In Charles Murray’s essay “Are Too Many People Going to College,” he believes that the concept of college has changed over the years. According to him, a four-year college is no longer as necessary as it was when it was first created because most jobs requires more on job training. He also adds to his reasoning by mentioning that because of the advancement of internet, physical libraries and the physical proximity of student and teachers is less important. Because of the changes he noticed he believes that people should go to college but not for liberal education. He makes the claim that the basic core knowledge of liberal education should be learned in elementary and middle school and that only people with high academic abilities should be encouraged to go to college.
In my opinion, I agree with Murray’s claim that four year college is not worth, job satisfaction for intrinsic reward, and the dark side of the Bachelor's degree. In my view, Murray’s is right, because college requires student to take 32 courses in four years or longer and not all courses are relate to the field they study with. More specifically, I believe that four years college will take more time to achieve our goal and knowledges doesn’t teach us how to make a living in our society. Murray described in his article, “More people should be getting the basic of a liberal education. But for most students, the places to provide those basics are elementary and middle school” (235).
In an essay that appeared on InsideHigherEd.com titled, “On ‘Real Education’”, South Dakota Board of Regents executive director Robert T. Perry writes about the need for more people to graduate from a community college or a university. Through the use of facts and statistics from agencies like the U.S. Department of Labor and the National Center for Higher Education, and his own credibility, Perry shows that there is a significant need for more college degrees. He states that a higher education will help the individual's standard of living as well as the American economy. In support of his position, Perry makes references to a book written by Charles Murray called Real Education, stating that “his pessimistic view of people’s ability to learn ignores...the real pressures the American economy is facing” (670). Obtaining a college degree can
William Henry wrote, “In Defense of Elitism”, he argues that colleges are letting too many students in, and that some of the students that are in college do not really deserve to be there. He thinks that the reason for the dumbed down education system is because of letting in too many students that do not need to attend college. In “America Skips School”, by Benjamin Barber, he believes that the teachers of todays generation blame kids for the fall of
The authors’ emphasis on “on average” is very effective at showing how their point makes sense and why it should be taken into consideration. I found the way that the authors focused on the minority more than the majority was skillfully effective at showing how some career paths do not require a college education and that the return in investment would not be worth the cost. Throughout their argument I found the writers to mostly use Logos and Ethos in their writing. The Logos is evident by the way they use statistics and the Ethos by how they state telling someone the only way to be successful is to go to college is a disservice. This is effective at making the reader think about how this should affect the decision of going to college and whether they should push someone to go to
Recently, many have begun to attack and degrade higher education in the United States. In the book How College Works, authors Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs claim, “As state support has eroded, and as more students attend college in an increasingly desperate attempt to find viable jobs, the price to students of attending an institution of higher education has gone up, especially at more selective institutions” (172). So is college even worth it? Caroline Bird’s excerpt from her book Case Against College “Where College Fails Us” is an adequately written article that agrees with those who question whether college is a good investment. Bird argues that although some students would benefit from college and succeed, many fall short, wasting
In “Are Too Many People Going to College?” Charles Murray offers his opinion on the number of students that pursue a B.A. He believes that two year or four year colleges are not needed for a majority of students who could instead pursue other life paths. He discusses the ability for the general knowledge needed to be learned in primary and secondary school, and for a lessened need for a “brick-and-mortar” institution the problems with the current secondary and higher educational issues including the lessened need to acquire a B.A. All members of society need certain skills in order to be productive members of society. They need to know general facts about the country they live in, general history, and general geography.
This documentary pertains to all of the American public, as everyone at some point in his or her life is supposed to be enrolled in school to flourish and gain an education, at least until they are old enough to chose a different path of life. For example, many children in the Midwest drop out of school at a certain age in order to help their families tend to their farms and thus make a life out of that. Yet, for the rest of the children in American society, who do not have circumstances similar to the previous example, education is a necessity. According to investigations by Guggenheim, “The American public school system is in crisis, failing millions of students, producing as many drop-outs as graduates, and threatening our economic future. By 2020, the United States will have 123 million high-skill jobs to fill—and fewer than 50 million Americans qualified to fill them”(Guggenheim, 1).
As a college student who is currently spending thousands of dollars to further my education and achieve a career goal, it was, at first, disheartening to read Caroline Bird ’s essay “College is a Waste of Time and Money”. However, after thoroughly examining her points, I now see that her essay is illogical. In her piece “College is a Waste of Time and Money”, Caroline Bird argues against the idea that “college is the best place for all high-school graduates” (1); in other words, college isn’t for everyone. Throughout her writing, Bird supplies her readers with evidence that explains how, for some individuals, college is a waste of not only time and money, but of intellectual effort, as well.
Not everyone is suited for college, some people have different interests and abilities. Murray describes the struggle of college classes, and introduces possible problems if you do not have an IQ above 100. He claims that a four year college teaches information on a level that exceeds the intellectual capacity of most people. He then continues on to explain that even if someone does not do well in college they
College Isn’t for Everyone "By telling all young people that they should go to college no matter what, we are actually doing some of them a disservice" (Owen). This quote from “Brookings Paper: Is College a Good Investment” goes into detail about how college isn’t for everyone. By educators, parents, and authority figures telling graduating high school seniors that college is necessary, they are limiting the potential of that student’s true skills. College isn’t right for everyone and not everyone wants to go to college.
“Is College the best option why or why not discusses the controversial issue of whether college is important or not. On one hand, while some argue that college is very important. Stephanie Owens and Isabel Sawhill writers of article “Should Everyone Go to College” asserts that we may be doing a disservice by telling all young people that college is the best option. Owens feels that college may be of service to some people, but not the best option for everyone.
If a person’s parent or guardian drilled the idea of college into your head, or if they told you ‘do what you want’ or ‘I don 't care’, or ‘You’re not going’. While college is great, there are other means of education. The value of college is a low because there are people who do not qualify for a college education, and also because there are other ways of post-secondary education other than college. College is not valuable because many people will not make it into a 2 or 4-year college, much less graduate from one. To support this, in the article Why College Isn 't For Everyone, it says, “As a general rule, I would use graduates in the top quarter of their class at a high-quality high school should go on to a four-year degree program, while those in the bottom quarter of their classes at a high school with a mediocre educational reputation should not.”
The total U.S. student loan debt now surpasses $1.2 trillion and there is more than 40 million recipients owing on federal and private student loans (Malone). Most of the college students in the United States can’t afford their education by themselves and, as a result, students end up drowning in student loans in order to earn a degree. Student debt is a major problem in the US, and it is a major influence on the gap between rich and poor. A more accessible college education would help reduce the gap between rich and poor in the United States.
On the other hand, there are also students who don’t have the teachers that care or the resources that will help them excel. Inevitably, they are doomed to limited opportunities and hope from higher institutions. Colleges and universities that are too meticulous on SAT and ACT scores, are forgetting that a student’s GPA, and the course load they took on, and the awards and recognition they’ve received, says more about them than their SAT or ACT score. Four years of hard work in high school, speaks more volumes than a four hour
