In The Basement Of Ivory Tower, By Professor X

In her essay “The Value of a College Degree,” Kathrine Porter attempts to persuade the audience of the benefits of having a “higher education,” while on the other hand, the author of “The Case against College,” Linda Lee says from her experience college is not for everyone. Both Lee and Porter have great arguments, but Lee’s argument that college is not for everyone is slightly more compelling.

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.

In "College Isn 't for Everyone," W.J. Reeves argues that colleges have become too easy to enter and students show a lack of drive to succeed once enrolled in college. Reeves believes colleges should raise expectations when accepting students into their schools, and the students admitted continue to demonstrate responsibility during the years spent at school. He points out colleges have lowered the bar when it comes to admissions due to the fact that a college cannot exist without a funding source. Reeves argues against unwilling matriculations by drawing your attention to the fact those students are not ready for college. Reeves is specific on the areas where students are slacking most in. He cites another professor 's experience with a student where the student informed the professor of a very elaborate excuse as to why they had not come to class. He

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

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.

The debate on whether or not students should attend college after achieving a high school degree is one that many would like to consider two-sided; Debra Humphreys says that “going to college is clearly better than not going,” but Claire Potter mentions the opposite side, quoting an unnamed professor who says that “the vast majority of people who end up in our community college system don’t belong in college at all.” I would argue that the issue is not two-sided, and that there are more complexities to the issue than are always printed in media; to say that all college students should go to college or that all should not attempt to place a variety of different cases into a single group. Perhaps a better option is to say that college (in

What Is College For? By Gary Gutting is an analytical article upon the importance of a higher education to the public, he begins by discussing the statistics of what college has deemed worthful to people after their education. It was evident that many found it to be useful later on in life and helped them mature and grow intellectually. Gutting also points out that although many people find themselves to be successful later on after college that not everybody had the same experience, many had to drop out for the fact that a higher education was considered to be too expensive, or dropout rates too high. It is evident that he deems college to be an investment for many people who were fortunate enough to attend, therefore, providing the habits of mind of engagement, persistence, and openness to display how they play key points to the qualifying traits of a college student.

In her article “College Is a Waste of Time and Money”, Caroline Bird attempts to pursued her readers that colleges are overflowing with students who don’t belong there. Her article first appeared in Psychology Today (May 1975). Since this material is outdated, I find it hard to believe that most of the responses by students and parents quoted in the article still hold true. The author has set out to pursue the readers that college is a bad and unnecessary choice for today’s youth. Yet the author holds a bachelors and a masters degree from two different universities. I would think that if she thought college was really a bad choice and a waste of time and money, she would not have gone back to get her masters degree.

In the article, “Colleges Prepare People for Life,” Freeman Hrabowski compares his beliefs to those from a New York Times illustration on how college does, or does not, prepare young adults for success in life. Based on the content of the article, it is likely that the writer is attempting to inform students and young adults about the benefits of receiving a college education. A main point he includes is that many jobs in today’s society require some form of a degree to even apply. To convince his audience, Hrabowski utilizes an argument and counteracts the argument with facts to support his claims. His strategies are extremely effective in conveying his message as he uses strong evidence and factual information in stating his beliefs.

Professor X who is a part-time adjunct instructor of English in a community college wrote this journal to discuss a very controversial issue: Is that important or necessary for everyone to continue a high level education in college? The ideal of equal opportunity gives the access for all the students to pursue the college education in the United States. However, due to the lack of knowledge or skills, some of the students are not qualify to pass the college education somehow. For many of the students, “college was not a goal they spent years preparing for, but a place they landed in.” Professor X mentioned that some of his students are not interested in the writing class, and they took this class

The decision to obtain a higher education beyond high school is no longer a question of if, but when. This is the question that author Caroline Bird discusses in her article, “College is a Waste of Time and Money,” written in 1975. This text strives to convince students, parents, and advisors that obtaining a degree might not be in the best interest for those involved. Circling around the idea that college is a requirement and no longer an act of free will. Bird starts the article off strongly by building her credibility through her own personal research and other credible sources as well as appealing to readers through logical reasoning using numerous statistics, but fails to convince readers and discredits her ultimate goal through a disconnect in her use of analogies.

From growing dissatisfaction with things such as classroom size, a lack of innovation in teaching curriculum, and standardized test scores, to the low ranking the U.S. receives across the board in a number of educative subjects when compared to other countries, there is no avoiding the fact that our education system, is in fact, failing. From the given choices of essays, Michael Lind’s “Intellectuals Are Friends” best captures the fatal flaw in our education system: the belief that by providing more education and sending more people to college, the social inequality in society will be addressed and students will be made better off in their life pursuits. However, it’s not right to say that college is for everyone because not everyone can hold up under the pressures of college. That doesn’t mean to say that these students can’t be just as successful as college students in

A pamphlet comes in the mail for you today, it has bright colors and smiling faces throughout the entire thing. It’s from a college you just applied for, you don’t know why you applied but you coughed up the 50 dollars from your minimum wage job, just to see if a couple of people in an admissions office believe you are intelligent enough to attend their University. As your eyes scan the pamphlet your eyes naturally shoot right towards how expensive its going to be, and the assistance you are eligible to receive. The price is excruciatingly high and the assistance is unbelievably low, but you are expected to go to a well known college to get a good job. Higher education is not so much a necessity, but a privilege, because it is so expensive. But, society tells you that you need to do this. You need to go to a good college after you are done with high school. Society has ingrained into us that if you don 't go to college, you will never get a good job and you will most likely be looked down on as less intelligent. But, higher education is not always the best option for most people, and attending a college should or should not signify a person 's intelligence.

The article begins with the author stating that college is very different than high school. First, the author states that the difference between teachers and professors is that professors have no obligation whatsoever to make sure that students pass or make any particular grade, where a high school teacher is evaluated on their students’ test scores, causing them to continuously make them learn for their own sake. I believe that students begin to take advantage of this help and become fully dependent on their teachers, causing their level of independence in their classes to drop tremendously. I do not believe he says this to scare them; rather he is trying to warn them about the changes from high school to college and possibly preventing failing grades and unproductive studying. Although he is very blunt, he uses this as a way to make his students understand the importance of his lectures instead of just hearing what the teacher is saying. I initially was a little bothered by how blunt this article was and didn't feel like this was an accurate representation of all college

More and more kids than ever before are arriving at colleges (Trout). This is good in a way because it means that many more people are getting a post-secondary education, but not all students are at college for the right reasons. The kind of students who go to college just to party or for reasons besides obtaining further education spread their anti-intellectual ideas around. Paul M. Levitt, professor at Colorado University, plainly says "many college kids are a sorry lot. Preoccupied with their hair, their clothes, their cars, they have never developed a critical turn of mind and have no interest in doing so. It does not bode well for higher education