Education or Entrapment?

  Welcome gentle reader to another discussion of one of life's biggest scams, education. 

In today’s world, education has immensely changed for the worse. The cost has skyrocketed, the value has plummeted, and the class sizes have doubled. When people search for higher education they expect nothing but the best for the price they are paying, literally and figuratively. Instead students are either graduating or not graduating college exceeding nothing but stress on their plates. This is because of the government, life, and the University/ professors themselves. 

As a college student myself I know it can be difficult to keep your eye on the prize, which is finishing that said college of course. One can give up, get distracted by other activities, or even drop out of a class or school all together. This is why we should hold the professors somewhat accountable for each and every student to make sure that doesn’t happen. As stated by Hacker and Dreifus “Engage all students… colleges should demand good teaching. They must become conscientious, caring, and attentive to every corner of their classroom.” ( Hacker; Dreifus 180). Not every student goes to make an effort to get the extra help they need. Some may suffer in silence or need someone to come to them and say, “hey i'm here for you when you need me come to my office at this time”.

Why does it always have to be the student seeking for help, two’s a team. This is something difficult for students in the documentary “The Ivory Tower”. The Universities “study hours” are somewhat of a joke. The study is kept minimal because of the office capacity size and the amount of “help” provided isn’t one on one, this can cause a student to definitely not want to seek help due to the high volume and fast paced work area.

In the article “The New Liberal Arts” the author touches base on what's important when it comes to higher education and what he has to say makes a great point, “ The best way to understand genuine national priorities is to follow the money, and by that standard, education is really not all that important to this country.” (Ungar 195).When it comes to receiving a higher education you want the teachings of information that is new, reformed, up to date. Not something that was taught generations ago that may or may not still be true. There is so much more to learn in this world yet American schools are kept at bay because the funds for new school books for example aren’t being given. Apparently there are more important things in the world than education. 

Something I realized about achieving a higher education is after it's said and done the race doesn’t stop. Life goes on with the degree you attained and that's when the real stress kicks in. In the Kenyon Commencement Speech Author David Wallace makes a great point, he states, “ It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge , and everything to do with simple awareness… It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out.” (Wallace 209.) It’s easy to get lost in the routine of adulthood. Everyone says once you finish school it will all be worth it, but is it really? You're still hanging on to the fact that you have to wake up and meet certain requirements of life or a job which means you always have to be up to par. You have to try to find time for yourself because self care is number one. And let's not get started on money issues if you have them, everything is like a never ending circle of hell.