Fed up with college...on week four of freshman year

[EasterJoy]

I am sure that some would say that the instructors are merely exercising free speech but I would say that this is just anti-Catholic bigotry. These examples have nothing to do with anthropology or “leadership.”

Speech on college campuses is not nearly so free as it once was, particularly in a department that is supposed to be famous for its cultural sensititivity. The magic words she may need to use are “hate speech”.

 

[Gullveig]

I am amazed that a number of posters can’t help but bash anthropology professors when there is actually one, right here, participating in the conversation. Would you do that in real life?

It’s a professional hazard. I’m just pleased that people know what anthropology is, usually I get asked if it’s the study of ants or something.

I had some really great anthropology professors when I was first starting out, but I went to a school that had a very strong and well-respected program as well. I realize that mileage varies depending on the quality and philosophy of respective anthro departments, and it’s unfortunate that some people have bad experiences and decide to apply that across the entire discipline.

We are supposed to do a fieldwork exercise in a cultural experience that we are incredibly familiar with (including religious experiences) and I’m leaning towards fieldnotes concerning the Mass.

That sounds like it should be fun. Looking at stuff we experience everyday from a cultural observer standpoint is always entertaining for me. They might be on your course reading list already, but if not, here are a couple of classic articles on that subject that I enjoyed when I was an undergrad.

Body Rituals of the Nacirema
Shakespeare in the Bush

 

[LightBound]

Transfer to Benedictine college. Better to have quality and debt rather than poor quality and less debt. Don’t waste your college years at a place where you don’t want to be!

With all respect Fr, that’s easy for you to say. When put into a real-life situation, it just doesn’t work as easily…

Taking the least expensive dorm and meal options at that school, plus getting used text books (if possible) will still put her yearly rate of attendance at about $30,000. For a Bachelor degree, that’s going to be $120,000! Even if she got half covered by scholarships or grants, she would still be heading into marriage and motherhood with around $60,000 in debt, without interest! How many times do I see posts on here about young women not being able to be a stay-at-home mom because they can’t afford to? Unless she plans on marrying a very wealthy man, that’s a lot of money to have hanging over her head when she can take the advice of others on the thread about dealing with this instructor and the course and choose other classes for next semester.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=777583

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=809137

 

[UbiCaritas]

Why are you taking anthropology? talk about a waste of money

It may well be a required gen-ed course. When I was in school a few years ago, I had a choice between an introductory anthropology class, an introductory sociology class, and another class which I can’t remember (but same general area) for the general education requirements for the school. Every student had to take one of those three classes.

 

[LaMusicaSenior]

It’s a professional hazard. I’m just pleased that people know what anthropology is, usually I get asked if it’s the study of ants or something.

I had some really great anthropology professors when I was first starting out, but I went to a school that had a very strong and well-respected program as well. I realize that mileage varies depending on the quality and philosophy of respective anthro departments, and it’s unfortunate that some people have bad experiences and decide to apply that across the entire discipline.

That sounds like it should be fun. Looking at stuff we experience everyday from a cultural observer standpoint is always entertaining for me. They might be on your course reading list already, but if not, here are a couple of classic articles on that subject that I enjoyed when I was an undergrad.

Body Rituals of the Nacirema
Shakespeare in the Bush

Exactly - in fact we JUST finished reading both articles in class last week - I really enjoyed them. Thanks for sharing!

 

[LaMusicaSenior]

It may well be a required gen-ed course. When I was in school a few years ago, I had a choice between an introductory anthropology class, an introductory sociology class, and another class which I can’t remember (but same general area) for the general education requirements for the school. Every student had to take one of those three classes.

This is the way partially for me. I am taking anthropology on a recommendation from college history professor who I really enjoyed. The class material is fine - like some have pointed out, it’s not that the class is anti-Catholic…it’s the professor.

 

[LaMusicaSenior]

Reconsider your decision not to attend Benedictine. Debt is something that a lot of people live with, and there are options for dealing with it after you graduate. I chose my local college and was a commuter, thinking I could save money on room, board, and food by living with my parents. After graduating with a 4-year degree and a Masters, the cost is just about comparable to just receiving the 4-year degree.

Thinking back, I wish I had attended a college I wanted, instead of a college I thought I had to (in order to save money).

As long as you get a decent interest rate (which should be manageable these days), your debt may not be too bad. It’s not like a car note, where its expected to be paid off in a few years. Your college education is an investment. Think of if you choose to send your kids to Catholic school rather than public school–you’d be getting off money every month you don’t HAVE to spend, but it’s an investment in Catholic education. I digress…

Depending on your major and your target career, you may want to look into college debt forgiveness programs. For instance, if you get a degree in education and want to be a teacher, certain states will forgive your college debt if you teach certain subjects or in certain districts for a given amount if time. Wish I’d known about that when I graduated…Best wishes!

I would love to go there - I really do think that is where I will end up eventually. Yet I know that all my problem will disappear when I go to a Catholic school. Added to the fact that I want to stay at home and raise my kids as a stay-at-home mom. Although lessons from college can apply to home life, I don’t want to bring $$$$ debt when I know I won’t be traditionally applying these skills in the work world.

It doesn’t help that I’m an undeclared major, which also adds a lot to the mix.

 

[EasterJoy]

This is the way partially for me. I am taking anthropology on a recommendation from college history professor who I really enjoyed. The class material is fine - like some have pointed out, it’s not that the class is anti-Catholic…it’s the professor.

It is totally the professor. My anthropology prof was a fine man…he just loved humanity, from the rock-tool people all the way up to the kind that put men on the moon and everyone else in every direction, that’s what you’d say about him.

To tell the truth, most anthropologists I have run across would find someone who’d look at someone else’s culture and say “what kind of naïve primitive would seriously believe that” as exhibiting cultural arrogance to a shocking degree. They bend over backwards to realize that the rest of humanity has just as much wisdom going on as they do, that they’re not some superior being looking down on the rest of us, as if they were the owners of the ant farm and not part of it.

 

[Captain_America]

OP: your professor needs to hear a complaint.

Of course, it’s VERY difficult—very uphill and uneven—for a student to directly confront/speak with a professor. You have no cards in your hand. . . plus the negative of creating, like it or not, believe it or not, a negative impression that might consciously or unconsciously affect your grade.

I’d send her a note. Tactful one. Also point out some resources for her to explore when it comes to Catholic topics.

GENERALLY, I"M more and more amazed at how many slapshots and checks to the face are being given to Christians in our times. This is ridiculous and out of hand, and often ill-founded as well as ill-considered.

 

[Just_Lurking]

In class today, my fellow anthropology student said “Well, people just need to believe what they believe and each person has their own truth.” I had to say something, and ended up with the response of “No, it boils down to either a) everyone believes they each have their own truth and NOTHING is true, or b) there is truth that is absolute which exists whether you believe it or not. You choose.”

This sounds more like philosophy than anthropology to me. Can’t one study the beliefs of a culture and how they influence people’s behavior without needing to make a determination as to the truth or falsity of those beliefs?

 

[skigirl1689]

OP: your professor needs to hear a complaint.

Of course, it’s VERY difficult—very uphill and uneven—for a student to directly confront/speak with a professor. You have no cards in your hand. . . plus the negative of creating, like it or not, believe it or not, a negative impression that might consciously or unconsciously affect your grade.

I’d send her a note. Tactful one. Also point out some resources for her to explore when it comes to Catholic topics.

GENERALLY, I"M more and more amazed at how many slapshots and checks to the face are being given to Christians in our times. This is ridiculous and out of hand, and often ill-founded as well as ill-considered.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but usually complaining gets students no where or even makes it worse. I had a professor swear at me and people at the college in admin brushed it off, saying it was just the way he was. I dropped the class, had to take it at the university I later transferred to, paying about 4x more for the same class.

Professors bash a lot of things, and I am not defending it, but at a public university, something is always going to be said, usually disparaging Christians, and sometimes there is nothing you can do to change it.

I do find institutions and majors focusing on the hard sciences tend to have less of these incidents and professors are more apt to stick to the subject matter rather than editorializing it.

 

[Kal2012]

Yeah - college was a shocker to me too.

I think that the prof who said that you need to file a complaint is correct. I also think that you need to consider whether it’s that one class/professor or the entire culture of the school that you don’t like.

I know it took some time for me to meet other students I clicked with. I think most of us can say that. Some secular campuses have support systems for Christian/Catholic students, but you have to actively seek out those resources. I wish I had taken advantage of the resources on my campus, but at that point, I was just fed up because I struggling with the fact that I was a Christian, but I wasn’t uber-conservative (like I had been taught) and I wasn’t uber-liberal (like the model I was being shown on campus).

I sucked it up a lot when the professors/students would go off about conservative Christians. You aren’t (and won’t be) the only one this has ever happened to - sadly.

 

[EasterJoy]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but usually complaining gets students no where or even makes it worse. I had a professor swear at me and people at the college in admin brushed it off, saying it was just the way he was. I dropped the class, had to take it at the university I later transferred to, paying about 4x more for the same class.

Professors bash a lot of things, and I am not defending it, but at a public university, something is always going to be said, usually disparaging Christians, and sometimes there is nothing you can do to change it.

I do find institutions and majors focusing on the hard sciences tend to have less of these incidents and professors are more apt to stick to the subject matter rather than editorializing it.

There is usually a student advocate on campus whose job it is to guide students who are afraid of complaining, lest they suffer reprisals. I’d start there, particularly if I were a freshman. (By the time I was an upperclassman, I knew enough professors that I would have had someone on the faculty to go to bat for me if things went south.) That person may guide the OP about how to handle the situation herself, but she’ll have someone in her corner from the start…someone whose job it is to “be in the same corner” with the students.

Be very clear, OP, that you don’t expect everyone to agree with you or pretend that they believe what you do, but that you do expect professors and people in positions of authority to show more cultural sensitivity than that when it comes to religious issues.

 

[Demetra2]

Transfer to Benedictine college. Better to have quality and debt rather than poor quality and less debt. Don’t waste your college years at a place where you don’t want to be!

Sorry, but going into debt is bad advice. Just heard yesterday on Catholic radio that it is advisible to be no more than $10,000 in debt after college. You are very wise to avoid debt if you wish to marry after college. Does your college have a Newman Center or any way that you can build friendships with people who are at least trying to live as Catholics? During this freshman year do some research on other affordable colleges or state universities with Newman centers that may also be more conservative and less hostile to religion. Your anthropology professor is ridiculous in her arrogance and ignorance of the Catholic faith. My husband is a college professor in a business school and he would consider her behavior to be quite unprofessional but in the soft sciences that attitude is quite common. You are finding out that some professors live in their only little world and often it is not based on truth or reality. You may want to major in a business field because there is less of that nonsense going on.
But the truth is that these experiences are valuable because they will prepare you to get along with difficult people. Out in the working world there are many difficult people! Your negative experiences at your college will serve to help you navigate once you are out in the world. While a truly Catholic school like Benedictine may be your ideal take advantage of where you are now by learning to live outside the Catholic bubble.

 

[nodito]

I attended grad school for a field (public health) that is extremely liberal at a very liberal university. It was an intense and difficult two years and if I could do it again, I wouldn’t have. You don’t always notice it, but there is an incredible amount of stress in your life when you’re constantly thinking about how to respond to things that have or may come up in class. I didn’t always notice this stress until I was out of the situation (i.e., the class ended). I often felt discriminated against and there are at least two occasions when I know that the teacher gave me a poorer grade for not agreeing with him.

My advice would be to seriously consider finding a Catholic school. If Benedictine is too expensive look at other Catholic schools that are father away or offer different programs. I agree that it’s important not to go into serious debt for college. Perhaps there is some middle ground. Or maybe you can make finding scholarships and earning high grades your job for the next couple of months with the intention of transferring at the end of the semester.

If that really isn’t an option, then drop this anthropology class. Life is too short to put up with ridiculous professors. When you speak to your guidance counselor make sure s/he knows that the reason you wish to drop is because you feel disrepected by the professor who regularly ridicules your religion.

Good luck.

 

[nodito]

OP, also, have you looked at Donnelly College? I know nothing about it except that it’s Catholic with a tuition about half as much as Benedictine. Might be more affordable, especially if they’ll give you any sort of financial aid.

Not all Catholic schools are created equal, of course, but at least at a Catholic school you have recourse if a teacher starts spouting anti-Catholic rhetoric.

 

[Fusiontron]

Welcome to college. Fortunately I finished most of gen ed. in high school through APs and I major in technical fields so this issue does not come up very often. My advice would be to develop a social circle outside of classes, does your school have a Newman center?

 

[signit]

Sorry, but going into debt is bad advice. Just heard yesterday on Catholic radio that it is advisible to be no more than $10,000 in debt after college. You are very wise to avoid debt if you wish to marry after college. Does your college have a Newman Center or any way that you can build friendships with people who are at least trying to live as Catholics? During this freshman year do some research on other affordable colleges or state universities with Newman centers that may also be more conservative and less hostile to religion. Your anthropology professor is ridiculous in her arrogance and ignorance of the Catholic faith. My husband is a college professor in a business school and he would consider her behavior to be quite unprofessional but in the soft sciences that attitude is quite common. You are finding out that some professors live in their only little world and often it is not based on truth or reality. You may want to major in a business field because there is less of that nonsense going on.

Agreed; in fact, it’s TERRIBLE advice; take it from one who knows based on personal experience.

If the money were not an issue, I might say “go for it.”

Since it seems to be an issue, before you do anything like that, you’ve got to take a long hard look at the situation and wonder if you want to be eating ramen noodles for ten years or more while you’re paying your loans back.

Teenagers love to “advise” their peers on what colleges to attend, without any knowledge of their financial situation or other financial realities. The people giving you the advice aren’t going to be there when you’re trying to pay back those loans.

The rule is, if you ain’t payin’, you ain’t sayin.’ (Apologies for the slang.) This is a choice for you and maybe your family. If the person advising you to attend this college or that one has the checkbook out all set to pay for it for you, great; since they don’t, you’ve got to be critical of their advice.

 

[Jessie5000]

As some of you know, I am currently a freshman at my local university. The first month has come and gone of classes, and I am fed up. I know this is a negative outlook, but excuse me while I rant for a little.

Anthropology has had two instances of Catholic bashing. The professor first pointed out that Catholics can’t seriously believe that the body and blood of Christ is actually present in the Eucharist and that they are confused on the concepts of symbols. The second is when she decided to say that Catholics are naive for thinking that priests can actually bring about the process of the forgiven sin in the confessional. In class today, my fellow anthropology student said “Well, people just need to believe what they believe and each person has their own truth.” I had to say something, and ended up with the response of “No, it boils down to either a) everyone believes they each have their own truth and NOTHING is true, or b) there is truth that is absolute which exists whether you believe it or not. You choose.”

I’m also angered at the complete lack of respect for authority amongst students. The lack of motivation kills me. My first choice of college was Benedictine in Atchison, Kansas. Yet the cost is CRAZY. I want to grow up, get married and have kids. I don’t want to have to bring that financial burden into my marriage. Yet if I was convinced that I had a calling to a consecrated single, I would be at Benedictine right now. The only thing holding me back is a moral compass that says that I believe God is calling me to marriage and horrible debt hurts marriage.

Going crazy.

Tomorrow we get to study Elizabeth McCormack in a leadership course. Why? Because she was a Catholic nun who went against every vow that she ever took and set up an abortion for a girl. Since that apparently is the example everyone should strive to follow - an example of hypocrisy in which I’m sure everyone will use to bash how “horrible the Catholic Church is anyway.”

Any advice = appreciated.

Every university and college exposes people to a wide variety of perspectives, topics, philosophies and methodologies. God has you where he wants you so you must ask God to help you learn what he wants you to learn from this experience. The greatest Catholic apologists are those well versed in topics opposing Catholic thought. University is challenging because one learns to think and this requires we learn a wide variety of things , even if these are not consistent with Catholic teaching. When Paul preached the message of Christ in Greece, he was well versed in the Greek religious perspectives and philosophies and was able to use these to preach the message of Christ.

My advice is to quit complaining, get down to work, and see this opportunity as a blessing where you will become well versed in a variety of perspectives. It would be a very poor education if you were only exposed to one viewpoint. One perspective learning is for children and not adults. You live in a world with many different cultures, religions, and perspectives… trust God will use this knowledge to assist you in becoming a good Catholic leader.

 

[BettyBoop416]

Every university and college exposes people to a wide variety of perspectives, topics, philosophies and methodologies. God has you where he wants you so you must ask God to help you learn what he wants you to learn from this experience. The greatest Catholic apologists are those well versed in topics opposing Catholic thought. University is challenging because one learns to think and this requires we learn a wide variety of things , even if these are not consistent with Catholic teaching. When Paul preached the message of Christ in Greece, he was well versed in the Greek religious perspectives and philosophies and was able to use these to preach the message of Christ.

My advice is to quit complaining, get down to work, and see this opportunity as a blessing where you will become well versed in a variety of perspectives. It would be a very poor education if you were only exposed to one viewpoint. One perspective learning is for children and not adults. You live in a world with many different cultures, religions, and perspectives… trust God will use this knowledge to assist you in becoming a good Catholic leader.

Agree - 100%