Preview

Edmundson On The Uses Of Liberal Education Summary

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
229 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Edmundson On The Uses Of Liberal Education Summary
Sarika Khanal
Professor Richard Sutther
ENG 122
02 October 2017
Rewriting Edmundson’s On the Uses of Liberal Education
We are being sold in Education
American universities are committed to consumerism due to which students are not much motivated for learning. They have lost their enthusiasm for knowledge. Students have become university’s consumers and in order to keep their customer, universities have started to invest their funds in material things then to improve quality of education. They give students what they want like better dorms, lounges, more equipment in the gym and so on. Even professors have become more enjoyable then tricky and challenging so that that could get good evaluations from the students. Consumerism ethos has totally
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Academically Adrift Summary
    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page

    Academically Adrift Summary

    As of today United States faces a lot of socio-economic problems. One of the most critical is the alarming rise of college tuition. Universities are operating more like businesses than actually higher learning institutions, student population not being ready to take college level classes (remedial), numbers College graduates are in a constant plummet, and students demonstrate no improvement in skills ranging from critical thinking to writing. In the book Academically Adrift, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa discuss these issues and also propose us how we can solve these problems that require imminent action. This book is an extensive research by these authors to demonstrate what is wrong with American University systems, to support their research…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Analysis Of Mark Edmundson's Essay 'Why Teach?'
    • 1447 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Analysis Of Mark Edmundson's Essay 'Why Teach?'

    He talks specifically about the “buyer’s market” known as college, and how its recent changes now “serve . . . the students” (14). Similarly to his previous section, logos is apparent here, more so than any other rhetoric appeal. His claim that universities are “customer driven” in order to survive in an “ever more competitive market” is his main point, and he shapes this claim based on the evidence of not only America’s history and the expansion of its universities, but also how the universities and even departments are collapsing to the whims of the students and their tuition-paying parents (12). Universities have begun to appeal to students not by offering them a thought-provoking and stimulating education and proposing to them what sort of people they will shape out of those willing to learn, but by enticing students with the promise of the fun social activities they will have available to them once they are released from their boring…

    • 1447 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of On The Uses Of The Liberal Education By Mark Edmundson
    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Summary Of On The Uses Of The Liberal Education By Mark Edmundson

    Mark Edmundson is a professor of English at the University of Virginia additionally, he is the author of the article “On the Uses of the Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students.” In the article, he describes how the students perk up during the evaluation of him as a teacher. The student evaluations commend him as being interesting and humerous which leads him into the rant about what he thinks of college students today. The article describes students as having “little passion and little fire” and indicates their more devoted to “consumption and entertainment.” Edmundson argues students education would be more effective if it is treated as a privilege rather than a commodity.…

    • 940 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Can This Campus Be Bought By Jennifer Croissant
    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Can This Campus Be Bought By Jennifer Croissant

    The number of students pursuing a higher education has increased over the last few decades. Universities are creating new innovate ways to accommodate the increase in students attending. As a result, many academic intuitions are commercializing. Commercialization is the process of managing something for financial gain. Many corporations commercialize with organizations to make a profit. For this reason, many corporations are now commercializing in universities to expand their businesses. In fact, colleges can gain profit from collaborating with commercial interests. In “Can This Campus Be Bought?” by Jennifer L. Croissant, she discusses commercialization in academic institutions. Jennifer L. Croissant is an associate professor at the University of Arizona. She proposes that commercialization is negatively affecting universities. She uses this claim to support how students and education are impacted by commercial restraints.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mark Edmundson: Student Customer Metaphor
    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Mark Edmundson: Student Customer Metaphor

    In Edmundson’s introduction, He states “through the last decade of the twentieth century, American higher education changed”(Pg. 1). Colleges and Universities somehow shifted their objectives from being driven on education and students to operating more like a business. They sought money, and a very prestigious name that would lure incoming students to them. Since the nineties, colleges and universities have seemed to be putting profits ahead of actual education and student success. Edmundson states that this may have started in the mid 60’s and 70’s when the American birthrate began to decline. When these kids where ready for college, there were simply not enough to…

    • 1228 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Analysis Of Tom Nichols's 'The Death Of Expertise'
    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Analysis Of Tom Nichols's 'The Death Of Expertise'

    University degrees are commonly expected these days which is replacing high school diplomas. Everyone in this generation thinks that going to university is a must, which raises their standards. Nichols discusses that American universities are killing the abilities of the students as he states: “The most important of these intellectual capabilities, and the one most under attack in American universities is critical thinking” (72). Relationship between students and professors is very informal these days and that is why students hesitate to ask any question to their professors, but they communicate with them through email, no matter how simple the question is. Nichols mentions that in early times, high school diplomas was the requirement for the jobs but nowadays it is replaced by a master’s degree and because of this, students are going through a financial crisis. He states that “Students are going broke running around in this educational hamster wheel, without learning much” (75). Nichols argues that American universities should be seen as the place form where students can get higher education, but students are seeing universities as a place where they can spend their four years with their friends and enjoy their life as Nichols expresses that “They…

    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing Cooper And Du Bois Ideas Of A Liberal Arts Education
    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Comparing Cooper And Du Bois Ideas Of A Liberal Arts Education

    Cooper also advocated for educating adults because she planed to make them literate and through literacy they could move from unskilled labour into skilled labour positions, which would improve their social advancement in society. Cooper’s ideas were closely tied to Du Bois’ ideas of a liberal arts education because she believed that a liberal arts education was a tool for self-improvement and social change among the Black community. Cooper believed that when adults pursued a liberal arts education they had potential to undermine the oppressive white power structure in the Jim Crow South and it was possible that they would be able to rupture the dominant ideas and promote an alternative system of ideas and values. Cooper believed that a liberal…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why did the activism of the 60's have such a lasting impact on college campuses?"
    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Why did the activism of the 60's have such a lasting impact on college campuses?"

    The middle of the 1960’s approached and nearly six million students attended college in America. This tremendous increase in attending higher education forced institutions to grown, and quickly. Size changed how Universities operated. Instead of becoming more welcoming and homey, they transformed into unfriendly and bureaucratic. With the sudden growth in student body, American universities lacked the proper facilities. With few dormitories, students were housed in “student communities” surrounding their…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Are Colleges Worth The Price Of Admission Summary
    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Are Colleges Worth The Price Of Admission Summary

    In the article, “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?” by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, the authors did research on several colleges around the country to see whether our investment on higher education is really worth the money that we pay for it. The authors believe that universities are the ones responsible for the doubling of tuition costs compared to what they used to be , and not fulfilling the most important objective to student’s which is: “to challenge the minds of young people” (180). In the article, Hacker and Dreifus outline some things they think would help improve some of the problems in the college system and a few universities that they like, and tell us why these schools have won their favor. Being an incoming freshman at Grambling State University, I’ve been able to see some of the issues universities can have from budget cuts, to problems with the G-men football team.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Essay
    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    Regarding these businesses, such as Barnes & Noble and Starbucks, having a dominant presence on campus Lugo Lugo states, “It is no surprise that college students behave not like people seeking a higher form of knowledge but like customers of academia. They walk into the bookstore as customers, and they walk into my classroom, latte in hand, as customer as well” (195). Describing how student attitudes morph her role, she says that “[t]rying to accommodate the I like it better this way or I like it better that way turn professors into customer service representatives…” (196). More than customer service representatives, I feel it almost turns them into a wait staff at a restaurant; students being the fussy guests. If students function under the assumption that the sole purpose of an educator is to cater to each and every whim, rather than provide a chance for them to grow academically and personally, then I believe they’ve missed the mark entirely. A college education is much like employment in that you’re there to gain experience, not to be served. However, when faced with the realization that society does in fact seem to have a heavy focus on shopping, it is not surprising that universities have turned into “a shopping mall” with the professors view as the retail employees…

    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Mark Edmundson On The Uses Of A Liberal Education Analysis
    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Mark Edmundson On The Uses Of A Liberal Education Analysis

    Mark Edmundson’s essay, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education,” was published in Harper’s magazine in the fall of 1997. Edmundson begins the article by giving us a glimpse into his own experiences teaching. He speaks on how, he dreads evaluation day at the end of each term, he feels he is being reviewed more on his entertaining ability and less on if the student felt changed by his course. Near the end of the article, Edmundson states, “My overall point is this: It’s not that a left-wing professional coup has taken over the university. It’s that at American universities, left-liberal politics have collided with the ethos of consumerism. The consumer ethos is winning.” (pg. 48) This article is about how the younger generation has been raised with…

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Best Essays

    The Decline of Popularity of College in America
    • 1513 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Decline of Popularity of College in America

    College education, in general, is a very controversial topic amongst society mainly in America. The articles “The Purpose of Higher Education” by Richard Kahlenberg of The Chronicle of Higher Education and “America’s Most Overrated Product: The Bachelor’s Degree” by Marty Nemko also of The Chronicle of Higher Education both address these issues associated with college education. Colleges have become a business, often times seeing students as revenue instead of students wishing to learn (Nemko 2). College are building towering, very elaborate buildings, and creating a website that shows everything the college has to offer but leaves one important aspect out: it’s rate at getting college graduates jobs, how much a student learns, and really spends at that institution. College isn’t connecting with its students’ who attend as it once did. Very large lecture classes are a main contributor to the separation of professor and student. This is causing roughly 44.6 percent of students’ nationwide to become dissatisfied with the quality of education they are receiving (Nemko 2). Also, approximately 43.5 percent of students’ nationwide are frequently reporting that they found themselves being bored in class in surveys from the Higher Education Research Institute at the Univ. of California at Los Angeles (Nemko 2). Nemko adds, “A 2006 study supported by Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below “proficient” levels on a test that required them to do such basic tasks as understanding the arguments of newspaper editorials or compare credit-card offers” (2). Despite the inabilities for colleges to produce well rounded, qualified individuals, they are constantly being given more taxpayers dollars and allowed to raise tuitions (Nemko 2). According to Nemko, “College should be held at least as accountable as tire companies are” meaning that…

    • 1513 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Essay On Liberal Arts Education
    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Essay On Liberal Arts Education

    I received your letter wondering how a liberal arts education would benefit a medical student. This is a very common debate that has come up lately. A liberal arts education is something that most colleges are beginning to require. There are many factors that come into play when talking about a liberal arts education, especially when relating that education to the schooling of a medical student. The two types of education are drastically diverse, yet both are vital to have a durable career in the future. Some believe that an education in the liberal arts is very important to a career, but others believe that the skills needed to perform for that career is what the most important.…

    • 1505 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    America Is Still on Top
    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages

    America Is Still on Top

    American universities currently do a better job overall at preparing students for the society. Vartan…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Essay
    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Summary Essay

    Throughout the essay Young compares universities in the past to universities present. He notes similarities and differences that he has noticed and uses this to inform his readers about significant change. Comparisons made from past and present univeristies allow Young to justify his belief that universities are in fact changing. “However, in spite of marked differences, there are similarities between what happened then and what is happening today,...then the dogma of religion, now the dogma of business-threatening to change the activities of the community of teachers and scholars” (217). He believes that universities in the past were focused on student interests and suggests that present universities are interested with profit that can be made through commercialization.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More