Analysis of Articles about Liberal Education - Essay Example

Analysis Paper Introduction Today many receiving education in colleges seem to be lost and hardly on the right track as far as their academic activities are concerned. Mark Edmundson has illustrated various aspects of liberal education and how students can take education as a form of entertainment. Conversely, Gerald Graff mostly based his arguments on various perceptions that students have undertaken with respect to education in many colleges. In the article "On the Uses of a Liberal Education," by Edmundson, the author describes the college as a firm while students are described as consumers who are willing to choose output, to earn better grades even though they are not going to learn much. In the article "Other Voices, Other Rooms," by Graff, the author mentions professors who teach certain classes with different approaches and ideas that confuse students in their classes. Throughout his text, Graff clearly explains cons of teaching in different ways that make students get confused and why they would have to choose professors they want. Despite their seemingly different approaches, this paper aims to show how Graff serves to support the argument presented by Edmundson about the use of liberal education. With this regard, Graff in a way supports Edmundson’s argument on the way universities dumb down learning processes in order to cater for the modern culture. This is achieved through the creation of more comfortable environments, which is less challenging in order to allow for a situation whereby nobody failed, but rather where everything was The arguments developed by Graff and Edmundson on liberal education are found to relate in certain ways despite the fact that some difference, based on cultural ideas and practices, have been developed from the fact that various communities and nations have diversified norms and cultural practices that have to be followed by individuals of that community in a strict way. One of the ways in which Graff supports the arguments of Edmundson is through the idea of students choosing their professors by stating the reasons why the students had to choose professors. They need to choose their professors is based on the high cost of education that they are forced to pay for their education. This could be explained by their choice of lecturers. According to Graff, lecturers have different ways of teaching and thus students wish to gain the best possible by considering their most preferred lecturers who could enable them to gain the highest grades possible. The idea of Edmund is based on maximizing on the resources available based on their payments, an idea supported by Graff in which the choice of lecturers happens to be one of these attempts to gain high points. This way, Graff’s ideology about students seems to support that of Edmundson of students trying to maximize their educational benefits given the high price they pay for the education (Edmundson). In his article, Graff talks about two professors who impart the same subject with different understandings, which can confuse students unintentionally and let them end up with gaining hardly anything after finishing a class session. He points out his own case of listening to a critique theory where he says, “…I listened with dutiful respect to the New Critic’s theories of irony and paradox…,” (Graff, pg.339) and concluded that there was no application to the theory whatsoever. Moreover, Graffs article says there is no communication between the instructors and students (Graff, pg.338), which strengths the idea of Edmundson on education as a business where each part aims to maximize the possible benefits. Many professors today seem to visualize whether students are puzzled or not and move on quickly when it comes to liberal education. This practice makes students miss out a lot, which lead them to give up and find another professor who can teach them more effectively. Graffs argument on education has been analyzed, showing that there are still other cases that Graff supports the argument by Edmundson on his view towards education. One of such cases is that Graff supports the notion argued by Edmundson in that students have different perceptions on education (Edmundson). Edmundson points out that, “For some measure of self-dislike, or self-discontent -- which is much different than simple depression -- seems to me to be a prerequisite for getting an education that matters” (Edmundson). Such perceptions include the idea that education can be considered as an entertainment. Both authors have a common argument in that attaining high GPA does not imply that it will lead one to success. In this case, Graff strongly supports Edmundson. Everything that students learned becomes their asset in the future. Edmundson explains that culture has been explored and improved through introduction of studies in different fields in education, for instance feminism, deconstruction, queer theory and Lacanianism. Edmundson states that, “It’s a culture that’s gotten little exploration.” Education has been aimed at improving various perceptions among individuals from different nations, races, communities, nationalities, cultural practices and traditional practices. Therefore, Edmundson illustrate that introduction of different issues in education have immensely influenced the thinking of individuals, and have created an impact that aims at positively influencing and improving levels of understanding in different communities. These critics have been developed from the notion that students who have learnt the new ideas in different institutions have learnt to embrace the various changes learnt. However, there are elderly individuals in the communities who have not had a chance to understand these factors, and have always believed in the traditional practices and cultural norms. This creates a difficult situation as the educated individuals try to introduce new practices and norms in the society. Therefore, this leads to situation where the elderly in different communities are introduced to these changes and taught in how effective and efficient these changes have been to individuals from other communities and nations. Graff seems to support the idea of Edmundson in terms of cultural aspects. “In the context of the contemporary university, and cool consumer culture, a useful intellectual skepticism has become exaggerated into a fundamentalist caricature of itself” (Edmundson). Graff explains the idea of culture and culture critics as an issue that has been found out to be mistaken. In this case, persons from different communities have developed an understanding that cultural practices have been neglected with introduction of liberal-arts education. Like Edmundson, Graff shows how different cultures are linked to education. In conclusion from an analysis of the two articles, it can clearly be illustrated that despite the fact that theorists may argue on the same notion, there are some cases where there are contradictions in their arguments. This is based on what is perceived by the individual and how different persons understand an object. Based on arguments developed by Graff and Edmundson, it has been noted that there are some ideas that generate the same understandings. These ideas include the view that education has been viewed by students as a form of entertainment. In such a case, Graff illustrates that education has been perceived by students in various institution as a scheme to try and weigh what suits an individual best, rather than having education taken seriously. Edmundson also explains the same idea that students in different institutions have educational issues similar to those of entertainment, and aim at developing entertainment plans from issues related to education (Edmundson). On the other hand, there are cases where Graff and Edmundson have been ascertained to contradict each other, and this has been based on issues related to culture. Cultural norms practices as well as traditional practices have been known to change from one community to the other in different nations (Graff, pg.343). Therefore, issues related to culture and cultural practices can be different, therefore, leading to diversity in understanding and explaining the idea based on education. In this regard, Graff illustrates that education has been an issue of major concern in different communities, as it has been analyzed to develop situations that can be considered against the norms of some communities. This include the point that students in different institutions are introduced to subjects related to feminism, which influences their understanding of what is required in the cultural setting. Edmundson also argues that education have helped improve understanding that has been developed in different traditional setting. This has helped ensure that individuals from different communities embrace new ideas and develop a better understanding of various issues including feminism, deconstruction, queer theory and Lacanianism. Therefore, the two authors argue in the same line at some point, but contradict in their arguments in certain cases as it is explained in the text. Works Cited Edmundson, Mark. Harpers Magazine. 1 Sep 1997. Web. 27 Feb 2014. Graff, Gerald. "Chapter 12: Education ." Greene, Stuart and April Lidinsky. From Inquiry to Academic Writing. Boston/ New York, 2013. 338-343. Print. Read More