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Ty Stebelton

Lucia Elden

English 111

06 December 2018

Transitioning into Independence

We all like to imagine that the public education system will prepare students to live as

independent people and be able to tackle the challenges of college and university. However, as

we all have most likely experienced firsthand, traditional schooling seems to not guide students

towards being prepared for the college level independence. Independent academics being a

students ability to manage their own life, both in and out of school, without requiring the

assistance of another person’s help. It can be from managing their time and understanding of

deadlines for school work to putting in extra effort to comprehend their classes without outside

assistance. In other words, they are their own boss over their success or failure in school.

Teachers and students alike have witnessed the traditional educational system and learned that it

does not teach how to transition from a hand-holding form of education that they are used to

prior to college into this new independent style. Traditional schooling being our normal, modern

education of kindergarten through senior year of high school with no special academic

techniques taken. Prior to college, the schooling curriculum and it’s style of teaching have all

been set this way for so long that many people just accept this to simply be how the way things

are and not in issue. We, as a whole, should realize that this is an important issue. The reason it is

important is because it can cause some students to fail their first year at college, some to get poor

grades on their first classes, or some to believe that college is too difficult or not for them.
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Because of the high expectations of college, we should all set a dialogue and communication

between first-year students and their professors because it can help remedy the difficult transition

to an independent student that is ready for the college independence.

Understanding how the education system fosters a dependent academic environment is

difficult because it’s hard for one to decide on where the line is drawn from being too

independent and too dependent. However, it would almost seem that the traditional schooling

system has leaned far more towards being dependent rather than independent in most regards.

For example, traditional schools will micro-manage students with their grades and work. This

means that they will consistently be making sure work is done, the work is turned in with the

exact style as every other student, and that the student is consistently getting fine grades. At a

very young age, this coddling style of academics begins, and it exists all the way up to the end of

high school. Most teachers and schools will partake in an overwatching role and act like

managers at a workplace, with the students as employees. If the student does not perform in these

ways, by choice or chance, the school will get involved. The hand-holding that I commonly refer

to comes from this. The school will step in and assure that the student will be put back on track.

If a student is struggling, the school will take the initiative to help the student by paying him

special attention or coming up with a solution to help them. In other words, the school will

commonly be the ones to take initiative instead of the student. This teaches students a very bad

habit. Habits, good and bad, were covered in “Remarks on Habit”. VanderMey, a professor of

English and Humanities, says, “A habit is a tendency to act, say or think in a certain way. A

TENDENCY” (13). VanderMey adds a vital point to this topic. The schools teach students a

habit; the habit of being managed. The students, in turn, develop the tendency to learn in this

way, and when the student attends their first semester at college, this can go against the habit that
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they have been learning their whole life. Author Robert Leamnson could add some more

enlightenment with VanderMey’s views on learning this bad habit. In his writing, he declares,

“One can imagine something like a rule that says, if a path is used repeatedly it must be

important, so make it easy by increasing the probability that the signal will get through” (67).

Both he and VanderMey understand that by pushing this style of education on students before

college, it will become the norm for their brains, and it can be difficult to break apart from it. It

would seem that Leamnson does not view habits as hard to break as VanderMey believes they

are. While they both do agree that forcing these academic habits onto people for most their lives

isn’t a brilliant strategy, it would seem that Leamnson views the habits much more casually and

with less seriousness. In contrast, VanderMey later states, “We get stuck in them [habits] and

become unfree” (13). This strongly shows how VanderMey feels about the permanence of these

negative habits on students. Negative habits such as relying on teachers to remind them of

assigned work and always being given time to do their work in class. Leamnson comments on

teaching the first-year students by saying, “In the case of first-year students, a prominent element

of teaching might be thought of as reconstructing of the student mind” (75). Through this, we can

see that they would disagree on the level of consistency in habits. Leamnson would argue that

these habits will be forcefully changed in the first year, while VanderMey would argue that is

almost impossible for habits to be broken. Despite the disagreement between the two, they raise

a good point on how difficult it can be for the student to become accustomed to the transition

from being guided all their life to becoming independent in college. They have become stuck in

what they have learned their whole life, and freshmen college students are required to quickly

change the academic pattern that they have been taught to be accustomed to. No more easy

teachers making sure you’re doing your work or the school making sure you pass. This issue of
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ill preparation has been going on for quite and some time, and this can be upsetting because there

are possible ways to resolve it.

There are many possible groups involved in this issue that could make changes to help

remedy the situation. Colleges, universities, and professors could potentially try to give more

leniency and programs for new freshmen coming from high school. By offering more support

during their first year, they could help the students transition better into academic independence.

However, this only reinforces the students dependence by putting it off for longer and it means

that the college must divert more focus to just the freshmen. Professors would be forced to

change their own teaching habits just to acclimatize these new students. Due to this, the best

solutions would be done sooner, specifically in high school. It is the perfect time because

students will be preparing for college and they have the capability to be fully independent if

taught the right way. In turn, this would teach academic independence to be more natural and

less of a foreign language by college and this would allow a student enough time for their brain

to begin functioning with independence as an option before assuming dependence. This is

covered in Robert Leamnson’s “The Biological Basis of Learning”, he explains,

Genetics dictates the overall positioning of neurons. But in the thinking part of the brain

genetics does not program the final “hard wiring” of the neural connections we find in the

adult brain. These are largely the result of our experiences (Changeux 1985). How

experiences stabilize neuron connections is just the beginning to be understood, but that

they do is no longer in question. One thing seems sure: mature neurons are still capable

of budding nections in response to repeated signals along the given path (Stevens 1993).

(67)
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In summary, Leamnson states that past experiences control how a students brain, or any brain for

that matter, functions. Leamnson makes clear that people behave and think the way they have

consistently thought because that’s what is natural for them; experience dictates how the brain

will think and what will become natural to it. VanderMey makes a similar claim to this by

saying, “A second important feature of good habits is the way we become them. Aristotle says

that in the arts, crafts and the whole range of moral virtues, we acquire them by repeated acts of

using them” (15). They both acknowledge that past experiences will dictate behavioral patterns.

Knowing this, teachers would be capable of flipping these bad habits and creating positive,

productful ones instead. By teaching students the good habit of independence before college,

freshmen won’t feel in a new environment because it will feel more natural and their brains

would be conditioned to take on this level of independence. These good habits would entail less

hand-holding and control on students done by schools ensuring the students success. However, it

does not come without cons, as this would mean that school would be more challenging for the

average student. Including that, there would me a couple more adverse effects and changes that

would need to be made to our schooling system. Examples of this would be less control on

student behavior or the chance of struggling students to not be capable of getting a high school

degree. The benefit of introducing a more realistic, independent style of education earlier, instead

of suddenly taking on a new level of independence unlike anything they may have experienced,

gives students, both students planning on attending college and students just trying to get a GED,

a better start to the rest of their lives. VanderMey says, “First is the idea of habit as action

potential, a body’s readiness to take a certain path” (15). He is right in his point because a habit

of some independence before college would be preparing college-bound students for what is to

come. Students fresh out of school and first-year college students will have a certain readiness
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that they’ll need to succeed in their respectful path. Jack Mezirow, a professor at Columbia

University, would strongly disagree with these two professors on the resolution to this problem.

He is of the opinion that school should not become more hands off but instead encourage a better

dialogue about what they can expect and what skills will be needed in the future. He states,

“Adult educators need to understand that transformative learning can take several forms

involving either objective or subjective reframing. Transformative learning is rooted in the way

human beings communicate and is a common learning experience not exclusively concerned

with significant personal transformations” (91). Clearly, he holds a much different view than the

other professors. Comparing Mezirow’s views with Leamnson and VanderMey, you can see that

he would rather a dialogue be set up to help students become self aware of the challenges and

expectations of college so that they can prepare themselves. Either view point, however,

understands the importance of preparation and transformation.That is why the best solution

would be for the academic system before college to change and that is why the benefits outweigh

the negative effects of this transition.

Starting to resolve this issue would reap several benefits to the educational system and

especially to students that are making that difficult transition from high school to college. The

high school education system would promote more effort from their students and would foster a

better environment for students to become independent thinkers. The schooling might be more

difficult at this time, but it would allow for the academically gifted to shine and be given more

opportunity than they are given now. Personally, I have met several students in high school who

seemed destined for academic greatness, but the school watched over them too much for them to

become independent and grow. While the education would see its own benefits, the students are

the ones who would be really rewarded.

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First-year college students would be able to take on the new college expectation with

much greater ease than ever before. The idea of having no one caring for them and micro-

managing their grades for them wouldn’t be a new environment for them, and ultimately,

creating an easier opportunity for them to excel in their first year. Additionally, as well as

creating freshmen college students that are traditionally independent, this new form of education

would create students that are naturally autonomous thinkers. Mezirow describes autonomy by

saying, “Autonomy here refers to the understanding, skills, and disposition necessary to become

critically reflective of one’s own assumptions and to engage effectively in discourse to validate

one’s beliefs through the experiences of others who share universal values” (90). Mezirow finds

that autonomy is vital to students, adding, “Thinking as an autonomous and responsible agent is

essential for full citizenship in democracy and for moral decision making in situations of rapid

change” (89). Mezirow finds that being able to think fully, as well as with an open mind, is vital

to a successful academic life. By putting in place a more independent educational system prior to

high school, Mezirow’s idea of transformative learning into an autonomous thinker is promoted.

With the habit of independence, comes the habit of acting as an autonomous and responsible

agent. VanderMey would agree with Mezirow here because this is a habit that encourages self

growth and preparation, and in turn, is a good habit that should be promoted. Once the habit of

dialogue and autonomous thinking is set, students would better be able to understand what is

expected of them in college. Such as creating plenty of time to work or study outside of class or

having the initiative to seek help for their class if they can’t comprehend a subject. Leamnson

would disagree with this because it goes against his consistent theme that past experiences will

dictate behavior. He claims, “Typical college freshmen have had nineteen years to structure their

brains, imbibe their culture, and discover their centers of satisfaction” (74). He would argue that
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just a dialogue is not enough to undo the behavioral habits of a brain that is conditioned to learn

a certain way its whole life. He also says that a dialogue does not always get the point across. He

later adds, “But if the listener (student) does not attend to syntactic subtleties, or impose private

meanings on words, what resonates might be wildly at odds with what we intended” (77). He

seems to completely disagree with Mezirow's view on dialogue because it is not a nearly as

concrete of a solution. However, while they do strongly disagree with the process on getting the

students to independence, it would seem that they do come together on the idea that students are

not properly prepared for the independence of college.

In Mezirow, becoming an autonomous thinker is critical in becoming an independent

student, in Robert Leamnson, our past experiences with schooling control the way that students

think and behave; and in VanderMey, the development of habits dictate the level of dependence

a student could be accustomed to. These authors would, for the most part, agree that the current

educational system that students are put through do not properly prepare them for the

independence that is required at a college level. Their views differ on how to create an

environment for fostering independence. More specifically, VanderMey and Leamnson disagree

on how effective this change of teaching would be. However, their views do all align in the end

and decide that students should be more prepared for their first year at college. Currently, the

form of education we use endorses a dependent, hand-holding style of education. Despite the

difficulties that would be entailed, the changes we could make to schooling prior to college

would create a much better atmosphere for students to easily transition into their first semester

and, overall, an easier college experience for everyone.

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Works Cited

Leamnson, Robert. “The Biological Basis of Learning.” Exploring Connections: Learning in

the 21 Century. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2016, pp. 66-73.
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Leamnson, Robert. “Today’s First-Year Students.” Exploring Connections: Learning in the 21 st

Century. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2016, pp. 73-84.

Mezirow, Jack. “Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice.” Exploring Connections:

Learning in the 21 Century. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2016, pp. 87-93.
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VanderMey, James, “Remarks on Habit.” Exploring Connections: Learning in the 21 st

Century. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2016, pp. 12-17.