Analysis Of Jacob Neusner's Speech 'The Graduates Didn T Hear'

In todays’ society college has become more so a necessity rather than a luxury. With a job market without as many opportunities as in the past, college degrees have become required to gain most well paying jobs. Due to this it is logical to say that college should be an environment that properly prepares the young adult to succeed in the working world. Although there are some who believe that the youth of todays generation are unprepared, and that institutes of higher learning are not doing anything to aid the situation. This is a view shared by Jacob Neusner in his speech “The Speech The Graduates Didn’t Hear” and by Fred Reed in his blog post “On Campus at U.PE: The University Of Practically Everywhere”. The ideas both these men exhibit

He holds the belief that college is not doing its job in preparing students. They think college is to easy and not giving the students what they need to succeed in the real world. Nuesner says “For four years we created an altogether forgiving world, in which whatever slight effort you gave was all that was demanded.” Nuesner here is implying that college was easy and demanded little work to succeed. This is inherently false maybe just to pass little work was needed but to do well a higher amount of work is required. College at times can be a very stressful environment this shows in a recent study done in 2013 done by The american college health association. The numbers it came up with show that in 2013 over fifty percent of students experienced “overwhelming anxiety”, Over thirty percent “felt so depressed it was difficult to function”, and that seven percent “seriously considered suicide”. These number alone show that we must do away with the mantra that college is an easy “forgiving world” that Nuesner says it is. Clearly college can be just as unforgiving and stressful as anything experienced in the working world. If anything if the working world is as hard as these men claim it to be, possibly experiencing stress and anxiety has prepared students to go through those same feelings that might reoccur again when beginning a

The claim that students are not being prepared well enough for the working world is simply a false notion. College students are being as prepared as they have always been. They major in something relating to the job they want and then they search for that job. No one can ever truly be prepared for things they have not experienced yet. As said before its easy to criticize a generation of people for flaws when they haven't had their opportunity to cement their place in the world yet. Altogether they pose a critical and cynical view on society. Although the fact that these arguments are separated by about forty years only shows the fact that its common for older generations to criticize the younger ones. In an ever advancing society there are bound to be differences in lifestyles between generations and its common for each generation to prefer theres over the others because of nostalgia and their own personal bias. In conclusion while their arguments may have validity at the surface level. When you dig deeper into there views and what they are saying, it proves that what they are saying is a