Where Did Charles Murrays' Logic Go?
Where did Charles Murrays’ Logic Go?
In the article by Charles Murray, “Are Too Many People Going to College?”, Murray raises interesting and controversial topics. Murray is suggesting that maybe school counselors should not encourage every student to attend a four year university for their B.A.. Instead that they should only encourage those students that are in the correct percentile in linguistics and that their career goals require them to do so. Murray also, believes that a student should not try to acquire a B.A. based on economic grounds, but that they should go with what they really want to do instead. He also believes that children should receive all their core knowledge in their K-8th grade years. Although I agree with Charles Murray up to a point, I cannot accept his overriding assumption that all college students are 18 year olds fresh out of high school. And even more so I disagree with Murray’s suggestion for high school guidance counselors and his thoughts on maturity.
By Murray focusing on the assumption that the target group is 18 year olds fresh out of high school, Murray overlooks an important and ever growing group of students, which are the non-traditional students. Many of these students have not been in school in years, maybe only had a few years of high school, or like me had no high school at all and received a G.E.D. instead. Therefore, these students are missing valuable skills that are an asset for a college student such as writing and studying skills. As a non-traditional student and after reading Charles Murrays’ article and analyzing his thoughts and opinions on these young students, I can’t help but wonder what his thoughts and opinions are of us. Do we even fit within his narrow sights? Do we have a right to be here? These are a few of the questions that I would like for Murray to address, but since he doesn’t even consider that there are other age groups enrolled in college then we will have to wait until he realizes his
In the article by Charles Murray, “Are Too Many People Going to College?”, Murray raises interesting and controversial topics. Murray is suggesting that maybe school counselors should not encourage every student to attend a four year university for their B.A.. Instead that they should only encourage those students that are in the correct percentile in linguistics and that their career goals require them to do so. Murray also, believes that a student should not try to acquire a B.A. based on economic grounds, but that they should go with what they really want to do instead. He also believes that children should receive all their core knowledge in their K-8th grade years. Although I agree with Charles Murray up to a point, I cannot accept his overriding assumption that all college students are 18 year olds fresh out of high school. And even more so I disagree with Murray’s suggestion for high school guidance counselors and his thoughts on maturity.
By Murray focusing on the assumption that the target group is 18 year olds fresh out of high school, Murray overlooks an important and ever growing group of students, which are the non-traditional students. Many of these students have not been in school in years, maybe only had a few years of high school, or like me had no high school at all and received a G.E.D. instead. Therefore, these students are missing valuable skills that are an asset for a college student such as writing and studying skills. As a non-traditional student and after reading Charles Murrays’ article and analyzing his thoughts and opinions on these young students, I can’t help but wonder what his thoughts and opinions are of us. Do we even fit within his narrow sights? Do we have a right to be here? These are a few of the questions that I would like for Murray to address, but since he doesn’t even consider that there are other age groups enrolled in college then we will have to wait until he realizes his
Cited: Murray, Charles. “Are Too Many People Going To College?” They Say/I say with Readings. Ed Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and Russell Durst. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 222-42. Print