Wednesday, December 16, 2009

First Semester

Now that the first semester of my first year of college is over there are many observations that I made. There is a lot more freedom given to you in terms of the work you have to do. In high school the teachers used to make sure you were doing all the work you had to do, they would hold your hand step by step as you had to do any long sort of research paper. They would check to make sure you wrote note cards, then check to make sure you did an outline, then check to make sure you have a rough draft or two done, then you would hand in your final paper. In high school, at least where I went to school, as long as you showed up for class most of the time and you did some of the work you were basically guaranteed to get a B in the class. At Lehigh you are not guaranteed to get any grade, you have to earn the grade you get. Also, there is a big person between the teachers in high school, and the college professors. A college professor treats you as an adult, they treat you as if you are a fully grown who is capable of making the right decisions for themselves. They do not coddle you, and treat you as if you cannot make the decisions on your own. In classes for example, they talk like how they would talk to your parents, they talk to you like they are your peers instructing you on how to do something. This makes for a much more comfortable learning environment, and it makes me want to go to class more than high school teachers did. If I had to sum up the difference between college and high school there would be one word that I would use, maturity, they treat you as you are, a mature young adult.

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