Preview

The Pervasive Cliché Speech In Defense Of Liberal Arts Education

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
184 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Pervasive Cliché Speech In Defense Of Liberal Arts Education
A decade ago at Kenyon College, David Foster Wallace unfurled the pervasive cliché speech in defense of liberal arts education to be a shifting mentality in the way we think. Sophocles’ Oedipus The King (1978) has exemplary drawn out the myth and theme of self-knowledge and captivated the emphasis of self-reflection, dialogue, and reason. Indeed, these are the dispositions that are needed for cultivation to facilitate a well-educated society which allows the restoration of the means of skholē (the root of school); a place of education to pass time and space in togetherness. However, the school’s curriculum is menacingly training students to most efficiently retrieve information in competition of an A, rather than spending the time to interpret

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Graff explains that we only associate the educated lifestyle with texts and subjects. He argues that the education system assumes that its possible to “wax intellectual’s about plays and Shakespeare” but not about “cars, dating, and fashion...” He also explains that students still need to read intellectual readings, but on topics that interests them and not the education system. Graff supports his argument saying that students…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A yougn woman by the name of Clarisse McClellan describes school as being.’’An hour of TV class, an hour of basketball or baseball or running, another hour of transcription history or painting pictures, and more sports, but do you know, we never ask questions, or at least most don't; they just run the answers at you, bing, bing, bing, and us sitting there for four more hours of film-teacher.’’ Books don’t exsist in this societie they arent importent, people can’t read or writte wich is the bass of all knowledge. In are society if you can not read you can not work, you can not be independent in are society and survive with out being able to…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his speech “This is water” David F. Wallace (2005) states the advantage of being open-minded and describes the effectiveness of proper way of thinking. At the beginning the speaker claims that throughout life people may not be able to notice and discuss what is really important in life by illustrating the example of fish talk about the water. He argues that even though people have the ability to analyze, nevertheless they may not be able to realize how exactly to do it, and this is what liberal arts education tries to teach.…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In his book Why Teach?, Mark Edmundson has written an essay in which he approaches an argument about the paradoxical consumer culture surrounding education. The university professor takes a stance on the problems that he has both experienced in his own classroom and observed on campuses, and he assigns these problems—his claims—appropriate blames. Enough logic is used to make these “blames” more factual, and he often claims how things are and offers several reasons as to why. His essay, “Liberal Arts & Lite Entertainment,” originally written in 1997, begins with his own university before branching out to all those across the country, and it is followed by a deduction of student culture and professors. He gives hope to the idea of the acceptance and praising of “genius” (as opposed to the alienation students indorse so well) closer towards the end, narrowing his argument down to a more specific change…

    • 1447 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    What is Education? It is clear to us that education is an essential part of everyone’s lives and our future depends on it. Despite the differences found in both Edmundson and Graff’s works, Graff supports the different ideas Edmundson has toward education. Edmundson, who writes “On the Uses of Liberal Education”, tells us that today’s priority of education has changed; colleges have turned into a market mentality. Graff’s focus in “Other Voices, Other Rooms” is not this market mentality, but to stress the different factors as to why education has deteriorated. One of the factors is compartmentalization. Both, Edmundson…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    David Foster Wallace's speech is to show the value in liberal arts college. In the passage David Foster Wallace writes, "I have come gradually to understand that the liberal-arts cliche about "teaching you how to think" is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea "Learning how to think" really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience." He acknowledge not only the value in learning but also the perception towards life that only can gained by going to a liberal arts college. David Foster identify's this type of information as "Knowledge". "The point is that petty,frustrating crap like this exactly where the work of choosing comes…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Education and public schools are two of the most valued products in the United States since they are essential elements for people’s growth and societal progress. Horace Mann, Secretary of Public Education in 1848, recognized this issue regarding education and advocated for the “common school” because he wanted every child to go to school and grow their minds to have a more productive and active life. However, his dreams of creating a perfect and equal school have not been realized until today. In the passage of Mike Rose’s “I Just Wanna be Average”, he displays his personal experience as a student who was mistakenly put through the rigorous journey of Vocational Education and how he struggled through his education endeavors. Similarly, to Mike Rose, Jean Anyon’s “Social Class and Hidden Curriculum of Work” discusses how…

    • 2398 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    One goes to college to learn, it seems, not to think.” Every student is quick to graduate college and earn a diploma that he or she does not realize the true value of education. It does not matter what one learns in college, as long as he or she applies what he or she learns and question ideas with intellectual approaches. Gerald Graff emphasizes in “Hidden Intellectualism” that "one of the major reasons why school and colleges overlook the intellectual potential of street smarts: the fact that we associate those street smarts with anti-intellectual concerns" (264). People relate education with how much the student excelled academically, rather than by how the student processes the information and applies it to his or her…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Today, 314.5 million people call themselves Americans. Each of them, with God permitting, will make the journey to old age. However, in this huge set of individuals, roughly fifteen percent of adults over the age of twenty-five have not received a high school diploma (“Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009”). By itself, this percentage feels rather small, and so we as Americans pride ourselves in our educational system. After crunching the numbers, however, this measly percentage actually represents twenty-nine million Americans, twenty-nine million individuals who lack an accomplished high school education. Aristotle would be displeased to say the least. In 2008, then senator Barack Obama delivered a speech to the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts titled “What’s Possible for our Children.” Though intended for his election campaign, the speech also reflected this introduction’s attitude, calling attention to the gaping holes in American education. More specifically, however, Obama promoted educational reform based on a three-point platform: “fixing” No Child Left Behind (an act which encourages state standardized tests to measure and regulate primary and secondary education in the United States), encouraging teacher reforms and furthering teaching…

    • 1810 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Plato's Cave on Ignorance

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Freeing from the psychological prison we create by continuously depending on what we see and understand to be true realities can be achieved in learning and logical reasoning. “Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?” (Socrates 19). Demonstrated in this quote, is the beginning stage of acceptance and awareness; hesitation. This growing open-minded approach to unfamiliar situations is required in order to leave behind our old and ignorant ways. Socrates suggests to the reader that preparation for the real world and a need to pursue truths through the use of education will serve as guidance down more desirable life paths. He also introduces the idea of the immense responsibility those who have been fortunate enough to access higher education have to provide leadership and improvement in society. But, with the power of wisdom, comes ridicule and seclusion due to the ignorance prevalent in a population that prefers to live with their minds trapped inside the cave.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wagner and Dintersmith’s incisive article slices via the politics to signify, without pointing fingers how the schools should refocus their attention to prepare the kids for their future jobs. The book offers a searing and urgent indictment of the current damaging priorities of the American education system and a fully grounded as well as a practical vision of how to re-imagine the system for the world in which we live now. The authors use plain language to tell it the way it is and how it ought to be if the American students, civil, and economic democracy are to survive and thrive in the 21st century.…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conway Precis

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Jeremiah Conway writes The liberal Arts and Contemporary Culture and is bothered about how liberal arts is being taken for granted. He feels that this is a problem and it needs to be addressed. He makes it known that children will lack becoming educated in the future because science and technology is hindering there learning. If this problem is not approached then liberal arts would be ignored. They will be at risk of living in this world without any regards of life. Conway used an example of a “fish” not knowing what water was. This informs readers that people take education and life for graduated (2010, 4). What children do not understand is that they have the opportunity to gain knowledge but cannot due to technology and money. It becomes hard for them understand that being educated in liberal arts is better than having a one-track mind. If they want to become a scientist they will only learn the scientific method and equations. Moreover, they may not know basic home economic skill because they do not have an understanding of other disciplines.…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Two Authors Two Views

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages

    School is a place where the youth of America goes to become educated to achieve their potential, and to further their knowledge of life. People often criticize our school system by saying it’s a place where kids learn to be “book smart” and not “street smart.” Others say that students need to spend more time outside of the classroom to gain further knowledge about the world. These two ideas about education are the main ideas that that authors John Gatto, and Dave Eggers have. John Gatto, a teacher in the Manhattan school system for thirty years wrote, “Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids, and Why.” Gatto claims to have taught in some of the worst conditions, and some of the best. Teacher of the year in New York for multiple years, Gatto claims to have seen it all. Just like Gatto, Eggers sees that the school system should be run in a different way. Eggers, the author of, “Serve or fail” developed a successful nonprofit organization that helps teach kids necessary writing skills. He sees that volunteer work plays an important role in growing up. He argues that it should be mandatory to do volunteer work while in college and that it will make students become better people. Both authors have their own different view on how they think the school systems should work. Both have strong views about why the school systems need to change. From students having too much spare time on their hands to boring classrooms, it’s the way we incorporate different learning environments that will make us be successful in our everyday life.…

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    But, David Foster Wallace and Derrick Jensen have also given their knowledge of what the “real education” is. In “Walking on Water” by Derrick Jensen, he brings us into his school life. He uses his experience, like the three horrible lessons he learned when he was a student, to show that he is on the side against the traditional education system. He emphasizes that schools should not kill children’s creativity. Moreover, the real education is about self-discovery. Besides, the article “This Is Water” by David Foster Wallace is the commencement speech, lectured at Kenyon College. He states that we should focus more on finding our right way of thinking, like how to cognize others to not be arrogant. Also, Wallace argued avoiding default setting is important. After I had read Jensen and Wallace’s article, I learned that a “real” education is not about teaching lessons from the books or how to get good grades in the college. In “Walking on Water,” a “real” education is more about being creative, learning to discover yourself; and in “This Is Water,” it is about…

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays