Charles Murray Are Too Many People Going To College

Words: 953
Pages: 4
Open Document
College is an incredibly vital part of many individuals’ future. Charles Murray, a W.H. Brady scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote an essay which is titled “Are Too Many People Going to College?”. This essay came from Murray’s book “Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality” which was published in 2008. The year 2008 was a very important year for students because President Obama was being inaugurated for his first term. During his first campaign, he promised to help give schools incentives for more dropout prevention. Although these incentives helped, Murray states, “More people should be going to college, not fewer. Yes, and no. More people should be getting the basics of a liberal education. …show more content…
Murray writes “More people should be getting the basics of a liberal education. But for most students, the places to provide those basics are elementary and middle school” (235). He goes on about how “Saying ‘too many people are going to college’ is not the same as saying that the average student does not need to know about history, science, and great works of art, music, and literature. They do need to know…but let’s not wait for college to do it” (237). Murray makes a valid point, but when students reach the point where they are able to grasp the concepts of these subjects, they are going through the toughest times of their lives. Lillian Wade, a writer for Our Everyday Life, discusses the experiments of a professor of physiology named Sheryl Smith. Wade reports, “Scientists have found that there is a decline in proficiency relating to learning new and unfamiliar things during puberty. The reasons are not clear yet, but experiments carried out on mice by Sheryl Smith…have revealed biochemical changes in mice as they performed a difficult test” (Wade “How Does Puberty Affect Learning in Adolescents?”). Puberty happens during middle and high school. These students are getting distracted by their friends, significant others, and their smartphones. When students get to college, they are at a point in their lives where they are able to soak in the information given to them. This is why students should be pushed into going to college. They are at the peak of their lives where they are getting more mature. They are able to grasp the new information they are given in college and because of President Obama’s promise to help lower the dropout rate, more high school students are taking the opportunities and going to
Show More

Related Documents: Charles Murray Are Too Many People Going To College

Argumentive Essay Education

Many young people see going to school as a chore and only go because they absolutely have to. Some will even skip school because they see it as boring and unnecessary. In the essays “Kenyon Commencement Speech “by David Foster Wallace and “Are Too Many People Going to College? “by Charles Murray they express two very different opinions about college . David Foster Wallace expresses how everyone needs school high education up to college to succeed. On the other hand Charles Murray believes…

Words 851 - Pages 4

Is College Worth The Price Final Final Essay

Whisenhunt Eng 101 Mcgee 3 December 2014 Is college worth the price? College has many beneficial outcomes. It is easier to get a well-paying job with a college degree, however, with the cost of tuition steadily increasing all of the money one earns from their well-paying job will go to paying off student loans. If the cost of attending a four year university keeps rising, the cons of attending a university will quickly outweigh the pros. It would be smart for people to start looking at other options for…

Words 1479 - Pages 6

Childhood Obesity Essay example

are so many different people who attend college not only in the U.S but around the world. Although college may not be for everyone, it actually helps people become more successful in life in general. In Charles Murray's “What’s Wrong With Vocational School”, he argues that less people should go to college and believes that one’s IQ should determine whether or not they should attend college. I disagree with him and think that this is an ineffective argument. Murray thinks that only people with IQ's…

Words 806 - Pages 4

Essay on Higher education, Waste or Wonderful?

affect far more people than can be counted. Higher education has flaws in it right now, we would all agree with that. So what should be done to improve college? Two people have stated their own opinions on the topic: Charles Murray and David Leonhardt. These two people, as well as myself, all have opinions on what would be the best way to address this problem, but our opinions differ greatly. College is a works fairly well right now, but it could be improved with a few changes. Murray has written…

Words 1617 - Pages 7

Sanford J. Ungar: The Importance Of Higher Education

education can affect more of your personal life than your own career pathway. People with more education and knowledge can open more doors of opportunities than people without a higher education. Of course, there are some exceptions of very successful and wealthy people that did not have too many opportunities to study, but those people have reached their goals and became important without a higher education. College education in the 21st century matters, because it's more than just a degree, it's…

Words 1014 - Pages 5

Are Too Many People Going To College

giving up on college in a moment? Most importantly, why do you think it is worth it to spend four years in a university? Freeman Hrabowski in his article, “College Prepares People for Life,” informs, “College prepares people for jobs, but more critically, it prepares people for life.” Without a degree, it is most likely you will not get the job you desire, will not achieve your goals, and many schools and companies will reject you. Getting a college education guarantees an individual with many benefits…

Words 864 - Pages 4

Higher Education and College Essay

side favors the argument that a college degree will benefit an individual’s financial well-being. On the other end of the debate, the second side is the concern on the debt increase for college graduates. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics, for example, states that the unemployment rate in 2012 was 7.l7%. This is the percentage of Americans who did not attend college and those who did not earn a degree. The percentage of Americans, in 2012, that did not attend college or earn a degree “earn on average…

Words 1906 - Pages 8

Does Your Degree Affect Your Future Job? Essay

important goal of all: to get somewhere in society. Many people believe the only way to get anywhere is to have a good job and to earn a lot of money from it. Nowadays, higher education is becoming a desirable quality employers like to see on their future employees’ applications. How much value does your degree hold in the eyes of your future boss? Opinions of the value of higher education vary from person to person. Personally, I believe a college degree means more to businesses than just having made…

Words 1464 - Pages 6

Argumentative Essay: Should People Go To College?

Hrabowski “colleges prepare people for life”, Isabel Sawhill and Stephanie Owen “Should everyone go to college”, Liz Addison “two years better than four”, Charles Murray “are too many people going to college” and Mike Rose “Blue-collar brilliance” talk about different options students can have, if deciding they should go to college. (Read again and find more information about this article and maybe change the position you took on it to make it go/ fit in better) (or move it to another spot) Murray states…

Words 1915 - Pages 8

history 101 notes Essays

embraced inequalities -slavery technically began in 1619 but only after 1660 -language: flapjack, mess, moonshine, skillet, whopper, ah be -slavery: new but borrowed Authority Holds on in the South -freedom is defined by control over other people. The more people you control, the more free you are. -disdain for work: “killing time” -conspicuous consumption-liberty enslaves -hunting, sports, dancing, etiquette -4:1 male to female ratio and most women were unfree -theme: still more liberty than…

Words 4012 - Pages 17