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How College Sold Its Soul To The Market Summary

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In William Deresiewicz’s essay “The Neoliberal Arts- How College Sold its Soul to the Market” he presents an argument that higher education is driven mainly by the market, and that students are pursuing majors that promise future financial gain over knowledge. The essay “How College Sold its Soul to the Market” was published in Harper’s Magazine in September of 2015. Deresiewicz argues that we are living in a neoliberalism environment and that with mass higher education students are interested in becoming leaders and money makers instead of valuing the importance of learning how to think intellectually; neoliberalism is an ideology that reduces all values to money values. Deresiewicz argues throughout his essay that there are three potential purposes for higher education: the commercial (preparation for a career), the cognitive (learning things, learning how to think), and the moral (determining your own beliefs and becoming an independent thinker). …show more content…

The author uses images of embroidered photographs to demonstrate education’s current circumstances while using liberal arts as an additional way to convey his claim. One of the images features an orthodontist with an artistically drawn cage around his head demonstrating how students are limiting their knowledge and passions to instead focusing on money making careers. The overall tone of this essay has authority but also appeals on a personal level to the struggles of a modern day college student; the tone is convincing and formal for those involved in higher education, but remains somewhat casual and personal for the young

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