How Not To Get Into College By Alfie Kohn Analysis

In his article “College Students Need to Toughen Up, Quit Their Grade Whining”, Robert Schlesingner addresses the emerging issue of grade inflation, and more specifically, the greater sense of entitlement that seems to prevail in the modern scholastic realm. Mr. Schlesingner begins his address by presenting his background and what standards and expectations were common during his time through both lower-level education and college. During his time [time in what?], a grade of C represented “adequate” or average work, B correlated with “an above average job”, and obtaining an A required “spectacular” performance by the student. [more concise] However, as cited by Mr. Schlesingner, an investigation by the University of California-Irvine seems to indicate that the values of each letter grade has changed, at least in the mind of the modern student with more students now believing that A’s and B’s should be more easily obtained and that the amount of effort put into a task should be considered when grading. Next, Mr. Schlesingner presents his opinions on this topic of grade inflation and the proper influence of student effort on grade. To conclude,

As both the standards of school work and stress levels of student’s rise, the American school system remains unaltered, unchanged, and unaffected for over a hundred years. School is an institution that can serve as a massive gate in life granting you access to a job, stability, and a future or it can become a giant pillar in the way of everything you wish to achieve. While we recognize that a student’s own motivation, study habits, and will to learn, are cardinal in any schooling system, we must also understand the issues with an institution that is fundamentally unsound from the ground up. In today’s world, students are shoved with the hands of docility, and amenability as they render themselves in a system that has inadvertently failed them, by neglecting to celebrate their differences, and varying learning patterns. Conformity in the education system has shown to damage the personalization and

In a May 2003 persuasive article published by USA Today titled “College isn’t for Everyone”, the author W.J. Reeves states “about 15 million people in America are enrolled in college.” This is a staggering amount considering the fact that many people are in college for all the wrong reasons. About half of the Americans enrolled in college are there because they feel they owe it to their families. Only a small number of Americans in college actually feel it is necessary for successful lives. In this article, Reeves recollects on his experiences as a college English professor at an institution in New York. He speaks of how he believes that many students truly do not want to be in college. You can tell this by his stories of tardiness,

Students today undergo constant pressure for perfection, going through extreme efforts to meet this expectation. Alexandra Robbins, an investigative journalist and author of The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, views modern educational culture as a danger to students because it advocates productivity over learning. On the other hand, Jay Mathews of the Washington Post believes that students today are more apathetic than stressed. Robbins perception of today’s schools is more accurate than Mathews’, for students cheat to appear smarter, burden themselves with grueling schedules to impress colleges, and develop mental disorders as a result.

Schools and college professors, who give you a good grade for excellent productivity on assignments, allow students to perform poorly, but still benefit relative to a person with an A. Two articles that observe grade inflation, find the rising problems of grade inflation, and finding solutions for grade inflation. Stuart Rojstaczer, an author from Grade Inflation Gone Wild, is a professor of geophysics at Duke university, and created gradeinflation.com in regards for his concern about grade inflation. On the other hand, Phil Primack is a journalist and teacher at Tufts University, and published in the “Boston Globe” Doesn’t Anybody Get a C Anymore? While college students, who work with little effort and still attain easy A’s by working poorly on assignments and exams, Primack and Rojstaczer, develop a firm connection towards grade inflation and the solution that can regain control over real education.

Despite what the current belief about higher education might convey, not everyone has to attend college. Larry Cuban attests to the rendering mantra of everyone needs to go to college in his blog post, “Why Everyone Shouldn't Go To College”, reposted by The Washington Post. Surely Cuban does not agree with common and popular belief that everyone needs to attend college in order to be successful in life. Cuban leaves the reader with the uncertain questions of, what could they do instead going to college, will they make a stable living, does higher education mean they’ll not be as successful as a person who doesn’t? Cuban does not address the different options that a person can attend other than college or the benefits of actually attending college.

Being admitted into college is a difficult process, one that requires students to be diligent in their studies, engage in a number of extracurricular activities, and overcome the everyday pressures and challenges that high-schoolers face across the country. Admittedly, not everyone in the United States is born with the same opportunities as socioeconomic factors as well as historic injustices have contributed to a society in which some people are far more likely to achieve upward mobility – of which, obtaining a college degree is a necessary part – than others. While there is need to rectify this reality,

Education has always been an important part of our sustainable society in which everyone plays a role. The purpose of the education system is to provide a way for students to learn and gain knowledge. The current education system focuses more on evaluations rather than teaching, which creates a stressful and unpleasant high school experience. Alfie Kohn’s essay, How Not to Get into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation describes the difficulties and purposeless school practices students face when preparing themselves for life beyond high school.

According to one study, over 7,000 American students drop out of high school each day; that equals about 1.2 million students every year! (“11 Facts,” n.d., p. 1). Mike Rose, the author of “I Just Wanna Be Average” was almost included in this statistic. Luckily, Rose was “saved” by one of his teachers, who stoked his love for learning. In his story, Mike Rose effectively addresses the issues with public education by sharing his anecdote about taking vocational classes and providing “several reasons for the ‘failure’ of students who go through high school belligerent, fearful, stoned, frustrated, or just plain bored” (1989, p. 1). Rose’s purpose for writing “I Just Wanna Be Average” is to inform the general public of the current education system and how it needs to change. Through a relaxed, yet passionate tone, Rose showed that teachers need to be more energetic and engaging with their students. Because schools are unengaging and boring, student dropouts are occurring-- and for the same reasons today as they were thirty years ago. A study that was released in 2005

Intrinsic value defines itself to be a set of ethics that is dependent upon an individual’s Morals. The intrinsic value of anything is often given an underlying inherent value. Extrinsic is the opposite; which defines itself to have value that is not intrinsic. Alfie Kohn’s essay “How not to get into College”, Hero Jones’s poem “Somnambulist, and the episode “Rosebud” from the television show, The Simpsons, reveals a deeper meaning of how an individual’s happiness and motivation in life can be accomplished intrinsically and not extrinsically. It also indicates the concept that an individual’s inner happiness is geared towards immediate and short-term goals.

Kurt Wiesenfeld's article, "Making the Grade," presents the social issue of grades. The author explores the extent of this problem by examining the social environment in which these students were raised. Wiesenfeld also addresses the changing attitude towards what a grade represents and the true value of a grade. The author effectively uses several writing strategies to engage the reader, influence the audience and illustrate how much thought he has given this issue. The essay is organized by a logical progression from thesis to individual claims and the author provides real-world examples for the issues. With those real-world examples, Wiesenfeld explains how serious the problem can become and demonstrates why the issue should be addressed.

In today’s society, there is a stigma that one needs a college education to be successful. Due to these overwhelming societal pressures, college students encounter numerous challenges. Two authors who explore these challenges are William Zinsser in his article “College Pressures” and Eric Greiten in his book “The Heart and the Fist”. Both Zinsser and Greitens consider the everyday struggles that college students face. While discussing the same topics, the authors use different writing styles and techniques to illustrate the same idea.

It is a well known fact but there are many people including counselors, parents, teachers, and friends who resist saying it out loud for fear it will sound like discouragement and negativity: college is definitely not for everyone. The pressure on high schools students, especially those that excel, to attend a college or university is enormous. And in the case of a bright, industrious and motivated high school student, attending a college or university is an obvious career choice. For those students, it's only a matter of what university to attend, whether one's SAT score is high enough, and the availability of the money. Then there are the millions of high school students who are not really personally motivated but are being pressured by their counselors, teachers and parents should they attend college if they really don't care? This paper examines those issues.

Rojstaczer argues the fact that higher grades are becoming to be very common within college students. He strongly believes schools should not be handing out easy A’s to those who do not work hard for them. Many students around the nation have received these grades without deserving them. According to Stuart Rojstaczer students are in fact spending less time studying and more time partying and consuming alcohol. Rojstaczer also goes by saying “If we continue along with this path, we’ll end up with a generation of poorly educated college graduates” These students go into class knowing if they show up and give minimal effort they will walk out with a B+ or higher. Students merely mimick motions and steps, instead of understanding the deeper meaning and

In “The Robesonian” newspaper for September 21, 2016 Kristen Blair describes the struggle and fear that many high school students have when it comes time to apply for college. She argues that due to high school students juggling to complete their SAT’s, ACT’s and their admissions into college leads to more weight on their shoulders. However, Blair also reports that the “Turning the Tide” report created by Harvard University seeks to alleviate some of the pressure students have when applying for their future college, inspire high school students to care for others and to give equal opportunity to economically dis-advantaged students.