Mark Edmundson On The Uses Of A Liberal Education Summary

Fresh new high school seniors are ready to embark on the journey of choosing of a college to attend. These students are filled with fear of choosing the right one or else their lives "will be ruined forever". However, students can be rest assured knowing that universities would never lie to them and that they only want what 's best for them, right? Sometimes that may not be the case. Universities are known as a place of academics but what happens when all of that changes? What happens if universities are more focused on appearing attractive or eye-catching or selective? How will students be rest assured? In reality, universities are more focused on what 's on the outside then what 's on the inside more than people know about. The means to

Professors try to justify the sudden rise in grades but their explanations hardly convinces anyone. Mark Edmundson a professor at University of Virginia, writes about this in his essay, On the Uses of a Liberal Education,. He states, "a professor at Stanford [University] recently explained grade inflation in the humanities by observing that the undergraduates were getting smarter every year; the higher grades simply recorded how much better they were than their predecessors. Sure" (Edmundson 396). Edmundson 's sarcastic tone in his writing shows that he does not believe the Stanford professor 's explanation for grade averages going up. He believes that professors are softening the grades. Phil Primack also is aware of the many excuses professors give for grade inflation, he even comes up with a reason. He sates, "colleges are unwilling to challenge and possibly offend students and their hovering, tuition- paying parents with some grade tough love. And without institutional backing, individual faculty members simply yield to whining students." Here Primack is saying that teachers don 't challenge students because they are afraid of lower marks on evaluations and complaints and risking their careers, so they give in and assign students grades they want but