Journal #3

My Freshman Year: Nov 30, 2009

After finishing up through chapters 5 and 6, the book is continuing in the same tone. We feel Nathan is getting kind of repetitive in the way she scrutinizes college students’ attitudes and actions. In chapter 5 Nathan focuses on discussions in and out of class, and how separate the two are kept. She also explains the "perfect class" and what makes everyone like it so much. Her attitude in these two chapters is just as opinionated and condescending as before, but we agree that some of her observations are definitely right. Because this book is so directly related to us, some of the things Nathan chooses to address causes us to look at our own campus and our own lives, and realize that we do or do not fall under the same categories. Sometimes we agree with what she is saying, but other times we are almost offended by what she assumes or states. We agree with how college students want to take the easier classes, but Nathan makes it seem like this is done for all the wrong reasons. Personally, we feel we have three challenging classes, and then choose to take one or two easier classes to ensure success in the classes that work towards our major.
In chapter 6 we feel that Nathan included too many statistics and not enough opinion. She listed percentages, one right after the other, from different studies, however, we feel she needed to expand more on her data. She includes some student interview information, about students’ opinions on college management, skipping class, and cheating, but it would have been really nice to hear some teachers’ opinions. Students explained, or justified, when cheating is acceptable, or when an action cannot really be considered cheating at all. It makes us wonder what her opinion is as a teacher, because while she did offer up some personal comments, they all came from her “being a student” point of view.
We are the ideal audience for this book, because we can relate to, and bring up, interesting comparisons and contradictions from our own experiences in discussion. Some of the things Nathan discusses also can provide some helpful tips and information on how to succeed in college, especially when she gets talking about how formal relationships with your professors should be, and scheduling techniques. We also found it comforting when she provided opinions from students on cheating that were like our own, or that were worse than our own; simply because it is a touchy subject, like some of the others she has brought up throughout the book, and it can be hard to know who to talk to about such topics. This way it got us talking amongst each other our own viewpoints, and in some cases we learned that we felt much the same way about cheating and such. That our own opinions are actually quite the norm, makes you feel confident about how you are adjusting to college life. That’s what a lot of this book was, adjusting to the modern day college life. Nathan very briefly mentioned in the beginning that her age and appearance made it hard for her to even break into the college scene, so that she could set up interviews and student diaries, and to have a chance at reliable information and observations. She managed it though, and has been making progress in her studies and subjects ever since. This book also helped us, when looking at how we are adjusting in our first semester here at UWEC. We don’t always have to agree with Nathan and what she has put in her book, that has been a huge focus of out literature group discussions, we just have to try and understand and analyze her statements in our own way, and interpret them how we want to.