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More handpicked essays just for you.
Changes in the education system
Changes in education over time
Education evolved over the year
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The essays by Mark Edmundson, James W. Loewen, and Gerald Graff are all on education and the ways it has changed. Or in their words, as it seems to be, gotten worse. Of course, there are a number of reasons why things have gotten worse. There are three however, that stand out within the essays. Higher education within private universities and community colleges have been plagued for years by the lack of interaction between students and their professors, the consumerism culture, and misleading information. All of this contributes to students being confined to one way of learning. The lack of communication and interaction within college and universities is evident by the students in the classes never hearing their professor’s talk about other
Our literature review consisted of six scholarly articles that were studies done on students who were going into college. The first article that we found focused on how important communication is when it comes to making friends. McEwan & Guerrero (2010) talked about the benefits of communication before getting to know someone. We based our questions off of this article regarding communication in order to find out about roommate interactions.
Stuart Rojstaczer talks about how higher education in the United States has decreased substantially these days. High grades are very common among college students when they should not be that high. Schools are handing out easy A’s to those who do not deserve them, decreasing the quality of education. Even more astonishing is the fact that students are spending less time studying and more time drinking and partying, students are consuming more alcohol than ever and degrade in a really fast way. Also Stuart Rojstaczer talk about that in private schools grades are much higher than in public schools, but virtually everyone was experiencing grade inflation.
“Our Schools Must Do Better” written by author Bob Herbert attempts to persuade the audience that the public education system is falling behind the times and needs a complete overhaul in order to keep up with the rapidly changing times and technology. He accomplishes this by employing anecdotes and using emotional appeal to capture the audience 's attention as well as an authoritative tone throughout the essay. Although the introduction was eye catching and some might argue persuasive the disorganization and lack of supporting detail left much to be desired.
Edmundson at first, describes college as just go to class and you will be ready for life. But he then goes on to say that the education system is not about following in line. He continues on by saying, “To get an education, you’re probably going to have to fight against the institution that you find yourself in” (Edmundson 115). He often repeats himself by recommending students fight the education system. He points out higher education is often seen as a chance to study something
The Manufactured Crisis by David Berliner and Bruce Biddle is planned on taking on, head to head, a conservative stance on education and the supposed myth that American students are behind intellectually on the global scale. Many people hear it in the news or just in everyday small talk, American students are failing and the public education systems is corrupt, crumbling and is to blame for the failure of American students in their academic ventures. The myth has stemmed from the wave of conservatism the hit the United States in the 1980’s. More specifically what is claimed on the book as “the mother of all critiques”, 1983 A Nation at Risk, which was education reforms based out of the conservatism of the Reagan presidency which was supported by the Secretary of education at the time, Terrel Bell. The risk was that American students were falling behind exponentially in academic areas such as Science, Mathematics, and Business due to the failing public education system and the educators themselves. Several main points are discussed within The Manufactured Crisis. Most of the points are counter arguments to the infamous proposal to education reform, A Nation at Risk. Berliner and Biddle discuss the big faults in the Nation at Risk and disprove the hoax
Louis Menand, a professor of English and American literature at Harvard University presented three different theories for higher education in an article for The New Yorker named, Live and Learn: Why We Have College. Menand (2011) claims that the reasons for college are meritocratic, democratic, and vocational. These theories are great models for the purpose of higher education in our culture, at different points in our history. As a nation, there are definite intentions behind the way that instruction is conducted in our colleges and universities. The techniques adopted by institutions of higher education are no mistake and they are designed to serve a purpose. These methods evolve with time and shape the way that generations think and reason. In our generation, the purpose of higher education in our culture is to sustain the nation atop of the worldwide economy.
The film Declining by Degrees effectively argues its claim that all is not right in higher education. They do this by interviewing countless professors and students that still attend college or that have recently graduated or dropped out. Their use of personal experiences, statistics, and expert opinions helps build their credibility and emotional appeal for the viewers of the documentary. The main audience for this documentary being anyone who cares about college, parents, students, and even the professors and staff at colleges in the United States.
Who discovered America? The common answer to this question would most likely be Christopher Columbus. However, many explorers and adventurers came to America before Columbus. Viking Leif Ericsson was one of these explorers. Ericsson visited, and may have even discovered, the land that became America on one of his many adventures away from his native Greenland. The life, discoveries, and legacy of Leif Erikson are an important piece of history that not many are familiar with.
Bethell, Tom. "The Quality of Public Education Has Declined." Opposing Viewpoints: Education. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Chaffey College. 6 Apr. 2010 .
Studying a university degree is one of the biggest achievements of many individuals around the world. But, according to Mark Edmunson, a diploma in America does not mean necessarily studying and working hard. Getting a diploma in the United States implies managing with external factors that go in the opposite direction with the real purpose of education. The welcome speech that most of us listen to when we started college, is the initial prank used by the author to state the American education system is not converging in a well-shaped society. Relating events in a sarcastic way is the tone that the author uses to explain many of his arguments. Mark Edmunson uses emotional appeals to deliver an essay to the people that have attended College any time in their life or those who have been involved with the American education system.
Politicians are now placing the blame on the downfall of the economy on poor education techniques. Educational institutions in American have become so morph into the concept of standardized methods of learning
Although most of his evaluations are favorable, he was fearful of the comments that his class was also enjoyable; Edmundson doesn’t teach to amuse nor interest. He possesses the genuine passion of spreading knowledge resulting in hearing the students talk of how the course changed them as a person, an individual. (Edmundson, p.390). Addressing the culture of the university Edmundson believes they are more devoted to the consumer consumption and entertainment values. The quality of education is declining due to giving the consumer what they want, rather what they need. Higher learning is shifting towards a society that is sophisticated with technology. The marketing side of decisions that are made with the finances and education are primarily for money being placed their pockets and making sure it stays there due to their tenure and permanent seats. They will always have a job, but what about the decisions for the quality of the education? Or having to cover the expenses of staying current with the newest technology and amenities as well? In order to keep balance in all of this the school will usually raise tuition which causes a chain reaction of rising costs for everything. With the rise of costs, school becomes undesirable to the students who aren’t able to afford it, or the ones who go into debt
Throughout the course of time, teaching, scores, and curriculum have changed to where education is mainly about “being okay” and never about actually improving; and abundant amount of people hold the theory that the government is well aware of this fact and has contributed to the continual downfall of American education in an effort to systematically decrease the competency and literacy of the American population, making them easier to manipulate and allowing the government to achieve increasingly greater power and control over the American population; as a result, Americans are being submerged in a culture that has encouraged them to become more complacent and less interested in bettering themselves which has allowed the government this power that continues to grow.
Another concern that some students might have is communication. Some students might not need to have a teacher in front of them and teach the course material to them, to whereas some students might need the te...
The increasing number of programs available to students has also contributed to this issue, when a college offers a program and there are ten others schools in the nearby are offering the same course, it forces the school to have to offer more and with more variety in order to get the students attention to want to come there instead of another school. Let’s take for example the average community college, it services the entire surrounding area and offers adult learning programs as well as an associate’s degree program. A privately funded school not too much farther away offers the same adult learning plus a bachelor’s bridge program for those who want to continue their education. Clearly the school that allows a student to further their education in the same place with no need to go elsewhere for their financial aid, student loans and their established place as a student would probably choose that over a school that does not offer the same. Thus, it has become an increasingly competitive market which then follows by a mass quantity of oversight to courses and professors who now have less use of their creativity in a given classroom or online. Standardization may very well be a way of keeping classes in line with one another but it seems to take away some of the very valuable individuality and creativity from the person teaching, and the way that a course affects a students way of learning could be a contributing factor in his/her success of their