Oliver Curtis

Essay 1

Composition 1

Mr. Kiely

Effects of Passive Education.

“The United States has fallen from 12th to 16th in the share of adults, age 25 to 34 holding

degrees” (de Vise par 3). In an era where obtaining an education is imperative to the process of starting

a successful career, it is necessary that students are given the skills and intellectual tools that will allow

them to thrive in a global workforce. With this knowledge in mind, many students conclude that, in

order to be successful, they must obtain a college degree in a profession of their choice. However, they

often fail to realize the significant difference between gaining a degree and earning an education. When

they fail to make that distinction, students often adopt habits and tendencies that make the road to

graduation much more difficult. Acquiring a degree is definitely essential to career preparation, but

even more important is the acquisition of knowledge and understanding that defines a quality

education. By offering classes that yield high grades yet eliminate the need for students to attend

lectures, read their textbooks, or do academically edifying assignments, universities and professors mar

the integrity of the education system by promoting one-sided learning attitudes, degrading the

credibility students entering professional fields, and disabling the development of life skills crucial to

post-college success.

When professors offer classes that offer students the opportunity to earn a high grade without

having to make a significant effort a low effort, high grade ratio, they inadvertently contribute to an

ideology that portrays education as merely a vehicle by which an individual moves from one level of

qualification or income to another. This belief, offers the promise of a high-income job after

graduation without the hassle of relationships, hard work, or moral introspection. However, perhaps

the most damaging aspect of this attitude is that it disregards the fact that the most effective learning

environments revolve around the presence of “ennobling relationships”, a concept coined by Jeffery

Nesteruk to quantify relationships that “cause us to raise our sights, broaden our perspectives, and

envision new goals for ourselves” (57). In their rush to finish their education as quickly as possible,

college students often think they can skip certain classes that are not directly related to their major.

Fueled by the sense of entitlement described by Jean Twenge’s Generation Me, students begin to

“expect an "A" simply for attending class and a job offer for merely having shown up at the interview”

(Nelson par 3). By adhering to those principles of individualism and discrediting value of relationships

in education, both students and professors degrade the level of competency that a college degree

denotes.

As the perceived need for relationships in education diminishes and is replaced by more passive

approaches, students begin to graduate with less. This works on the assumption that those students who

take classes that require minimal participation even graduate in the first place. According to “a

Chronicle analysis of nearly 1,400 four-year institutions…one-third reported lower graduation rates for

the six-year period ending in 2008 than for the one ending in 2003” (Brainard and Fuller par 4). This

decrease in the number of students graduating may be partly due to students not understanding

regarding practical application rather than an absence of technical knowledge, yet constitutes a greater

threat to the implied credibility of a college degree. Even more problematic is the transfer of

inexperience into the various professional fields, an effect that influences more than just individuals. In

fact, it undermines the basic structure on which professional occupations are based: the expectation that

graduates have a comprehensive understanding of the concepts related to their career as well as the

mental agility needed to apply those concepts in relevant scenarios. The students who are trying to earn

an education today are the engineers, doctors, scientists, and teachers of tomorrow, so it is of utmost

importance that they receive an education that will adequately prepare them to enter their respective

professions.

Designing classes that award high grades but require disproportionately miniscule amounts of

effort and work ethic ultimately stalls the development of indispensable skills like long-term planning,

time management, realistic goal projection, and most importantly, persistence. When students fail to

learn these basic life skills, they are setting themselves up for disaster. Students that have not mastered

the ability to look at the entire picture instead of the small pieces that represent their perspective will

inevitably face something similar to what “Generation Me” will, due to the “discrepancy between what

we teach kids to expect and what they will actually face in life” (Nelson par 7). They will give up when

confronted with failure, criticism and adversity rather than seek to adapt and eventually overcome the

problems they encounter.

As long as universities continue to award high grades to students who have done little to earn

them, the education system will be flawed. Allowing students to advance in a class without requiring

them to attend lectures, study their textbooks or do meaningful assignments contributes to the erosion

of ethical education practices, the destruction of academic integrity, and the elimination of “ennobling

relationships” (Nesteruk 57). It handicaps students by preventing them from developing essential life

skills that come only through dedication and responsibility. Only when both students and professors

begin to develop true relationships and make the transition into colleagueship will the quality of

education begin to rise again.

Works Cited

Brainard, Jeffrey and Andrea Fuller. “Graduation Rates Fall at One-Third of 4-Year Colleges.” The

Chronicle of Higher Education. 5 Dec. 2010. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.

de Vise, Daniel. “U.S. Falls in Global Ranking of Young Adults Who Finish College.” The Washington

Post. 13 Sept. 2011. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.

Nelson, Cassandra. "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive,

Entitled--And More Miserable Than Ever Before." Journal Of Education 186.3 (2005): 99.

MasterFILE Premier. Web. 22 Sept. 2012

Nesteruk, Jeffrey. “Contributing to Our Students’ Moral Lives.” Writing on the River. Ed. Connie

Kuhl. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. 57. Print.