Make Your Own Lightbulb: Why We Have College

Thesis: The true purpose of college is to focus on an individuals growth by learning from a wide variety of different professors, growing as an individual by having students explore different things and a particular field you may want to go into, and striving for the best.

Topic sentence #1: A professor’s teaching greatly affects a student and their learning process.

Topic sentence #2: College does teach students new things but it also helps to transform their minds so that they can think more maturely about their decisions.

Topic sentence #3: College’s last benefit is that if it is challenging enough, it will push a student to do marvelous things.

Thesis: They believe that colleges should focus on student's individual growth by encouraging them to learn from a wide variety of different professors, exploring different fields of knowledge, and developing a desire to strive for the best.

Topic sentence #1: Both Menand and Gutting believe exposure to the views of different professors is crucial to intellectual growth.

Topic sentence #2: Many writers argue that taking a a variety of courses ensures a student's growth.

Topic sentence #3: When students learn to mentally push themselves, according to the writers, they have learned soft skills crucial to their continued development.

Draft Thesis: The true purpose of college is to focus on an individuals growth by learning from a wide variety of different professors, growing as an individual by having students explore different things and a particular field you may want to go into, and striving for the best.

Revised Thesis: They believe that colleges should focus on student's individual growth by encouraging them to learn from a wide variety of different professors, exploring different fields of knowledge, and developing a desire to strive for the best.

Draft Topic sentence #1: 
A professor’s teaching greatly affects a student and their learning process.
Revised Topic sentence #1: 
Both Menand and Gutting believe exposure to the views of different professors is crucial to intellectual growth.

Draft Topic sentence #2: 
College does teach students new things but it also helps to transform their minds so that they can think more maturely about their decisions.
Revised Topic sentence #2: 
Many writers argue that taking a a variety of courses ensures a student's growth.

Draft Topic sentence #3: 
College’s last benefit is that if it is challenging enough, it will push a student to do marvelous things.
Revised Topic sentence #3: 
When students learn to mentally push themselves, according to the writers, they have learned soft skills crucial to their continued development.

• This growth, according to many, is grounded in developing connections with other students and faculty.
• Learning life lessons – or soft skills – is an important part of personal growth and, as many researchers note, college is a place where these lessons are fostered.
• Both Wise and Delbanco note the importance of developing a love of learning and its connection to personal growth.

• Many researchers believe that intellectual growth stems from the challenges students face in college and the resulting mental toughness – or grant – it provides.
• At the center of the college experience, according to these writers, is the critical thinking skills that nourish intellectual growth.
• Connected to critical thinking is the more general knowledge that the writers argue support that kind of thinking.

• Most employers, according to these writers, are looking for students with strong critical thinking skills.
• In addition to critical thinking, the writers report that employers need students who come out of college with a strong grounding in general knowledge.
• While critical thinking and general knowledge are important, the writers add that soft skills are highly desired by employers.

Some of the writers believe that a main purpose of college is to develop an identity: in the popular phrase, to “find yourself.” This search entails students deciding a career path or a field where they excel. The problem for students is that many entering college are only around eighteen years old yet are expected to know what they want to do with themselves for the rest of their lives. Kahlenberg states that . . .

The intellectual growth students experience in college, according to these authors, aids in their lifelong learning, creates individuality, and leads to a well-rounded society.

Division #1 – lifelong learning

• Define life long learning
• Why do the writers feel life long learning is important for intellectual growth?
• According to the writers, how does college provide/foster life long learning?

Division 2 on creating individuality

• Define creating individuality
• Why do the writers feel creating individuality leads to intellectual growth?
• According to the writers, how does college provide/foster individuality?

Division 3 – creating a more well rounded society

• Define well rounded society
• Why do the writers believe intellectual growth leads to a well rounded society?
• According to the writers, how does college create well rounded students?

1. Instead of . . . , Menand believes that college should . . . .
2. This lack of civil education, Gutting suggests, is _____
3. He writes that if ____, then _____.
4. This is a problem, according to Tugend, because ____________.
5. Kahlenberg believes these intellectual skills are important because they ____________.
6. Trumbell feels this ability to master a specific skill will help graduates ____________.
7. Due to this lack of interest, Freeland suggests college students will ___________.

The importance of personal growth in college, according to some writers, is its philosophy of finding one’s self. Delbanco quotes Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, where he writes “a whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.” For Delbanco, the word "college" is used as a metaphor for the place where people can learn about or find themselves. He also quotes a former president of Amherst College who wrote of feeling a “stirring and shaping, perhaps for the first time in his life, [of] actual convictions-not just gut feeling-among his friends and, more important, further down, in his soul” only after attending college. The use of the words “stirring and shaping” conveys Delbanco's idea of personal growth, suggesting how the experience of college shapes young men and women into thoughtful adults. The writer's mention of the “soul” infers personal growth, how students metaphorically grow on the inside. Menand makes this idea explicit, writing that “education is about personal and intellectual growth, not about winning some race to the top.” Menand implies that through this "growth" a student can better understand and develop a personal philosophy. For both of these writers, college is like a map which students can chart a path of personal growth. By doing so students can move beyond their limited experiences and develop their own approach to life.

Some scholars support the idea that college is the medium through which the student gains great opportunity for security in our increasingly demanding job market, in which postsecondary requirements are growing (Carnevale). Freeland stresses the importance of "economic independence" by referring to it as “the first condition of personal freedom” (Freeland). He believes society should encourage and support students who are concerned with what happens after college, writing that “we should stop denigrating their entirely sensible yearning to find their places in the non-academic world and to prepare themselves for adult responsibilities” (Freeland).

Some scholars support the idea that college is the medium through which the student gains great opportunity for security in our increasingly demanding job market, in which postsecondary requirements are growing (Carnevale). Freeland stresses the importance of "economic independence" by referring to it as “the first condition of personal freedom” (Freeland). He believes society should help students "prepare themselves for adult responsibilities.”

College professor Louis Menand

Louis Menand, writer for the New Yorker,

1) Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation,

2) Richard Kahlenberg, writing in a Chronicle of Higher Education blog,

1) Gest, a reporter for US World News and Report,argues that

2) In their report “Tough Choices or Tough Times,” the NCEE believes that

3) Kantrowiz and Wingert, writing in Newsweek, suggest that

4) Barber, professor of civics at the University of Maryland,

5) Dr. Gerald Graff, professor of education at the University of Illinois, notes that " . . ." (qtd. in Archibold).

The writers feel that the cultural diversity of higher education helps develop a student's intellect. Students are exposed to people from all over the world in college. The main reason for this mix, according to Kahlenberg, is that “American colleges [ . . . ] draw upon students from a variety of neighborhoods and states, and countries." Put them together in a class or the quad, and the result, according to Kahlenberg, is a richer learning experience. Menand supports this connection between multiculturalism and knowledge by linking the "racial and ethnic diversification" of campuses in the late twentieth century with "transformational powers." Both writers suggest that this exposure to other values and ideals forces cognitive change, and thus helps a student's intellectual development.

Related to this lack of responsibility, according to Morris, is the government's tendency to hide behind a "blizzard of paper." Instead of acknowledging culpability, the government will, generate reports, establish commissions and in the end, Morris writes, "hide intention and responsibility.” If the government hides intention and responsibility, no one can be blamed. The people within a government who commit violent acts will often escape prosecution. Borrowing a term from Daniel Ellsberg, Morris calls this "Fuzzing it up." This "Fuzzing" came in the shape of investigations into al-Jamadi's "by Congress, by the military and by the Department of Defense" (Morris). But because each was looking at a narrow part of the case, each was able to deny responsibility. In fact, Morris ironically notes that the only person to actually try to establish blame, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, was "censured by the military for having done so." In other words, avoiding questions is good: answering them will get you trouble. This kind of thinking encourages people to cover up problems instead of exposing and them solving them.

Higher learning, as many writers have noted, all boils down to students improving themselves for either personal gain or to obtain the knowledge required by an employer. For instance Freeland refers to college as a “lifetime of intellectual adventure.” Instead of the mindless drones of high school, college provides students with the ability to have a more open mind and use more critical thinking skills.

Higher learning, as many writers have noted, all boils down to students improving themselves for either personal gain or to obtain the knowledge required by an employer. For instance Freeland refers to college as a “lifetime of intellectual adventure.” Instead of the mindless drones of high school, Freeland suggests that college provides students with the ability to develop a more open mind and use more critical thinking skills.

As years have gone by the face of American education has been neglected and has slowly begun to sag with unengaged students and adults who do not care about them. The American Education system is in desperate need of a facelift. A problem of this magnitude cannot be fixed in a one day procedure; the solutions will take years of dedication from the government and people of this country. The education system is so unproductive that “[t]here are forty four million Americans who cannot read and write above a fourth grade level” (Moore 154). But all is not lost. The answer lies in more student-adult interaction, increased government funding, and smaller class sizes and schools.

As years have gone by, many writers believe that the face of American education has been neglected and has slowly begun to sag with unengaged students and adults who do not care about them. They argue that the American Education system is in desperate need of a facelift. A problem of this magnitude cannot be fixed in a one day procedure; most commentators argue that the solutions will take years of dedication from the government and people of this country. The education system is so unproductive that “[t]here are forty four million Americans who cannot read and write above a fourth grade level” (Moore 154). But all is not lost: Benjamin Barber, Barbra Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert, Michael Moore and the authors of “Tough Choices Tough Times,” suggest that more student-adult interaction, increased government funding, and smaller class sizes and schools will improve the American Public education system.

The importance of this kind of open environment is noted by Delbanco who writes that " A class should be small enough to permit every student to participate in the give-and-take of discussion under the guidance of an informed, skilled, and engaged teacher."

This stress is another reason students feel the need to focus on careers in college. Freeland points to this anxiety when he argues that today "students [ . . . ] see a far-less-settled, far-less-secure world."

Delbanco believes that "The university should be a place for reflection for the young" (qtd. in Tugend).

The weakness of unions is another rationale for attending college (Kahlenberg).

Pointing to the importance of a multicultural education, Kahlenberg notes that college is the place where people are exposed to a wide variety of cultures. First contrasting higher education with secondary schools, he writes that

Our public schools are more segregated today than at any time in the last three decades. Even as our society is becoming more diverse, our student populations are being pulled apart into separate camps, divided by race and class. [But] American colleges—because they draw upon students from a variety of neighborhoods and states, and countries—provide a unique environment in which students of different backgrounds can learn from one another.

His emphasis on learning connects this idea of broad exposure to intellectual growth.