A Change in Perspectives To the everyday adult, college students are easy to come off as lazy, self-indulgent, disrespectful- what anyone would say of a young adult who lives for the party and gives less than their best efforts in school. On the contrary, to the everyday college student, this narrow-minded adult would be very wrong. It is not until Rebecca Nathans works in her book My Freshman Year that we have the adult challenging the prejudiced views non-students have on these young adults. Through her in-depth ethnography, Rebecca Nathan reveals the unseen complex reality of student life; a reality others had not explored for quite some time. Nathans research reveals unrecognized truths and in turn, challenges other professors to look
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In My Freshman Year there are many points in which Rebecca digs deep into students reasoning for their activity many of which gives clarity on a professors confusion with student activity. The greater part of this confusion pertains to why college students seem so unmotivated during class. There was a main theme when taking on this question, which can simply be put that students are not prioritizing what is learned within the classroom but what is learned outside of the classroom. Through survey and interviews Nathan found that students could agree that about sixty-five percent of what they learned in college had nothing to do with what was learned in class and class-related activities. This begs the question- why even attend then? Nathan then poised the question ‘If given the chance would you “take the degree and run”?’. Out of a sample of thirty-eight students only eleven would take the degree and run whereas the other portion of the sample would stay for what could be summed up as “the college experience”. In other instances priority and motive could be blamed for poor performance in classrooms. During Rebecca’s …show more content…
The whole book itself is a good example for young students to see how involved anthropology is in our everyday lives. She proves that what may seem to be a very basic culture can have multiple subcultures within them, both being intricately structured. Her countless examples of surveys, interviews, and observation helped me understand how data can be transferred into her ethnography and help her come to more accurate conclusions. Nathans ethnography could be of great gain to only students and professors studying anthropology, but also your everyday American citizen. From cover to cover Nathan provides examples of how the American individualistic outlook on things affects college life. This concept is very much highlighted in chapter four where Nathan focuses on international students. In comparison to other countries American students to keep to themselves and keep friendships on the outward surface not letting them get too deep. International students were surprised to find when they were in need of assistance from friends Americans tended to address how sorry they were but did not go out of their way to help solve the problem (Nathan pg.75). American students tended to keep the friends they had formed a relationship prior to college making it hard for international students to get in the mix. This is something that I too have observed, many people do
In My Freshman Year there are many points in which Rebecca digs deep into students reasoning for their activity many of which gives clarity on a professors confusion with student activity. The greater part of this confusion pertains to why college students seem so unmotivated during class. There was a main theme when taking on this question, which can simply be put that students are not prioritizing what is learned within the classroom but what is learned outside of the classroom. Through survey and interviews Nathan found that students could agree that about sixty-five percent of what they learned in college had nothing to do with what was learned in class and class-related activities. This begs the question- why even attend then? Nathan then poised the question ‘If given the chance would you “take the degree and run”?’. Out of a sample of thirty-eight students only eleven would take the degree and run whereas the other portion of the sample would stay for what could be summed up as “the college experience”. In other instances priority and motive could be blamed for poor performance in classrooms. During Rebecca’s …show more content…
The whole book itself is a good example for young students to see how involved anthropology is in our everyday lives. She proves that what may seem to be a very basic culture can have multiple subcultures within them, both being intricately structured. Her countless examples of surveys, interviews, and observation helped me understand how data can be transferred into her ethnography and help her come to more accurate conclusions. Nathans ethnography could be of great gain to only students and professors studying anthropology, but also your everyday American citizen. From cover to cover Nathan provides examples of how the American individualistic outlook on things affects college life. This concept is very much highlighted in chapter four where Nathan focuses on international students. In comparison to other countries American students to keep to themselves and keep friendships on the outward surface not letting them get too deep. International students were surprised to find when they were in need of assistance from friends Americans tended to address how sorry they were but did not go out of their way to help solve the problem (Nathan pg.75). American students tended to keep the friends they had formed a relationship prior to college making it hard for international students to get in the mix. This is something that I too have observed, many people do