"His work seemed to him thin, commonplace, feeble. At times he felt his own weakness so fatally that he could not go on; when he had nothing to say, he could not say it, and he found that he had very little to say at best" (Adams 39). Having been born into the upper class, Henry Adams graduated from high school and then for him, "the next regular step was Harvard" (Adams 32). Through Adam's essay, "The Education of Henry Adams", it is clear that the education he received at Harvard was plagued by his negative mindset that was triggered by his social status and the history of his surname. Adams failure to find his passion for education can be attributed to his lack of motivation, his nonexistent personal achievement, and his feelings of social …show more content…
Schools, especially Harvard, provide excellent foundations for education for young men and women all over the country. Henry Adams, unfortunately, is a weak, rich, Bostonian who failed to pick up any leadership qualities in school and feels it is necessary to blame the school and not himself. Besides Adam's weak character it is his upper class status that deludes his philosophies of education. Adams never earned anything on his own. His acceptance to Harvard and his nomination to Class Orator were not based on his hard work or motivation. Henry Adams is poorly motivated because he never got to see for himself what one can achieve through hard work. Henry Adams is just another example of a social tragedy. Because he was surrounded by others in the same league as him he was never able to grow as a person. "Any other education would have required a serious effort, but no one took Harvard College seriously. All went there because their friends went there, and the College was their ideal of social self-respect" (Adams …show more content…
My parents refused to pay for my car, gas, and education so that I could gain the full experience that life has to offer. Working late hours as a waiter and on the back of a garbage truck has made me a stronger person and I see the value of hard work. Unlike Henry Adams, the education that I am receiving at FAU will be more than just a "regular step". This will be an experience that I have earned and therefore care much more about than he did. At FAU, I will encounter those who come from more and less
JOHN ADAMS – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY HISTORY 1301 – U.S. HISTORY TO 1877 WHEN SEARCHING FOR THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSON DURING THE EARLY U.S. HISTORY, GEORGE WASHINGTON COMES TO THE FOREFRONT. INCIDENTLY, DUE TO THE GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF THE RESEARCH, THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION ON PEOPLE OR EVENTS ON HISTORY BEFORE 1877. TO MY SURPRISE, INFORMATION WAS LOCATED ON JOHN AND ABIGAIL ADAMS. JOHN AND ABIGAIL ADAMS SUPPOSIVELY HAD A WONDERFUL LIFE AND MARRIAGE TOGETHER. JOHN ADAMS SOMETIMES SEEMED TO BE A CONTRADICTING, RUDE AND OUTSPOKEN MAN, BUT AT OTHER TIMES PLAYFUL AND TENDER. ABIGAIL’S INTELLIGENT, CARING AND WITTY CHARACTER MADE UP FOR JOHN’S MANNERS, THEIR MARRIAGE SIGNIFIES THE POSITION IN WHICH A WOMAN WAS INVOLVED IN THE EVOLVING OF A GREAT MAN, FOR HER IMPORTANT FAMILY CONNECTIONS PROBABLY BENEFITED HIS CAREER. JOHN ADAMS WAS BORN IN 1735, BRAINTREE, MASSACHUSETTS TO JOHN ADAMS AND SUSANNA BOYLSTON. JOHN ADAMS WAS THE ELDEST OF THREE SONS. MR ADAMS WAS A DEACON AND FARMER (WHICH MEANT THE FAMILY WAS NOT WEALTHY). MRS ADAMS WAS BORN FROM ONE OF THE FIRST FAMILIES OF MASSACHUSETTS (THE BOYLSTON’S OWNED A LOT OF PROPERTY). JOHN ADAMS GRADUATED FROM HARVARD IN 1755. UPON GRADUATING, HE WAS OFFERED A JOB TO TEACH IN WORCHESTER. LIKE MOST BACHELORS, JOHN HAD NO INTEREST IN CHILDREN OR THE SLIGHTEST UNDERSTANDING OF THEM. BUT LIKE ANYONE HE ADAPTED TO THE SITUATION, PROBABLY BECAUSE HE HAD TWO YOUNGER BROTHERS. JOHN MARRIED ABIGAIL SMITH IN 1764. ABIGAIL WAS THE SECOND OF FOUR CHILDREN, BORN IN 1744.
“ A wise and frugal government... shall restrain men from injuring one another... shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits..., and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned .This is the sum of good government (Jefferson,1801) .” This was said by Thomas Jefferson our third President of the United States of American. John Adams our second President of the United States of America, for 4 years as President change the “Free World” to a federalist powerhouse in this new, young country. John Adams was a poor President for the United states because of the X,Y,Z affair, the Alien Act , the Sedition Act ,and the “Revolution of 1800”.
Education did not form part of the life of women before the Revolutionary War and therefore, considered irrelevant. Women’s education did not extend beyond that of what they learned from their mothers growing up. This was especially true for underprivileged women who had only acquired skills pertaining to domesticity unlike elite white women during that time that in addition to having acquired domestic skills they learned to read a result becoming literate. However, once the Revolutionary War ended women as well as men recognized the great need for women to obtain a greater education. Nonetheless, their views in regards to this subject differed greatly in that while some women including men believed the sole purpose of educating women was in order to better fulfil their roles and duties as wives and mothers others believed the purpose of education for women was for them “to move beyond the household field.” The essays of Benjamin Rush and Judith Sargent Murray provide two different points of view with respects to the necessity for women to be well educated in post-revolutionary America.
Among those who signed the Declaration of Independence, and were conspicuous in the revolution, there existed, of course, a great diversity of intellectual endowments; nor did all render to their country, in those perilous days, the same important services. Like the luminaries of heavens each contributed his portion of influence; but, like them, they differed, as star differeth from star in glory. But in the constellation of great men, which adorned that era, few shone with more brilliancy, or exercised a more powerful influence than Samuel Adams.
According to Andrew Delbanco what is college for? The most common, one economic, college degree you earn more money, high achieving students from rich families,more likely to attend a selective college. The second argument for the importance of college is a political one, introduce student constitutive ideas of western culture, individual freedom toleration, economic life, acceptance of truth of modern science. The third case for high education or college is for citizenship, one of the guy said to the professor, taught me how to enjoy life, he meant was high education had opened his senses, as well as his mind heightened and deepened his alertness. Also talk about the unfairness between the rich, the poor, and middle class. If your parents making ninety thousand per year your adds of getting your BA by age twenty four are roughly one and two. If your parents make thirty five thousand, your ads are one to seventeen. The declining college attainment rates,apply to minorities who are growing portion of population in america. Some say
When John was a young boy he was taught how to read and write by his father. He was accepted into Harvard in 1751. Adams graduated in 1755 with Bachelor of Arts degree. Right after graduating, Adams decided he would pursue a career practicing law. Yet his first job following graduation he was a schoolmaster in Worcester, Massachusetts. He learned to adjust to becoming the schoolmaster in the town; he socialized at night, and met with old school friends and returned home during the breaks from school. During his career as a schoolmaster he was worried that he was ruining his chances of getting a better career. It was said that Adams often felt as a dictator and his students as generals and politicians. As a teacher John developed the ...
At the turn of the 20th century, Herbert Croly – as far as the accelerating world was concerned – was a man without a name. Painfully shy and without many friends, he was admitted to Harvard in 1886 as one of 96 "special students" who would not be eligible for a degree. Perhaps the world should have realized he would one day be reckoned with when was given the former room of newspaperman William Randolph Hearst, who was expelled from Harvard a year before Croly entered its halls. But Croly remained aloof through his long stay at Harvard, which had more promising sons to look after. However, when in 1909 Croly published his first and most remembered book, The Promise of American Life, he was instantly recognized as a great political thinker. Eager to recognize him as one of its own, Harvard gave him his bachelor’s degree soon after the jubilant reviews were printed.
He believed that freedom and equality were on complete opposite sides of the spectrum. A person can either be free but unequal, or unequal but free. This shows how everyones outlook on freedom differs. Adams, agrees with the idea that abolishing property qualifications allows for everyone to be brought down to the same level (TXT215)However, despite his opinion, the idea does not exist and the poor are oppressed. It is unfair to ask a majority of the population to stand by these new regulations when they are unable to vote for the lawmakers they see fit. Each person should be entitled to their own personal liberty and control over the small amount of land they own, yet that is given up the moment the government declares itself dominant. Overall, the Revolution led to a larger portion of the population being able to vote especially the white male community in the 1780’s. The only states excluding these requirements was Virginia, Maryland and New
It is Addison’s belief that one enters the college experience as a rookie (Addison 213). This theory contradicts Murray’s thought that not every person would benefit from a college-level liberal education. Addison also believes that ...
In the article “College is Not a Commodity. Stop treating it like one,” Hunter Rawlings explains how people today believe that college is a commodity, but he argues that it’s the student’s efforts; which gives value to their education. Rawlings states that in recent years college has been looked at in economic terms, lowering its worth to something people must have instead of earn. As a professor Rawlings has learned that the quality of education has nothing to do with the school or the curriculum, but rather the student’s efforts and work ethic. Rawlings explains the idea that the student is in charge of the success of his or her own education, and the professor or school isn’t the main reason why a student performs poorly in a class. Rawlings
Abigail Adams an American Woman was written by Charles W. Akers. His biographical book is centered on Abigail Adams the wife of John Adams, the second president of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president. She was the All-American woman, from the time of the colonies to its independence. Abigail Adams was America's first women's rights leader. She was a pioneer in the path to women in education, independence, and women's rights.
The right and privilege to higher education in today’s society teeters like the scales of justice. In reading Andrew Delbanco’s, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, it is apparent that Delbanco believes that the main role of college is to accommodate that needs of all students in providing opportunities to discover individual passions and dreams while furthering and enhancing the economic strength of the nation. Additionally, Delbanco also views college as more than just a time to prepare for a job in the future but a way in which students and young adults can prepare for their future lives so they are meaningful and purposeful. Even more important is the role that college will play in helping and guiding students to learn how to accept alternate point of views and the importance that differing views play in a democratic society. With that said, the issue is not the importance that higher education plays in society, but exactly who should pay the costly price tag of higher education is a raging debate in all social classes, cultures, socioeconomic groups and races.
In Louis Menand’s “Live and Learn: Why We Have College” he discusses his three theories about the purpose of higher education. The first theory says “college is, essentially, a four-year intelligence test”(57). This meritocratic theory is saying that “society wants to identify intelligent people early on … to get the most of its human resources” and college is the machine that does the sorting (57). The second theory, the democratic one, claims the point of college is not to pick out the elite. Rather, the point is to “expose future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them” (58). The third theory explains how “advanced economies demand specialized knowledge and skills, and, since high school is aimed at the general learner, college is where people can be taught what they need in order to enter a vocation” (62). All three theories have their
Alexander Meiklejohn was an exceptionally high-minded educator whose principles and whose moral tone toward things may be illustrated most briefly and clearly by some statements from his essay "What the College Is." This, his inaugural address as president of Amherst, was printed for a time as an introduction to the college catalogue. What the college was, or should be -what Meiklejohn hoped to make Amherst into - was a place to be thought of as "liberal," that is, "essentially intellectual": "The college is primarily not a place of the body, nor of the feelings, nor even of the will; it is, first of all, a place of the mind." Introducing "the boys" to the intellectual life led for its own sake, would save them from pettiness and dullness, would save them from being one of what Meiklejohn referred to as "the others":
He sustained suicidal thoughts and failed one attempt. In the start of the movie he does not know what he wants to do with his life and he has no motivation to carry on. In the hospital surrounded by patients he learned that he wanted to help people and found that he took joy in it. He then enrolled in a medical college where he then maintained the motivation to succeed in the medical field. Intrinsic motivation is when a person finds the motivation within themselves to achieve a goal, while external rewards may also exist they are not considered when intrinsic motivation is in play (Myer’s, 237). Intrinsic motivation is solely derived from the desire to better oneself(Good, 54-57). Adams is solely motivated intrinsically to go through school and do well. Not only does he desire to do well in school but in the film he defies rules and interacts with patients before his third year in college and improves the patient 's quality of life. When he is found out he is threatened to be removed from the school but the chastising did not prevent him from carrying