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Charles Murray

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Analysis of “What’s Wrong with Vocational School?”
The essay “What’s Wrong with Vocational School?” by Charles Murray can be found in the second edition of “Practical Argument”. It is an opinion piece that explains Murray’s views on vocational schooling, it states that the amount of students going on to college is unnecessary. Not everyone is suited for college, some people have different interests and abilities. Murray describes the struggle of college classes, and introduces possible problems if you do not have an IQ above 100. He claims that a four year college teaches information on a level that exceeds the intellectual capacity of most people. He then continues on to explain that even if someone does not do well in college they …show more content…

Murray declares that it is “…safe to say that few people who are intellectually unqualified yearn for the experience.” (Murray 6). He claims that an IQ of 110 is problematic in college, that if someone wants to do well they should have an IQ of 115 or higher. That means that 15% of the population, possibly 25%, should be getting a college education. Yet, 45% of high school graduates enroll in a four year college. Murray appeals to logos by using statistical evidence to further explain his IQ view. However, he admits that he has not been able to find data that tells what proportion of that 45% of high school graduates actually want four years of college …show more content…

He claims that they are more honest and provide better courses to meet the needs of their students. The two year college offers a large advantage. Murray also addresses that due to advances in technology education is evolving. He uses the examples of professor’s lectures now being available on CD and online methods to make courses interactive with the professor. The cost a college education will drop if people give up learning on campus, and Murray points out that as the cost as college rises is will make the choice of giving up on campus learning easier. Murray mentions that it is difficult to find a good craftsman in today’s time. There is a great increase in the demand for craftsman due to the spread of wealth, according to Murray. He goes on to compare craftsman income and the intrinsic rewards of being a craftsman in an appealing

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In Should The Obama Generation Drop Out Charles Murray talks about the flaws found in the Obama education plan . He brings to the attention of the public the fact that many student in America graduate lacking the skills necessary for the proper college education. Murray goes on to argue that in today 's society students who graduate from High-school go on to technical college to pursue a vocational education in their field of study; whereas, older generations have pursued an all around education, enrolling in classes that were irrelevant to the career they were pursuing. Murray claims that if you test the vast majority of Americans (including himself) in the more rigorous subjects, they would most likely fail. Murray mentions that he does

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Liz Addison’s essay, “Two Years Better Than Four,” was first published in the New York Times Magazine back in September of 2007. Addison went to two community colleges and majored in biology; earning her degree in 2008. In her essay, she is responding to Rick Perlstein's article “What’s the Matter with College?” in which he claims, “College as America used to understand it is coming to an end” (211). Addison refutes Perlstein’s claims by saying, “My guess, reading between the lines, is that Mr. Perlstein has never set foot in an American community college” (212).

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The authors’ emphasis on “on average” is very effective at showing how their point makes sense and why it should be taken into consideration. I found the way that the authors focused on the minority more than the majority was skillfully effective at showing how some career paths do not require a college education and that the return in investment would not be worth the cost. Throughout their argument I found the writers to mostly use Logos and Ethos in their writing. The Logos is evident by the way they use statistics and the Ethos by how they state telling someone the only way to be successful is to go to college is a disservice. This is effective at making the reader think about how this should affect the decision of going to college and whether they should push someone to go to

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Recently, many have begun to attack and degrade higher education in the United States. In the book How College Works, authors Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs claim, “As state support has eroded, and as more students attend college in an increasingly desperate attempt to find viable jobs, the price to students of attending an institution of higher education has gone up, especially at more selective institutions” (172). So is college even worth it? Caroline Bird’s excerpt from her book Case Against College “Where College Fails Us” is an adequately written article that agrees with those who question whether college is a good investment. Bird argues that although some students would benefit from college and succeed, many fall short, wasting

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The Greek Philosopher Aristotle identified “The years between puberty and age twenty-one as the formative time for mind and character.” It was customary for young Greek men to attend a series of lectures that resembled our notion of a college “course”(Delbanco 36). Aristotle is a believer of education and the power it has on the development of the young mind. Likewise, he believes college is a place to establish one’s character. Caroline Bird’s essay, “Where College Fails Us,” definitely does not correlate with the opinion of Aristotle.

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In the article, The World Might be Better Off Without College for Education, written by Bryan Caplan, explains how people do not apply what they learned in college into their actual jobs. He mainly focuses his argument on people who are deciding if they want to go to college or not because he is expressing if going to college is actually worth the money being spent. Through the use of rhetorical strategies like testimony, statistics, exemplification, and authority they help the audience have a clearer understanding of his argument. Throughout the article Caplan uses testimony to prove to high schoolers that a lot of people do not apply what they learn in college to their jobs.

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As a college student who is currently spending thousands of dollars to further my education and achieve a career goal, it was, at first, disheartening to read Caroline Bird ’s essay “College is a Waste of Time and Money”. However, after thoroughly examining her points, I now see that her essay is illogical. In her piece “College is a Waste of Time and Money”, Caroline Bird argues against the idea that “college is the best place for all high-school graduates” (1); in other words, college isn’t for everyone. Throughout her writing, Bird supplies her readers with evidence that explains how, for some individuals, college is a waste of not only time and money, but of intellectual effort, as well.

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People believe students who go to college have intelligence more than students who’s in the work field after high school. UCLA Professor Mike Rose explain intelligence should not be measure by the level of school students completed and students can be successful in the work field or without finish school. In fact, Rose used his mother as an example of students might have intelligence without finish school. For instance, his mother drop off school in middle school who is a waitress at the coffee shop she has intelligence to memorize all the customer. According to Rose “he observe and studied the working habits of blue-collar job workers and have come to

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955 Words | 4 Pages

In my opinion, I agree with Murray’s claim that four year college is not worth, job satisfaction for intrinsic reward, and the dark side of the Bachelor's degree. In my view, Murray’s is right, because college requires student to take 32 courses in four years or longer and not all courses are relate to the field they study with. More specifically, I believe that four years college will take more time to achieve our goal and knowledges doesn’t teach us how to make a living in our society. Murray described in his article, “More people should be getting the basic of a liberal education. But for most students, the places to provide those basics are elementary and middle school” (235).

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In “Are Too Many People Going to College?” Charles Murray offers his opinion on the number of students that pursue a B.A. He believes that two year or four year colleges are not needed for a majority of students who could instead pursue other life paths. He discusses the ability for the general knowledge needed to be learned in primary and secondary school, and for a lessened need for a “brick-and-mortar” institution the problems with the current secondary and higher educational issues including the lessened need to acquire a B.A. All members of society need certain skills in order to be productive members of society. They need to know general facts about the country they live in, general history, and general geography.

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482 Words | 2 Pages

In my opinion, the author is stating that all the statistics should be laid out for the student and left up to them to decide if they are interested in pursuing college. In sum, then, the issue is whether college is worth the time or money. Though I concede that college is pricey and can consume a lot of your time, my view is that college is the best option after high school. Writers of article “Should Everyone go to college” suggest three main reasons as to why high school students should think twice before attending college.

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898 Words | 4 Pages

If a person’s parent or guardian drilled the idea of college into your head, or if they told you ‘do what you want’ or ‘I don 't care’, or ‘You’re not going’. While college is great, there are other means of education. The value of college is a low because there are people who do not qualify for a college education, and also because there are other ways of post-secondary education other than college. College is not valuable because many people will not make it into a 2 or 4-year college, much less graduate from one. To support this, in the article Why College Isn 't For Everyone, it says, “As a general rule, I would use graduates in the top quarter of their class at a high-quality high school should go on to a four-year degree program, while those in the bottom quarter of their classes at a high school with a mediocre educational reputation should not.”

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(Berger, 2013)According to a sociologist at New York University, Richard Arum, 64% of students show improvement in critical after four years in college. They do not learn what they want to. They have to attend classes that have little or nothing to do with their major. (Allen,

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Even though people may be earning more with a college degree, they still suffer the burden of paying off extraordinarily high debts. This means less money is being saved for themselves. Another negative is that people may not have chosen the correct major. In Source F, only, “55%,” of people believed that their major helped them. This concludes that a high percentage of people did not believe their major was useful.

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In Charles Murray’s essay “Are Too Many People Going to College,” he believes that the concept of college has changed over the years. According to him, a four-year college is no longer as necessary as it was when it was first created because most jobs requires more on job training. He also adds to his reasoning by mentioning that because of the advancement of internet, physical libraries and the physical proximity of student and teachers is less important. Because of the changes he noticed he believes that people should go to college but not for liberal education. He makes the claim that the basic core knowledge of liberal education should be learned in elementary and middle school and that only people with high academic abilities should be encouraged to go to college.

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