Sarah VanPolen

ENG 111

James VanderMey

The Enthusiastic Way to Take Advantage

The last thirteen years of a students life have revolved around the elementary, middle

school, and high school portions of the education system. Robert Leamnson, author of The

Biological Basis of Learning, emphasizes the academic drain many freshmen in college are

faced with as a result of spending roughly 70% of their lives in the educational system. Students

have been corralled through a series of tests and state requirements to be able to dump them off

at the high school graduation. While the excitement for starting a new chapter in life is running

like an adrenaline within the students, it seems that colleges are able to blindside these students.

The oncoming students will now have the undesired name tag of Freshman, one that has taken

on a dreaded stereotype. If students look upon their freshman year of college as a spontaneous

time of molding, then the Freshman stereotype of students struggling will be given no

recognition, only that of a unstoppable futuristic potential.

The familiarity of high school procedures is leaked into the first semester which creates

an ill state of mind. What was accepted as proper student conduct for many years will now leave

the student stranded in a dorm, unable to figure out this new academic system. James

VanderMey, Professor of English and Humanities at Mid Michigan Community College, publicly

presented his work Remarks on Habit, at the ultimate academic finish line known as college

graduation. There is this an unaddressed wave of problems that develop as soon as the adhesive
label of Freshman, has been peeled off and stuck onto the students chest during college

orientation. VanderMey writes himself, I have a bad habit. I developed it somewhere near the

end of my freshman year in college: 1969 (VanderMey 13). This undergoing investigation of

what being a freshman involves has been lurking around for many centuries, this is not a cycle of

poorly skilled oncoming freshman, this is a case study of how the freshman year of college is the

most difficult to properly mold. VanderMey may seem to be implying that his freshman year at

college began to be a struggle to complete, but, more accurately VanderMey has been subject to

the dilemma of what the first year of college demands from its students but has somewhere

fallen short leading to a problematic situation that has not been able to be released since the end

of his freshman year of college. At surface it is just a habit that began its formation during the

first year at college, but, more clearly there is a complex association with the stage of

occurrence. Quite possibly this habit has remained within the mind because the year of

occurrence became the most influential stage of college without it being recognized as students

are just trying to stay afloat. Perhaps Freshman year of college is sink or swim for all. The

sinking habit that occurs will never leave even when the student is successfully swimming, thus

the bad habit is always what students struggle to stay away from.

There is this a tremendous step between high school and college that many students are

unable to grasp, so at that point, it would be appropriate to connect being a freshman as a time of

great uncertainty with completing assignments to their professors unchangeable expectations.

There are no options as a freshman because they have been dumped at the mercy of the college.

Leamnson writes himself, They are now on someone elses turf and for the moment are unsure

of their companions in the same situation. They are alone in a crowd, (Leamnson 73). Not only
are freshman alone, they are blindly wandering through the first semesters while professors are

able to play them like puppets. The freshman professors have seen it all according to Leamnson

when he complicates the matter further while giving the big picture of the truly huge demand

freshman are drowning in. In Leamnsons respectful view, College Freshman might be expected

to have mastered the rudiments of algebra and trigonometry, to have demonstrated the ability to

write passable prose, to have encountered, at least, a foreign language (Leamnson 74).

Basically, Leamnson is saying this standard expectations of college freshman are unrealistic for

the current students entering college in todays society.

Just as complexity of technology has rapidly increased, the complexity of college

freshman expectations has increased with the rate of technology. If the expectations are not even

in reach of a new college student, the freshman year becomes a stressful and uneducated year for

the student. Adrienne Rich, author of Claiming an Education, demonstrates the need of

students and their professors to engage critically and richly in order for a positive start of this

new chapter in life. Rich adds the point that The difference between a life lived actively, and a

life of passive drifting and dispersal of energies, is an immense difference. Once we begin to feel

committed to our lives, responsible to ourselves, we can never again be satisfied with the old,

passive way, (Rich 970. In making this statement, Richs words can be carefully applied to what

the Freshman name tag should be looked upon as. The first year of college shall be a year of

discovering the most effective strategies to use throughout life, not the most effective strategies

to pass the exam.

 College will bring about stress, uncertainty, confusion all on its one, regardless of your

status, such as being a freshman. With the aspiring transformational progress that can take place

as Adrienne Rich encourages, being a optimistic freshman in college can be the period in life

when you stand strong to your views and form incredible ways to thrive in life and the rest of the

college years. As the strain of many academic years starts to erode the motivation students hold,

creating momentum through self examination of responsibility to push through the college

curriculum can eliminate the erosion of the academic slump. James VanderMey stated, A second

important feature of good habits is the way we become them, (VanderMey 15). If students stop

identifying themselves as being just a freshman, and start associating themselves as adult

learners, they will start becoming excelled college students.

Works Cited

Leamnson, Robert The Biological Basis of Learning New York, Pearson Education, Exploring

Connections Learning in the 21st Century.2016, pp.(66-73)

Leamnson, Robert Todays First-Year Students New York, Pearson Education,

Exploring Connections Learning in the 21st Century.2016, pp. (73- 85)

Rich, Adrienne Claiming an Education New York, Pearson Education,

Exploring Connections Learning in the 21st Century.2016, pp. (95-98)

VanderMey, James Remarks on Habit New York, Pearson Education,

Exploring Connections Learning in the 21st Century.2016, pp. (12-17)