In the essay, “How Not to Get Into College: The Preoccupation with Preparation”, Kohn argues that achieving distinction in school is not equivalent to lifetime happiness. As a student, I believe we are only motivated in an extrinsic fashion in relation to school and grades, thus sacrificing for something later in life. However, to create a balance in our lives, I believe students must seek intrinsic motivation as well in order live a much healthier and fulfilled life. Societal pressures are one of the major contributors which cause students to mainly focus on future rewards instead of appreciating the present. Alfie Kohn describes parents as someone “who seems to care less about their children’s well-being than their SAT scores and the thickness
The essay “How Not to Get Into College” and the poem “Somnambulist” portray a similar message that people become unhappy and lose sight of their own values when the institutional world creates a stigma that forces them to over-work themselves. Alfie Kohn in “How Not to Get Into College” believes that students are already overworking themselves at such an early stage in their lives, and the result of this, is feeling unfulfilled. He believes that “what few realized was that the process wouldn’t end once they finally got into college. The straining toward future, this poisonous assumption that the value of everything is solely a function of its contribution to something that may come later – it would start all over again in September of their first year away from home” (Kohn 1). He proves
As shown in Alfie Kohn’s How not to get into college; the preoccupation with preparation, and in Heron Jones’s Somnambulist, society is pursuing extrinsic motivators and extrinsic happiness, although many feel as though extrinsic motivators are important and essential to be happy, intrinsic motivators are what will truly make one happy for a prolonged period of time. In society’s pursuit of extrinsic rewards, society is losing sight of intrinsic happiness and thus, feeling unfulfilled and lacking intrinsic
The author believes that students in the current generation are under more pressure than preceding ones. “William Alexander, director of Penn’s counseling and psychological services stated, ‘A small setback used to mean disappointment…’ Now? ‘For some students, a mistake has incredible meaning.’” The specialists that the author chooses to cite are all credible, which helps to build her view on this subject. The research that Scelfo uses also illustrates the fact that a student’s family plays a big role in their overall mindset. For example, Alice Miller, a famous psychologist, observed that “…some especially intelligent and sensitive children can become so attuned to parents’ expectations that they do whatever it takes to fulfill those expectations- at the expense of their own feelings and needs.” Being able to support her argument with the findings of psychologists and doctors avails Scelfo in swaying the reader’s
In recent discussions of "Is College Worth It?" by John Green, a controversial issue has been weather-attending college worth it or not? On the one hand, some argue that colleges are not worth attending because it is too expensive and they do not need a degree to get a good job. From this perspective, many people do not apply to a college. On the other hand, however, others insist that college is worth attending because it is expanding the knowledge and give more opportunity to find jobs. In the words of John Green one of this view 's proponents, " Education gave me perspective and context." According to this view, college is worth to apply for because it enlarges the information that people have and expands their knowledge. In sum, then, the
People who work hard for their goals experience true happiness. True happiness is the feeling you get when you try to complete your ultimate aim in life. People in the pursuit of education experience this greatly because they are striving to pass their classes to succeed academically. Anthony writes, “No doubt some of the experience I have in my relationships are part of what is good about them, part of what makes the relationship contribute to my flourishing, to what is good in my life” (Kwame Anthony Appiah 450). The experience, he feels during a relationship is what makes him happy in life not the relationship itself. This is similar to how education experience works because many people enjoy the hard work they put into their academics rather than the grades they receive. Dewey believed that education was a way for someone to complete their goal in life. He states, “If a few words are added upon the topic of education, it is only for the sake of suggesting that the educative process is all one with moral process, since the latter is a continuous passage of experience from worse to better” (John Dewey 401). Dewey is explaining that the experience of education allows people to develop their moral process and happiness. Dewey’s ideas on education combined with Anthony’s views on happiness support the idea that one’s experience in education directly influences their happiness. In short, the pursuit of education is an
College is an experience of a lifetime . It's very expensive so for most they do not get the opportunity .They do not get the opportunity to get a higher education . Without a higher education most people can not receive a good well paying job . Now most of the United States attends or have graduated college . Which makes it hard for everyone to have a well paying job .
As the economy evolves and the job market continues to get more competitive, it’s becoming harder to have a successful career without some kind of college degree. This creates a belief in many young students that college actually is a commodity, something they must have in order to have a good life. There’s many different factors that influence this mindset, high schools must push the importance of the student’s willingness and drive to further their education. College isn’t just a gateway to jobs, but it is an opportunity to increase knowledge and stretch and challenge the student which in return makes them a more rounded adult and provides them with skills they might lack prior to
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.
Education has always been a current issue due to the fact that it is seen as an economic cure-all. However, the perception of college is ill-conceived and there are multiple debates on how to improve it. College universities believe that having open admissions will increase the amount of matriculations, but the fact is the amount of students being enrolled into a four-year university has no relationship to the amount of students with academic aspirations. W.J. Reeves, an English professor at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York, gives a few examples of how open admissions has changed education methods and student abilities. Reeves wrote this opinion piece to convince everyone, especially parents, that schools are in need of reform
Numerous college students today feel as if they are not adequate enough. So much is put on their plate, and above it all, in order to maintain moving forward academically towards a career, they must showcase themselves. This idea is explored in “College Pressures” by William Zinsser. He discusses why students are driven to try so vigorously in order to earn a step ahead, yet the reasoning is arguable.
William Zinsser’s essay “College Pressures” emphasizes the struggles students have in trying to conquer the college milestone in life. Zinsser believes that college has lost the authenticity of the overall goal of gaining knowledge for one’s own interest, rather than the overall need of going. He sympathizes with struggles college kids go through and hopes to provide insight on the overall situation. One of his major points are that succeeding the first time is not always the best way in learning, and that sometimes students need to fail in order to properly learn. The author mentions the “Four pressures, economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure” and how there are “No villains; only victims” that fall
Pressures on children in today’s society are a problem that is becoming more evident in academics as parents and teachers put more and more emphasis on these children to outperform their classmates, stress in the child’s life becomes an interfering problem (Anxiety.org, 2011 Weissbourd, 2011,). From preschool children to college adults, pressure to execute academic perfection extends across all areas of curriculum. In our highly competitive, American society, emphasis placed on academic achievement has never been so intense (Anxiety.org, 2011, Beilock, 2011). This need to be the best, fueled by our culture in America, has created a social force affecting education, a force to be reckoned with at that. Too often, parents and teachers sacrifice their chil...
A large number of college students who haven’t scored too well in college regret their grades. They believe that if they would have studied harder they might have scored better.
Are the new standards and expectations the world has for teenagers really creating monsters? The amount of stress that is put on students these days between trying to balance school, homework, extra curricular activities, social lives, sleep and a healthy lifestyle is being considered a health epidemic (Palmer, 2005). Students are obsessing over getting the grades that are expected of them to please those that push them, and in return, lose sleep and give up other aspects of their lives that are important to them, such as time with friends and family, as well as activities that they enjoy. The stress that they endure from the pressures of parents, teachers, colleges, and peers has many physical as well as mental effects on every student, some more harmful than others. The extreme pressure on students to get perfect grades so that they will be accepted into a college has diminished the concept of actually learning and has left the art of “financing the system” in order to succeed in its place (Palmer, 2005).
Having explained the reason most children have become disheartened at the thought of school, I now turn my attention to the students who do realize school’s educational value. These are the students that will continue to prosper throughout their lives because they realize the extreme importance of education. There is a secret, yet not so secret, motivation behind their determination to exceed standards and expectations in school. The secret they withhold is their overwhelming desire to be successful in the future.