Analysis Of Walter Kirn's Article 'Class Dismissed'

In the first place, high school courses are too lenient compared to a college or job. While in high school, it’s easy to breeze through the work without too much struggle or labor. Students are even given several opportunities if a deadline is missed or if extra credit is needed. The result of these actions can cause a difficult transition into the “real-world” where they will be held accountable and expected to finish a job or turn a piece of work in on time. Also, employers will require the job to be done with more than just minimum effort or halfway finished.

In the article "Why Focusing Too Narrowly in College Could Backfire," writer Peter Cappelli argues that while specializing in post-secondary school is beneficial and could possibly lead to a future career that is currently trending, parents and students should look into broadening their skills by taking courses that widen their communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. This may enable them to work where there are prevailing industries.

The students are encouraged to pick a career that will give them the greatest financial and personal rewards. It does not matter the courses that are taken, so long as that the courses taken are necessary for the chosen career. Differing from theory 1, the grades are not viewed as the most important factor in a college education; they are merely used as positive and negative reinforcement. As a result, the students only learn what they need to succeed and have no incentive to learn anything else, as it will not benefit them. To the believers of theory 2, and one of the things that make this theory unique, is the belief that education is simply about growth, not about who attends the best college or has the best

More often than not, young students are taught to believe that they must go to a prestigious university to obtain a Bachelor’s degree or higher in order to have a fulfilling and satisfying career. This may hold true for some people, but others do not need to follow this same path. For students who choose a career that isn’t considered conventional or isn’t high in pay, they tend to be looked down upon which pressures them into choosing career paths that they do not have a passion for, or the skill set to actually accomplish which makes college a waste of time and money. While everyone should be encouraged to get an education beyond high school, people should be encouraged to get the education that is relevant and proper for them to make sure they are getting their money’s worth.

Class after class, day after day, I often sense a massive amount of repetition with school. Each lesson feels more like a chore than an actual learning experience. That’s the way school has always been though, like a job. It is hard to note that there is any sort of progress being made in terms of the everyday learning experience. In his essay, Against School, educator John Taylor Gatto claims that the everyday boredom of school is truly meant to demoralize and dumb down students, destroying individuality and the ability to create independent and critical thinkers. Gatto explains how children are not really growing up, they are only getting older, indicating that public schools exist only to “cripple our kids.” By using his experience in the classroom, Gatto creates an element of pathos and develops a structure which almost fools readers into inferencing what his opinion truly is. Gatto ultimately, through these rhetorical devices, wants to ignite thoughts about what the true purpose of school is, displaying the modern day public school education as a factory to create a mindless population of students.

We should be aware of how fortunate we are to be in an environment where we can gain knowledge and demonstrate performance while challenging ourselves. Eager to learn, I completed two science courses in the first year of high school. Then, continuing to strive for academic excellence, I enrolled in honors and advanced placement courses, as well as college classes. Ultimately, attending high school teaches the lesson that education is beyond grades; it is about developing character, and

After high school, many students make the decision on attending college based off of the things their parents/ teachers may have taught them when they were young. For example, many students further their education because throughout their lifetime they’re told they have to. In school we’re taught that in order for us to receive good jobs, and make a decent amount of money we have to have a college degree. Some are even taught that they must go beyond the undergrad and receive their masters, and doctorate degrees if they really want to be known as something in this world. While others go because it would make their parents proud, or to fulfill the legacy of being a first generation college student in their families. While this may be the case majority of the time, if you’re like me you go because

Great emphasis is placed on obtaining a a degree from a higher university. When you go to apply for jobs nowadays, you need an associates or a bachelors just to get your foot in the door unlike how the job world once was years ago. As a student currently enrolled at a traditional 4 year university, I knew that this was where I needed to be in High school in order have the fighting opportunity in my dream career. A lot of students are told that in order to receive a fat check in their career, you need a college degree, so then they push students in high school to take the SAT and ACT, and to focus maintaining a high GPA so that the door to a seat at a top university can be filled by them. With that being said, I’ve come to the realization that not everyone is set-up to have the opportunity to achieve these goals.

High school encourages students to stay on task and focus on their future. However, there are some students who simply just don’t care about their education and therefore aren’t prepared for college (Leonhardt). College isn't meant for everyone, but there are always substitutes such as community college. Students are able to take their time and “will have the opportunity to explore interests that [they] might not have otherwise pursued” (“The Pros and Cons Of Community Colleges”). High school graduates are able to get back on track and start thinking about passing their classes instead of slacking off in community college.

All high schoolers face the same daunting problem. What they are going to do with their lives. A choice made as an 18 year old, determines future paths for the rest of their lives. Recently the subject of going to college and getting a four year degree has become very controversial. HIgh school students are choosing other alternatives, such as trade school, community college, or even not getting any further education at all. However even with many other options, going to college and getting a bachelor's degree is valuable for everyone.

Basic education is essential to finding a job, whether it is one that requires a degree or not. I partially disagree with the statement Graff makes about encouraging students to take on intellectual identities in subjects that interests them, instead of the ones that the education system wants them to know about. This is because, in secondary education, we are being prepared for adulthood. You can take the information you were given and use it to achieve the goals you had thought or dreamed about throughout high school. Instead of struggling to learn the primary material all at once while finding a job, you already have that knowledge by finishing school. Not only does high school prepare you for life by giving you basic education, it also gives you the chance to develop or search new interests you may not be aware of. Through elective classes, you can explore different subjects that could turn into a potential major. Not all schools offer this, but most of them do. If they do, it is something to always take advantage of. If not, you could always get volunteer hours to build up your resume for jobs or if you do have the intention on going to college and expand your mind. It is better to volunteer during high school because it shows that you have a strong work ethic and are determined to succeed in and serious about what you want to do. For me, the competitive environment that high school belongs to can be a good thing considering the fact that it

By the time September rolled around students have forgotten what classes they registered for. My school liked to move past things as quickly as possible. To elaborate, each student would receive a book with every class the high school had to offer, regardless of grade and prerequisites. Then, each student had to return a specific form with all the classes they would take within a week of attaining the book of courses. Knowing which class to take and how it would affect your next four years was a shared mystery to all the incoming freshman. While a flowchart detailing how the mathematics classes lead into each other was provided, all other classes looked as if they would never relate to one another. What the school failed to express to us is that once a student is put into a class, there is no switching out or dropping the class if the class proves too challenging or too easy, the class you take the following year has already been determined, and that if you want to try something new, you had better take the prerequisite early. As Rose wrote, “school can be a tremendously disorienting place” (127), and the absence of communication between students and the rest of the school verifies this disorientation. The illusion that students have a choice in how their education grows is perpetuated by a system that thinks it knows best.

After high school, a choice that many students have to make is whether to go to college or not. There are many factors that go into one’s decision. There are pros and cons to going to college and also there are pros and cons for not going to college. But the decision that will give someone the better opportunity to have a more successful life is to go to college. The money that one will earn after getting a college degree will be more than the money a person will make without getting a college degree. As our society has continued to evolve, education has become the optimal route to professional success: pursuing a degree is the best way to receive training, to gain expertise in a given field, and even to guide you and help you make choices

It is often said, that high school, prepares a student for college. For certain, a student is being prepared, but only for what the world has to offer, and that is making choices on what to pursue. Certainly, most people would concur with this statement. But, the fact to consider is, that high school does not prepare a student for the major difference in the challenge.

Yet, the education does not stop at middle school, for high school really puts all the basic skills from elementary and middle school to work as the assignments and the exams become more challenging. We do not only learn about reading, writing, history, and math, we learn about the people around us as we associate with different personalities, and as we see what we have grown up to be and what we want to be later in life. Accordingly, the high school years are a time when teachers emphasize the importance of graduating and attending college in order to have a “succesful future.”