Why would anyone want to return to school after they are done?

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).

Introduction of My Freshman Year

I was drawn to this book because I taught a first-year experience course to freshman during the last academic school year and will be starting again with a brand new class in a few weeks.  These brand new college students were among the best and brightest at their high schools and are hand-picked to attend the Air Force Academy.  Although they are among the best and the brightest entering college students, they nevertheless, are still young and inexperienced.  In the weeks to come, I will blog about the experiences of one college anthropology instructor who decides to conduct research on college students by returning to college herself as a freshman (first-year student).

Since the college professor teaches anthropology (the study of human beings), it was quite natural for her to study the students within their own environment, as a student, rather than as the instructor.  She decides to conduct a year-long ethnographic study of the students and live with them and experience their environment.
Her intent was a to provide a detailed and indepth description of their everyday life and practices.

After auditing a couple of classes for her own interest and education, the author discovered that she acted like a student and the other students treated her like a fellow student.  The idea was born and this over-50 year old college professor returned to school to expeience life as a freshman college student all over again.