In Marty Nemko’s article, “We Send Too Many Students to College,” he analyzes and questions whether college is truly worth the money. Marty “holds a Ph.D. specializing in the evaluation of education from the University of California, Berkeley, and subsequently taught there” (martynemko.com) as well as published five successful books. In addition to his novels, he previously was a columnist at San Francisco Chronical and The Atlantic Monthly, also a contributing editor at several other well-known companies. Nemko’s purpose is to convey the idea that, even though there may be reasons one would attend college, the complications overshadow the benefits. He adopts an impassionate tone in order to convince his adult audience to take a hard look at whether it is worthwhile for their children to attend college.…
Over the years, college has shifted from a place of learning where individuals go to voluntarily learn more about a field of study that they want to pursue, to a place that young people feel like they are forced to go to land a job or impress their parents. Known author, Caroline Bird, argues that our generation is only attending college for reasons that are “entirely irrelevant to the course of studies for which college is supposedly organized.” Bird concludes that the new generation of college students only enrolls to impress their parents or have a good time away from home. I have come to the conclusion that Bird is correct in assuming that our generation is attending college for all the wrong reasons based on an overwhelming amount of…
Response to Coben The Author Harlan Coben has an article about parents spying on their teens. The article “The Undercover Parent” is about the pros and cons of using spyware on their teens to see what their doing. Some just are being protective while others, nosy. Even though I agree with Coben, I think parents should monitor their teens to be protective, not nosy in their privacy.…
In this essay that came from Caroline Bird’s book “The Case Against College”, she claims that most students that are in school not because they want to be, but because it is now the thing to do or to get away from their parents. (Bird 647) She also goes on to say a little later essay that she notices when she goes on campus that the students look sad. She says, “I have been overwhelmed by the prevailing sadness on American campuses”. (Bird 469) Birds has very good arguments, from how expensive college is, why a lot of students fail out of class, to letting high school graduates make up their minds on whether or not they want to go to college or not.…
By Murray focusing on the assumption that the target group is 18 year olds fresh out of high school, Murray overlooks an important and ever growing group of students, which are the non-traditional students. Many of these students have not been in school in years, maybe only had a few years of high school, or like me had no high school at all and received a G.E.D. instead. Therefore, these students are missing valuable skills that are an asset for a college student such as writing and studying skills. As a non-traditional student and after reading Charles Murrays’ article and analyzing his thoughts and opinions on these young students, I can’t help but wonder what his thoughts and opinions are of us. Do we even fit within his narrow sights? Do we have a right to be here? These are a few of the questions that I would like for Murray to address, but since he doesn’t even consider that there are other age groups enrolled in college then we will have to wait until he realizes his…
Many people are not static; they change and grow throughout their lives. There is a great value in the ability to have a second chance, to be able to move beyond a mistake, to be able to reinvent oneself. Privacy nurtures this ability. It allows people to grow and mature without being attacked with all the negative things they might have done in the past. Boyd explains, “When parents choose to hoover, lurk, and track, they implicitly try to regulate teens’ practices. Parents often engage in these acts out of love but fail to realize how surveillance is a form of oppression that limits teens’ ability to make independent choices” (74). By not having the ability to make independent choices enables the teen to grow and mature. People learn by their mistakes which then helps growth and maturity but, if the teen is being under surveillance throughout each day enables change and growth throughout their lives. Consequently, an individual must have privacy in order to change and have second chances without being judge by their…
On June twelfth of 2001, Linda Lee wrote an article for the Family Circle stating a case against college. Lee attempted using pathos, ethos, and logos to persuade her readers that college is not a necessity in a child’s future. However, numerous of these appeals can easily be contradicted by somebody as simple minded as a high schooler.…
Naomi Schaefer Riley wrote about reasons why attending college are not as applicable as they may seem in her article, “What’s a College Education Really Worth? Not Enough.” She covered many aspects of the financial and educational college experience, especially negative aspects. She focussed on the story of twenty-four of the smartest potential college students, Mark Zuckerberg’s creation of Facebook, and how college and the worth of a college degree has changed and is still changing. Overall, Naomi claims that college is too expensive for what little students receive.…
Everyone wants to attend college that is affordable, but that does not always happen. The authors do not agree on many things, but the one thing they agree about, is that college is expensive. Having to pay for tuition, room and board, and typical living…
Pharinet seems to be an informative author with the article titled, “Is College for Everyone?” The writer is trying to give out that not every high school graduate is obligated to attend college. This is basically stating that there are other ways for individuals to be successful rather than just college. The world looks at it today as you will not get anywhere without your education, college is for everyone and C’s get degrees.…
She uses examples of students saying their full time students and students who live in sorority houses to explain her case about kids not being responsible and not being “grown” enough. Being in sororities and frats and having a social life is a part of being in college. College is a part of life where you experience life changing events. Your time in college is a time that should not be taken for granted because right after your finish, real life is thrown at you at full speed. So if someone is able to live their life and enjoy their college years then it definitely should be taken advantage…
“Our beginning point is a recognition that the modern American college is not an insurer of the safety of its students. Whatever may have been its responsibility in an earlier era, the authoritarian role of today’s college administrations has been notably diluted in recent decades.”…
With this as the starting point of the paper we can see that the author is assuming that most students are thinking of going to college as a way of either getting more money or job security. This may be assuming too much on the authors part, but it might be safe to assume that, for an over view, most college students go to college to be able to have higher paying jobs. The author also discusses the flip side on how people are thinking that college may not be the best option and she then gives examples of why people might think this way. Some of the reasons that the author brings up are the rising college tuition, slim job prospects, and the few college drop outs that are successful. With all of the “examples of college drop outs of drops who are wildly successful, such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg,” and how the media brings up all of the things mentioned above the author says it a good…
In the article, "Should Everyone Go To College?" written by Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill, in the Center on Children and Families at BROOKINGS. This article discusses the benefits of a college degree. In this section, you may also find many statistics and arguments over attending or not attending college. For the past few decades, a college degree has been argued as a prerequisite to entering the middle class in the United States. Study after study reminds us that higher education is one of the best investments (Owens and Sawhill).…
Although sociology professors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa point out “36% of college graduates showed no improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning, or writing after four years of college” (Practical Argument 38), this doesn’t mean college is a waste of time. Not everyone who attends college takes it seriously. There are the slackers, and there are the people who realize they’re paying for an education. That 36% might still be trapped with their high school mindset: goofing around, skipping class, partying, and not completing assignments to the best of their ability. Going to college isn’t a 100% guarantee for a superior education or job, but instead it’s an extremely vital opportunity, and if not spent properly, one can’t reap its benefits. It’s the way at which the opportunity is tackled that will land a student in or out of the 36% group. Going to class, budgeting time for fun and work, and pushing oneself are qualities of a successful…