College Education example essay topic

Both Louis Menand's "College: The End of the Golden Age" and Joe Quenan's " Matriculation Fixation" present us with many misconceptions that the ordinary public and those employed by our educational institutions struggle with. We are faced with many challenges within our institutions of higher education because of the many contradictions that they embody. We need to re-evaluate our goals and missions within our nations universities to produce graduates that will better help society as well as themselves. Education, a word that can mean so many things.

While in the past thirty years colleges and the expanse of knowledge that they offer have continued to evolve, oddly enough, the concept of a four year liberal arts education has remained relatively unchanged. The truth of the matter is that vast majority of students will have very different college experiences. Even though almost half of all Americans have attended college at some point in their lives, scholars in the field feel as though higher education is hopeless. The higher education system has been growing steadily since the 1970's and with this significant increase in the number of students and ultimately graduates, the value of most degrees has been severely lessened.

This, coupled with other outside influences has sent our education system into a state of depression. We need to reassess our reasons for pursuing higher education, and adjust our expectations of what a college degree can and cannot do. There are many problems that affect scholars working within our learning institutions, the young men and woman attending them, and the parents who are sending their children off with certain expectations in mind. Many of the serious issues threatening today's higher educational system rise out of the extreme value Americans place on monetary success The idea of success by the accumulation of wealth and status has become overwhelmingly pervasive in our society today. Menand discusses the dismal future of liberal arts which includes language, history and philosophy. These fields of inquiry provide us with a general knowledge base rather than professional or vocational training.

Many college bound individuals are concerned with getting an education soley for to obtain so called "better" job so they can make more money. This has become part of the new trend that education is now moving towards. If up and coming college students don't take interest in these fields of study our educational system as a whole will suffer along with our society. We need to preserve the college of liberal arts and I believe requiring these types of classes within the core curriculum of the university may help to do so. I am not confident that it will restore these disciplines all together. We need to teach students the historical importance of these disciplines as they were seen by the "Golden Agers".

The so called "collapse" of the academic disciplines; particularly the humanities is stems from many different factors one being that not all schools have same requirements there are no traditional guidelines or set curriculum for certain disciplines. Instead of studying the humanities students are opting to major in something that they believe is more useful in the real world. This is ludicrous how can we just forget about these disciplines of learning that have been part of the human condition for longer than marketing has been around. Business only contributes to the capitalistic nature of our country not the betterment of mankind where as literature and philosophy add to our knowledge base as human beings and can give us a sense of community and common cultural knowledge we can all appreciate instead of just learning to cut each others throats in getting ahead in this world. This stray from traditional education began with Conant's introduction of meticratic philosophy which provided more of an equal opportunity in the way universities admitted students. The government wanted the best of the best to fill technological positions so they stressed diversity in college campuses.

Diversity does not have to be a bad thing. I think if we can work out many of the contradictions that plague higher education. We need to find a fine balance between leadership by the most talented in every field not just trendy majors. It is important for universities to admit students that are diverse in learning not in race, religion, social class, or gender just to be politically correct. Queenan raises a very good point about who is to say that one school provides a better education.

It can be proven that two universities very similar in prestige and clout can provide a very different education but who's to say which one is better. There is so much diversity within a ones college career in this day in age how can we even compare the same type of degree from two different colleges no matter what the standing of the school may be. For example, Menand poses the question for us, What is the study of English? Most traditional curriculum would require one to be well versed in many areas of historical literature not anymore. Majoring in English could mean anything nowadays and there is no common tie. English majors learn much of the same things but their notion of English as a field of study is probably very different.

So we have to ask ourselves why do some school have higher rank than others when the curriculum isn't even comparable and there is no "real" study of anything anymore. All students learn differently. This teaches us a certain lesson in life just because we are accepted to a top notch school doesn't mean we are destined to be the cream of the crop within society or even in our profession of choice for that matter. Suddenly college is a buyers market. Higher education is seen as a service or product you can buy to ensure future success. With this shift the credibility of a college education will soon end up with even less or no value at all.

We are faced with a real problem; Our education systems remain the same while society around us is constantly changing. There is still a need for general knowledge provided by a liberal arts education rather than professional or vocational training that is strictly business oriented. American society has always valued monetary success but we are reaching a point in education where everyone has their eye on the prize and there is no value being placed on the process of education. Many students just want to finish college as quickly and painlessly as possible to guarantee a somewhat reliable future for themselves in the money hungry, consumer driven society that we live in today. The current generational style isn't simply derived from culture and environment, it's about dollars. Students and parents alike worry that taking chances with education will sabotage their future prospect.

This can't be more far from the truth, I agree with Joe Queenan when he says, "Such individuals believe that securing admission to a top flight university provides a child with irrevocable passport to success, guaranteeing a life of uninterrupted economic mirth" (p. 277) In conclusion, I am not quite sure how to tackle all of these issues in education but it seems as though we need to save the traditional learning techniques and just add the diversity to them. I believe this can be done. Maybe more will be required of college students curriculum and I do not necessarily think that would be a bad thing this may bring more focus on the quality of the education rather than the institution it was received from. We need to refocus and develop a new vision of what a college education can and can't do. Students and faculty need to share this vision.

It is necessary to include that education is an ongoing process not a destination and we can't turn our educational institutions into shopping malls for education where we can buy success.