Saturday, December 20, 2014
Need money for college. Need college for job. Need job for money.
Andrew Delbanco's: "College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be" was an interesting essay. It didn't particularly tickle my fancy with any amazing points, but what I did like was Delbanco's use of contrast. In his essay he uses childhood terms like "a boy-who-cried-wolf"(4) and "Once upon a time"(5). Throughout his essay he is trying to stress his point that higher education systems in America aren't properly preparing adolescents for the transition into adulthood. He contrasts those childhood terms with his considerably impressive vocabularly comprised of words such as "adjunctification", "casualizatoin", and other words with more than three syllables.
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I think it is also essential to point out the educational system Delbanco thought we should aspire to. That would be a system of liberal education where students don't only focus on an eventual area of profession, but also learn to grow as individuals and sympathize with all general areas of study. Thus these students come to not only understand one specific area of study, but become enlightened with a variety of circumstances that make up the luxuriously complex world we live in.
ReplyDeleteRight, it was mentioned that the education system in America is flawed. It's been flawed for many years. It hasn't properly prepared adolescents for a fluid transition into adults decades ago, and now that improper training is even more evident given the direness of current events. Some current events that aren't being handled with an even-head are the Eric Garner and Mike Brown cases. Even more recently being the situation affecting officers Winjin Liu and Rafael Ramos who were shot dead in Bedstuy. Delbanco mentions that the current education system only prepares adoloscents for acquiring jobs and becoming part of the Capitalist system which Nussbaum seems to disagreee with. Doing this rather than preparing them to critically think and seek solutions to heavily debated issues will not create a world of prepared adults who seek peace. Only a world of ignorant who will find their own destruction in their actions.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. The foundations of the American educational system was established long ago when the historical Ivy league universities began the ever lasting tradition of favoring the privileged high class within their educational systems. In essence the educational privileges one is capable of having seems to directly correspond to the economic circumstances of our families and how significant our family name seems to be within the eyes of the world. You are right in saying the ignorance of the majority brings them to their obliteration. What seems even more tragic are the circumstances of those who oppose these arguments. In essence mankind's tragedy is not that it loses but that it almost wins. This last statement is of course borrowed from the great Heywood Broun.
ReplyDeleteLet's employ some basics of liberal education right now. Seeing as liberal education seeks to teach beyond borders and promote understanding, I believe I'll better UNDERSTAND your point if you TEACH me who Heywood Broun is.
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