Professor Pica
ENGWR 302
9 December 2014
Reading Response: Why Education is Not an Economic Panacea John Marsh’s article “Why Education is Not an Economic Panacea” argues that education will not solve issue with people facing and/or overcoming poverty. Before reading this article, based on what I was taught in school, I was a strong advocate for in the Horatio Alger’s Myth. Horatio Alger myth is “the belief that due to limitless possibilities anyone can get ahead if or she tries hard enough.” (Heslin 220) This controversial myth was repeated to us over and over because it helped us work harder in school and our day to day chores. In this capitalistic country, United States of America, using Alger’s myth in school can …show more content…
To prove his argument John Marsh observes and takes part of the Odyssey Project by offering night classes with other faculty from the University of Illinois (Marsh 2), which was a higher education opportunity for those who were living in poverty. Of the time he spent his first year completing the Odyssey Project he says that he started out with almost 30 students but only few finished the course. “By the time May rolled around, our graduating class consisted of some 12 people, about half of whom had regularly attended classes, completed the assigned work, and thus deserved to graduate” (Marsh 3) Marshes used his experience to support his claim because about less than half of his students finished. Marsh’s states that’s education is not for everyone, therefore it won’t help poverty. In addition he adds “Some people may escape poverty and low incomes through education, but a problem arises when education becomes the only escape route from those conditions—because that road will very quickly become bottlenecked” (Marsh 8) It helps raise the question is education of how can we help society as a whole escape or prevent from falling into