What is a college education? What is it meant for? Are too many high school graduates attending a four-year post-secondary education? James Adams said, “There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.” In Charles Murray’s essay, he argues that to many people are going to college and colleges are teaching students how to be good humans rather than how to be good at what they decide to do. The graduates going to vocational schools, or schools that teach jobs that are more hands on, have been told by society that they will be paid less than people who get a four-year education. With Murray’s essay in mind the four-year education needs to be simplified down. Maybe groups should look at how the American education system is set up as America does not rank high in the standings around the world. Today’s American education system forces high school graduates to go attend a four-year university because society believes that to be considered smart, that is what all graduates should do; this causes issues with vocational schooling and hands on jobs as there are not many kids going into those fields. America’s education system is far from perfect. According to Jill Barshay, “Among the 35 industrialized nations that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. now ranks thirty-first in education.” America has some work to do in this sector. Starting from the beginning of the …show more content…
Changing these can point the business world on a tangent where employees do not have to have a bachelor’s degree and society does not deem graduates “dumb” who do not go on to a secondary education. America can change and can change for the better. Everyone needs to believe in American education again. President Lyndon B. Johnson said, “We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those
Recently, many have begun to attack and degrade higher education in the United States. In the book How College Works, authors Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs claim, “As state support has eroded, and as more students attend college in an increasingly desperate attempt to find viable jobs, the price to students of attending an institution of higher education has gone up, especially at more selective institutions” (172). So is college even worth it? Caroline Bird’s excerpt from her book Case Against College “Where College Fails Us” is an adequately written article that agrees with those who question whether college is a good investment. Bird argues that although some students would benefit from college and succeed, many fall short, wasting
One of the history's greatest figures, Nelson Mandela, once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Over the course of years, this statement has only become more relevant. Maybe that is the reason why the topic of the decline of the American education has been recently spurring such a heated debate among national academic and teaching communities. In “The Chronicle of Higher Education”, Carl Singleton, a faculty member at Fort Hays State University, also presented his reflections concerning the U.S. education system.
In Charles Murray’s article, “Down With the Four-Year College Degree”, he discusses how he believes the four year degree is ruining college education. Murray exemplifies the ludicrousness of the four year degree when he says: Imagine that you have been made a member of a task force to design America’s post-secondary education system from scratch. One of your colleagues submits this proposal: First, we will set up a single goal to represent educational success, which will take four years to achieve no matter what is being taught. We will attach an economic reward to it that often has nothing to do with what has been learned.
In his article, “Are Too Many People Going to College?” Charles Murray argues that too many people are going to college universities when they should be focusing on other lifestyle options. In his opinion, whether or not to attend college is a personal decision that should be thoroughly thought through. When weighed with the unrealistic prerequisites, the financial expenses, and the time needed to obtain a degree, many people will find that attending college will not be beneficial to them. Speaking of this Murray attests, “The question here is not whether the traditional four-year residential college is fun or valuable as a place to grow up, but when it makes sense as a place to learn how to make a living.
People go to college to get a good paying job, have job security, and get a degree. Well at least that’s what it should be about. That’s what Charles Murray believes in his essay “Are Too Many People Going to College.” Murray counters the argument of Sanford Ungar who believes colleges should have a more liberal approach towards its classes and have students actually learn a broad range of real life skills instead of just going into a career just because it pays well. In Ungar’s essay he explains the misperception that Americans have on obtaining a liberal-arts degree and how they believe it doesn’t translate well to the real world.
Overall, this issue affects most people living in our world today and must be fixed for our generation and generations to come. Over the span of many years, the world’s jobs have expanded to millions upon millions. Due to this rapid expansion of job growth this has caused education to be expanded in to different fields and degrees. Some jobs require a degree that is harder to earn in an
In Charles Murray’s essay “Are Too Many People Going to College,” he believes that the concept of college has changed over the years. According to him, a four-year college is no longer as necessary as it was when it was first created because most jobs requires more on job training. He also adds to his reasoning by mentioning that because of the advancement of internet, physical libraries and the physical proximity of student and teachers is less important. Because of the changes he noticed he believes that people should go to college but not for liberal education. He makes the claim that the basic core knowledge of liberal education should be learned in elementary and middle school and that only people with high academic abilities should be encouraged to go to college.
College teaching a lot knowledge, but is not useful in the real world. The bachelor's degree requirement reduces the opportunity to the real talent who does not go to college. We should get the job we want, no matter college or not. Job experience and skill are more important than the paper evidences that you have a bachelor’s degree. If you are one of the high school graduate student, you have know what you want to be in the future and pick the right path.
America has a problem: our education system is broken. America is the world leader in many industries, but for all that America has gotten right, it has certainly gotten education wrong. Students are not truly learning in America. They are learning to take state-issued tests. This leads to students being unprepared for the ever-changing world ahead of them.
With America's education continuing to thrive, more opportunities will continue to be available and students will continue to succeed. Without this much needed change, America would be much further behind other countries losing significant competitive advantages worldwide. Instead, a strong education system has helped shape America into a better and safer
In his Essay “Are too many people going to college,” first published in a 2008 issue of AEI, Charles Murray explores many insights onto the topic of furthering education as well as exploring various other options to pursue after high school. Who exactly would think that too many people are going to college? Well with more and more students flooding campuses at the end of every school year and less and less going into trade schools, a shift in the job market is just beginning to be seen on the horizon. Charles Murray’s essay “Are too many people going to college” shows that not only are there other avenues to pursue a potential life long career, but that much of the time pursuing these avenues may offer better results for some wanting to go to college.
In “Are Too Many People Going to College?” Charles Murray offers his opinion on the number of students that pursue a B.A. He believes that two year or four year colleges are not needed for a majority of students who could instead pursue other life paths. He discusses the ability for the general knowledge needed to be learned in primary and secondary school, and for a lessened need for a “brick-and-mortar” institution the problems with the current secondary and higher educational issues including the lessened need to acquire a B.A. All members of society need certain skills in order to be productive members of society. They need to know general facts about the country they live in, general history, and general geography.
Living where we live, you begin to comprehend that living off of $11.00 per hour including with your family will never suffice your needs. Getting a college degree can ensure the graduate a higher chance of being able to earn more financially. In the article “Why College Isn't And Shouldn't Have to be For Everyone” by Robert Reich, he states that “A degree from a prestigious university can open doors to elite business schools and law schools-and to jobs paying hundreds of thousands, if not millions. ”Even though Reich’s article is on the opposing side of the argument, he fails to overlook the fact that in the long run having a college degree will, and can open doors to many new opportunities. One of those opportunities is to be able get a well paying job that can earn more than the average non college graduate.
If a person’s parent or guardian drilled the idea of college into your head, or if they told you ‘do what you want’ or ‘I don 't care’, or ‘You’re not going’. While college is great, there are other means of education. The value of college is a low because there are people who do not qualify for a college education, and also because there are other ways of post-secondary education other than college. College is not valuable because many people will not make it into a 2 or 4-year college, much less graduate from one. To support this, in the article Why College Isn 't For Everyone, it says, “As a general rule, I would use graduates in the top quarter of their class at a high-quality high school should go on to a four-year degree program, while those in the bottom quarter of their classes at a high school with a mediocre educational reputation should not.”
Education is an important aspect of all nations. Investing great amounts of money, governments try to enforce their educational systems. This has made education an aspect that differentiates the countries. The United States, being one of the riches countries, has developed a wonderful education system. With the use of technology, new teaching methods, and new infrastructure, the United States has transformed its education system.