GrantReadingResponse2

Chapter 2-My Freshman Year The first thing that struck me as I read chapter two of “My Freshman Year” was the class that all Freshman students were required to take. The students found it pointless and didn’t read the book ahead of time. Eventually this class was cancelled and students could choose their own electives. This made me think of a class that I had to take at the start of my freshman year. It was called University Seminar. This was similar to what the AnyU class was doing only what I really liked about my University Seminar was that it was focused on my major and how I could go about achieving my major. Maybe if the school in the story had done something like this, then it would have went better.

The next part that I found interesting was the idea that students are sometimes so consumed with all the clubs that they can join that sometimes they don’t join so that they have personal time as well. It’s as if doing one means you get no time to yourself. In my own experience I know that I balance my clubs well with personal time. I don’t overwhelm myself. However I definitely see where Nathan is coming from because I have a friend who is involved in everything possible. The girl never gets a chance to just relax and sometimes I wonder if that’s what she really wants or if she’s just trying really hard to do everything so that she doesn’t miss out.

I was also surprised to read that not everyone attended hall meetings. At Bloomsburg attendance is mandatory. We have to sign in to each meeting. I know that most students don’t actually want to go to these meetings but it’s interesting that in a way they actually had a choice. It also surprised me to read that AnyU has changed to basically little apartments in a dorm. That sounds a little bit ridiculous to me considering part of dorming is college life. It teaches you how to live and get along with people. It also teaches you to live a whole lot more simply. I really hope that not every college changes to this. I highly doubt they will but I really do hope that dorms stay as dorms and if you want to move off then you do.

I think the main conclusion that I draw from reading this story is that every university does things differently. There are times where I say to myself “Yea I agree! I did that as a freshman” and other times that I’m like “No my floor has a great community. We all hang out. We all leave our doors open” etc. I think it really depends where you are, your schedules, and the people you are with to determine the community of any place.

Chapter 2-Ethnography

While reading the next section of Ethnography (27-47) the first idea that really stood out to me was that the business of the ethnographer “makes public the private and leaves the locals to take the consequences.” This just sounded really interesting to me because through these readings I never seemed to think anything bad came from ethnography. To me it just reveals some truths and realities. I never stopped to think how that could affect others who are being analyzed. Later I also found the section about social relationships and how ethnographers study them to be something that would be interesting to read about. This was the section on desegregation and the people in that time.

I think something else that really stood out as I read was that it is much more difficult to be an ethnographer than it may seem. These ethnographers really have to dive into the research of what they are observing, not just people. It takes a lot more time and energy than people would think. This is especially seen in the part of the chapter where they talk about the skateboarding boys. I did however find this part to be a little weird. Shirley basically acted like an investigator to figure out where the boys were and what they were doing to figure out how they all ended up at the same place at the same time. I found this slightly creepy that she’d be following these boys around but I guess that is just the job of an ethnographer. My main thing learned from this chapter is the difficulty behind being an ethnographer. You have to be thorough, and reliable, and have validity to your work. You need to keep your own biases and beliefs out and figure out why people do the things they do. It can be difficult and time consuming, but sometimes you can uncover some really cool things.