Chapters 5 & 6

Chapter 5 – Academically Speaking…

In the beginning of this chapter Rebekah discusses an exercise she performs in her anthropology class every year on how accusations can operate a culture. In this exercise, she tells everyone in the classroom that there is a witch in the room and everyone has to write down three possible names of who it could be. After she tallies up the names, she realizes that the names with the most tallies were the ones who participated in class or sat near the front of the room. She didn’t understand these accusations until she was put in the same situation in a class she had taken. She felt uncomfortable sitting near the front and when someone else asked a question she was some what annoyed. Although she thinks a heated class discussion is more appreciated, she would much rather sit back and watch then be a part of it...some times. Curious about what others thought, she decided to ask students on her floor why they don’t participate in class discussion. With examples such as:
-“No one listens to each other anyhow.”
-“Sometimes I don’t talk because I don’t want to appear stupid.”
-“The discussions are too teacher-directed—everyone is just saying what the teacher wants to hear.”
…And so on.
Being a teacher her self, she didn’t know what the students actually talked about before and after class. What she heard other people talking about somewhat astounded her. No one discussed how much they liked a class, the assignment given or the reading criteria for the weekend. She mostly heard complaints about the class or what the assignments were given. Outside of class she realized that mainly what discussions happen in the classroom, stay in the classroom.
To study further, she decided to make a survey for her dorm by posting a question in the women’s bathroom, “What topics do you talk about, late night, with friends?” She received anonymous answers like, “Everything under the sun,” and “What don’t we talk about?” The most frequent tops were relationships, body image, entertainment and drugs and alcohol. She found that less the 5% of topic discussions were about school and career and less then 2% were talked about teachers, but mainly the hot or evil ones. Conclusion: the academic part of college wasn’t all that important. She realized the personal and social world was more interesting to them. College, according to students, is more then how well you do in classes. It’s also about the things you learn along the way. A poll she posted stated 65% of students learned more outside of class then they had in class. According to the girls on her floor, “College is about the fun, friendships, partying, life experiences and late night talks. And the classes are a small price one has to pay.”

Chapter 6 – The Art of College Management

In Chapter 6, Rebekah takes a look back to when college was being first started. In the eighteenth-century college was for more wealthy men. It was more important to have wealthy friends then to be close with teachers because of post-college life. Intelligence was valued but a student was more based on his standards instead of grades. A student would be ridiculed if he would dare speak in class and getting close to a teacher and talking to a professor was frowned upon. When women and people of color started attending college, they see it as more of a precious opportunity and they worked harder then ever in their classes. None of them joined clubs or sports basically because they were rejected. They were also a lot closer with faculty. Looking at student stereotypes today, many different titles come to mind…much more then there were in the eighteenth-century.
Rebekah also discusses time management for the college student. Being a student, she says, was a time management nightmare compared to her life as being a professor. For freshmen orientation the Dean told the students that time management was very important. He said “You could take 15 class hours a week, 30 outside/homework study hours, get a solid 8 hours of sleep a night and still catch a movie that week.” Which to Rebekah, was still a nightmare because you had something different going on with each class & not only did you have to make a schedule for yourself but you also had to schedule around the professors schedule if you wanted to meet with them. So with all this, it made her research further and how to make the perfect schedule. She found 3 key points at a website stating the ‘native rules’ for the perfect class schedule:
1) Don’t take early classes, defined as “anything before 11 A.M.”
2) Don’t take classes on Friday.
3) Don’t take any class with an unknown professor.
Talking with the students on her floor, they gave her advice saying every schedule should have one easy class, or easy A class, just so you don’t get burnt out. Also not to schedule classes that are close together in time but far away from each other on campus. The students gave her tips on the professors as well. As in “talk to your professors, they’re much more understanding then you think.”
In a survey conducted by the university called “how often do you come to class?” was placed in her class, it made her more interested on the national scale. “According to the 2003 National Survey of Student Engagement, a survey of 437 colleges/universities. Only about 13% of full time students spend more then 25 hours a week preparing for class and about 41% spend less then 10 hours a week.” Which brought her to the conclusion of cheating on homework or in class. She found that more 75% of students have admit to cheating either on a test or on homework. And sometimes students don’t realize they’re actually cheating, especially when working in groups. In a survey she posted on “when is it okay to cheat” more of the answers were ‘when it has absolutely nothing to do with your major.’