It Took, Roughly, Fifteen Minutes

The transition from high school to college is widely anticipated by students, parents and professors alike. We warn of cataclysmic changes such as, "You know, Google is NOT considered scholarly research like it was in high school," or "Your Mom won't be here to wake you up, clean up after you and remind you to cover all the details every day." Universities often spend days preparing incoming prospects with orientations, mock lectures, meet-and-greet sessions with teachers and classmates and dormitory RAs. Heck, at most universities, students and staff line up to carry the 5,000 pounds of crap students bring to school up flights of stairs under brutal conditions: freshmen usually don't need to do anything! It's almost as if we don't want to scare them away.
Then, there are the requisite cookouts and assorted get-togethers: some including parents, but most not. Freshmen are still embarrassed by their parents, and I suspect that the parents are anxious to see just how that "empty nest" thing feels. It's always fun to watch moving day since kids run away to their rooms while parents alternately sniffle a bit and /or run to their cars in hopes of eating at a restaurant with actual plates for a change.
As part of the FOCUS orientation program again this year, I was matched with a professor and an upperclass student for two days. Our jobs involved making the students feel like they knew someone in their class as well as passing along pertinent information. The transformation was amazing.
By the second day, half of our students failed to show up, and most of the students who deigned to return to us were sitting comatose in their desks. Questions? They had no questions! Want to walk around and see where the classes are? nah. Want to work up a skit for the variety show in hopes of winning BIG prizes? nope.
We had even varied our approach for the second day: instead of doing the fun activities and games first as we had done on day one, we did the "sit-in-the-desk-" stuff first in order to create some anticipation for more fun games later.
They just chose to sit until we released them.
Far too much like college students.
We didn't even get to play the outstanding activities I had planned.
Yep, they've already become college students: checking the time and packing their backpacks with five minutes to go.
sigh.