Class Memories

That happened to me in Dr Comfort's Calc class. By midterm more than half of the class was failing. I passed the class and changed my major to French Literature and never looked back...oh, except when I became a professor of Computer Science.

Once I was accepted and decided go to the U of R (I really didn't decide. The U of R was the only school to accept me and it was by far the best school to which I applied - it was fate)-- I was surprised when I received a package of books to study in preparation for discussions during freshman week. As I remember, the books were Siddhartha, Walden II and Aims of Education. I was overwhelmed. Since no one in my family had been to college except for my older brother who was in his third year at Holy Cross, college level learning, its purposes and uses were not part of my vocabulary. But with the receipt of these books my transition to college level learning was taking even before I started college classes. Years and many experiences later as I started teaching in college I started to understand what a wonderful way this freshman week experience was to introduce students to college level learning and its expectations and purposes. While I am sure I didn't understand any of this in autumn of 1963 (fear of not knowing what was going on and its accompanying trauma hurt my learning), thinking back, now I can see how I became aware of the many ways learning takes place and many realms of life it affects. It was during this freshman week experience that something in me started to understand the power of what the U of R was setting in motion with this freshman week experience. Many thanks!

All these years I thought I was the only one who failed stat, then a D, then changed majors, thanks for sharing! By the way, the second time the prof told me that all the info in my first class was bogus, maybe it was them and not us---

I never knew that someone else shared my same experience with Statistics. I had to complete it for my Psych major. I sat in Prof Segal's class twice, failing it both both times. I ended up changing my major to English in summer school before my senior year. It was there that I took a class in Chaucer from Dr Peck. The most wonderful educational experience of my life. Like Jane, my experience with Stats taught me that there is always another door to try. When you give up trying, you're toast.

One of many lessons I learned at the U of R, was that I could survive the experience of failure. I took Math Statistics (what was I thinking?) with Professor Kempermann. I failed every hourly exam....horribly. I was tutored for the final and passed it, but not with a high enough grade to pass the course. It caused me to change my major and reassess my self image...all positive outcomes. And...life actually went on.