The Freshman Experience

My university, like many others, has recently joined the "Freshman Experience" bandwagon. Recently, many universities have begun fretting about this so-called problem, as Brian's Coffee Breaks notes (article here). In short, universities are worried that the poor freshmen will be "lost" in their new - presumably larger - communities.

This focus on the "Freshman Experience" seems to me to be little more than a perpetuation of our increasing tendency to infantilize college students who, less than a generation ago, would have been considered fully capable adults. I teach freshmen. I know that most of them aren't yet fully prepared to take on complete adult responsibilities. But making them go through the "Freshmen Experience" isn't going to get them there. In fact, if anything, it will retard the process.

Universities often function in loco parentis, despite the fact that most of their students are legal adults. As an instructor, I do not wish to be a babysitter, and I think it ultimately does a disservice to my students. Yes, I should offer them advice and help them develop study and life skills, but, ultimately, they need to learn to become independent.

Students who do not want to get lost in huge classes need to learn to speak up - it's as simple as that. If you don't want to be a faceless number in the back of the room, then walk your butt up to the front and introduce yourself to your professor. Raise your hand. Assert yourself - that's the best advice anyone can give to a freshman who doesn't want to be "lost."

Our tendency to want to keep our children "children" for longer is detrimental to them, and to our society. Let them learn how to grow up on their own - because trying to hand-hold them into adulthood doesn't teach them anything but to expect someone else to do all their work for them - to make their choices for them and to not be held responsible for their own lives. Offer them help for serious issues - medical, mental, etc. - but offer resources, don't plan their lives for them. After all, if everything is done for them freshman year, then you'll have to have a "Sophomore Experience," then a "Junior Experience," and so on. But once they get out of the university, they won't find a "First year at work Experience." They'll find real life.