Does college fit every one? (Essay Sample)

Name Professor’s Name Course Date Does college fit every one? The real issue that strikes the mind while thinking about the value of today’s higher education is the extent to which college education will prove to be valuable in providing students with the right break in their career, as also in adding to their education credentials to be eligible for the required job. Gary Gutting who is an American philosopher and holder of endowed chair in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame is an editor of Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.Eric Donald Hirsch, Jr. who is the author of Wordsworth and Schelling is an American educator and academic literary critic.Charles Alan Murray is an American paleoconservative and paleolibertarian leaning political scientist, author, columnist, and pundit.In order to arrive at a concrete conclusion about the actual value of today’s higher education, this paper makes an analysis of the works of Gutting (2011), Hirsch (2001) and Murray (2008) in the context of the significance of higher education. It is also important to determine if it is right for students to necessarily pursue educational courses that may not be in keeping with their temperament or intelligence levels. In this regard, a point in reference has been made by Murray (2008) in holding that most students lack the intellectual potential to succeed in college (2). I am in full agreement with Murray (2008) because it is common knowledge that the current educational environment is in general characterized with the need to attain mere qualifications to make one eligible for a particular career in the given field of study. This situation exists despite the fact that the individual in question may not have the intellectual caliber to fare well in the given academic environment. Charles Murray, who is the W. H. Brady scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is much concerned about the present patterns and practices through which America’s university system is creating a class-driven nation. He states that perceptions about college are gradually changing because of transforming social norms that allow people to move ahead with their life goals. He has made indirect references to the fact that in today’s social environment larger numbers of people are attending colleges in viewing such institutions as the solution to getting a good job and for adolescents to transform into adulthood. However, such reasons are no longer relevant as they used to be before. The author holds that the real objectives of attending college in the current environment are already met in elementary and high schools. He holds that college is not the only means through which people can achieve their life goals and that a graduate degree no longer guarantees a job. Spending four years in college previously served the purpose of making use of college libraries and imbibing an intellectual temperament through interactions with teachers and other students. Such requirements necessitated physical proximity to the college and the four years spend in gaining knowledge eventually paid off in terms of higher levels of learning, a degree that conveyed one’s qualifications and the ability to become successful in the given area of study. However, Murray (2008) argues that all these rationales are gradually fading away. The author does not deny the need for college education but asserts that the foundation of most of the real learning required to make a career is now imbibed in schools. He has categorically stated that “for learning how to make a living, the four-year brick-and-mortar residential college is increasingly obsolete” (Murray 2). He supports this argument by highlighting that most students go to college to acquire practical and vocational knowledge, which is available in technical institutes offering short duration courses. Therefore, attending a four year course in college makes no sense and is a waste of time; but still, large numbers of students enroll in colleges, which Murray says is not sensible. In almost the same spirit, Hirsch (2001) has focused on the greater significance of cultural literacy, which is the shared general knowledge and awareness that students ought to possess in order to truly understand their surroundings, circumstances and the manner in which they ought to do things (159). Hirsch (2001) has argued that the children of today are being made to lose opportunities of learning the basic knowledge that would allow them to function effectively in contemporary societies (160). Gutting (2011) holds similar views in asserting that majority of students in the current times take admission in college with the objective of preparing themselves to meet with the requirements of the contemporary workplace, which means that the actual learning of these students primarily pertains to superficial knowledge, mostly about things they may not be inherently interested in (2). It is apparent that Murray (2008) conveys the same, though a little differently, in highlighting that too many people are going to college, in obvious indication to the unnecessary rigor that children have to undergo, simply to comply with the training requirements that can easily be undertaken in the school environment (2). I believe in this regard that school is the place where the foundation is laid in students about their choice of career and the field in which they would like to pursue higher education, or to get involved in vocational courses to specialize in particular skills. Hirsch (2001) has taken the stand that cultural literacy in the US is on the constant decline despite the fact that it plays a crucial role in the effective working of democratic societies. Most importantly, he has asserted that it is very important for people to have common background information so as to involve in effective communication with one another (162). The author has also pointed out that educational institutions are no longer making efforts to apprise students with the literature concerning America’s culture and how it was a result of the amalgamation of different cultures of different societies that had gradually migrated to the country during different time periods. It is apparent from the arguments put forth by Hirsch (2001) that if American societies are to function effectively, school education must be focused on conventional mainstream approaches (165). Otherwise, the quality of cultural literacy will continue declining, which in turn will have adverse social repercussions on a constant basis, primarily by way of losing effective means of communication. It is noteworthy that Murray (2008) has highlighted almost the same in his writings. He argues that actual learning begins in elementary and middle schools because these are the places where students can begin participating in the culture, which requires a great deal of knowledge and acquaintance with the local people, history, customs and practices (1). A valid point in this regard is that in view of the social turbulence experienced by the world today, it has become more important to make social bonds stronger by introducing better measures of making students more culturally literate. Hirsch (2001) has held that the level of cultural literacy has been on the constant decline in America because academic content in school curriculums has been neutralized to a great extent by focusing more on pure academics instead of relating it with American culture (164). He holds that cultural literacy must begin from the kindergarten stage, which will create a strong foundation. Reynolds (2002) has summed up Hirsch’s contribution by asserting that, “for Hirsch, literacy means understanding what is read, and to understand what is read a person needs to have the appropriate background knowledge, or core knowledge (p.1).Gutting (2011) has made the same argument from another perspective by holding that university curriculum in the present times is such that students are not effectively engaged in learning the knowledge that they ought to learn (3). Most of the courses available in college are considered to be extremely boring and are perceived to be valuable only in the context of providing the required carrier or a job opening. Murray believes that under such circumstances, students actually end up spending only that much time that is necessary for acquiring the required grades in meeting the eligibility criteria of jobs. Moreover, it is known that teachers have mostly started having lesser genuine involvement in the courses because they are also aware that the objective for such studies is only to acquire the qualification for future professional development. In other words, either students or teachers are wasting a lot of time for achieving the require grades or qualification on their way to the success. The issue that arises in this regard is that actual academic involvement is missing, even among institutions that have the best teachers and students. Surely, it is apparent that such outcomes occur because of basic misunderstanding on the part of teachers and students about the actual objective of colleges. Arguments put forth by Gutting (2011) are clearly indicative of the fact that the educational environment in colleges is not conducive to serve the purpose of education but aims at providing the minimum qualifications in becoming eligible for professional development (3). Another issue that arises in this regard is whether colleges are now being viewed as a stepping stone for professional development. If this is true, the purpose of establishing colleges for higher education is never going to be achieved. Therefore, Gutting (2011) is not wrong when he holds that college is now a place where people go to become doctors, lawyers, engineers or management experts (2). Nevertheless, Hettihewa and Wright (2012) have rightly contended in referring to Hirsch’s concepts that the current education strategies do not a...