Summary Of The Professor Louis Menand

Gerald Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism” contemplates the age-old idea that street smarts are anti-intellectual. However, as Graff points out, “schools and colleges are at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into academic smarts.” (244). What Graff means by this is that being street smart does not mean a person lacks intelligence. Rather, educational institutions need to find a way to effectively ‘tap into’ this different format of intellectualism to produce academic intelligence. Graff goes on to point out that society associates ‘weighty’ subjects, like Shakespeare and Plato, with intellectualism, but not less serious subjects, such as sports and video games. In consideration of this overlook

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is about the human perspective and enlightenment. In todays society Plato’s allegory is still relevant and is deeply rooted in education. College students are a perfect analogy for the “Allegory of the Cave”.

Over recent years, the debate of whether or not to continue using standardized testing to evaluate college applicants has been somewhat controversial. Although college may not necessarily ensure success in the future, is not the only path in which success can be found, and is not a good path for every student, a majority of students that graduate high school want to go to college and need to know what it is they need to accomplish before their four years are up. Some of the colleges shifting to the idea of accepting applicants not based on test scores think that the potential to do well in college shouldn’t be based on these things. These argue that personal traits and characteristics are what determine success. Traits like these aren’t truly measurable though. A student's character should be a factor in their acceptance to college, but this must be supplemented with grades and standardized tests scores.

If anyone has ever went to high school, then they have heard about college. Everyone has a different point of view on the idea of college. Part of it depends on how someone was raised. 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.

Levine claims that schools are starting to expand the quality of the student body by the rate of the students standardized test (22). Colleges are not looking to get students who do not apply themselves, but also, colleges are making it harder for the poor students that are trying to better their education. Along the same lines, Graff reminds us of the competition of comparing test scores in school (249). Graff explains, in school scores are made up by one’s reading ability, instead of, like in sports, the actual competition itself or arguing (249). Overall schools are using test scores as a way to compete with education instead of looking out for the best interests of the

Caroline Bird thinks that a college education may not be the best choice for all high school students because college education does not bring about social equality, it does not benefit them financially, and it is not guaranteed that college will lead them to an elite profession. First of all, high school students are expected to bring about social equality through four rigorous years in college. However, college is an expensive way to categorize the highs and lows in society. It is pressuring to younger students to pursue a higher education that only a few could achieve, and is also difficult for them to established an identity in society. Second, a college education does not benefit the youth financially because it is

In this society that students live in the only way that they think they know how to tell people’s intelligence is by going to college. By not going to college the students think that they have more of an opportunity to explore the world then other people in college,but some disagree with this opinion and some agree that the source of all opportunity is the person and not their educational level.The educational level for language, math, and science has the student’s country ranked at the bottom because the people in the United States don’t take college seriously, it affects us as a country. We have this idea in our heads that if we don’t go to college then

Going to college for many students is just a normal part of life. It is what will enable them to get an education that eventually will lead to get a well-paid job and the resources and the status to live a comfortable life. But for college professor, Andrew Delbanco, the American college has a higher purpose. In the article “College at Risk”, Delbanco states that colleges should be promoting critical thinking among students, through knowledge of the past and the interaction with each other; as well as, help them discover their talents and passions and figure out what they want to do in life. This type of education is called liberal arts and for Delbanco, it represents the ideal education. However, the high cost of receiving an education and the competitive labor market is making very hard for student to obtain a liberal art education.

The most beneficial thing in life is to study something that interests you. When students are choosing what college to further their studies they consider: the cost, the social status of the school, and the programs the college carries. Professor Mark Edmunson gives his message on what students should consider in his article "Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?", published on August 22nd 2011 in Issue 74 in The Oxford American. This essay is about Edmundson's viewpoint on education and that it is hard to get one. But if you do something you enjoy doing and work hard at it you will become successful. The target audience of this piece is the incoming class of freshman going into college. The message that Edmundson provides to the reader is how much positive power self-reliance has on a person. Edmundson explains how to become self-reliant: you need to follow your passion in what you want to study, fight against the institution to earn a good education, and to focus on the important things rather than having fun.

After Graduating High School students have a choice of going to college or not. College is a place where students want to be educated or have a better job in the future. Some people believe that students who go to college more intelligence than students who go working after graduating high school. However, going to college does not means all students as intelligence; because students might go to colleges to have a degree, but not to be intelligence. Sometimes intelligences can be measures by the level of school a student completed, but for a blue collar job they need to practice and observe in the field to be able to perform the job on they own preference. People believe students who go to college have intelligence more than students who’s in the work field after high school.

Life’s success is achieved in different ways. (Director, n.d.) A lot of television programs and magazines instills the idea in us that being successful means; having a fulfilling career, having a lot of money and being powerful. Most religious and spiritual organizations, in contrast, claim that success means being at peace with God and finding spiritual happiness. (Berger, 2013)Another idea regarding success focuses on a relationship. Relationships success involves spending time with friends and family and being surrounded. College education can assist in achieving some types of achievement. (Berger, 2013)However, it makes little or no difference whether the individual is successful or not in other life areas. Some professions such as medicine, law, engineering and teaching require college education. (Allen, 2011)However, some careers such as sports star, business person and movie star do not require college education. (Director, n.d.)These people are yet considered successful. As a matter of fact, achieving spiritual happiness and being surrounded by friends and family in a successful relationship has nothing to do with college education. (Berger, 2013)

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. It wasn’t until after reading this piece several times that I began encountering flaws within her reasoning. Although I agree with Bird that college is a waste of all these for some students, I also believe that Bird does not provide strong enough evidence to persuade her readers into thinking this.

Higher education is important to most people, but there are times where it does not take priority. One major issue talked about by Magdalena Kay in “A New Course” is that teachers are teaching to the state test, and not to teach students knowledge. There are two perspectives in this article: one is from Magdalena Kay, an associate professor of English at the University of Victoria, and the other is Christopher Lasch. Christopher Lasch is a historian and a social critic, who does not have an inside sight into the educational system. Lasch is only able to express the perspective of an outsider, unlike Kay who has an insight because she is in the educational system. One key perspective that this article is missing, that would add a lot to the

Growing up, I was surrounded by competition and was always pushed to have good grades and to study often. My parents always told me that going to a University would make them proud. Every time they mentioned colleges, they would always talk about “UC’s”. My parents believed that obtaining a degree from a prestigious or high ranking University would guarantee me a high paying job in a wonderful career field. Aside from getting a fantastic job, I always thought that that student’s with the highest grades or highest IQ’s were the most successful ones. In the book Outliers, Gladwell slowly began to crumble my faulty beliefs and starts to show me that having the highest IQ doesn’t necessarily mean one will be successful and that you can achieve success no matter what college one goes to.

These tests promised a way to identify kids who could go further in their education, while separating them from the kids who learned slower and would need extra help. The tests also came with the notion of academic tracking in order to steer students onto a career path deemed appropriate for them (Gershon, 2015). Attempting to measure a student’s intelligence through a standardized test is beyond absurd. All students learn at a different pace. This means that, even if a student may not know a skill at the time of the test, it doesn’t mean that they will never know it. Unfortunately, standardized testing only gives a rough estimate of what a student can do or knows. It is impossible to tell if a student will improve, or even tell if the student just guessed on all of their answers for the test. This explains how standardized tests do not measure the correct information that school’s are actually searching