What Is College for?
“What is College For?” – The Review
In the article, “What Is College For? (Part 2)” written by Gary Gutting we see a description of his ideal vision to improve education and the intellectual culture of our citizens. Mr. Gutting emphasizes that preparing students for employment should be the job of the elementary, middle and high school rather than college. He argues that higher education is basically unnecessary for the practice of many professions. At the beginning of this article he states “colleges and universities are primarily vehicles for the preservation, development and transmission of our intellectual culture (scientific, humanistic and artistic).” He then goes on to explain that we expect colleges and universities to provide students with the necessary skills that they need to find well-paying jobs but the humongous cost of education leaves most of these students with burdening levels of debt. He says that college prepares students with basic intellectual skills like the ability to understand complex instructions, write and speak professionally, or as in his own words “earning a college degree shows that you have the ‘moral qualities’ needed for most jobs”(Par. #3) However; he argues that it is unnecessary to go through years of college to obtain this sort of knowledge; he affirms that this is rather “the sort of training that ought to result from good elementary and high school education.” (Par. #4) He thinks that college should only be for specialized occupations like medicine or accounting, or for those who would like to gain intellectual culture, we would “see college as the entrée to intellectual culture for everyone who is capable of and interested in working at that level of intellectual engagement. But an adequate high school education should be of sufficient quality to make graduates competitive for a wide range of meaningful jobs.” (Par. #11) Mr. Gutting also makes a point that teaching is not the profession of choice anymore, the best
In the article, “What Is College For? (Part 2)” written by Gary Gutting we see a description of his ideal vision to improve education and the intellectual culture of our citizens. Mr. Gutting emphasizes that preparing students for employment should be the job of the elementary, middle and high school rather than college. He argues that higher education is basically unnecessary for the practice of many professions. At the beginning of this article he states “colleges and universities are primarily vehicles for the preservation, development and transmission of our intellectual culture (scientific, humanistic and artistic).” He then goes on to explain that we expect colleges and universities to provide students with the necessary skills that they need to find well-paying jobs but the humongous cost of education leaves most of these students with burdening levels of debt. He says that college prepares students with basic intellectual skills like the ability to understand complex instructions, write and speak professionally, or as in his own words “earning a college degree shows that you have the ‘moral qualities’ needed for most jobs”(Par. #3) However; he argues that it is unnecessary to go through years of college to obtain this sort of knowledge; he affirms that this is rather “the sort of training that ought to result from good elementary and high school education.” (Par. #4) He thinks that college should only be for specialized occupations like medicine or accounting, or for those who would like to gain intellectual culture, we would “see college as the entrée to intellectual culture for everyone who is capable of and interested in working at that level of intellectual engagement. But an adequate high school education should be of sufficient quality to make graduates competitive for a wide range of meaningful jobs.” (Par. #11) Mr. Gutting also makes a point that teaching is not the profession of choice anymore, the best