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Summary Of For Most People College Is A Waste Of Time

2121 Words9 Pages

Hannah Musgrave
Dr. Lucie Biddinger
English 112
19 Feb. 2023
“For Most People, College is a Waste of Time” In an article written by Charles Murray published in the Fall 2008 issue of Annuals of American Psychotherapy, he takes the stance of persuading individuals that the post-secondary education system, otherwise known as college, should be abolished in favor of a certification testing system. Murray’s article includes noticeable features that, when analyzed, are a clear sign for his purpose of writing this piece. Not only does it state that it is an opinion piece, but the author uses bias statements as well as certain individual bias words, and he also gives information of a best possible solution to this apparent “problem.” Charles Murray’s …show more content…

Murray describes, “Everyone in every occupation starts as an apprentice. Those who are good enough become journeymen. The best become master craftsmen. This is as true of business executives and history professors as of chefs and welders.” (pg.2) He expresses his thoughts that no matter the completion of obtaining a BA or not, everyone starts at the same, lowest level in the workplace. Charles Murray sets out a problem for readers to ponder, while at the same time proposing a possible solution that he believes to be the correct …show more content…

From a surface level, it seems as if Charles Murray presents a logical solution to a problem with a valuable argument to back it up. Diving deeper, I realized that this was far from the case. Not only do I not agree that the traditional college system should be completely abolished, but Murray presents a very weak argument to attempt and justify his conclusion. I do not agree with Murray because there are many careers in the world where education plays an extremely important role. For example, doctors go through years upon years of education, learning everything from the littlest things about the body to the way that those things should be treated. Careers like this are the very thing that Murray forgets to take into consideration before proposing a solution to this so called “problem.” Murray, throughout his piece, uses undefined key terms, logical fallacies, lack of consideration, and no cited sources to provide factual support. Murray gives absolutely no reason to why people should believe him if they were truly interested in something such as

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