The article “The Return of the Overeducated American?” by William R. Doyle shows the two sides of the argument on the topic if college is worth the cost. The labor market data confirms that individuals with higher level of education earn more even if its the same occupation as the high school graduates. According to Doyle, students with a higher education develop intellectual and communication skills which benefits them because they are able to become managers of businesses. College graduates also have greater potential for promotions which increases their income allowing them to provide a better lifestyle for themselves and their family. Individuals work their way up within most fields because higher positions are more well paid. On the other…
In examining Martí’s essay, ‘Our America’, there is an implication that the intellectual elites in the United States perceived racial difference that meant inability. Martí suggests that ‘the European nor the Yankee could provide the key to the Spanish American riddle’ leading to the creation of ‘bookshelf races’. Referring to the race problem as the riddle of Latin America, Martí is suggesting that race was a problem for predominantly white societies, which they could not resolve. It is interesting that these nations are the large powers of the modern colonial world. Martí implies that the alternative for North American intellectuals was to creation a myth of racial inferiority, which is evident in a variety of literature.…
During the spring of 2007 on the Virginia Polytech Institute campus, a student named Seung-Hui Cho had shot 2 students in a resident hall before entering classrooms and shooting 32 other students and professors (Glum). This event had created a call for necessities in protecting not only the Virginia Tech school but all large campuses in America. Director of Virginia’s 32 National Campus Safety Initiative S. Daniel Carter stated, “That one incident sort of crystallized campus safety in people’s minds as a very, very serious issue.” (Glum). The school itself had warning signs before the incident that also brought into questions how the situation could’ve been different and how potentional threats need be…
The middle of the 1960’s approached and nearly six million students attended college in America. This tremendous increase in attending higher education forced institutions to grown, and quickly. Size changed how Universities operated. Instead of becoming more welcoming and homey, they transformed into unfriendly and bureaucratic. With the sudden growth in student body, American universities lacked the proper facilities. With few dormitories, students were housed in “student communities” surrounding their…
The reputation of the modern education system has been damaged by the deterioration of student and instructor performance, leading people to question the validity of education as a whole. Many professionals in the field have speculated about the specifics of the problem, but few have offered well-constructed alternatives to resolve them. Of these few, Allan Bloom’s book The Closing of the American Mind (1987) directly diagnoses the pitfalls of modern education, offering multiple solutions to this poorly executed system that is failing students across the country. Bloom discusses the lack of truth and literature in the educational sector, and he states that the human soul is incomplete as a result. He believes that the system requires reform,…
“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.”…
The article “The Coddling of the American Mind,” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, describes the increasing overprotective culture of American colleges, and why that is a negative thing for education. The authors include many reputable sources, as well as detailed arguments in order to convince the reader of this. For me, this article’s subject matter turned out to be more interesting than was anticipated. The article taught me some intriguing new words, like “microaggressions,” and “vindictive protectiveness.” It gave many examples to help illustrate the meaning of these words, and how they relate to colleges around the United States. It was also interesting to learn of the various ways overprotectiveness hinders college students. Such…
The Closing of the North American mind by Robert Nielsen, discusses the erosion of the North American society, because of our failing educational system. I agree with Nielsen on some of his arguments against the system. Majority of the student body studies to obtain marks. What they study usually disappears after they get what they want. This pattern goes on for four years, which is supposedly preparing the students for the bigger step, university or college.…
I remember sitting in my second grade class on September 11th 2001, watching the news and not understanding what was going on. Our principal was walking in and out of each classroom making sure all of the students as well as teachers were remaining calm. While people often equate 9-11 with the downward spiral of the world, such disasters have been occurring long before this horrific event. Since 1980 there has been no substantial increase in the amount of overall mass murders and killing sprees in the United States (Plumer); however the number of killings in schools has rapidly increased in the past two years. Although it is not…
Many people treat stress differently and students under stress can cause unnecessary accidents, this can increase if guns on campus are allowed. If guns are on campus suicide rates raise up to 85% as posted on smartgunlaws.org. Therefore to avoid it all, guns should not be allowed because people might misuse them.There has been many cases on the news of students going on a killing spree because they aren't mentally healthy. Statistics shown that students between 18-25 have high risk of serious mental illness. Exams after exams, homework on top of homework then, some deal with personal issues like a relationship or work which means colleges students are more likely to have lots of stress. Colleges and universities do not know their students personally. Therefore guns should not be allowed in the exception of security guards to protect the…
The story that I chose to write about was “One Big Happy Family,” by Anndee Hochman. The story is about a young woman whose family life seemed to be the American dream, for those of us looking in from the outside. Her family owned a house in the city like most of us and a house on the beach. The house on the beach was unique with its architecture anomalies, which made the house more a mix and match of parts than like her normal home in the city. The whole family, including relatives from afar, would gather there during the summer to spend time with each other. When in actuality behind her family’s unity, was a demand for conformity to her family’s way of life and thinking. The author finally realized that in order for her to find happiness she had to look within herself and learn to listen to her feelings. Once she learns this lesson, she will be able to break the bounds of her family’s conformity and find the peace of mind that she has always longed for. Several of the stories throughout this chapter discuss different myths of “One Big Happy Family,” however it all seems to come back to the individual, and what they believe in.…
Parents are going to extreme lengths to take the bumps out of life for their children. However, that has the net effect of making kids more fragile, and that may be why they’re braking down so easily. People learn through experience, and through failure they learn how to cope with things later on in life, themselves. And whether we realize that or not, this nation is turning out to be producing more and more wimps. The Fragility Factor College is one of the biggest fragility factors. It leads to psychological distress, binge drinking, substance abuse, self-mutilation, etc. Relationship problems don’t go away, anorexia and bulimia keep on coming. Welcome to the Hothouse Parents are overprotecting their children, they are intruding too much into their lives. They started to call colleges and asking about their grades. American parents today expect their children to be perfect, and that puts to much pressure on them. Arrivederci, Playtime Children don’t play enough these days. Over 40, 000 schools in the U.S. don’t have recess anymore. Commercialization of children’s play leads to more stressed out children. Plays develops cognitive thinking, and is important for normal development of children. The Eternal Umbilicus Cellphones today make children addictive to their parents. Students are typically in contact with their parents several times a day, which makes them constantly homesick, and keeps them away from learning how to manage for themselves. All that is the pathway to depression, it weakens self-regulation, it influences relationships and friendships, and make children become more frustrated and impatient which then leads to the fail of relationships and even greater depression. From Scrutiny to Anxiety... and Beyond What creates anxious children is parents hovering and protecting them from stressful experiences. This group of children experiences stress in situations most kids find unthreatening. They grow up shrinking from social contact, and…
An American Childhood, by Annie Dillard, is a happy memoir of Annie's own life, a child of a well-to-do Pittsburgh family. The activities she had as a child, such as piano lessons and dance class, show her family’s wealth. Instead of having to work as a child she shares stories of fun and learning. This is illustrated on page 30, where she is describing the night when her family saw Jo Ann Sheehy skating on the street. As she is talking about how Jo Ann was “turning on ice-skates inside the streetlight’s yellow cone of light” Annie describes her home and family. Annie stood at the window and watched Jo Ann Sheehy and said she expected her to get hit by a car any second. Annie had always thought that if anyone wanted to skate they would just go to a nearby skating rink where they were not in danger of getting hit by a car. The street was the only rink the girl was able to have. Dillard remembers much of her childhood and doesn't hesitate to tell us a bit of it. Author Flannery O'Conner once said, "any novelist who could survive her childhood had enough to write about for a lifetime." This was most certainly the case for Dillard.…
Parents send their children to college to learn, but the sad reality is that bullying and harassment affect millions of students on college campuses. It is unclear how widespread it is, but we know that harassment is happening based on race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and religion. It happens face-to-face, via e-mail, and on the Internet.…
Part one: The author imagines himself an Englishman who has come to settle in America (in 1783). Through the eyes of this English settler, the author describes what he would see upon coming to America and how different it would be from Europe. Unlike in Europe, America has a far smaller gap between rich and poor and titles, based on class and honor, (such as prince, duke or lord) are non-existent. For the most part the people living in America are farmers and live in comfortable but modest houses. It is clear from the author’s words that he thinks America is great place to live.…