Reflective Reading Log #4, part 2
In the sixth and seventh chapters of My Freshman Year (2005), Nathan details the cultural normalcies of the typical college student at AnyU, and leaves the reader with her most memorable lessons from the field as a freshman.
As I read the sixth chapter, “The Art of College Management,” I often found myself chuckling at the similarities I could draw from my own experience as an undergraduate. Though I attended a small, Christian school that was vastly different than a large, public, research university, I found much solidarity (maybe embarrassingly so) with the students whom Nathan interacted (except in regard to the cheating).
Nathan speaks of the programming that occurred during Welcome Week that promulgated the mantra necessary for college success: “Effort and good planning. If you plan your time well, you can have it all” (p. 111). She detailed the balancing act that students must engage in (classes, work, homework, commuting, social life, etc) and what they must do in order to manage it all. Building the perfect schedule was a part of that balancing act. As Nathan described, I remember penning an ideal schedule within the first week the class lists were released for the following term. No classes before 10:00am, no classes on Fridays, and time to eat lunch every day. I avoided the professors that my older peers had warned me against. By my junior year, each semester I attempted to integrate at least one “easier” class that would help lighten the load and allow me to focus on the more difficult, major classes. As one of Nathan’s interviewees said, “you have to have some easier courses so you don’t get burnt out” (p. 115). I would wake up at 6:00am on registration day in order to achieve said schedule, and was prepared to petition faculty members if I did not make it into a particular course. Here, here, Nathan—for seeking to understand (and almost defend) the undergraduate rationale to create a perfect schedule!
Nathan also speaks to the student reality of simultaneously managing a multitude of rules, expectations, and assignments from several professors. She also details the advice upper classmen give to new students on the importance of building relationships with professors. Interestingly, this advice lends itself to the opposite of professor as mentor or future-recommender-writer. Instead, the advice focuses on the unintentional (in most cases) ways to manipulate the professors. “Sit in the front so profs can see you.” “Go to class and talk to your profs.” “Give them what they want and you’ll get what you want too.” (p. 117). “If they know you, they will be more likely to help you.” Students even admitted to taking a particular stance in a paper that mirrored the opinion of their professor instead of their own—in attempt to receive a better grade.
Cheating and class-ditching are also given their due diligence, as Nathan explored the college student normalcy of doing what is necessary to get by. During her year as a student, Nathan occasionally shared “solidarity” with her fellow peers by ditching the occasional class. Even in reference to cheating, Nathan’s heart almost softened as she grew aware of the grand spectrum between working on homework with someone else and utilizing someone’s words without proper citations. While she did not minimize the problem of cheating, Nathan notes the cultural relativism associated with the issue. Increases in cheating “reflect not only students’ personal ethics but also the shifting societal tides that church the waters through which students navigate” (p. 129).
Finally, in Nathan’s concluding chapter, she notes some of her most poignant lessons learned. She recognizes the hierarchical differences between students and professors: while students have no idea how long it takes professors to prepare for class or what goes into research, publication, and career advancement, neither do faculty understand (or remember) the complexities of the undergraduate experience. Nathan considers the ramifications her research will have/has had on her own teaching. In brief, she has resolved to be more compassionate toward her students.
Finally, Nathan ends with a question regarding “what is worth learning” (p. 156) if students really do forget the details of what they learned and the intricacies related to their major will be obsolete five years after graduation. Personally, I believe the learning that occurs in college—academically, socially, personally, and spiritually—is challenging, valuable, and wholly beneficial. And believe it or not, while I may have forgotten something for the time being, I am always surprised in the moments when I recall details from a class I had taken years before.
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