The Failures of the American College Education Essay Example

universal importance of education, which is to equip students for a wide range of opportunities.

Mark Edmundson furthers the idea of college education in his article, Who are You and What are You Doing Here?. Edmundson highlights college life and its significance to attendees. According to him, college education can either build you or break you (1). His experiences in college are an illustration of the frustrations one can get in college, some of which are caused by the greedy administrators who do not want progress in the education sector. Edmund argues that colleges no longer offer quality education. Instead, they focus on building reputation through infrastructure and financial stability. Colleges such as Yale have in the recent past had the reputation of creating prosperous Alumni. However, Edmundson dismisses the idea that is an illustration of academic excellence (6). To him, this is a show business where Yale administrators take the opportunity they have of a reputable past to better their competitive position. This is the same for smaller colleges that are trying to build a name for themselves. The administrators are willing to instinctively forego academic merit to pursue other successes. Therefore, Edmundson believes that the colleges have shifted their attention from the education and students and instead focused on other factors which should come second after quality education.

Students react to the education in diverse ways. However, Edmundson points out that the best way they do this is to adapt. College is a place where students get to enjoy life for the first time in ways they have not before. Elegant buildings, diverse culture, and all the amenities help the student to take a break

from the stresses of the education. However, some of these amenities are provided to silence the students on the reality of the administrative failures. According to Edmundson, college professors focus on their own careers more than they do on the academic excellence of their students (9). This trend has evolved over the years, and Edmundson points out that students have adapted by ignoring the challenges and turning their attention to non-academic activities such as partying and drug use. However, these social failures have some roots in the administrative mistakes in these schools. Accordingly, school administrators have created a system where the professors and students barely interact, because all of them spend more time avoiding the school duties.

Corruption in the education system is also an emerging trend affecting the success of students. William Chace explains how the education system has ceased to be honorable in the article A Question of Honor. Chace points out how even president Obama has observed the failures of the education system (1). In the 2012 State of the Union Address, Obama warned college administrators that if they did not lower tuition fees the funding they got from taxpayers was going to reduce. This observation was made after realizing that college administrators had made college education so expensive that not all Americans can afford it. Consequently, the administrators use this money to invest for the school with the chief focus being future financial returns. Regarding this, the administrators consider the interests of the quality of education last, which is one of the reasons why college education is becoming less popular. Instead of improving the value of education so that they graduate students

who are prepared for the contemporary world, the college administrators spend considerable monies funding business projects for the school. This, according to Edmundson, is the reason behind the apparently high rates of unemployment in most areas of the country.
Mathew Lynch in the article 3 Issues that are hurting the American Education System also touches on the failures of administrators and the impact this has had on the quality of education. Lynch points out that the major problems with the American education system lies in the amount of time students spend in schools, lack of respect for the teaching profession, and a lack of regard for arts education (5). Lynch connects these problems to the common cause, which is the administrator’s failure to give students enough opportunities. Regarding this, Lynch believes that the education system would be at its best if students learnt about positive engagement with their administrators and professors. However, there exists a big gap between the two. The gap is caused by the drift that has been created by years of failing administrative abilities by the US college schools administrators. As a result, students become disappointed with the system, and they adapt by drifting away from schools and spending time on their own.

Conclusion

The American education system is at a critical stage. With the growing numbers of new students entering new college every year, little is being done to expand the potential of the colleges. Apart from the amenities that the schools are building for showoff and competition, the academic area is on the decline. The major reason attributed to this failure is the misappropriation of school resources and the privatization of the administrative

agendas. The authors of the articles have explained this by pointing on how administrators have made colleges their foundations for career and financial success. However, students and the development strategies of the country are the ones who face the consequences of the failures of the administrators.

Works Cited

1. Chace, William M. "A question of honor." The American Scholar 81.2 (2012): 20-32.
2. Edmundson, Mark. “Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?” Oxford American (Aug 22, 2011). Retrieved from; http://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/486-who-are- you-and-what-are-you-doing-here
3. Lynch, Mathew. “3 Issues that are hurting the American Educational System”. The Advocate. Retrieved from; http://www.theedadvocate.org/3-issues-that-are-hurting-the-american -educational-system/
4. Natale, Samuel M., and Caroline Doran. "Marketization of education: An ethical dilemma." Journal of business ethics 105.2 (2012): 187-196.