Fear
Andy Anderson
Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: Focus
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Asked to list their top five fears, nine out of ten students said the same thing: fear of failing out of school.
Other top fears that coming easily to the minds of questioned students were similar. The fear of disappointing parents and the fear of making a bad decision regarding future career choices ranked second and third.
It's debatable as to where fears truly come from and studies have been conducted for years. One notable researcher, Robert Sternberg, who wrote "Overcoming College
Fears...The Road to Success," suggested in 1992 that student insecurity lead to fear.
"Students fearing failure often suffer from low self-esteem," Sternberg wrote, "and are insecure about the new academic experience."
Junior Jennifer Maggi said she reluctantly agrees, "I don't want to agree with him, but I do," she said. "If you're insecure to begin with; upholding a certain expectation of how you perform based off of prior experience and you fall short of that mark, then it's a reality shock."
Other Hillsdale students feel it can be even more than that. Fear is not simply something created from self-esteem, but created from evil itself.
When asked to describe where she thought fear came from, freshman Sharon Christopher said, "I think it comes from Satan; the Bible says it's not from God, anyway."
Eight out of ten students agree.
Professor of Psychology Donald Ernst said what he felt about the phenomenon.
"Fear is a naturally-selected response to threat," he said. "Our species has reshaped our physical and social environment in ways that have produced enormous new threats."
Possibilities of mass extinction and nuclear holocaust are examples of modern-day fears Ernst listed.
"Because we did not face these in the course of our evolutionary history our responses are not well adapted," he said.
By applying this logic, it is not too difficult to understand why Hillsdale students can fear failure so freely, he said.
Between classes getting harder by the year, rising expectations as the semesters pass and competition for graduate school acceptance lingering on the horizon, it is getting more challenging to adapt.
The future is full of scary thoughts that make fickle fears like the boogie-man seem like a fond memory.
Although students of Hillsdale have a common fear, they share an uncommon atmosphere for learning. Most fears of failure can be put to rest by studying and communicating with professors.
By using available resources, students have put fears of failure to rest and get back to good old fashioned trick-or-treating.
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