A pamphlet comes in the mail for you today, it has bright colors and smiling faces throughout the entire thing. It’s from a college you just applied for, you don’t know why you applied, but you coughed up the 50 dollars from your minimum wage job, just to see if a couple of people in an admissions office believe you are intelligent enough to attend their University. As your eyes scan the pamphlet your eyes naturally shoot right towards how expensive it's going to be, and the assistance you are eligible to receive. The price is excruciatingly high and the assistance is unbelievably low, but you are expected to go to a well known college to get a good job. Higher education is not so much a necessity, but a privilege to the higher class, because …show more content…
Most jobs require even more schooling, like a Masters degree. Which is just more debt, and one is still not guaranteed a job. In contrast, A high school student can get a low wage job to begin with then work their way up. During this lower wage job, they will inquire skills and knowledge they would not have learned anywhere else. Mike Rose, a professor at UCLA who came from a blue collar family, stated, “The shop floor provided what school did not; it was like schooling, he said, a place where you are constantly learning” (Rose, 277). Intelligence comes in all different forms. The Oxford dictionary defines intelligence as “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills”. From this definition, it states nothing about higher education. A person who works at a factory for a living has a different form of intelligence, then, say, a person working in an office. They are both intelligent, just about different things. People should not be looked at as less intelligent because they did not receive the privilege to attend an expensive …show more content…
A person can be part of an apprenticeship, or go to a job training college for a specific field and gain knowledge all about the one thing you want to do in your life. For instance, think about the person that comes to your house when a pipe bursts, the plumber. They have a set of skills another person would not, because they were well trained for months on only pluming and heating. Rose brought up a good point when you stated in his article, “Intelligence is closely associated with formal education—the type of schooling a person has, how much and how long—and most people seem to move comfortably from that notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (Rose, 276). These men and women make just as much as a person who graduated from a four year accredited college, if not more, and yet society looks down on plumbers because they are believed to be less intelligent, due to the schooling they received. In todays society, there are many other options than just the traditional college degree. There are community colleges, and online colleges as well. These are great options that give you the same training as a traditional university, but they are less expensive. Its like a “loop hole” in the college world, one will get the training for the future job they want to have, but for less than half the cost. These options show that it is not a necessity for a person to
Does the amount of schooling measure a person’s intelligence level? The essay “Blue Collar Brilliance” written by Mike Rose, argue that the intelligent a person has should not be measure under the amount of schooling, using the example of his uncle, who did not get a formal education, become the head of general motor. As for this, Rose suggest that education should be taken as priority. I agree with Rose point of view because the one who get formal education do not symbolize success. In older generation, many people could not afford the tuition, however they can also succeed. In the other word, having formal education does not grantee us a successful future.
Through the various types of texts I went through, Mike Rose’s article on “Blue-Collar Brilliance” was the one that I felt I could personally relate to. I grew up in a family where manual labor was the key to a good income. Out of my entire family, I was the only one who graduated high school and went to college, therefore I grew up realizing that people didn’t necessarily need a college education to be considered “smart”. My father has been one of the smartest people in my family, I could explain my calculus homework to him and he would be able to quickly grasp at all the equations and concepts, even though he dropped out of high school as a freshmen in Mexico. In the fall of 2015, I had decided to skip a semester of college to find job opportunities outside of the education field. Starting off with high hopes, I quickly came to realize that job opportunities were hard to find. I came to have a lot
It’s considered a rarity now days to walk down a major city street and not come across a single person who is fighting to survive poverty. The constant question is why don’t they go get help, or what did they do to become like this? The question that should be asked is how will America fix this? Over the past year, Americans who completed high school earned fifteen point five percent more per hour than that of dropouts (Bernstein, Is Education the Cure to Poverty). According to Jared Bernstein, in his article “Is Education the Cure to Poverty”, he argues that not only do the poor need to receive a higher education, but to also maximize their skill levels to fill in where work is needed (Is Education the Cure to Poverty). Counter to Bernstein’s argument Robert Reich expresses that instead of attempting to achieve a higher education, high school seniors need to find another way into the American middle class. Reich goes on to say “the emerging economy will need platoons of technicians able to install, service, and repair all the high-tech machinery filling up hospitals, offices, and factories” (Reich, Why College Isn’t (and Shouldn’t Have to be) for Everyone). Danielle Paquette, though, offers an alternative view on higher education. Paquette gives view that it doesn’t matter on the person, rather it’s the type of school and amount of time in school that will determine a person’s
A college Degree used to be an extraordinary accolade but now its just another thing that we need in order to be successful, at this points its nothing more than a paperweight to some. Mike Rose states, “Intelligence is closely associated with formal education—the type of schooling a person has, how much and how long—and most people seem to move comfortably from that notion to a belief that work requiring less schooling requires less intelligence” (Mike Rose 276). In other words the author of Blue-Collar Brilliance, Mike Rose, believes that blue-collar jobs require intelligence as well. I agree that those who work blue-collar jobs need to be intelligent, a point that needs emphasizing since so many people believe that those who work blue-collar jobs aren't intelligent and that why they have them. Although I also believe that
people agree with the state that Liz borrows from Thomas Jefferson, "Everybody should have an education proportional to their life,"(Addison 256). Unfortunately, the average income between rich and poor in America is not accurate, everyone supposed to become somebody in life; college gives opportunity to everyone who wants to do so, to become whatever they want, and at any age with a low cost. as much as the income level between rich and poor in America stays unbalanced; college will always be there to gives opportunity to people who want to learn, but cannot afford to attend university. Liz Addison points out an example in the article. It describes “a college application essay workshop for low-income students” (Addison 256). This is suitable for low-income students, but it doesn’t mention an education at universities. People who go to community college have a lot trouble to find jobs which can allow them to pay their debt after graduate. However, in university you are more likely to find and job and be able to pay your
John Marsh, Ph.D., shares his epiphany, that his sharing the popular belief that higher education was the answer to bringing about economic equality and curing poverty, was in fact wrong; in this short selection, “Why Education Is Not an Economic Panacea”, taken from his book, “Class Dismissed: Why We Cannot Teach or Learn Our Way Out of Inequality”. Marsh had felt that gaining a higher education himself worked to bring him to a level of economic equality, so, it should work the same way for everyone else. His change of heart comes after perhaps stepping down from the pedestal that many, with lots of letters after their name, sit on, or are put upon by others, and witnessing first-hand the dismal rates of graduation of students in the single course he teaches for The Odyssey Program. Serving as good Public Relations for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the program’s purpose was two-fold; it was to provide, at no cost, college level course(s) for low-income adults and look good for the University. In this excerpt, Marsh’s narrow vision seems to have opened up somewhat, however, it does not demonstrate that his visual field widened enough to see that there is much, much more than simply economics or education that is at play in determining where people end up in the spectrum of being considered successful in the United States. (Marsh 914)
Long ago, receiving education was once something only the rich could afford; it was a luxury. Nowadays it is open to everyone, but many students enter college only to discover that they are underprepared, and in turn they become disenchanted. David Leonhardt’s article, The College Dropout Boom, addresses the issues that are apparent in the education system and how it contributes to the gap between the upper and lower class while Access to Attainment by Abby Miller, Katherine Valle, Jennifer Engle, and Michelle Cooper calls to improve access to college education for today’s students. This is incredibly important because many students either drop out or never attended college and in today’s time, having a Bachelor’s degree has become a requirement
Consequently, lower, regulated tuition will make college more accessible for those who are worse off. College should not just be limited to the wealthy. Senator Bernie Sanders once said, "Education should be a right, not a privilege. We need a revolution in the way that the United States funds higher education." (Sanders, Bernie. U.S. Capital rally. March 27, 2015) It should not matter where one lives or where they are on the social ladder. What should matter is if a student wants to open his or her mind, learn from a college
The American Dream. The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. This ideology that anybody, regardless of race, gender, or social status, is able to work up the ladder and achieve success. However, the process to receive and live in this prosperity in today’s world has been greatly flawed. A key element to having a true chance of the American Dream is getting an education that goes beyond a high school degree. Yet, even this seemingly simple step in the process is difficult to achieve for many for countless reasons, however, college tuition is the prime cause for this setback. Even though there are people who believe that a college admission is fair to all, I firmly disagree, as countless people cannot pay for higher education, and, therefore, are not given an equal chance to live a moment of the American Dream.
Everyone has an opinion concerning what type of education is most useful. We all know that a college education is important in the competitive world we live in today. For instance, if you want a career in engineering, medicine, chemistry or law, a bachelor's degree or higher is mandatory. We often see people who have made it really big, and yet have little or no formal education. My opinion is, in order to get and keep a good paying job, you need both “street smarts” and “book smarts.” The combination of practical knowledge and explicit knowledge is the key to a successful career. Both types of knowledge have distinct advantages.
Having a college degree is more important now than ever before as there are fewer and fewer high paying jobs available to those with just a highs school diploma in America. This may sound like a good thing as it incentivizes more people to obtain at least an associate’s degree, but in recent years we have seen a steady decrease in college enrollment from its peak in 2010. This decline is focused mainly in community colleges where there were over 800,000 fewer enrollments according to government data (cite 6). The number of students that enroll in community college is particularly telling as these campuses cost far less and therefore draw heavily from low-income households. This data shows us that those in the poor of our country are increasingly less likely to get an education that would get them into the middle class or above. The brunt of this downturn can be blamed on the ever increasing price of a college tuition and the perceived lack of social mobility in America. The costs of a college education would be impossible to pay for most Americans without getting into student load debt that averaged $37,000 for the graduating class of 2016 and is only increasing (cite 8). As inequality grows there are more and more Americans for whom these staggering costs keep them from pursuing a degree. Furthermore, research by
After reading “American Higher education in Crisis” by Goldie Blumenstyk, I wanted to bring solutions to the inquiries between the marginal cost of high priced tuition and the marginal benefits from paying those fees to pursuit a Bachelors degree. The purpose of higher education is to open up the minds of incoming high schoolers. The students of higher ed are being introduced to many new subjects and surrounding that it breaks the bubble that secluded them from the real world. And most importantly, it supposedly provides the students with the knowledge and information to find a career of their interest. Unfortunately, not everyone receives what they had expected from attending college and to some it has made them worst off. The cost of tuition is indeed the most dramatic problem that leads to many disputes. And followed by those costs is the amount of debts that people are flooded in that withers the self-proclaimed title of the “importance of education.” Although many people think that if they were attending specialized courses they would be better off, the expectations from corporations have a huge incentive for students to receive a BA. And because of that, many people think that the opportunity cost of attending college is worth it. But, as the years of endless amount of fees such as tuition, living fees, and supplies go by, paying off those fees for those who have not had the
“A typical college graduate earns an estimated $650,000 over a work life than a high school graduate” (Rosentiel). This amount of money is influential to not only the lives of the graduates, but also their children who will then be able to afford to go to college, and since it is such a financial benefit, post-secondary education should not be so expensive. Having that much more money in a lifetime helps the privileged and their children stay privileged and the unprivileged stay unprivileged, creating and sustaining a large wealth gap. “...when more men (and a few women) were going to college, many of them in preparation for their future high-earning careers, or simply because it was becoming more normal. Why, the reasoning went, shouldn’t they pay more” (Rothman)? Going to college was becoming more normal, so anyone who wanted to thrive in a competitive market had attend, but college was also becoming unaffordable because colleges raised their prices. Making college more expensive keeps many low-income people unable to become successful because they would not be able to enroll in college since they could not, at the moment, afford it. Seeing college as an essential but pricing it as a luxury perpetuates an already destructive wealth gap in American
A diverse array of arguments concerning the costly price of college and its equivalency to the ultimate result of attending persists along a vastly debatable spectrum of economic and social influences. Those seeking a better standard of living by the means of higher education often find themselves in conditions that are more adverse than their lifestyle prior to attending college. Efforts to dwindle the expenditure of college education have potential to produce a heightened reality for the world, with intellectual knowledge as the pivotal key. The expensive cost and limitability of a college education has potential to invoke incentive to work harder in one’s studies; however, obtaining a college degree does not ensure employment, the cost can
Education is a very powerful key to success in modern day American society. More often than not, a person will not be able to find a decent job unless they have graduated from a reputable college with a degree. Because of this change in society, it has brought a lot of pressure by parents for their child to graduate and get a degree. A lot of those who graduate with a degree are not always the best candidate for the job, and even with the degree, they are not even always guaranteed a job. But personally, getting an education shouldn’t be as big of a deal, as it is now. Back in the day, most people did not go to college, none the less graduated from high school; yet they still made it through and learned lots of things from their jobs that they acquired.