My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student (Paperback)

by Rebekah Nathan (Author)
Key Phrases: hall mates, college culture, undergraduate culture, Welcome Week, United States, Movie Night (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
After nearly two decades as a university professor, the author (writing under a pseudonym) realized she was out of touch with her students. She didn't understand them. They no longer stopped by her office for consultations, no longer did assigned readings or participated in class discussions; they openly took naps in class, brought in food and drink, and behaved as though their education was of no importance to them. Looking for a way to close the gap between her and her students, Nathan enrolled in her own university as a freshman. Over the year, she gained an understanding and appreciation of contemporary college life. She found that many students who seemed uninterested in the whole idea of school were actually intensely curious and passionate about their education. They weren't the problem; the institution of learning was. This book offers insightful exploration of contemporary higher education and fascinating commentary on the ways in which the system has not kept up with the ever-changing needs of its students. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
My Freshman Year... is an insightful, riveting look at college life and American values. -- The Boston Globe

It’s anthropology at its best: accessible, illuminating, contextual. -- The Christian Science Monitor

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143037471
• ISBN-13: 978-0143037477
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #55,670 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertains and educates without delivering surprise, January 11, 2006

By	Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student (Hardcover)

Like other reviewers, I have misgivings about the ethics of "Rebekah Nathan's" undercover exploration of student life. Anthropologists may become participant observers but certainly her fellow students might feel betrayed.

At the same time, I couldn't stop reading. Few university press books combine academic discourse with readability as well as this one does. I was a college professor myself for 20+ years, but in the business school. And I didn't find a single surprise -- except, was Nathan really unaware of her students as much as she claims?

Several years ago, I remember a summer school student complaining, "You give too much work! Who has time for this? I have a wedding in my family and my folk dance lessons..."

Nathan's glorifies international students, who criticize Americans for shallow friendship and lightweight classes. But I taught international MBA students who said calmly, "We won't be in class next week. We're going sightseeing. It would be a shame to come all this way and then not see [a local attraction]." And some international students have less than ideal motivations -- not to mention disregard of female professors.

Nathan bemoans the lack of student participation. In the business school, we were encouraged to motivate students. I rarely had trouble getting students to participate: discussion groups, in-class activities and more.

But she's right about so many elements of student culture. I returned for my PhD when I was in my 30's (deemed the "older woman" by my professors - I wish I were kidding). So in a way I experienced some of her frustrations, including time management, conflicts, inexorable deadlines and arbitrary administrative policies. I also realized that students knew the university better than the professors; as a professor, I remember one student getting annoyed because I had no idea where the bookstore was.

And she's depicted student networks in a fascinating way. Students rarely made new friends after freshman year. Many retained ties to high school friends. And she's captured the businesslike way today's students approach college life: like a 9 to 5 job, she says, and she's right.

I would have expected Nathan to dwell more on educational values in society, which may account for a great deal of student lack of academic interest. In the US, the appearance of intelligence can disqualify us from jobs and political office. Corporate recruiters have told me, "I don't want the egghead A student -- give me the hard-working C+ student, who's also working and joining a fraternity." In what may be the most fascinating and revealing anecdote in the book, Nathan shares an exercise she gives her students. Okay, we know there are no witches. But if there were a witch in this classroom, who would it be? Inevitably, she say, the most motivated students get named.

Mostly I was surprised that Nathan doesn't discuss faculty evaluations from the student perspective. Many academic weaknesses, I believe, are directly attributable to the role of faculty as entertainers rather than educators. In fact, an adjunct at a non-traditional school acknowledged, "To keep this job I live and die by student evaluations. I've become an edu-tainer."

Fear of negative evaluations has led to some dumbed-down courses and discouraged faculty. Study after study shows students don't take these evaluations seriously, yet professors have lost tenure, rank and jobs when students express dislike, for whatever reason. That's why students get away with disrespectful behavior and why they rarely get C's, let alone D's and F's, even when they don't study. When faculty believe grades are correlated with evaluations, they take note. Students have even said, "I can't evaluate my professor till I have a sense of what my course grade will be."

I remember a student who wrote on his evaluation, "The course was no good. You had to read the book to pass." As a colleague pointed out, his evaluation -- rating me from 1 to 5 -- counts just as heavily as the scores of a motivated student.

And I remember teaching a class while I was still a graduate student. My students were commuters who worked full-time, often at demanding jobs. One young woman said, "I like this class. Can we have a party?" And we ended up with a potluck, where students brought in homemade dishes. (My rule was that I wouldn't cook.) It was an amazing experience, creating the kind of community Nathan yearns for.

Yet not a word about this event appeared in the student evaluations -- all that's real to the university administration.

Nathan mentions the gulf in understanding between students and faculty. But I think she overlooks some elements in systems and society that drive a wedge between those committed to intellectual enterprise and everybody else.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A required read for those who work in university settings, September 18, 2005

By	Ellen Levy (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student (Hardcover)

It is refreshing to see something about today's students that isn't simply about drugs, sex and alcohol. This book helped me (as a fifty something myself, who has taught the college level) appreciate many of the trials and tribulations that students today face. I'm heartened to know of a teacher who would take a year out of her life to understand her students by trying to do what they do. I liked that she neither whitewashed students nor condemned them, but rather kept an outlook of true empathy and interest in them. She seemed to really learn something as a teacher, and so did I from her account.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mandatory reading for professors, August 29, 2005

By	Ted Uzzle (Chicago, Ill., USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student (Hardcover)

This book is oriented to the relationship between today's college students and their academic work. Thank goodness it skips the juicy bits that attract journalists: binge drinking, date rape, fraternity hazing. Instead, it wonders, why are students so disengaged from the world of ideas? Why do students almost never ask to have a word defined? Why do they assume deadlines and strictures against plagiarism and cheating infinitely elastic?
The traditional explanations by college profesors run along these lines:
(1) It's all the fault of K-12 teachers and administrators;
(2) The new generation is just no good.
This book looks at the passage of today's college students from consumerism (as entering freshmen) to careerism (as graduating seniors), and observes that this particularly modern transition never quite passes through the life of the mind. There are also discussions of conformity, community and diversity, and the views of Americam students given by foreign-exchange students. We find that pairing hard and easy classes, and grouping classes into two or three days a week, are perfectly rational time-management techniques, and don't pose particular problems once the students master their use.
If you're a college professor you'll find this book filled with insights about your students, and why they do what they do.