Being Unprepared for Adult Learning

Many students, including myself are entering college for the first time in our lives. They experience things alien to them and have to deal with an exorbitant amount of anxiety and stress. A major stressor that stands out is learning the academic way of thinking. Reading rhetorically and writing in a formal and academic manner are terms that, until now, were entirely foreign to me. At the high school level, many students are not exposed to these processes. Plain and simple, they just don’t experience this type of thinking and learning. This in turn causes an almost fight and flight response on the student’s part. Many students that struggle through these concepts give themselves the opportunity to stand or fall on their own accord, while others shut down and leave their education in the hands of chance. Students who experience this form of struggle are usually faced with the fear of asking for help.

The students that are closing their minds to these theories may get lucky and an understanding may fall into the student’s lap, or they may get nowhere and totally lose any kind of grasp on what they are supposed to be picking up on. This difficult type of behavior is typical of students entering college unequipped with the correct tools or walking into an academic conversation for the first time. So why is it that some students cross the threshold into the college experience with little to no skills that could, and most definitely will, be used on a daily basis in college? It appears that the education system is failing some of its students by not teaching them the correct set of models that will employ to be successful at the collegiate level.

Completing some assignments may be difficult for the aforementioned student because the...

... middle of paper ...

... or failure.

Works Cited

Bartholomae, David. “Inventing the University.” When a Writer Can’t Write: Research on Writer’s Block and other Writing Problems. New York: Guilford, 1986. Print.

Limerick, Patricia Nelson. “Dancing with Professors: The Trouble with Academic Prose.” New York Times, Book Review, 1993. Print.

Rose, Mike. “Lives on the Boundaries: The Struggles and Achievements of Americas Underprepared.” Penguin. 1989. Print.

Tagg, John. “Why Learn? What We May Really Be Teaching Students.” About Campus. 2004. Print.

Leef, George. “A Key Reason Why American Student’s Do Poorly.” Forbes Website. Forbes Magazine. 24 October 2013. Web.

Rimm-Kaufman, Sara. “Improving Students’ Relationships with Teachers to Provide Essential Supports for Learning.” American Psychological Association. May 2012. Web.

Peer Education Institute. 12 February 2011. Web.