly she was just annoying and a huge PITA as she also liked to talk out loud very loudly every single thought that came to her mind or tell us, by yelling over the cubicle walls just what she thought about every client email she got or phone call she just got off of. And ironically she was the one who complained to the management over people decorating their cubicles for Christmas and single handedly put an end to our annual cubicle decorating contest.
One day after having several allergy related sneezing bouts, I very politely told her that while I very much appreciated her “Bless You’s” and her “kind intentions”, that I wasn’t sick and that saying it once a day after my first sneeze was more than sufficient to carry me through for the rest of the day and that I would only acknowledge the first “Bless You” with a “thank you”.
This must have really pi$$ed her off because a few days later I got called into my boss’s office over a complaint from an unnamed co-worker who claimed I had potpourri and or scented oils and or was burning scented candles in my cubicle and that I was also that I was wearing very heavy strong perfume to the extent it was making her ill and it was giving her headaches and causing her to have to leave work early. And I knew right away who made the complaint. I got close to my boss, a woman thankfully, and invited her to sniff me and tell me if she could smell any perfume on me because I didn’t wear any and then to come over to my cubicle to see if I had any potpourri or scented oils or candles in my cubicle – there weren’t any.
As long as the rule applies to any other talking in class it is fine.
If you read his rules for behavior in his classroom, he does list “talking with classmates unrelated to class participation” and also “being late for class”, “being unprepared for class and interrupting the lecture asking for handouts and other information that should have been obtained prior to the class meeting” and the use of cell phones and other disturbances – electronic devices must be turned off. His classroom – his rules and while I think singling those saying out “bless you” to the sneezers, seems to be maybe singling out the “religious”, it may not have anything to do with religion and perhaps he’s had obnoxious students much like my obnoxious co-worker. Just saying.
“You are so good looking!” - Jerry Seinfeld
OTOH, I wish that would have caught on although it didn’t work out so well for Jerry : ),
My big question is, Why would college students even need a rules of conduct for class? Isn’t that covered in nursery school?