The experimental group read a set of essays by older college students of various racial backgrounds talking about how hard it was to adjust to college life, but that it got easier as time went on.
I feel like reading those essays about others' experiences made the students feel less alone in college. Without remembering/knowing that people who struggle just like them exist, they will get this feeling of they can do it. (Because they read about someone who can do it as well.)
It seems that even though we internalize a lot of negative stereotypes about ourselves, the damage can be undone with a few simple exercises. Before students can learn, they need to feel confident.
This makes me realize that talking down on ourselves actually affects us all. Some may feel like it's just a joke or whatever (I know I did, I usually poke fun at myself for not doing as well as I wanted to) but never realize how that thought could be buried in their subconscious mind. I am glad that there are actually ways to get rid of those thoughts.
frenzied
Adjective;
Definition: wildly excited or uncontrolled
Colleges can identify first gens on the Common Application, which asks for parents’ education history.
That's a way to determine if an applicant is pretending to be first gen/poor/struggling. This method can be helpful because there are many ACTUAL struggling people who are in desperate need getting an education. With fakers being in existence, the actual struggling people might not have a chance to get those privileges.
Surely, Ms. Weingarten assumed, the boy could be counted as a first-generation college applicant, deserving of an admissions bump for being disadvantaged.
If only it was that easy. Most colleges won't simply give random people special "privileges" just because they're poor/first generation/etc. A lot more things have to be done for that to happen.
(Students, meanwhile, like to blame their scholastic failures on their teacher’s failure to align their teaching style with their learning style.)
My sense is that students like to blame their lack of flexibility to learn in different ways. For example, they perhaps like to look at visuals to learn because it is easier for them. When they see a huge text, however, they "shut down".
But most of the tasks we encounter are only really suited to one type of learning. You can’t visualize a perfect French accent, for example.
This made me rethink that fact that I claimed to be a "visual learner" way back in middle school. Being a certain type of learner is really just a myth. There are certain classes that are suited to one type of learning. You cannot really use your "kinesthetic" abilities to learn how to read. In reality, most classes are actually appealing to all of the "learning styles", it is really just up to the learner to see that.