You may ask yourself the question, "Why would anyone want to return to school as a college freshman when they don't have to?" In the case of this blog and the book that I chose, My Freshman Year by Rebekah Nathan (pseudonym), the author decides to return to school to conduct a qualitative research project during a sabbatical from teaching. She does not want to identify herself of the university, choosing to remain anonymous in order to share the information she learned while she was a student. Personally, I don't think I will ever want to return back to those first days asi a college freshman, unless, I was 17 years old all over again. I don't think that I would be brave enough to live and mingle with students who are under the age of 20 as a 50-year old as the author did.
After 15 years of teaching, anthropology instructor decides to return to school as a college freshman, experiencing life as a college freshman, and doing everything a college freshman does, such as live in the dorms and attend functions along with the college freshmen.
Some of the decisions that led to the research included her as well as some of her colleagues, being perplexed by:
* students not dropping by her office during office hours for help
* students not accepting her offer of help with research
* students never taking notes in class
* students eating and sleeping in class
* students not reading the required readings
After trying to make sense of this odd behavior, and after auditing classes and seeing things through the eyes of the students (as an auditor of these classes), the author decides to make the leap from professor to student. While auditing classes, she heard things that students typically don't share with teachers.
The journey begins--the professor (50+ years of age) applies to the university where she teaches as a first-year student. She applies and gets accepted using her high school transcripts. Once admitted, she ponders what to say to other students about her status--why was she starting school so late in life, what her current status is, etc. Students didn't really seem to care that much--they didn't ask too many questions, so the answers to the questions that she had formulated in her head were not necessary because students didn't question her to that extent.
*the author gets admitted
*the author gets assigned a room in the college dorm
*the author goes to freshman orientation and events
*the author gets busted for having anopen beer in the community room. Students over the age of 21 can have beer in their rooms, but not in the common area. BUSTED by the RA (resident advisor).
I'm curious -- did she have an 18-year-old roommate sharing her dorm room?
ReplyDeleteGreat start; I can't wait to hear the answers to her questions. Thinking about her questions and trying to revert back to my freshman year, I think I slept and ate during class because I was constantly multi-tasking. The sleeping was due to running myself ragged and lack of engagement during lectures. It was nearly impossible some semesters to read 100% of the required texts. Lets face it, we didn't have endless hours. We were enrolled in 18 credits, and many of us had to work part-time to afford college. As for taking notes and office hours, those are two items I did complete on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing more!
Ash
I hope she didn't have a roomate for both their sakes :o). Not sure how far you are, but it will be interesting to see how it impacts her teaching. Assuming it does.
ReplyDeleteI had a interesting experience when I lived in Ireland as a forty year old women with a husband and kids. I attended college there and was enrolled in a science curriculum with all first year mostly eighteen year old students. I was called a "mature" student and a "Yank". What I remeber most was asking a question in a lecture hall to a chemistry professor. The whole hall went silent and I later learned nobody was expected to ask questions to the professor on the stage. I had stepped over the unstated boundaries. Overall this was a very enlightening year and a time I experienced being an "outsider".
ReplyDelete