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 Twenges 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 institutionsone-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.