Chris Spino
Professor Amoroso
English 110, Section I
7 September 2017
American education takes on a liberal way of educating its citizens, which is drastically different than in other countries. Most colleges and universities require the average student to take classes outside of what they are intending to go to higher education for. The average college student must take elective courses, english courses, mathematical courses, science courses, and courses for the arts. For a student intending to major in a subject related to the sciences, taking science courses is a fundamental requirement. In American higher education, society finds there is no reason to be taking other classes that strain away from your intentions. If in a few years someone will not use the material learned in that class during their job or occupation, to society that material is seen as insignificant.
There are people in this world that feel likewise and/or contradict about what has been explained by Ronald Barnett and Martha Nussbaum. Nussbaum is the author of “Education for Profit, Education for Democracy,” and in a piece, Reading the World, she proclaimed that there are many un-required courses that the average higher education student must take in their first two years of college. A student, in Nussbaum’s eyes, could have already been where he or she is their senior year, his sophomore year. Her statements are very relevant for a student who is persistent on their career path and wants to get all their schooling done in an appropriate amount of time. Nussbaum concludes that, the first two years are basically a waste of time and money because you are taking classes that do not inhere with your predetermined major.
In reprise, many people have different views on the higher education system. Ronald Barnett exclaims in his novel, The Idea of Higher Education, that no matter how hard a student works at something there can always be an alternate answer and there is not a final answer. The student goes along their education path working hard and believing they have the answer even though they know there is an alternate one. Barnett and Nussbaum have two totally different ideas, but personally I can connect only to Nussbaum. I can relate in a sense of happiness because someone has finally taking into consideration to think about the student aspect of learning rather than the education curriculum itself. I strongly agree with Nussbaum’s thinking because I find it unnecessary to take classes in my first two years of college that do not pertain to what I am majoring in. Martha Nussbaum says, “…students are required to take a wide range of courses their first two years…” (Nussbaum 64-5). The liberal way of running a school is perfectly fine in the sense that a student needs to take prerequisite classes, but a student should not be required to take non-prerequisite classes if those classes have no aid in the end goal of the student. The higher education system is not supposed to be easy. It is a privilege to be attending university, and one that attends will not have an easy experience. Barnett writes, “A genuine higher education is unsettling; it is not meant to be a cost experience” (Barnett 155-6). He is completely correct in this way of thinking, higher education is very, very tedious and challenging.
These two passages are similar in their topic of conversation, but very different in their issues that they discuss. The passages both have a main topic of higher education, but one refers to the higher education system in general and one refers to classes one must take. I side strongly with Nussbaum and Barnett. I feel the same towards classes in the first two year of university as Nussbaum does, I feel a student should only have to take them as they pertain to their major. I side with Barnett in the sense that I will come to realize that university becomes very, very cumbersome and it is not over until I myself have concluded this is all of the schooling I need in order to be successful.
