In Sanford J. Ungar’s article, The New Liberal Arts, he mainly talks about how hard and difficult it is for people to achieve a Liberal Arts Degree. Ungar mostly uses Logos and Ethos, and lists seven common misperception about liberal arts education. Then he precedes to explain why they are not so. Ungar is the President of Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. He is the author of “Fresh Blood: The New American Immigrants” and “Africa: The People and Politics of an Emerging Continent.” Ungar also has worked in broadcast journalism both at National Public Radio and at the Voice of America, the U.S. government-funded broadcast network for a global audience. The purpose of this article is that it recommends a liberal arts college education for …show more content…
He uses his prior reliability to argue the relevance and importance of a liberal arts education. He says there are many common misperception about the Liberal Arts and lists what he believes are the seven biggest misperception of today. Ungar states, “Hard economic times inevitably bring scrutiny of all accepted ideals and institutions, and this time around liberal arts education has been especially hard hit.” He believes the main reason the liberal arts education is under such an attack is because of these misperception. Having accepted his knowledge and experience with the difficulty of a liberal arts education, Ungar makes use of statistics, the structure of his essay, a likeable tone, and the audience’s feelings regarding the recent U.S. economic recession to appeal to his …show more content…
Jobs are looking for you to be well rounded, and having a liberal arts degree opens the door for you to be able to accomplish that. Ungar goes on to explain how there is a misperception about college graduates not being able to find jobs with a liberal arts education. Ungar uses a survey to show that companies actually prefer employees that have the skills and knowledge that a liberal arts education offers. Ungar states that some believe a liberal arts education is unsuccessful. The article prompts the reader to his thoughts on the subject and, therefore, the reader is automatically inclined to believe that what Ungar says is true. The liberal arts involve taking courses and procuring a degree in Arts or Sciences. These courses will be in general areas of study, like philosophy, mathematics, literature and so. A liberal arts education is more helpful than a career education because it proves graduates with a better chance of employment, develop skills that are an advantage globally and locally and, lastly,
Recently, many have begun to attack and degrade higher education in the United States. In the book How College Works, authors Daniel Chambliss and Christopher Takacs claim, “As state support has eroded, and as more students attend college in an increasingly desperate attempt to find viable jobs, the price to students of attending an institution of higher education has gone up, especially at more selective institutions” (172). So is college even worth it? Caroline Bird’s excerpt from her book Case Against College “Where College Fails Us” is an adequately written article that agrees with those who question whether college is a good investment. Bird argues that although some students would benefit from college and succeed, many fall short, wasting
One of the history's greatest figures, Nelson Mandela, once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Over the course of years, this statement has only become more relevant. Maybe that is the reason why the topic of the decline of the American education has been recently spurring such a heated debate among national academic and teaching communities. In “The Chronicle of Higher Education”, Carl Singleton, a faculty member at Fort Hays State University, also presented his reflections concerning the U.S. education system.
Samantha Nyborg LEAP Writing 2011-05 September 15, 2014 Critique Draft Megan McArlde is a journalist and blogger who focuses most of her writing on things like finance, government policy, and economics. In her article “The College Bubble,” a magazine article published in Newsweek on September 17, 2012, McArlde writes about how the “Mythomania about college has turned getting a degree into an American neurosis” (1). She focuses a lot on the value of getting a college education, and makes an argument that all the time and money spent on earning a degree may not be worth it in the end. McArlde uses several strategies to appeal to her reader’s, and does a great job of effectively using the Logos, Pathos, and Ethos appeals throughout her article.
“On the Uses of Liberal Education” written by Mark Edmundson offers this notion that the college network is becoming something more of a pay-n-go than an institute of higher education, students are more disconsolate and looking towards the professors for entertainment. It is becoming less about the education and more about filling seats and acquiring money. Parents could be partially blamed for their children who grow to be too scared to stand up or be criticized, they would rather stay quiet and let the professors be their entertainment. “I want some of them to say that they’ve been changed by the course”, this made me realize that this doesn’t happen enough and I agree with Edmundson that it’s somewhat due to imperturbable students since
The article “Higher Education Has Always Been a Mess” written by Sol Gittleman talks about the roller coaster of a ride that Higher Education has gone on. He starts off saying that in the mid-20th century, academia became idolized, embodying everything great about America while in good times, and yet was still demonized, and embodying everything wrong while times were bad (we still see this today). Today academia is seen as a crazy mixture of both, which in really it is. He then goes on telling the story of how Higher Education came to be in America. After WWII we enjoyed a 30 year golden age, America is still the world leader but it has been lost in the noise, culture, politics and price.
Liz Addison’s essay, “Two Years Better Than Four,” was first published in the New York Times Magazine back in September of 2007. Addison went to two community colleges and majored in biology; earning her degree in 2008. In her essay, she is responding to Rick Perlstein's article “What’s the Matter with College?” in which he claims, “College as America used to understand it is coming to an end” (211). Addison refutes Perlstein’s claims by saying, “My guess, reading between the lines, is that Mr. Perlstein has never set foot in an American community college” (212).
He argues that education aims to provide freedom - freedom in choosing in what way to construct thoughts. As reported by Keohane in “The Liberal Arts as Guideposts in the 21st Century” (2013), liberal arts education contributes to freedom of expressing oneself. It develops skills which help to autonomously choose how the mind perceives information and how it helps to shape the ideas. Thus, the liberal arts education opens up the eyes to new perspectives and helps one to have a critical and reasonable approach to different issues. Wallace argues that the positive outcome of education should lead people to understand the significance of leading purposeful lives with less arrogance.
Today, in the era of big data, machinery, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), it is common to hear that liberal arts degrees and humanities majors are, well, comparatively worthless. Edward Conard, the author of the essay "We don't need more humanities majors", stands by this idea and argues that individuals with degrees in the STEM fields contribute far more to the economy and society than those who major and get degrees in the humanities/liberal arts field. This is actually not the case. Humanities help us understand people through their histories, cultures, and language with majors having an emphasis on languages, literature, music, art, and philosophy. Without humanities, we would not have been able to progress
Ungar he says “the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that more than three-quarters of our nation’s employers recommended that college bound students pursue a liberal education… 89 percent said they were looking for the ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing… and develop better critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills” (228). Since more employers is looking for employees with skills that a liberal education provides they would have a better advantage over the employee who didn’t gain those similar
Liberal Arts Self-Assessment There are many benefits to achieving a Liberal Arts education. A Liberal Arts education provides the learner with a broad range of information to help guide them in a direction that create intellectual growth. Liberal Arts cover a wide range of subjects and creates a solid foundation for many other areas of study. A Liberal Arts education teaches you how to think, learn, see things as a whole, makes you a better communicator, and problem solver. A Liberal Arts education is the most important factor in creating critically thinking, well rounded interesting individuals.
Going to college for many students is just a normal part of life. It is what will enable them to get an education that eventually will lead to get a well-paid job and the resources and the status to live a comfortable life. But for college professor, Andrew Delbanco, the American college has a higher purpose. In the article “College at Risk”, Delbanco states that colleges should be promoting critical thinking among students, through knowledge of the past and the interaction with each other; as well as, help them discover their talents and passions and figure out what they want to do in life. This type of education is called liberal arts and for Delbanco, it represents the ideal education.
“3 Reasons College Still Matters” by Andrew Delbanco 3) “Surely, every American college ought to defend this waning possibility, whatever we call it. And an American college is only true to itself when it opens its doors to all - the rich, the middle, and the poor - who have the capacity to embrace the precious chance to think and reflect before life engulfs them. If we are all serious about democracy, that means everyone.” 4) In this part of the writing Andrew Delbanco tries to persuade his audience by using the pattern of logic that agrees with the overall argument but also considers another striking point of view to strengthen the argument (While these arguments are convincing, they must also consider…).
In “Are Too Many People Going to College?” Charles Murray offers his opinion on the number of students that pursue a B.A. He believes that two year or four year colleges are not needed for a majority of students who could instead pursue other life paths. He discusses the ability for the general knowledge needed to be learned in primary and secondary school, and for a lessened need for a “brick-and-mortar” institution the problems with the current secondary and higher educational issues including the lessened need to acquire a B.A. All members of society need certain skills in order to be productive members of society. They need to know general facts about the country they live in, general history, and general geography.
Gerald Graff’s argument on how educational systems are missing a great opportunity to tap into “street smarts” and focus them into a path of academic work is indeed convincing (Graff, 198). After all, anyone who’s been through the American educational system knows odds are often stacked against the “street smarts.” This is especially true in english classes, where one is often required to read boring and somewhat heartless books like, 1984, Beowulf, and the majority of Shakespeare’s classics. This is not to say these books are bad or shouldn’t be read during one’s schooling years, instead, the problem is one of apathy. For instance, in my high school years I never even remotely liked to read books Othello, but I loved to read magazines and
Going forward a liberal arts education will be key for me to attain my goals. Specifically a Hollins liberal arts education. I am interested in pursuing pre-law, creative writing, art, and equine studies. At a typical technical based studies program I would be unable to study and learn what I 'm passionate about. It has been said that if you choose a job you love you will never have to work another day, and I fully intend to live my life with zeal doing what I love and am truly passionate about, and a liberal arts education will help me achieve that.