Assignment #4 final draft

Couch Potato? Sure, Why Not If It Pays Well?

It is an awful thought to contemplate that after four years, or more, of hard work and devotion to studying a particular field at a university that one would still be incapable of being hired for a job in their chosen field. Unfortunately, this is a problem that many graduates have been facing in America for the past decade.

Catherine Rampell stated earlier this year, “employment rates for new college graduates have fallen sharply in the last two years, as have starting salaries for those who can find work. What’s more, only half of the jobs landed by these new graduates even require a college degree, reviving debates about whether higher education is ‘worth it’ after all.”

Many people attribute this problem with flaws within America’s education system. This makes sense; after all, if college is solely supposed to prepare you for your future career, then there must be a flaw within the system allowing for so many graduates to have unfavorable outcomes.

One flaw in America’s education system, which is pointed out by Sir Ken Robinson, is that the mundane aspect of it destroys creativity of students. Robinson stated, “The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn’t need to be reformed; it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.”

Robinson is not the only one who believes standardized education destroys creativity. Ellis Paul Torrance, a psychology professor at University of Minnesota, created the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Torrance used this test on a group of four hundred Minneapolis children to examine four areas of divergent thinking: fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration. This longitudinal study was continued by successors of Torrance and determined that after years of standardized education, people produced lower creativity scores.

Another flaw is that the system does not provide students with a chance to gain personal experiences with the topics they are learning. Although one might argue that internships, study abroad programs, and part-time jobs give students “out of classroom learning,” the fact is that students cannot simply jump on an airplane and visit the preserved maritime trading ports in Cairo after reading a chapter about ancient Egypt. However unrealistic this example is, personal experiences are a critical part of learning. Bell Hooks, an English professor at the City College in New York, is a strong advocate of incorporating experience into education. She believes that personal experience combined with studying a topic gives people a “privileged standpoint.”

These flaws, lead one to believe that America’s education system does not prepare students for the real world. Therefore, I propose a simple solution to this problem: Students should drop out of college.

Henry Louis Mencken, an American journalist, stated, “School-days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense and common decency. It does not take a reasonably bright boy long to discover that most of what is rammed into him is nonsense, and that no one really cares very much whether he learns it or not.” Mencken, along with many other American scholars, is an advocate of the “Unschooling Movement” in America. This movement started in the 1970s and encourages education through natural life experiences as opposed to traditional school curriculum.

If students dropped out of college, it would give them a chance to find themselves. No matter how cliché this statement sounds, it just might be true. Many students will discover that the boring structure of college is not the right pathway for them and that college is, indeed, destroying their creativity. In fact, the United States government should stop offering grants and scholarships for education. This will only facilitate people going into a failed system. A college degree will not guarantee you a career, so why bother attending? There are plenty of successful people who dropped out of college. If Bill Gates can do it, why can’t you?

As mentioned earlier, Bell Hook’s had a valid point about the importance of creativity. If America’s education system destroys creativity, then students should avoid this mental deterioration altogether. This is America; we pride ourselves on individuality. We are a melting pot of different cultures and ideologies. Clearly, people sharing common beliefs must be a negative thing; there is no need for agreement. In fact, our governmental system of checks and balances ensures that if no one agrees, a bad decision cannot be made.

In fact, politicians should be using simple common sense and logic to formulate political ideologies. How could the studies of the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights possibly help politicians solve the concerns of our modern government?

According to the University of Michigan, “Chinese students consistently outperform American students in academic achievement. In the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, which took place in 1995, students in Hong Kong scored fourth place in the international rankings, while the Unite States student scores were barely good enough to earn them twenty-third place." In fact, other studies show that Chinese students are allocated significantly more engaged time in public school. This is no cause for concern. If they are already outperforming us in standardized education, let’s surrender and try a different method. Surly, we will prevail.

Another reason people should avoid college is because of the colossal cost and the inevitable debt that they will accumulate. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average cost of tuition (measured in current dollars) for a four year institution was about $3,500 in the early 1980s. Now, that average is roughly $21,190. This money could be devoted to other areas to help relieve some of the problems that face our society. One example I suggest is donating money to build local skate parks in communities for the new rage of teenage boys who wear extraordinarily tight pants and long hair.

The last reason a college education is a bad idea is biological. Essentially humans only have a certain brain capacity. According to Paul Reber, a psychology professor at Northwestern University, “The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections.” Attending college and taking “general education” classes fill up valuable space in your brain that could be devoted to more useful information. It is like hard drive on your computer; sometimes you have to just get rid of and delete some information from storage. Who cares if a neurosurgeon doesn’t know his multiplication tables?

I hope, by now, I have made my point clear and you recognize the fallacies in my fabricated proposal. The ridiculous idea that formal education could hurt society is merely absurd. In actuality, a college education is essential for many successful career paths. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, the percentage of people who are unemployed and do not have a college education is much higher than the unemployment rate of those who have a degree. In October 2011, the unemployment rate for those with less than a bachelor’s degree was 39.5 percent, whereas the rate for those with at least a bachelor’s degree was a mere 4.4 percent. But, I suppose earning money is a little overrated these days.

Although many scholars have the right idea that the flaws within the educational system should be corrected, I believe that drastic educational reform is thoroughly unnecessary. It is, and always will be, a student’s own responsibility to use different tools and resources to make him qualified in the work force.

Sir Ken Robinson said that students need to be put “in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.” Students, this is your own responsibility. It is your responsibility to decide what is best for you and what kind of environment will help you achieve your goals. In fact, a standardized education is not the correct career-pathway for many people. However, it is certainly not the responsibility of the government to provide you with a system that will walk you, step-by-step, through a process to make this personal decision.

Another crucial point is that it is a student’s responsibility to major in a degree that is worthwhile. Students should be cautious and make sure the field they are preparing to enter actually has job opportunities arising. Catherine Rampell wrote in the New York Times, “Young graduates who majored in education and teaching or engineering were most likely to find a job requiring a college degree, while area studies majors — those who majored in Latin American studies, for example — and humanities majors were least likely to do so.” Essentially, the world does not need four billion astronomers.

Students, it is important to prepare for the competitive workforce ahead of you. “Take the bull by the horns,” as the cliché saying goes. Determine your strengths and passions in life and create a plan to achieve your desired career goals. Yes, there definitely are some flaws in the system, but it is your own responsibility to use the system and compensate to achieve your goals. “The world is in your hands, now use it."