Robert Barnett believes that the transition to a higher education is an awkward time for a student. Everything they’ve known for their entire life, from the way they sleep, eat, and bathe, to the more obvious things like the larger workload and classes, has changed and there’s no going back. Students learn that things are not as they expected, and that no matter how hard they try, they can’t always come out on top. This harsh reality is what I’m currently experiencing, and honestly I couldn’t agree with Barnett more. Although the college experience is tough, I believe it’s an important one that helps you develop as a person as well as preparing for the life ahead of you.
Throughout high school, us students were simply taught facts that would be useful for a test before being immediately forgotten. College doesn’t work like that, however. In college, you must learn to use the information given to solve problems, and to ask questions about the material. Martha Nussbaum touched on this in her passage, and I think it relates to Barnett’s opinion of higher learning. Since most of high school wasn’t really applying the information, it can add to the uncomfortableness of transitioning to higher education. Students who succeeded in high school can find their grades in college to be the opposite. Us students have to adapt to the new ways to learn the material. This change is a big one, and is definitely one of the biggest causes of discomfort (for me, anyway).
Nussbaum also talks about the methods of liberal arts universities in the United States versus the rest of the world’s idea of a university. Unlike studying one subject, we study many different ones. This can also add to the discomfort of college, since many people have strengths with some subjects while being terrible at others.
While I’ve only been in college for about a week, I definitely feel the stress and discomfort. With only two days of classes, I had already gotten more homework than I had gotten for a week of high school classes. The work, so far, is different than my high school work. The questions ask me to involve myself into the work and information more, as Nussbaum mentioned. Having to share bathrooms, as well as only eating fast food were two other big changes, and it was all very “unsettling”, as Barnett said in his passage. As it slowly started to hit me, I felt my comfort slipping away.
Nussbaum and Barnett’s passages reflect my experience of college pretty well so far. As Nussbaum said, the work is more involved than in past education. This assignment alone asked me to do far more than assignments in high school. Along with the harder work, there’s just so much more that I need to do as well. The shift of environment really is hard and awkward as Barnett had mentioned. My routine has changed dramatically, and I suddenly need to have more responsibility than ever. It’s a hard time with my whole future being put on me, since I really didn’t think of it much before now. However, while I miss the comfort of high school and being home, I know that this step is an important one, as it will create my future.
