Why Education Is Not An Economic Panacea Summary

Jennifer Hermosillo
Professor Pica
ENGWR 302
9 December 2014
Reading Response: Why Education is Not an Economic Panacea John Marsh’s article “Why Education is Not an Economic Panacea” argues that education will not solve issue with people facing and/or overcoming poverty. Before reading this article, based on what I was taught in school, I was a strong advocate for in the Horatio Alger’s Myth. Horatio Alger myth is “the belief that due to limitless possibilities anyone can get ahead if or she tries hard enough.” (Heslin 220) This controversial myth was repeated to us over and over because it helped us work harder in school and our day to day chores. In this capitalistic country, United States of America, using Alger’s myth in school can
give a sense a hope to improve our economic lifestyle, but it also gives a sense of failure, if you don’t succeed the fault must be your own. This ties into Marsh’s argument because instead of putting pressure towards the social structure it put pressure on those who simply can’t achieve in school. Marsh’s approaches his argument by incorporating narrative events and used emotional language to back up his credibility on the education system.
To prove his argument John Marsh observes and takes part of the Odyssey Project by offering night classes with other faculty from the University of Illinois (Marsh 2), which was a higher education opportunity for those who were living in poverty. Of the time he spent his first year completing the Odyssey Project he says that he started out with almost 30 students but only few finished the course. “By the time May rolled around, our graduating class consisted of some 12 people, about half of whom had regularly attended classes, completed the assigned work, and thus deserved to graduate” (Marsh 3) Marshes used his experience to support his claim because about less than half of his students finished. Marsh’s states that’s education is not for everyone, therefore it won’t help poverty. In addition he adds “Some people may escape poverty and low incomes through education, but a problem arises when education becomes the only escape route from those conditions—because that road will very quickly become bottlenecked” (Marsh 8) It helps raise the question is education of how can we help society as a whole escape or prevent from falling into
poverty.
Although Marsh’s argument was constructive criticism and brought up valid points on how education shouldn’t be only way to escape poverty. The use of his own experience was a good resource, but it would have been a stronger argument, if he brought up logical fact. He didn’t really incorporate quotes from other credible sources and if he did he didn’t quote them. Statistics would have been a good source to help prove his argument. In addition, he only used a small sample from the Odyssey Project which can only speak for itself, it didn’t include a large population. He could have used programs from other locations or extended his program. Overall, his argument raised awareness to finding other solutions for poverty.

Work Cited
Henslin, James M. "Social Stratification." Mastering Sociology. N.p.: Pearson Education, 2014. 220. Print.
Marsh, John. “Why Education is Not an Economic Panacea." ENGWR 302. D2L. 28 Aug 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.