assignment 4 rough draft

Justin Gonzalez

The general argument made by Dale Stephens in his work, Uncollege, is that he states college is to expensive therefore we shouldn’t go to college and learn other ways. More specifically he argues that there is no need to go to college and waste your money, you can learn through technology such as by watching tv or by going on the internet. He writes, “there are a little over 19 million college students in the United States, each of whom are graduating with an average of $24,000 in debt, according to the nonprofit Institute for College Access & Success.” In this passage, Dale is suggesting that parents shouldn’t send their kids to college because of the outrageous price they have to pay. In conclusion, Dales belief is that college is unnecessary and you do not need it in order to get educated. In my view, Dale is wrong because you do need to go to college in order to be something successful in life. More specifically, I believe that everyone should go to college and become more educated so they can get high end jobs. For example, if you go to a job interview with a college diploma and the guy next do you doesn’t have one, 9 times out of 10 the guy who has the college diploma is the one who’s going to get the job. Although Dale might object that you can learn through technology I maintain that in order to be successful and well off in this life is that you go to college and get that diploma. Therefore, I conclude, that everyone should go to college and get that diploma. Yeah, it might be expensive in the beginning, but not when you have your diploma and are making over six figures a year.

Many people these days hate the idea of more school and Dale keeps telling everyone they can learn through technology. In Stephens article, he states “Education is undergoing a transformation, thanks to the explosion of available data online.” To sum this up, hes saying that students can learn the same amount of stuff they learn in school the internet. This is necessarily true, but how many kids are actually going to go online and try to learn new things? Many kids instead of going online and trying to learn new things will just go out and hang out with friends. Many teens these days are more worried about going out and partying than they are about school. Having kids not going to college will only make our society even dumber. The way many of the kids today learn is through going to a classroom and listening to a lecture. By going to college and paying tuition, you are forced to go to class, study, and learn new things. Also, many kids love going to college and learning new things. Many of my friends say they love going to the classrooms and learning new things because they know its going to help them in the future. Yeah, sometimes classroom lecture may get boring from time to time, but in the future it will pay off.  Dale Stephens I also believe is not every smart simply because he things kids are just going to stay in and look up some stuff on the internet. Many kids today are unmotivated about learning and need a kick in the behind to learn new things. This is where college steps in and pushes a person to work to their full potential. College has helped many of the people I know. For example, my dad’s friend was a very bright kid but was very unmotivated to do things. Eventually when he grew old enough his mom enrolled him in a college and he was pushed to get good grades and learn new things. This man eventually graduated college with a 4.o and is a CEO of a company. College is a good thing and will help push everyone to their full potential, and eventually later on in life they will succeed.

Many people these days say its not all about what you know but about who you know. Stephens goes on for a while about how people who do not go to college can get good jobs. In his interview he states,” Innovation in hiring is happening for both the creative and technical professions. This is not because these are subjects easily learned outside of college, rather it’s because the product of one’s labor is tangible and easy to evaluate.” This basically says that companies are looking for people who are hard workers but not smart. Many companies today look at years and experience at the job, but it also makes your chances better when you went to school for it. If there are two people in an interview one with a college diploma and the other without one, the manager is going to take the person with the diploma simply because he went to school for it. The person who went to college worked hard to get where hes at now. This shows that he is a harder worker than the person who has experience and learned how to do things through other people/ internet.  Also in this same interview Stephens states, “Résumés show where you worked, and where you went to school, but not what you can actually do. This is true but college is the root of everything. If you go to college you are basically destined to get a good job somewhere simply because your educated.  All in all, college is whats going to get you payed in the future.

In todays economy, its hard to afford an education, but its not impossible. In another interview with Dale Stephens he states “there are a little over 19 million college students in the United States, each of whom are graduating with an average of $24,000 in debt, according to the nonprofit Institute for College Access & Success.” This is true that college is very expensive but its not impossible to pay. There are many other things that you can do in order to pay your tuition. One way is to take out a student loan and pay as you go along through college. This is the one step that many college students take today. Another way to help pay off your college debt is by getting a job. Many students that I know who are having a hard time paying for college have jobs. Three of my friends are working in the dining hall in order to help pay for their tuition. Another way that you can help pay for college is to apply for random scholarships. One of my friends who goes to University of Illinois received a scholarship because he was Mexican. There are endless things you can do in order to pay off your tuition. The only problem with this is that you have to be motivated and get at it. If you want a good career and a bright future you will do the necessary things in order to succeed. Hard work now will pay off in the future.

Although I have disagreed with many of the things that he said in his article, the one and only thing that I agree with is that college is expensive. I agree that college is expensive especially for me because I do not come from a very wealthy family. I come from a family with a no college background and I see the day to day struggle they go through and this is a motivation for me to go to college and get a degree no matter how hard it is. In order for me to attend buffalo I needed a scholarship which I was awarded for my athletics. This has helped me substantially and it is making my life a lot easier at college because I really do not have to do other things in order to pay off my education. In order to get a college scholarship I had to work hard every day of my life because I knew that was a definite way to get into college. This shows that everyone can go to college even the people are aren’t as well off as others.  I admit college is very hard to pay off but its not impossible.

How to do a close reading

Close reading is a useful strategy in which one dissects a passage in order to understand the full meaning of a passage. There are many ways that one can close read. One way to close read is to annotate the text. Annotating the text is the easiest way to understand a text. For example, if you find an ambiguous word, substitute it with another word and see if it changes the context of a sentence. Another way to do a close reading is to look for similarities in a sentence. Most often writers will repeat what they are saying in order to get a point across. The last and most useful way of understanding a close reading is to ask questions after the short reading. Ask questions like why and how to get a better understanding of the text. These are the same exact things i do when i read a difficult text such as a text by Emmerson. An example of this is by coming up with multiple meanings  of a confusing passage or confusing words. For example:

In Emerson’s piece of writing he said “The millions, that are us are rushing into life.” The word “rushing” has a big effect on the meaning of the sentence. One way that you can interpret the word rushing sometimes implies speeding quickly, sometimes violently to get to a certain destination. Emerson does a great job using the word “rushing” because it really personifies that kids are so anxious to reach a certain age. Many kids today are counting down the days till their grade school graduation, high school graduation, and college graduation. In addition to all the graduations, many kids are looking forward to getting their driver’s license and when they are legal to drink. In other words, when kids are fourteen they can’t wait to be sixteen and when they are sixteen they can’t wait to be twenty-one. If Emerson were to use a word like “Quickly” it would change the meaning of the sentence. If the sentence were to state “ The millions, that are around us are quickly going into life, cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harvest,” you would really lose the exaggeration on how bad kids want to grow up. The use of the word “rushing” in this short sentence helps the reader realize that kids want to become older.

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/boost-your-skills/189995.html
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/CloseReading.html

essentalism

After a reading of a book by hooks i think i can get across what essentalism means. In the dictionary it states  esseentialism is a doctrine that certain traditional concepts, ideals, and skills are essential to society and should be taught methodically to all students, regardless of individual ability, need, etc. i think that essentaislm is basically when you group someone then associate that person with everyone. For example, you can say all drug dealers are killers. This might be true but most of the time it isn't. So when a person on the street sees a drug dealer they right away think he is a killer because hes a drug dealer. Another example of this is they see a person who kills another person. Right away that person will be associated with a drug dealer because they killed someone. Also another way to explain this is personal beliefs. A person can say not all drug dealers are killers, and another can say yes they are i saw a drug dealer kill someone so therefore they are killers and drug dealers. Most people start to group people when they see something happen themselves. Then right away they always think what they saw is true for all people. This is a bad thing to do because you can really offend people by grouping them for example: all cheerleaders are gay. This is not true because alot of the guy cheerleaders that i know are straight. But right away many people group male cheerleaders as gay because they saw one guys kiss another.

 

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the case against college

On October 20th we read an article called "The case against college" and it it states that college destroys creativity because you are required to do things a certain way and take test and so on. In the article the guy also states that a way kids can learn is through technology. I agree with this but not alot of kids are going to be willing to look online and learn new things. Many kinds today are to concerned with their facebooks and checking their wall post. Kids will not learn anything unless they are in school. Being in school is a for sure way of kids to learn new things and to do well at them. I personally wouldn't want to go to school but its the only way i can go about learning new things. If i didn't have to go to school i know i wouldn't be just looking stuff up online and trying to learn new things. i would honestly be out with my friends having a good time, playing baseball, or sleeping. School is a great thing and kids should still go. one thing that the article brings up that was quite scary was how much in debt the average college kid would be after 4 years in college. That amount of money is ridiculous. Most people will be working until their forty just to pay off their college loans. Yeah the author makes a good point about how expensive college is but you really need that degree in order to get a good job. A couple years back i had two friends one who went to college and the other who didn't. They both applied for the same position at sports authority as a manager. The one who got the degree was the one with the college degree because he went through years of hard work through college in order to be a manager whereas the other guy did absolutely nothing and expected a job as a manager. This goes to show you that people these days are looking for a college diploma.

assignment number 3

we are currently doing a writing on education and so far i really like it. The reason why i like assignment number three because we can put some of our creative side into it rather than writing about close readings and literacy events.I just got done writing my second draft with the corrections that my friends have made and its making my paper alot better. Some of the peoples stories that my friends wrote were really good and helped give me ideas that i incorporated in my paper such as a little twist.  My friends who helped me correct my story have made it a 100 times better because now there is some kind of twist at the end of it. Hopefully by the time of the final draft my story will be even better and i will get a good grade on it.