When faced with a tough challenge, Rose said that he "would automatically assume the problem was beyond [him] and distance [himself] from it." In my opinion, yes this is a common problem with students, but considering the fact that he refuses to get involved into the universities extracurricular programs shows that he is not one to make the full effort on his own. Once he starts receiving extra help from his professors and actually starts to make an effort in the classes he's taking, Roses learning goes through a dramatic change. .
Whether it was his professor Don Johnson breaking down how to find the primary and secondary qualities of a piece of text, or if it was him just being around the positivity of Frank Carothers, Rose learned that the this new world was very different than the one he had created for himself his freshman year. After making it clear that he struggled to express increasingly complex ideas, Rose received helped from Dr. Erlandson, who educated them in a way that Rose understood by using phrases like " try this here" or "here's another way to say it". All of these tools were given to Mike Rose and they taught him to "enter the conversation", or in my opinion meaning, get involved in what you are trying to understand. One way you can look at it is "the conversation" may be the subject you would like to master, and rather than just looking at it, you seek to "enter it". Get involved with it, get as much assistance as possible, make connections with people who have the similar interest and help each other fully grasp the topic at hand. And by the time Rose finishes up college, he understands that In order to succeed you must go beyond just the material. .
I can relate what Rose went through to my own life because I had set specific goals for myself coming out of high school and my attitude in the beginning was the same that Rose had when he first entered college.
