Individuals are struggling nowadays to acquire an education higher than a high school diploma. One of the main reasons for this issue could be very well the price it is to attend college. The prices have skyrocketed throughout the years. A lot of the people who attend college have to take out a “student loan,” just so they can get by. I believe one should not need to be in serious debt before they even graduate, all because they want to go out and further their education, and become successful in their life. College is a popular topic for most and Sanford J. Ungar and Charles Murray has a unique way of explaining both their opinions. In his essay, “The New Liberal Arts,” Sanford J. Ungar advocates that the liberal arts should be everybody’s The first misconception that he begins to explain is “a liberal-arts degree is a luxury that most families can no longer afford. Career education” is what we now must focus on.” Liberal arts education produces analytical thinking, and professions are looking for that as an alternative of just being specialized in one subject. “Who wants to hire somebody with an irrelevant major like philosophy or French,” but in reality everyone is finding it harder to find a job in this economy, not just liberal arts majors. He then answers the question about “being low income, or first generation college student,” and Ungar begins to state that it is ignorance to consider that just because an individual is the first generation that they cannot be given the same kind of education as someone else who is not a first generation. Some may Sanford Ungar has the right idea that more people should major in the liberal arts, and I definitely like how he put his essays into the “seven misconceptions.” It really made me think, and ask myself some questions about my major. He knew what he was doing whenever writing this essay, but what happens whenever everyone starts majoring in the “liberal arts?” It would not leave anyone else for anything else. That brings me into Charles Murray, and to an extent his opinions are my own, but some I could not fathom being okay with. I can support his idea about kindergarten through eight should learn the core knowledge, and high school should be left with most humanities and social science courses. It would lessen how long people need to attend college for their career. What I do not support is his idea of the lower percentile, there could be many intelligent people in that category that could change the world, but they did not show how much they could be valuable in their high school days. Some people could be genius in high school, but not so much in college, or vice versa. What would happen if the person that has what it takes to cure cancer, but no one listens to him because he was not “intelligent” enough to go to college? It would set the world back a few
In ancient civilization, a liberal arts education was considered essential for free people to take place in civic life; without them people would not be willing to disregard one's traditional values, and analyze a broad variety of arts, humanities, and sciences to create new opinions and ideas. In the 21st century many Americans are doubtful that liberal arts degrees are actually worth the cost of college. In his essay “The New Liberal Arts”, Sanford J. Ungar discusses seven “misconceptions” of liberal arts degrees in modern-day America.
We’ve all heard the saying “one size fits all,” but when it comes to our education should one size really fit all (Allitt 3612)? Patrick Allitt, a professor of history at Emory University in Atlanta wrote the essay “Should Undergraduates Specialize?” published in 2006 in the Chronicle of Higher Education, he argues that American colleges should give students the chance to choose between a liberal arts education or one that is more specialized to those who want it. Allitt provides an effective argument by building his credibility with personal experiences and feelings, different viewpoints of the argument, and explaining the advantages and disadvantages between the two different
Throughout the article “The New Liberal Arts,” Ungar masks an unsound argument with emotion and perceived credibility. Ungar presents himself as a credible source due to his interaction and experience as a presidents at a liberal arts institution. Though he presents himself with knowledge, the arguments he draws attention to are poorly developed and lack any solid background information to why he is right over the opposing
In recent years, many have debated whether or not a college education is a necessary requirement to succeed in the field of a persons’ choice and become an outstanding person in society. On one hand, some say college is very important because one must contribute to society. The essay Three Reasons College Still Matters by Andrew Delbanco shows three main reasons that students should receive their bachelor’s degree. On the other hand, many question the point of wasting millions of dollars on four years or maybe more to fight for highly competitive jobs that one might not get. Louis Menand wrote an article based on education titled Re-Imagining Liberal Education. This article challenges the main thought many americans have after receiving a secondary education. Louis Menand better illustrates the reasons why a student should rethink receiving a post secondary education better than Andrew Delbanco’s three reasons to continue a person’s education.
As students and parents are looking into colleges, their minds need to be open and free of biases. Sanford Ungar’s essay can help broaden the mindset of families, and even help make a decision to attend a liberal arts college. Ungar uses various techniques in his essay that make it effective. Not only does he discredit the misperceptions of liberal arts, but he also approaches his writing with etiquette that appeals to his readers. In his essay, Ungar uses three main appeals: reason, emotion, and ethics...
Once a person graduates from high school they are left with a difficult decision, wither to go to college or not. Some families this is not an option, their kid will go no matter what, but many students do not want to go to school and have so much student debt by the time they finish that they will have to pay off that they decide that college is not worth it. According to Craig Smith in his article in Education Digest he says, “too many families cannot afford to send their children to college so the student is left with making the decision on wither to go to college and collect debt or just skip college altogether” (Smith 42). He has a good point. Too many students feel like they have to pay so much yet they are not really getting much out of it. Smith later on in his article states, “We must stop balancing our state and institutional budgets on the backs of students and families” (Smith 46). School should not be all about money, it should be about helping the students get the education that they need so they can make it out in the big world. If a student is so worried about how they are going to pay their school bill they are not going to be focusing on their class work and it ...
It is a norm and expectation in society today for students to pursue higher education after graduating from high school. College tuition is on the rise, and a lot of students have difficulty paying for their tuitions. To pay for their tuitions, most students have to take out loans and at the end of four years, those students end up in debt. Student loan debts are at an all time high with so many people graduating from college, and having difficulties finding jobs in their career fields, so they have difficulties paying off their student loans and, they also don’t have a full understanding of the term of the loans and their options if they are unable to repay.
A college education gives a person the opportunity to be successful in life, either financially or morally dependent on the goals that they set for their life. They will choose a college that offer programs for the major of their choice, where they will specialize and receive a degree. The decision to pursue a higher education will give the opportunity to earn a better income over someone who does not have a degree. College is more of life preparation course that will help make sure a successful career. If a person pursues a career in engineering, physics or mathematics their curriculum would include more liberal art preparation courses, in order for them to earn their degree, so someone pursuing a degree in these types of careers are attending college for job preparation. On December 10, 2009 at Hamilton University in Clinton, New York, college professors debated current college curriculum (Liew). They talked about how their college could make a leap from being good to being great. At the 22nd American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges conference held in Long Beach California on November 14, 1996 the topic of changing curriculum was discussed (“Mich”). The University of Louisiana, Lafayette, is eliminating its philosophy major, while Michigan State University is doing away with American studies and classics, after years of decline in enrollments in those majors (Zernike). The purpose of a college education is to meet the student's liberal art’s needs so that they can compete and understand the connection between a degree and a job that will enable them to compete with other world economies, give them a well-rounded education that will enable them to earn a higher income, and retain a lifetime full of knowledge.
By taking a liberal arts degree, students are obtaining knowledge and critical thinking that high-paying job careers won’t provide. As for example, “Plenty of philosophy and physics majors work on Wall Street, and the ability to analyze and compare literature across cultures is a skill linked to many other fields, including law and medicine”, a liberal arts degree is so important because not only does it give you life skills but prepares you for far more advancement challenges (228). Ungar expresses liberal arts as a degree where students will learn not just to make a living, but also living a life that ponder values and
One of the main reasons why people go to college is to improve themselves as people as well to improve in the socioeconomic status. For instance, people who came to the United States as immigrants to have a better life most like would want their kids to go to college, so they can be more educated and have a better life style. Now, the majority of Americans that have plans to go to college face a problem that discourage and frustrates them. This problem is the cost of education. It’s really exiting when you received your acceptance letter from the University that you applied, but is more depressing when you don’t have money to pay for it. We all know or if not we have an ...
In Fareed Zakaria’s YouTube Video on “American Innovation Beyond STEM”, he states that rarely do Republicans and Democrats agree on anything, however, they are now united in their beliefs that colleges need to move from a liberal arts education into one that embraces STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). He continues to argue that it is wrong to ignore a liberal arts education as it is what encourages our “creativity” and enriches our “humanity”. By eliminating a liberal arts education, we would be putting America on a vulnerable educational path. To support this claim he quotes “John Cardinal Newman, who in 1854 stated that, ‘a broad exposure to the outline of knowledge for its own sake’ rather than to acquire skills to practice
Four-year Liberal Arts institutions pride their academic programs on giving students the life skills to be productive members of today’s society. Critical thinking, the ability to communicate globally, and a rigorous curriculum are the essential elements of a liberal arts program. These components allow graduates to become life learners who will enter the workforce with better skills than students who attend other institutions of higher education (Sullivan, 2016).
Many young adults say they are upset about the rising price of going to college. There is a little dispute today that the number of students who have debt has increased, and the amount of money that they have borrowed has gone up. Many students incur large amounts of debt that they will never pay dividends higher wages or greater job satisfaction, and they graduate into a world with poor employment prospects.
I agree with the author about the importance of Liberal Arts education because I think it's important, and I'm thinking about going to a Liberal Arts College myself. Another reason why I agree with the author is, this education
By the late 1960s, the USA had created a system of‘mass’higher education: approximately 30 per cent of the eligible age-group was enrolled in college (Jones, 32). Industrial capitalism, to function properly, required a growing mass of‘white-collar’workers, performers of‘mental labour’: scientists, technologists, administrators, lawyers, etc. This was the fastest expanding sector of the workforce, whose pay and working conditions were slowly converging towards those of ‘skilled manual’ workers, and the institution of the higher education looked to support this technical growth. Students studying in the humanities and arts programs, however, had a different definition of higher education. They expected their courses would offer some kind of effect on their critical development and on their capacities for social, moral and political generalization, rather than just preparing them for the workforce. These students were most likely incubated to expect the classical model of the University: a liberal institution promoting freedom of thought and expression, encouraging free debate and argument. The old upper class model depicted the university education as devoted to the leisured pursuit of ideas.