English 1020-014
14 February 2010
“My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by becoming a Student”
“Those teachers just want to ruin our lives, they’ll never understand!” this is a common phrase between all college students. Many would agree educators fail to understand students, by judging without knowing what the student endures everyday. Rebekah Nathan, a cultural anthropologist decides to investigate, and understand why students are struggling to balance their school work with their lives. Rebekah decides to take part in an undercover project; she would go back to college, but this time as a freshman student. She decides to write down her experiences, and through her book
My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by becoming a Student she narrates her experience in great details. Rebekah uses ethos to convince the audience by using real life experiences, humor based on all the mistakes she made as an imposter student, and the irony of how she goes in as a student at the university she teaches at.
Over the years college has advanced in various ways, technology has made it easier for students to succeed, while making it difficult for professors. Rebekah Nathan is the false name she gives herself so students and some staff who were not aware of the project would not know she was conducting such a project. The actual name of the university is never given either, so she uses “AnyU.” She is not the first professor to take on a challenge like this, of becoming a student and recording the everyday life of an undergraduate student. “Micheal Moffatt, also an anthropologist and a professor, wrote a valuable ethnography of undergraduate life at Rutgers University,” (Nathan pg. 4). Moffat has also done some research on the advancements and changes in the generation among students from 1977 and 1987. Rebekah’s curiosity was triggered as she started to note how her students acted, many students would not participate and others would not read the assigned reading that was given. She thought that the students were not motivated as much as the students were from when she was a college student. Back in those days the students were “hungry” to learn more, they were motivated greatly. As Rebekah was aching for answers to why students have changed their behavior, she decided to get her answers rather than wait for it to come. So she put forth an experiment to become an undercover student. Rebekah became a part of the student body group at “AnyU”. Rebekah became intertwined with all the gossiping most students do about professors. She was an older student but all the students accepted her as any other ordinary student.
Since Rebekah took on the challenge to become a student, she had to do the entire thing, especially going undercover completely. For instance, she had to take a full load of classes, join sports teams, live in the undergraduate dorm, eat in the university cafeteria and she even joined student clubs. She went under cover fully because no special treatments were given to her otherwise her project would not have turned out as accurate as it did. It was a major step that she took from being an anthropologist who travelled to foreign countries, to going under cover to learn about the lives of a typical college freshman, at the university she taught at.
As a professor Rebekah was used to having her classes arranged so it was easier for her to get around. While adjusting to her temporary life on the campus she thought she knew, for fifteen years, started to take a whole new turn. Rebekah said, “The campus, though, had taken on an entirely new physical appearance to me”(Nathan pg.11), she had become accustomed to having her classes, which she taught, arranged so that she can get to them quickly and easily from her office in the anthropology building. If she ever needed to get to the other end of campus she would just drive down there with her car. As a student she was only allowed to park in one place which was in the student parking area that is located near her dorms. Eventually she was not allowed to move the car and drive it around to get to each one of her classes, so she was forced her to take the campus buses or walk to each of her classes. The buildings were not recognizable to her and she found it hard to get to where she needed to go or where to go and get things she needed for her dorm room. She became a complete stranger at the university she taught at for many years. It is ironic that she went undercover at the university she taught at and became a complete stranger who did not know her surroundings quite well.
Getting adjusted to a college is more than enough pressure one has to face, especially for Rebekah. In addition to stepping into the shoes of any normal aged college bound student she has major adapting to do; but adding to that problem was that she was obligated to learn the rules and regulations of the university. Living in the undergraduate dorm a person has to follow certain rules that are in place. On her second day as a student she got into trouble. She was caught drinking alcohol by few of the resident assistants (RA) in her dorm. It was a very embarrassing situation for her. Like any student who gets caught doing something illegal or wrong they get a little nervous and start stuttering, that is exactly what happened to Rebekah. It is very amusing that, Rebekah, a fifty year old had to get punished by a student who happens to be less than half her age.
Rebekah wrote the book to show how the life of a college student is. Her main goal was to get a students view of why they fall asleep in class or why they are distracted by other things rather than school work. According to Google book review, the targeted audiences of the book are anyone who wants to get a higher education in America, or just professors, students, et cetera. The books other purpose was to get the attention of other college professors and to show them that it is not their fault that their students are drawn away from what is being taught. She wants them to understand the life of a student and how difficult and complex college life has become within the last few decades. It is very difficult for a student to balance school life with their personal life, at the same time trying to figure out who they are. It is a great challenge they need to face and overcome to get to their goals in life. Most universities are making their curriculums very difficult. Like at Wayne State University the demand to get into medical school is extremely high and the requirements are very high up on the scale too. The medical field is very competitive and it makes the lives those people who wish to get into the medical field feel a lot of pressure.
Rebekah Nathan uses ethos to convince the audience by using real life experiences, humor based on all the mistakes she made as an imposter student, and the irony of how she goes undercover as a student at the university she teaches at. By doing this Rebekah was able to see the other side of the story, from a student’s perspective. She was able to get the inside details of why some students tend to slack off. As a result she was able say, “By walking in my students’ shoes… I saw what my students go through and it made me both more understanding and more respectful. After doing this, I felt I really wanted to teach freshmen again.” Rebekah did this study because she wanted to study the lives of a college student and she did. After going through all of that, she learned that students attending a university now in the 21st century face many obstacles that she was not introduced to during her years in school. The life as she observed is not the same as how the media portrays an average college student. In real life a student has a difficult time adjusting to college life, and at the same time trying to find out who they are and what they want to accomplish in life. The project really changed the way she viewed her students, it helped her understand them greatly and even influenced her to teach a new course where the students interact with other students. The book coming from a professor’s point of view is highly accredited because she is a professional. Therefore more professors from other universities will be interested in the book. Rebekah knows what she is doing, and this can influence other professors in other colleges to change their views on a typical college student and not judge them.
Works Cited
Ed, Justin. “My Freshman Year.” Spark Notes.com. N.p. 10 October 2005. Web. 20 February
2010. <http://mb.sparknotes.com/sparktalk.epl?b=2416&t=317644&w=1>.
Nathan, Rebekah. My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by becoming a Student. New York: Cornell University Press, 2005. Print.
Nathan, Rebekah. “My freshman year: what a professor learned by becoming a student.” Books.Google.com. N p. N.d. Web. 20 February 2010.nathan+my+freshman+year&source=bn&hl=en&ei=eUF_S7eDPY2Vtgfvo8TEDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=4&ved=0CBYQ6wEwAw>.