Over the years, there has been an ongoing debate about “street smarts” and “book smarts” throughout the world. Many people side with either or for their own personal reasons. Although “street smarts” has developed a poor reputation which pushes people to neglect the positive aspects of this particular way of learning. In the article, “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff evaluates the structure schools use to teach literature. He explains that intellect is not only found in the academic form of thinking.
All Americans don’t have an equal opportunity to succeed; inheritance laws provide built in privileges to the offspring of the wealthy, which just adds to the likelihood of their success (Colombo 392). In Gregory Mantsios article “Class in America,” he states that the social class you are in affects how you will succeed in school, relating to test scores and the level of schooling that you receive; thus determining how the rest of your life will turn out. He highlights many other beliefs that are broadly held about social classes and rebuts them using statistical evidence. Mantsios believes that the class a person resides in will determine their future more than he or she is willing to admit. Mantsios communicates that social class is prevalent in America, however I believe that it doesn’t determine a person’s fate.
In the essay “Should everyone go to college?” by Owen and Sawhill published in They Say I Say, Owen and Sawhill talks about how people with a degree benefits more than someone without a degree. After reading the essay, the author proved me to be right with the amount of success that comes with having a college degree versus a high school diploma. Individuals with a college degree beat an individual without a college degree in every category. Although, Owen and Sawhill speaks about the benefits of having a college degree, the authors do not think college is for everyone.
The New Liberal Arts- Summary In the article, “The New Liberal Arts,” author Sanford J. Ungar addresses several misperceptions that people have about the importance of Liberal arts education in today’s world. In doing so, he highlights seven misperceptions that people have and then provides a logical correction to them. In his article, the first misperception claims that people should focus more on career education rather than liberal arts education. On contrary, Ungar argues that the society today, demand individual’s who have preparation in all fields, which liberal arts provide.
The United States has become more and more of a capitalist society, meaning that they are more focused on money. They pressure students to go to college and look down on those who decide not to and make it appear that the only way to a higher social-economic status is to get into a good school. In the story Why College Isn’t (And Shouldn’t Have to Be) For Everyone, The author, Robert Reich uses comparison to support his claim that college isn’t for everyone, he relies on perspective to convince his audience that we should provide alternative ways to get good jobs. To support his claim that college isn’t for everyone he explains that not every student’s dream is to have 4 more years of education after high school, that they would prefer to do other things. He compares this to the pressures that are put on them to go to school anyways when he states,” They feel compelled to go to college because they’ve been told over and over that a college degree is necessary.”
Sanford J. Ungar’s “The New Liberal Arts” discusses the common assumptions made about a liberal arts education and how they are often wrong. Ungar believes that a liberal arts education is important for all students and teaches them skills they will not learn elsewhere. He also insists other countries, such as China, should adopt America’s liberal arts system, he says, “The Chinese may be coming around to the view that a primary focus on technical training is not serving them adequately-that if they aspire to world leadership, they will have to provide young people with a broader perspective” (Ungar 231). In other words, Ungar believes only a proper liberal arts education can help students achieve an open mind. Though I concede that a liberal
In his article, “The New Liberal Arts,” Sanford J Ungar argues that a Liberal Arts degree can help one become a more creative, well-rounded person. Common misconceptions based off of perceived value of liberal arts, the cost of getting an education in such, and politics of liberal Democrats contend otherwise, but each of these are refuted. In Ungar’s opinion the first argument against liberal arts, that it has no value, is disproven because liberal arts inspires creativity. This aids students in their chosen career, whether it be in the arts or the sciences, by helping them think in different ways. Furthermore, by being able to think in divergent ways they are more attractive to potential employers.
The value of the STEM system (science, technology, engineering, and math) is steering the education world in a new and positive direction, although some may believe otherwise. In Lloyd Bentsen’s article, “the United States educational system will continue to fail our children,” he talks about how he disagrees with Zakaria, another writer stating his views on the STEM system. Bentsen believes the STEM system will benefit America. In Scott Gerber’s article, “How Liberal Arts Colleges Are Failing America,” he talks about how people can correlate their majors into entrepreneurship. Lastly, in Fareed Zakaria’s article, “Why America’s obsession with STEM education is dangerous,” he shares his belief that our obsession with STEM is just a way to overlook
In the article “Why We Undervalue a Liberal Arts Education” by Adam Chapnick, the author points to reasons why the liberal arts degree is undervalued. While his article lacks direction, it is effective because he talks about the topics he promised and he backs up his claims efficiently through the use of ethos,pathos and logos. Overall his argument is legitimate and the article is well written. To my understanding, the article is analyzing the way the world looks at liberal arts degrees and how they should be teaching the students to appreciate them. Chapnick clearly thinks that the liberal arts degree is unappreciated by today’s society as you can see in this quote, “The message coming from the policy world is clear: if you want
The article, “Why we undervalue a liberal arts education” By Adam Chapnick written on March 6, 2013 is informative and insightful because the author talks about the importance of not undervaluing liberal arts. Chapnick tells you that at the end of the day science, technology, engineering and mathematics is what is really important. One of Adam Chapnick main idea is that the large public does not get the value of liberal arts. That it has no money value, it is just important.
The article “Liberal Arts and The Bottom Line” by Lane Wallace suggests that business executives that are being taught more liberal art based courses will be taught how to be a well-rounded human being. Instead of being all about what Wallace refers to as the bottom line, which can do great harm to the economy and the company’s employees, it is presented that business executives that took liberal arts courses are less concerned about the business bottom line and more about the well-being of the people around them. Wallace’s argument that liberal arts shapes a person into a more well-rounded human being is not effectively supported in the article. Being a business executive comes with the responsibility of trying to increase its profits.
My understanding of the “American Dream” is a concept of migrating to the United States, starting from scratch, and becoming rich and successful by working hard. But after reading Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell change my perspective of the “American Dream” by providing the idea of luck and opportunity playing a major factor in one 's success. Almost all the success story of the immigrant in the book was by opportunity because of birth, chance by cultural background and circumstances. Gladwell changed my view of how the “American Dream” is accomplished, not solely by hard work, but luck and opportunity are what factor into someone accomplishing the “American Dream”. Reading Outliers, the main thesis or central premise of Gladwell on why some people
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, the author uses various pieces of symbols to portray a certain message. Jem and Scout are not too fond of Mrs. Dubose, a character who they perceive to be very discourteous. As the chapter progresses, Jem decides to make unwise choices in regards to his hatred towards Mrs. Dubose, which led to him having to perform certain tasks that were assigned to him, such as reading a book to her, as a punishment. Jem learns from his mistakes and realizes that he should always cherish everything that is to come, after it is too late–when Mrs. Dubose passed away. The theme of To Kill a Mockingbird is that one should always fight and work for what they want, regardless of the amount of time
High school seniors are faced with a wide variety of decisions as they approach graduation. They must decide whether or not they are going to attend college, begin working, or do something else. If they do decide to attend college, they also must decide whether to pursue a liberal arts education or a vocational one. A liberal arts education primarily includes a collection of different classes and topics students can choose to take and study. A vocational route will mainly educate students on their specific intended career.
Sue Taylor states that there are two types of classification
