In the text, Excellent Sheep, the author William Deresiewicz states that college is a time and space set up to help you to think. I agree with Deresiewicz’s statement that college should help us in “developing the habit of skepticism and the capacity to put it into practice.” However, this is not always easy because college is a period in which students face multiple challenges where they form their own individual sense of self. Students often find “the soul torn apart in a painful condition, as long as it prefers the eternal because of its truth, but does not discard the temporal because of familiarity.” (Augustine, Confessions). Students tend to remain in positions where they are comfortable and do not want to participate in challenging tasks; they are inscribed with ways of thinking and feeling based on prior teachings at home and in school. This leads them to converse with people that have a similar thinking style and approach to life due to familiarity. Deresiewicz talks about Edmundson and how one of his teachers used the same method as Socrates, the teacher of Plato, and echoed his opinions back to him, which forced him to deconstruct and reconstruct his own words. This created an unfamiliar and uncomfortable environment where he was taught “not what to think, but how.” Deresiewicz encourages the same approach to be used for college students to provide the basics of how to think. Although this seems like a simplistic approach, one thing Deresiewicz fails to point
The “wolves, sheep, and sheepdog” analogy in the American Sniper scene is a good expression of the warrior ethos because it closely resembles the youth warrior archetype and contains a few principles of the Just War Doctrine as well as gives an implication on what a warrior might value and protect when he finds himself in any kind of conflict in his life. However, the warrior ethos can also differ throughout different cultures in the world, so whether or not this analogy is a good expression entirely depends on each individual and how they would perceive the warrior ethos.
Throughout the essay, Charles Murray stresses the idea that college is the wonderland of finding oneself and to find the career that one would want to follow for the rest of their lives. “College is seen as the open sesame to a good job and a desirable way for adolescents to transition to adulthood. Neither reason is as persuasive as it first appears.” Murray, C (2008) Practically spoken, this is not normally the case. College is a fair amount of work, much more work than one would normally acquire through any course of a high school or secondary school setting. In no way saying that the average student cannot meet the requirement and achieve success over the amounted work, it would also be ridiculous to expect every graduate to pursue going into higher education with the expansion of work that will be given.
More people than ever before are attending college due to the endless opportunities that it provides. Louis Menand, a college professor and the author of “Live and Learn: Why We Have College,” explains the meaning of college through three theories that have been developed. Theory 1 supports the idea of the sorting-out process that separates the highly intelligent from the less intelligent. Menand’s second theory explains that college provides opportunities for developmental growth, personal growth, and teaches individuals about the world around us. These are valuable lessons that will not be learned anywhere else. Theory three supports the idea of people attending college to specialize in a specific vocation. I
What we get out of the college experience, we use in our day to day lives. Even the things we think aren’t important or useful end up becoming helpful. The material we learn in college is fundamental when it comes jobs and life in general. We are taught to make choices. We are taught how the real world works, and how to turn our education into our way of life. “…the really significant education in thinking that we’re supposed to get in a place like this isn’t really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about.” (Wallace 199).
Jaschik explains in his article, “Academically Adrift” written in 2011, the decline of learning in college and the minimal amount of expectations placed on students. The article suggests that a survey was taken amongst college students that tested their accuracy on levels of analysis and critical thinking; the results were poor. The goal of college is to improve your academic skills on a higher level. The article hints that most students take courses that fulfill the academic requirements, but are not grasping the scholarly information being presented. Jaschik uses the art of persuasion, scholarly data, and assertive emotion to persuade his audience that college fails to fulfill its primary purpose as the title suggests.
This can be a scary and exciting time in a young person’s life when they must step out on their own for the first time. It can be a struggle to meet new people and obtain new knowledge. College can be a new opportunity to change who we are and learn information that will hopefully contribute to our future career. God has given us this opportunity and there is more to going to college besides obtaining a degree in hopes to earn a better living. Hauerwas goes on to explain that while the desire for a better education and a decent job are important, this should not be
Colombo explains that “Beginning college can be disconcerting experience” (Colombo, p.1). That there will be more peer pressure from your peers and an increase expectations that you have never faced during your high
College is a chance to be free and is a bridge between the real world and school. I’m an adult and expected to behave as such; I make my own choices where I have to decide what is important to me. I have an opportunity to learn how the world works, to explore the limitless possibilities and a chance to admire how vast knowledge can be. College will change my life in the way that I can develop life skills outside academics, to be fully
In the text, Excellent Sheep the author William Deresiewicz states that college is a time and space set up to help you to think. I do agree with Deresiewicz’s statement, that college should help us in “developing the habit of skepticism and the capacity to put it into practice” Although it isn’t always that easy because college is a period in which students face many challenges where they form their own individual self. Students often find “the soul torn apart in a painful condition, as long as it prefers the eternal because of its truth but does not discard the temporal because of familiarity.” (Augustine, Confessions). This is due to the challenge that students “don’t arrive in college a blank state,” based on past teachings they are inscribed
College students get to analyze other subjects that they may have not shown an interest in before; that will help them construct their career. Getting the necessary skills students need, will assure their success on anything they choose to do. “It is the education which gives a man a clear conscious view of his own opinions and judgments, a truth in developing them, and a force in urging them” (Newman, 54). Education gives students a better understanding their own opinions, and judgments; it creates anxiousness in developing them, a fluency in expressing them, and a power in urging them.
Therefore, students actually have chances to develop their thoughts on people who are different from themselves and to learn how to respect. Therefore, colleges also serve as a buffering place that provides additional life lessons to its student bodies.
College is seen as a requirement for a stable life. From an early age, we are taught that college is an essential step in life. Yet is college all that it is pumped up to be? Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill along with Charles Murray gives us a good look into the benefits and drawbacks of going to college and take us on a journey of understanding that college may be a hindrance for some rather than an intelligent move.
Lip once he began taking college course his old neighborhood buddies had not been as appealing because for the first time in his life he was on the outside looking in. College creates and reinforces separation (in/out groups) and as you develop with like minded others the experience can be detrimental or highly positive. In groups can lead to negative societal impacts even if the purpose is thought to be
Going to college allows for many opportunities to open up in life. Society is changing at a very rapid rate. College is a very difficult time for nearly everyone, as Charles Murray who published an article on should the Obama Generation Drop out also states that “A large majority of young people do not have the intellectual ability to do genuine college-level work” (95). Attending college is not for everyone, but It can teach you to learn how to become independent, develop discipline, evolve new life skills, and learn how to balance a social life versus student life. The experiences you obtain and gain from attending college can lead you to learn how to live your life within the college environment in a way that creates harmony with who you are. It is a time of trial and error until you find what works for you. Eventually harmony is found by choosing a major that coincides in a positive way with the person you are. Once this is found, you will be able to establish a system of studying and learning that works for how your mind works. It is natural that your life will be in disharmony when the circumstances in your life change dramatically, such as when you go to college, but your life should eventually return to being less stressful. During your college journey, you will make many friends. Many friendships that you make in college
In addition to the social aspects, college teaches how to develop independent thinking. It also “exposes future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them, whatever careers they end up choosing” (Menand, 3). However, most students today perceive college fundamentally as a party scene and various forms of entertainment instead of focusing on school work. They have forgotten about the academic freedom provided by receiving a proper college education.