Daniel Kane December 17 2013 Brenda Mckenna Writing 1010 Rewrite

Give us a full education

Imagine sitting in front of your potential employer interviewing for a job. You completed a single certification exam. The next applicant completed a four year degree at a respected university. The interviewer is most likely going to choose the second applicant because he put more effort into his education and has the skills needed. The privilege of going to college is seen as an expectation for every high school graduate. While college can be a risk for individual students, there are a lot of benefits hiding under the thick surface. College does things for us that we could hardly experience without it.

I have had the opportunity to be concurrently enrolled in twelve University of Utah credit hours with twelve more planned while in high school. I understand well what benefits college has to offer. College, for me, has been a great experience consisting of the constant drive to work harder and learn more. College has taught me how to get loads of work done while learning the material at the same time. This has taught me how to better function in workplace settings outside of school. College has been different from high school in that I have been challenged much more and as a result I have learned more. I have very much enjoyed my college experience and look forward to my years as a full-time student at a university.

While recently reading an article entitled For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time by Charles Murray, I was disturbed by the argument against traditional colleges. While the world may be changing, the core function of the college experience remains the same. College still challenges students and pushes them toward their full potential to prepare them for success in future careers.

In his article, Murray conveys the message that traditional college degrees are not serving the intended purpose of preparing students for the workplace. The article suggests a new form of proving workplace readiness by requiring each college student to pass a standardized test in their field of interest. This test would be similar to the CPA exam already in use. Students would have to pass at a certain score which would be reported to potential employers. According to Murray, your CPA score gives you a way to show employers youre a stronger applicant than someone from an Ivy League school. This would remove all competition between degrees at various colleges because its all the same test anyway. Colleges would no longer have unique qualities to advertise such as a higher career potential, social life, and unique clubs and organizations thus causing a struggle recruiting new students. If all colleges become similar, it will be more difficult for potential employers to pinpoint the strongest workers. It will also eliminate the option for advanced students to excel in higher courses.

The description of the new system of education sounds good in theory, but I believe that there are many aspects of the traditional college education that are equally, if not more important than just a pass/fail test. Many life lessons can be learned from a college experience with full class schedules and difficult teachers. Students need to be faced with real-life situations while in college. We have to look at reality: are future employees really going to need test taking skills or

are they going to need their skills in completing assignments? We need to open our eyes to the real world and provide students with abilities that can be used in the real world instead of a skill that will die shortly after graduation.

One defining factor of the college experience is the fact that students have to spend a substantial amount of time working towards their degree. This is a benefit because during that time a student may decide to change their major to something more fitting to spend their career doing. If a college required just a single exam, the students would miss out on valuable experiences acquired only from taking the time to explore alternative options.

In his article, Murray makes a strong generalization of college students in that he never mentions the fact that there are many students across the nation who have issues with test taking. Many students have test taking anxiety that severely impacts their scores. Quite a lot of students have fabulous GPAs and a perfect understanding of the studied material, yet their test scores dont reflect that at all.

I have had the opportunity to be enrolled in a laboratory class along with a general chemistry class. This is an example of learning by doing. For example, oftentimes we are given an unknown substance at the beginning of the class, We then spend the next two to three hours analyzing it. At the end of the class we should be able to identify the unknown substance. This is a skill that is only obtained by actively practicing and doing chemistry. If I were to make a career out of doing chemical analyses, I would be prepared for it because of the types of classes I am presently taking. If I were to simply study for a major chemistry exam, I would never become proficient in doing actual chemistry and I would never become prepared for a career in

chemistry, especially if I had never touched a test tube or pipette before.

I have had a great experience with my college classes and I feel that if I had been required to just take a single exam, I would not be the kind of student I am now. The activelearning style in the courses I have experienced is a great benefit to me. I am now able to handle real-life situations similar to those in the workplace.

Lets give students what they need: a full education. .

Works Cited
Murray, Charles. "For Most People, College is a Waste of Time." 13 August 2008.