Summary Of On The Uses Of The Liberal Education By Mark Edmundson

Mark Edmundson is a professor of English at the University of Virginia additionally, he is the author of the article “On the Uses of the Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students.” In the article, he describes how the students perk up during the evaluation of him as a teacher. The student evaluations commend him as being interesting and humerous which leads him into the rant about what he thinks of college students today. The article describes students as having “little passion and little fire” and indicates their more devoted to “consumption and entertainment.” Edmundson argues students education would be more effective if it is treated as a privilege rather than a commodity. Edmondson relays the message in the article in exactly the same way teaches his classes with humor through specific examples of figurative
Edmondson uses an allusion to support his claim referencing a famous American writer Walt Whitman on (Edmundson 335) where Edmundson states “Walt Whitman is born into the working class and thirty-six years later we have a poetic image of America that gives a passionate dimension to the legalistic brilliance of the Constitution” (Edmondson 335). The allusion backs up Edmundson claim because it demonstrates the determination of how Walt Whitman did not take his education for granted but rather used it as an opportunity to “create a poetic image of America that gives a passionate dimension to the legalistic brilliance of the Constitution” thus his success in school and as an American poet. The allusion is of one person who was able to breakthrough to be an American poet unlike the many others who were educated but were not recognized as poets or in other careers. I understand the importance of college, understand what it means to be successful, strive for what I believe is excellence. On the other hand, to be caught in the mainstream thoughts as a student Edmondson describes through his figurative