Louis Menand Live And Learn Analysis

The article “Live and Learn” written by Louis Menand presents three different purposes of college. The first theory states that college is used as a sorting system to pick out the most intelligent students and use their potential. The second theory revolves around the idea that students are too focused on college and grades to the point where they lose their desire to learn and solely focus on the reward they believe college will bring them. Finally, the third theory is for students who want a vocational education due to the demand for specialized knowledge in our advancing economy. Despite how deeply this article explores these three theories, inconsistencies still exists within said theories. There are also many aspects of education that

Selection cannot take place without inclusion. Although the accessibility of college has increased as compared to the 1950’s , theory one can only be valid if inclusion occurs before college. There are still so many people around the world who don’t have access to even a basic education. The people in underdeveloped countries who don’t have access to education are the same people who have undiscovered talents for practicing medicine or catalyzing the technological revolution. If college is the sorting process that presents society with people it sees fit as competent and intelligent, then the people with these undiscovered talents won’t be included in the pool of people society can choose from. They can’t move up the educational ladder, from elementary school to middle school to high school and eventually college. Society will only present opportunities to people who present themselves fully equipped. Talent is genetic, but knowledge is acquired through time and exposure. To society, a promising candidate has both talent and knowledge. To society, people without knowledge don’t count which is why theory one is invalid, because inclusion did not take place for there to be successful

There are days when I have an extremely narrow mind about school. I come to school with an attitude of absolute refusal to learn anything. It’s almost as if I’m throwing a mental temper tantrum. Having spoken with my peers on days like this I’ve discovered I’m not the only one who holds the occasional grudge towards school. If I collect all the knowledge that I could have gained if I kept an open mind about school and gave it to people who didn’t have access to education, they probably would have maximized that knowledge. Simply presenting education to people who don’t have access to it will immensely boost human resources. Imagine how quickly society can progress if we could present quality education to all those people. As much as we want to pretend all education is quality education, that is simply not true. By presenting quality education to people who are eager to absorb it, we are truly maximizing on human resources. We will be putting everyone on the same playing field which will more accurately tell who are the better players. College won’t be a successful sorting process with everyone on different levels. The only scenario in which theory one is acceptable is if education becomes something that is universally accessible and of the same