“What is College For?” – The Review
In the article, “What Is College For? (Part 2)” written by Gary Gutting we see a description of his ideal vision to improve education and the intellectual culture of our citizens. Mr. Gutting emphasizes that preparing students for employment should be the job of the elementary, middle and high school rather than college. He argues that higher education is basically unnecessary for the practice of many professions. At the beginning of this article he states “colleges and universities are primarily vehicles for the preservation, development and transmission of our intellectual culture (scientific, humanistic and artistic).” He then goes on to explain that we expect colleges and universities to provide
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I was a little thrown off with this explanation of teaching professionals, “Now that these professions are much more open to women, we have come to accept that pre-college teachers will, on the whole (and with admirable exceptions), be our less successful students.” (Par. #8) I could not understand why this point was in the context, I didn’t get the connection between this and the point that he’s trying to convey. After reading the article several times, I finally came up with my own interpretation of it, I think he means that since less students would be going to college, less college professors would be needed, therefore more money available to provide a better incentive to the new teachers recruited after a vigorous search for high school educators.
He then adds that in order for or Nation to accomplish this we would need to use the same sort of selection criteria for pre-college teachers as we do for other professionals such as doctors or college professors. He believes that this would allow for a cutback on unneeded teaching positions to focus on more efficient teaching strategies allowing to recruit the best students as teachers which as he believes, it’s a necessary condition for successful education. In the article, he explains that while he understands that raising high school to this level and opening college to everyone who would like to pursue it,
“It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention.
Hrabowski perceives that colleges do well to encourage and promote students to be successful in their future jobs and that the process of attending college itself is sufficient in teaching such “street smarts” as reviewed by Graff. Despite some contradiction between Hrabowski and Graff in previously discussed topics, Hrabowski is in agreement with Graff on in various ways. Such as, while college helps prepare students for future jobs, these jobs are only starting points and should not be the ending point. He continues by weighing the vast complexity of college success. He feels, in agreement with Graff, there is room for improvement in college, although Hrabowski stresses “There needs to be a more effective way to help people find the correct path for personal needs in higher education.” (Hrabowski 260) Graff continues in his essay sharing that intellect surrounds everything. Researchers are known to suggest that intellect is only in regards to schooling involving math, reading, english, and science or in other words academic based things only. On the contrary Graff would argue, “intellectualism is in everything.” (Graff 265). Sports were Graffs main concern, and interest in his younger years. Consequently, it was through sports he was able to find a love to study statistics, summarize interviews done with athletes, and many other intellectual practices. It wasn’t until college, that he was able to
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.
Charles Murray’s article Are Too Many People Going to College? describes the nature of education in America and some of the factors that should be considered before enrolling in a four year college. Every member of a society should have what Murray calls “core knowledge.” This knowledge is the common ground between every different way of life and type of person within a nation or group.
Too many people are receiving degrees while their ideal profession does not involve extraneous education. Charles Murray conveys his opinion intending to persuade his vast audience, whom can be inferred as upcoming, or presently, college students along with their parents and educational administrators; such as teachers and guidance counselors. Through use of a simply structured article with equally understandable syntax and diction, his hidden meaning couldn’t be more obvious of an ideology. Along with the additional assistance of vivid imagery to put the audience in a hypothetical perspective to further his argument that too many people are going to college, which in turn decreases the worth of a degree,
What the writer is basically talking about in this article is the importance of change in certain aspects in the education system that could help improve higher education in the U.S. He starts with identifying the problems and outline certain solutions. He has aimed it towards both students and the U.S government, to try and raise awareness. This would be done by recognizing the concerns of students and making the government aware of them. His purpose of writing this article is to initiate or lay the roots to possible change in the system. He identifies flaws in the system, relating them to actual problems faced by students and finally trying to make the government aware, so they could take particular action. The writer identifies the government’s plans to improve higher education by helping students pay for their loans, however he believes that focus should change to finding cost effective ways of educating. He supports his statement by giving solutions, like the adaption of new technologies to make education less costly. ‘To this day institutions have taken technology as an added cost, rather than means to increase productivity and reduce costs’. Another solution the writer puts forward is specialization, meaning that universities should only specialize in particular fields
1 – Is it harder than high school; will I meet knew people; what are the parties like,
In the article, Murray makes the claim that many current attendees of college do not have a high enough IQ to truly benefit from the education, and many students that are intelligent don’t apply themselves to the cerebral demands of a traditional four year university.
In my life I had failed over thousands of times. From my first attempt to ride a bike, falling and getting an ugly scar on my right knee or my first time entering a Pokémon tournament, getting eliminated in the first round. Even through these failures, I never felt discouraged. I got on my cousin bike the next and I entered many other Pokémon tournaments afterwards. My failures motivate me to try even harder and try to succeed the next time around. Always giving it all I got and a little more. One of my greatest failures that I had in my life was not taking school serious, more specifically my freshmen and sophomore math and history classes’ in high school. This misstep had taught me two major things that are important to have in this world, a college education, asking for help. These lesions that I learn helped me mature and prosper as individual.
“One of the biggest problems in the US educational system is the inadequate condition of many schools located in economically disadvantaged areas”(Morgan, p 291). Morgan’s article is about improving American school system based on how other countries school systems are performing. For the US “to close the achievement gap in the US [it] include[s] improving teacher education and professional development”(p. 294). According to the article, other countries fare better than the US because they require their teachers to be educated more thoroughly and to continue to educate themselves throughout the course of their career. One step in the right direction for Americas school system is beginning in the classroom with the teachers, which is also where America’s School-to-Prison Pipeline begins.
When a student thinks of their favorite class it is most often linked to the teacher that made learning more enjoyable. Let’s be realistic and say that most students don’t find school to be the highlight of their day and for some it’s rarely tolerable. Everyone has a preferred teacher and it’s very likely that they are willing to excel in that class because of the teaching techniques. Even if I hate math class, which I entirely do, I’m more likely to go if the instructor uses engaging teaching methods that appeal to me. I feel that most people ignore this aspect of the purpose of an education when really it’s a big factor. Most argue about what we’re supposed to learn, but we should also focus on how we learn it. Whether it be on ratemyprofessor.com, or through a good friend we are all in search of quality professors. This is why I believe a college education should prepare students to think critically with the help of effective and supportive teaching strategies. Fortunately, I’ve been able to experience the positive outlook of an inspirational teacher.
For the individual, increased educational attainment is closely linked with personal improvements in earning potential and a substantial reduction in unemployment probability (Kusmin, 2016). At the community level, educational opportunities increase economic stability, improve the retention of young families, and are closely linked to the livability of a community (Larsen, 2017). Teachers are an essential factor that dictates the school's culture (Supovitz & Turner 2000), and the extent of yearly student growth (McCaffery et al, 2003). By enhancing the teaching capacity of the district’s teachers and investing in new teachers, it should be possible to establish a significantly high-quality teaching staff, reduce challenges in finding suitable teachers, and change the culture of not only the school but also the community.
Several years back, some of the researchers carried out analysis that proven the ability to understand that ineffective teachers leave schools than effective teachers with intention to leave schools because of low achieving and the minority students. The argument that is likely to generate from this topic is, to what extent will teacher turnover be beneficial?
According to the Census Bureau, PreK-12 teachers represent the largest occupational group in the nation, and the profession is becoming even larger. In recent years, the hiring of teachers has far outpaced student enrollment; from 1987-2008, total K-12 student enrollment in U.S. schools including public, private and charter schools combined — increased 19 percent. By comparison, the teaching force rose by 48 percent over that same period. Since 1950, America’s public schools in particular have seen a 96-percent increase in students that has been accompanied by a 252-percent rise in teaching staff.
Education is the forefront of the nation’s battle against poverty, and it is a critical tool in improving the future. This heavy, crucial role falls upon teachers who, unfortunately, do not have all the necessary resources they need to shape the future workforce. Because of these lack of resources, many graduate students are not choosing to enter this profession, thus leading to a nationwide epidemic. The teacher shortage, in Clark County specifically, is one of the worst this nation has ever seen, and several reasons for this lack of educators are low starting pay, lack of proper managing by the state legislature, overcrowding in classes, and low retention rates.