Mr. Murray's Article What Is A Practical Education?

In his op- essay titled, What is a Practical Education?, Mr. Murray leads the reader to believe that universities who narrow or exclude liberal arts and general education courses are on the path to producing workers for a specific job, in a specific field and will not be able to adapt to changes that will inevitably come. Although he himself is a professor and should have first-hand knowledge of statistics that would answer questions such as, What do students do when they graduate, did they find a job in their field, how long did it take students to find gainful employment? Murray does not answer these questions and essentially leaves the reader wondering what the data is that supports his opinion. Murray does not effectively use an appeal

As in all op-ed essays, he is hoping his opinion sways others, particularly those who will be making decisions regarding whether or not to continue offering and taking general education courses. Murray is particularly clear when he says, “Last year there was a discussion of a new general education proposal on the campus in Durham, and some of the academic debate ranged from acrimonious to just plain nasty. This spring the issue of general education will come before the university again.” (75) Because he provides no quotes from the “acrimonious or plain nasty” conversation. The reader is left wanting to know what was said and by whom. This is a missed opportunity to use facts to support his opinion and bring the reader to his side of the

They must be educated so they are not frightened by change.” (76) He goes on to state that “The university, if it provides a good general education, challenges the student and forces the student to think about uncomfortable ideas, unexpected concepts, frightening theories and puzzling problems.” (76) This leaves the reader wondering if they do not receive a college education with the courses Murray feels so strongly about, will they spend their lifetime in a frightened state and what exactly would a frightening theory be? The next paragraph has emotional language in it as well, “The university must be an uncomfortable place, a threatening place…” This word choice is strong, but ineffective at explaining why breadth and depth courses