Chapter 7 Summarizer Mr. Pesavent

Chapter seven is titled "Lessons from My Year as a Freshman." In chapter seven, Nathan explains that, "This chapter serves as a response to questions others ask me and questions that, since my freshman year, I keep asking myself. What did I personally learn from this experience?" (132). In the first part of the chapter, Nathan explores the cross-cultural conversation between students and teachers. The author explains how most teachers don't see how students live or how hard it is to balance several classes and maintain a good GPA. The second section of the chapter is about how Rebekah Nathan goes back to being a teacher after being a student. Nathan now realizes how classes are from a student's perspective. She learns that many of the articles and readings won't be read or how other students have to prioritize their classes so her's isn't always the most important one. The third part of the chapter is titled "Reflection: Teacher as Student." Nathan explains that students don't always want the easy way our or the easy A in class. She also realized that when students sleep in class or invent stories about their missing paper, it is part of their culture and they don't mean to insult the teacher. In the fourth section of the reading, Nathan talks about student culture and liminality. She asks the major question "Will the liminal life of college culture allow students to arrive at inspired new ideas for society and transformative visions of our world? Or will it simply train young people to become adults who take their place in line in the workforce of existing society?" (148). Rebekah Nathan titled the fifth section "Student Culture, the Public University, and American Culture." In this section, Nathan talks about how universities are funded and how they are changing due to lack of funding. The final section of chapter seven is a final reflection of Nathan's experiment. Nathan reflects on her experiment and compares messages students receive when they first arrive at college.