Reading+Response+1

I found "My Freshman Year" to be extremely interesting as I read the first 40 pages. First off I am a little bit shocked that Rebekah Nathan chose to use the university she taught at in order to see what an undergraduate program was all about. I expected her to pick a school where absolutely no one had any chance of recognizing her in order to make everything more realistic. However, even though she did not do this, I feel as though she must have been a really impressive actress. She had everything all figured out straight down to how she would respond to specific questions. It impressed me to see also that Nathan divulged herself into really becoming a freshman student. She picked up extra activities found ways to hang out with people around her, and also took part in some of the required school work. It was also cool for me to hear her reaction to how students talked in class. It is kind of funny when you think about it to realize that students do whisper to each other about classes and at times teachers may not know what is being said about the class requirements etc. Even though this story is being told for what it is like as a student, in a weird way it kind of gave me a little insight as to what it is like for a teacher because teachers expect certain things and push their students, and sometimes student's will act positively or negatively towards this. It was also interesting to me when Nathan points out how different all students schedules are and how friends are sometimes friends out of convenience. I have a very different college experience than that because I was in a Living and Learning Community my freshman year and all my friends were education majors. This meant that the friends on my floor, who I did choose to spend my time with, also had similar classes and interests. I never had to be friends with them out of convenience because I never became friends with people who were inconvenient. I found the book on Ethnography to be a bit confusing to read and not necessarily as enjoyable. While it was interesting I had a hard time following all of the topics that were being discussed. I wonder if any one else felt this way as they read? The part however that I really did enjoy from these pages was the section titled "Institutions of Formal Education." It was interesting to me that ethnographers study not only classrooms and the students in them but also the people who come an go, like parents and volunteers. I can't say I was surprised to read that reading and writing were the marks of high status and power but I can't say that I necessarily agree with this. Not fully at least. I do agree that people who can read and write have an advantage to education over those who cannot but I do believe that there are plenty of intelligent people out there who can't read and write, but who have the ability to do incredible things without it. All in all both books have things about them that are enjoyable to read and at the moment I can't wait to read specifically about what Nathan will do next in her freshman year!