Analysis Of The Documentary Declining By Degrees

People attend college or university for several reasons, including exploring hundreds of career opportunities, pursuing their passions, learning critical thinking skills, and achieving their maximum potential. According to Dr. Richard Vedder’s, “For Many, College Isn’t Worth It”, attending college or university is not worth the time, effort, or money – Dr. Richard Vedder wants to solely focus resources on private universities and institutions. Vedder describes how many graduates with Bachelor’s degrees do not even obtain jobs in their specific field and how they will never start a career in their area of academic study. In his article, Richard Vedder describes how there should be more stringent standards placed on college undergraduates; he believes that public universities are not necessary and only private, more elite universities should remain operational. I personally believe that obtaining a college degree from an accredited university is worth the risk and the money, not only for one’s self but for society as a whole. Instead of shutting down undergraduate universities, we should consider raising collegiate admission standards throughout the nation.

Andrew Simmons published his article for The Atlantic, “The Danger of Telling Poor Kids that College is the Key to Social Mobility” on January 16, 2014, which raises his concerns that higher education is only being promoted as an opportunity to increase their economic status, when it should be an opportunity to experience an education (Simmons). Through the use of students such as Isabella, Simmons disagrees with the way students now look at higher education and blames the educators through the students’ lives for this view. Instead, Simmons views education as an intellectual opportunity rather than a way to elevate ones economic class which is all people see when they see “higher education.” He believes that education, ambition and work ethic is how you have a satisfying life, not with how much you make. He makes the point that when economics becomes the main goal of education it’s all children begin to think about and they might not pursue something that they are truly passionate about or what they want to learn about, which then does not create an intellectually awakening experience (Simmons).

A look back at the institution of education over the past 20 years will reveal that once upon a time a bachelor’s degree was long since considered the marker of ultimate success, the highest level of achievement that one could make in their lives. In those days, if for some reason you failed to march across the stage on graduation day after an epic, four-year stretch of high tuition, long nights studying, and unrelenting professors that found great joy in riding your back, then you had indeed failed at life.

America’s education system is one of the most respectable, reputable and sought after commodities in our society, but it is also the most overcrowded, discriminatory, and controversial system ever established. Most people yearn for a higher education because it 's what 's expected in this society in order to get ahead. It means a better job, more money, power, prestige and a sense of entitlement. But this system has let down the children that are supposed to benefit from it. Education discriminates against minorities, and poorer class students are not expected nor encouraged to attain a higher education. The education system is set up to ensure that every child get a basic

“In some cases, campuswide averages have crept up from a C just 10 years to B-plus today” (411). In Brent Staples essay “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s” he makes many issues and arguments on the subject. Many college level institutions are faced with demanding consumers and competition from other universities over grade issues. The colleges have simply started just handing out more and more A’s to their students to better their satisfaction. This action taken by the colleges is having many repercussions on grade inflation and making the value of degrees meaningless worldwide. With this alarming statistic about the campus wide averages and the universities resorting to giving the consumers what they want is creating a terrible

America’s education system has been in a state of distress for the past decade, but garnished headlines recently as the student loan debt crisis reached over a trillion dollars. In conjunction with that, tuition is no longer the only obstacle a student faces when considering their future. As generations come and go, universities have slowly, but surely, been angling their education in a way to favor profit over knowledge. Because of the new direction higher education models are taking, Magdalena Kay questions her readers, “is there a problem with students, with teachers, with administrators, or maybe

The article of “ In the Basement of the Ivory Tower” really remind me to considered plenty of things that I have never been thinking about before. In my mind, pursuing and accomplishing a higher level of education is always good for people. However, the view that the Professor X raised is a very sharp phenomenon buy it does exists in our society. In the article he questioned whether it is necessary for everyone to get higher education or not. It seems that as far as Professor X concerned, some of those students who are just waste of time and money by taking college education. He exposed that many colleges nowadays are bend to financial profits rather than to provide a high quality education. What is more, some of the students are not that well prepared for their college study and many of them cannot pass his class.

In this documentary students are depicted as not having a chance to move onto higher education because of their background. Faculty and staff in

​"Education is the movement from darkness to light". In The Closing Of The American Mind, by Allan Bloom, Bloom argues that higher education has been drastically modified over the years and has ruined the psyche of today 's students. Once upon a time Americans dreamed of a better and brighter future, one that could transport them into a perfect utopia of societal bliss. Higher Education was the enthralling stepping stone for happiness. It inspired students to find their voice, while drawing from the past. It was a place where they could make mistakes and change their major once or twice. Today, higher education has become more about the career path and how it is more necessary than before. Higher education is no longer an adventure that allows the student to embark upon a journey of discovery and self-expression as it once was. This is due to the vigorous demands of the general society and how students today are required to maintain focus on a career that is valuable and not adventurous. Basically, we have lost touch with what makes this country so great; the impossible becoming reality. The creativity is gone. The belief that our imagination can grant us happiness if we work hard enough and believe is nonexistent. Higher education has separated the extraordinary and left us with dedicated, intelligent drones working towards the path that pays the most and will always have job security.

Stephanie Soechtig, is an award-winning film-maker, and director and producer of the nonfiction documentary Fed Up. She began producing documentaries for network news programs such as Primetime Live and 20/20, while also working for Good Morning America during the 2000 presidential elections and the O’Reilly Factor. In 2008, Soechtig partnered with Michael and Michelle Walrath to start Atlas Films, which provided inspiration and education to consumers on the most controversial topics. So far, Soechtig has been awarded the “Best Documentary Feature” for Tapped (2009), “People’s Choice Award” for Under the Gun (2016), and Fortune Magazine named Soechtig as being one of the “Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink” (Biography). In 2014, Soechtig’s “Grand Jury Prize” nominated film Fed Up (2014), narrated by TV Journalist Katie Couric, was created in hopes of unveiling the hidden secrets of the food industry by using statistical analysis and research expert’s testimonies to inform viewers of the direct impact that the food industry has on the health of our nation’s most vulnerable population—children. Soechtig and Couric present the argument that the roles of our government along with the interests and processing methods of food industries are ultimately responsible for the increasing rates of childhood obesity in the United States.

Rhoades, G. (2014). The Higher Education We Choose, Collectively: Reembodying and Repoliticizing Choice. Journal Of Higher Education, 85(6), 917-930.

Higher Learning is a book made into a film which carries deep social and cultural issues that has plagued America since the time of its establishment. In this book, the author John Singleton sheds light on the never ending issues of education, racist, sexual abuse; social class, gender, and sexual orientation are faced head on. As a collection of freshman college students from all different walks of life they all come as one at Columbus University having to clash with stereotypes and prejudice in a new atmosphere. For illustration in the book, a ordinary white teenager from Idaho has a culture shock at his new school joins a Nazi bunch of criminals because they are the first friends he made,

The Hunting Ground is an expose on sexual assaults complaints in colleges in the United States and attempts by these learning institutions to silence. The documentary, which was first released in January 2015 at the Sundance Film, captures a number of sexual assault survivors from various campuses as they narrate their gruesome experiences at the hands of rapist and their efforts to pursue their education in tranquility whilst finding justice. At the heart of the documentary’s premise is that campuses have become happy hunting grounds for potential rapists and that there are many unsuspecting students who are falling prey to sexual predators. Most of the sexual predators are members of fraternities and are individuals who victims know very well from classes or night parties. The documentary also argues that university administrations are more worried about lowering reported incidences of sexual assault than they are about helping rape victims find justice and recover from trauma.

Today colleges are growing more and more necessary for attaining a solid path towards a successful career, yet the rapidly increasing cost of tuition is driving students away from their dream of attending college, due to the preposterous amount of money that is now being demanded by colleges across the nation and world as a whole. It is sad to see students being turned away from a successful future due to the money-hungry nature of the universities that dot the globe. More and more impossible it is becoming to have a “rags-to-riches” scenario that used to highlight the American Dream, as if a student doesn’t have the riches to afford a higher education and the tuition that is drug upon its coattails, then our society is doomed to be clothed in rags forever, unless major changes are brought about to restructure and end the indefatigable growth of tuition rates across the board.

Adrienne Rich writes of the importance of claiming or receiving an education, a dilemma faced in most schools and curriculums across the world. Rich says that both students and professors are a part of the problem, “but ultimately those two parts are indivisible,” (1). Rich points out the problems with institutionalized education and says that “if university education means anything beyond the processing of human beings into expected roles, through credit hours, tests, and grades, … it implies an ethical and intellectual