Assignment #4 first 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.

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.

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?

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. Who cares if a doctor 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.

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.

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.

11/8/11

The general argument made by Dale Stephens in his work, "The Case Against College," is that more high school students should consider exploring other options besides college. More specifically, he argues that college leads to massive debt and does not prepare students for the real world because it destroys their creativity. In conclusion, Stephens believes that people can be successful without going to college.

In my view, Stevens is correct that there is not one single pathway to success in one's career. More specifically, I believe that people can have a successful career without ever attending college. For example, one might choose to start his own business or brand. Although Stevens might object that college could improve one's creativity, I maintain that college can challenge students to think and learn in new ways. Therefore, I conclude, that college can be beneficial, but not guarantee success in one's career.

"The Case Against College"

I thought this was an interesting article because it is an extremely relivant topic to all of us since we are all attending college with the hope that it will improve our career opportunities in the future. The article made some interesting points, which made me question and remember things I have heard about getting a college degree. Today, almost everyone attends college after high school, even if they have no direction or desire for a particular degree. In fact, this is so true that in most fields you cannot even get a good career with just a bachelor's degree. This defiantly makes you question the purpose and necessity of attending college. While I was reading this article I was thinking about all the successful people I have learned about who dropped out of college to follow their passions in life. One example of this is Bill Gates. I think an interesting point made in the article was about how going to college limits people's freedoms because after college people must immediately start working because they have so much debt from loans they took out in order to pay for their education. I think this is an unfair argument. Although it is true that many people graduate and must start paying back massive amounts of debt, if a person did not go to college, he or she would also have to start working immediately. Things like food, rent, and all other living expenses aren't exactly free. In addition, a college degree makes a person qualified for a wider variety of jobs. I don't think that having a college degree necessarily guarantees a financially successful future, but I do think it helps.

Essentialism

According to dictionary.com, essentialism is a noun for "a doctrine that certain traditional concepts, ideals, and skills are essential to society and should be taught methodically to all students, regardless of individual ability." Essentialism is a main topic covered in Bell Hook's writing. Hooks talks about how experience is important to teaching, but knowledge is also essential. One of my favorite quotations from this piece is, "I might ask students to ponder what we want to make happen in the class, to name what we hope to know, what might be most useful. I ask them what standpoint might, just for today, be a mountaintop, such that if we climb it, we will be able to see farther. Sometimes that standpoint is a personal experience. Then there are times when personal experience keeps us from reaching the mountaintop and so we let it go because the weight is too heavy." This quotation is special because it summarizes Hook's main point that knowledge should be gained through education and personal experience, in a metaphorical way.

"How to Do a Close Reading" response

I thought it was interesting how this article gave you the definition of a close reading and then gave you a short passage to read. By breaking down the parts of the passage, the article helps the reader realize what things he should be looking out for while reading. For example, the article describes many different literary devises that are used in the passage: metaphor (spider's web becomes a universe), personification (the spider has human qualities: "owner," "fingering her guidelines"), and diction (of the western setting- "gulch," "arroyo," "buffalo grass.") Then the article tells the reader to ask questions about the patterns in the passage. I think this is a very helpful tool in looking at small details in depth and coming to a conculusion about what the passage as a whole means (inductive reasoning). Then, the article tells you one interperatation of the passage: "Eiseley is suggesting that our universie is also finite, that our ideas are circumscribed, and that beyond the limits of our universe there might be phenomena as fully beyond our ken." This is a pretty detailed conclusion that shows the reader where each part of it came from. For example, the article shows how the word "circumscribed" is used in the passage: "The spider was circumscribed by spider ideas." This shows the reader the meaning of the connection between our ideas and the spider's ideas.

"China's Rise isn't our Demise"

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/opinion/chinas-rise-isnt-our-demise.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

I read this article, by Vice President Joe Biden, about the growing concern for China becoming a more major world power and its negative impact on the United States. In the article, Biden clearly tries to discredit all reasons why citizens should be concerned about China's increasing power. He mostly discredits it because of economics reasons. Mainly that the United States is not really in debt financially to China. He states, "China holds just 8 percent of [the United states'] outstanding Treasury securities." Another important claim he makes is that the United States has a competitive edge over China with regards to the labor force's skills. He states, "In the 20th century, we measured a nation’s wealth primarily by its natural resources, its land mass, its population and its army. In the 21st century, the true wealth of a nation is found in the creative minds of its people and their ability to innovate." He continues to remark about the United State's educational system to be far superior to China's. I thought this was an interesting remark; especially because in class we have been focusing on educational reform. Sir Ken Robinson's video ("Changing Education Paradigms") gave a strong argument that the United State's educational system is very outdated and not suited for the current economy. Robinson also strongly argued that our current education system does not develop these "creative minds" that Biden suggests. This is interesting because Biden is saying almost the complete opposite in his article. Biden is saying how the United State's education is what is helping us keep up and stay a world power over upcoming powerful countries.

"The American Scholar" #2

One interesting paragraph I found in this section of "The American Scholar" is the one that begins with, "These being his functions, it becomes him to feel all confidence in himself..." I thought this paragraph was interesting because it talked about the way mankind is so similar and that one can relate to generations past. Emerson sates, "The world at any moment is the merest appearance. Some great decorum, some fetish of a government, some ephemeral trade, or war, or man..." This is saying that even though events that are currently happening seem like new news, they may not need so much attention because it is just a spec of history in the long run. Furthermore, he states, "He then learns, that in going down into the secrets of his own mind, he has descended into the secrets of all minds. He learns that he who has mastered any law in his private thoughts, is master to that extent in all men whose language he speaks, ad of all into whose language his own can be translated." Essentially, Emerson is stating that once a scholar has mastered learning from within, he can find truths about all of mankind, or as Emerson calls it "universal truth." Later in the passage, Emerson states, "Brave; for fear is a thing, which a scholar by his very function puts behind him. Fear always springs from ignorance. It is a shame to him if his tranquility, amid dangerous times, arise from the presumption, that, like children and women, his is a protected class." This comment would probably strike the attention of many 21st century scholars because it suggests that women are not part of this "protected class" and are fearsome and ignorant. The word choice would probably be different if a modern day Emerson wrote this because of the feminist movement becoming more prevalent in literature.