For professors and other university employees: hear Why college freshmen may feel like impostors on campus (NPR Morning edition Oct. 16). In this new, challenging environment which they have had to jump through so many hoops to enter, a seemingly minor setback (either academic or social) may reinforce fears of inadequacy. It is so easy to conclude from a single negative experience that one just doesnt have the right stuff to succeed. I remember this well from beginning at Lawrence. Although confident about the music courses, the rest of the liberal-arts curriculum had me very worried for awhile. Could a local townie, even a National Merit scholar, cut the mustard in such an elite institution, among brilliant rich kids from the East who had enjoyed a prep-school education? The Freshman Studies course was not starting well at all. That prof was tough and intimidating. As late as Thanksgiving I was afraid of flunking out, and I couldnt even understand how I wasnt giving him what he wanted. I wouldnt care to read any more William Faulkner to this day. Only when we moved on to Plato and Kuhn did things begin looking up. The researcher in this program points out that just a bit of reassuring intervention at the right time will enable students to overcome their apprehension, not make mountains out of molehills, and flourish.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 00:05:59 +0000
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