Charles Murray's Should The Obama Generation Drop Out?

In his article published in the New York Times in 2008, "Should the Obama Generation Drop Out?," Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality in 2008, questions the importance some employers give to a 4-year degree as a job qualification instead of judging abilities students have learned because of their experience or certificates earned related to their studies. Murray implies that President Obama may use his “bully pulpit”, which is the ability to express beliefs and ideas with people, to change the vision of 4-degre as a job requirement. Moreover, he states that “colleges have adapted by expanding the range of courses and

According to him, a 4-year degree is just paper, and that “works fine for the children of parents who have plenty of money”(566), but for students who do not, their experience may play a major role. He argues that those students want satisfactory work with good pay: this generally requires higher education, but “it need not mean four years on a campus, nor cost a small fortune (566)”. Murray states they don’t necessarily need a bachelor’s degree. In Murray’s article, he sympathizes with new students who apply for jobs; he uses pathos to relate how hard it can be for students to put in the time and money necessary to earn a 4-year degree. Also, He demonstrates it by quoting President Obama: “it is what you can do that should count when you apply for a job, not where you learned to do it” (566), and using the term “battle cry”, which means ideals of people promoting a cause. The reason why Murray did it is because he can support his thesis with that sentence. He is trying to point out that it is necessary to solve this