Official Members of American Colleges regarding the Crisis - Essay Example

Rhetorical Argument Introduction Currently, there is a lot of crisis regarding the amount of time a college degree should take. Most of the policy makers in the field of education and University presidents believe that 4 years in college is wasteful and traditional and are therefore campaigning for change. American Universities are amongst the best in the world but despite this, America has not been able to provide sufficient skilled labor force to meet its economic demands. According to Lamar Alexander, the author of Three-year solution How the Reinventions of Higher Education Benefits Parents, Students, and Schools, a 4-year college degree is wasteful since a lot of time is wasted and little education is attained. Lamar provides suggestions on how a 3-year college degree is efficient in terms of educational and cost. On the other hand, the authors of What’s College for Anyway give similar sentiments. The authors believe that college time should be reduced but they have been keen to point out international students who might be required to take a little longer due to language barrier and acclimatization reasons. James Altucher the author of Skip Diploma, 8 alternatives to college begins with a story on how he used his college fee to buy a car only to return the car and join a college. He regrets this decision and cites reasons such as costs of education and time consumed in college as his reasons for regret. He therefore does not want other students to go through what he went through and provides them with 8 alternatives for college. Ironically, he gives reasons such as travelling around, creating an art, make people laugh, write a book as some of his alternatives. Jacques Steinberg is the author of Plan B, Skip College. He reviews some of the professors and University presidents regarding this issue. In his research, he indicates that out of only 30 jobs, which are likely to be in demand in the next decade only 7, will require a bachelors degree. These arguments are raising eyebrows regarding the attitude for education. In real sense, these arguments reveal the truth and something needs to be done. This paper reviews some of the articles and arguments by some top most official members of American colleges regarding the crisis. The paper reviews their thoughts and offers analytical recommendation and conclusion regarding their debates. Thesis Statement There has been a lot of controversy regarding the time college students should spend in colleges and in the universities. There has also been a major concern regarding the quality of education in American colleges and Universities. Moreover, many critics believe that a four years education career at the university or the college is so expensive. Most of the scholars argue against the traditional 4 years and thinks that this time should be reduced to 3 years. I believe that college and university time should be reduced to three years instead of the traditional and fixed four years. Will this provide America with the fresh, energetic and skilled labor that it is lacking? Skip the Diploma According to the author of Skip the Diploma: 8 alternatives to college, James Altucher, attending college has made him regret his life. He gives 8 alternatives for attaining a diploma in a college. It is quite challenging to realize that most of the scholars are against attending colleges and give options for business as a way of living (James Altucher). The US government has been struggling with a shortage of skilled labor for quite a long time and the country depends on foreign labor in order to meet its demands. For this reason, questions have been raised on whether to shorten colleges and university duration in order to meet this demand. President Obama recently gave a proposal of an extended education a view, which has not been received well and has been criticized by most scholars and policy makers in the US. There have been concerns about the quality of education US has been producing. US is one of the economic giants in the world and requires skilled labor in order to maintain this status. However, the country engages in importing skilled labor every year in order to satisfy their economic needs. However, President Obama has a different view and proposes an extended learning in order to solve this challenge. He suggests that all students upon completion of 12th grade be engaged in a compulsory community college in order to enhance their skills further (The Whitehouse). The US president backs this suggestion with an argument that the system is not just aiming to curb unemployment but give the US population a good stepping-stone into the future. For this reason, this kind of education aims at providing the learners with skills and opportunities that they would not have achieved by 12th grade as well as providing them with measurable differentiated skills. Jill Biden and her wife Joe Bidden have been mandated with the task of raising awareness about community colleges as the program is set to start early in 2015 (By Marc Parry). However, there are those that have different opinions concerning the president move and are sighting possible cases of the systems failure even before it begins. According to Lee Bollinger the President of Columbia University, education should be as flexible as possible. Bollinger asserts that students in higher education should be transformed to complete their studies in 3 years. She says that before students are engaged in the process, they should be thoroughly prepared before the process began. Alexander Lamar, the author of The Three Year Solution, gives similar sentiments. Lamar argues on the financial context. He believes that a university course should only take 3 years equivalent to six semesters. If this happens, the student will have saved averagely $ 43,000, which is the amount of 1 year’s tuition fee (Alexander Lamar 26). Lamar a former University of Tennessee President argues that a lot of the higher education in America has not changed before and after the American Revolution. He gives an example of the summer fall when most of the colleges are shut down and people go for breaks. I agree with Lamar’s sentiments. Lamar believes that this is a waste of time money and other resources. He argues that the time spent on using school facilities is normally reduced into half of the years while a lot of energy, time and money is spent on maintenance of the school facilities. Traditionally, most of the US farmers and students used to keep their books away during summers and worked on their farms. This does not happen so much nowadays. The question everyone is asking why should we close higher-level institutions for almost four months in a year? Reasons for compromise are some of the issues behind the rest period. Even though there is need for radical transformation of the education system in the US, there is still a compromising effect for a continuous learning process. Most of the research regarding learning and development gives the advantages of undertaking breaks during the learning process. the breaks helps in evaluation of the learning process in addition to providing continuing students with time to attend internship, attachments, and teaching practices in their desired field of career. According to the author of Plan B Skip College Steinberg Jacques, 80% students who are ranked at the bottom quarter in their colleges will most likely not graduate or get a two-year associate degree. Steinberg therefore suggests proposes no college at all for such students. Just like most of the other authors discussed above, it is painful and costly to attend college for 4 years and not to graduate (Jacques Steinberg 23). According to Richard Vedder of Ohio University, Political Scientists Charles Murray, and Robert Lerman of American University, there should be reforms in the American higher education and short term vocational and career training should act as alternatives for college learning. The career training and corporate apprenticeship in collaboration to school programs can help in assisting such students. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, college degrees are not benefitting many grandaunts since they are not applicable. It is predicted that amongst the 30 jobs projected to grow faster in the next decade only 7 jobs will require a bachelor’s degree. In addition to this, a study conducted by Professor Vedder ironically indicated that in 1999, 15% of the mail carriers had a bachelor’s degree. As an economist, Vedder argues that the money spent in education alternatively could have been used in purchasing a mortgage (Jacques Steinberg). According to Alexander Lamar, university degree should take 3 years with 40 units a year up from the traditional 30 units. This will cut the tuition fee by 25% while imparting high ability knowledge on the students. In addition to this, Lamar suggests that students be offered four-week course in January a time where they can earn 3-4 credits while in or out of campus depending on how they are flexible. However, for this to be possible, Lamar argues that there must be reforms in the high schools. He says that students who attain advanced placement credits in high school proceed well with their higher education with very few challenges (Nelson Libby). I believe that shortening the college time is necessary since it offers learners with more time for extra curricula activities, reduces cost of education, growing up and even pursuing further education abroad. The reduction of the time to three years does not necessarily mean that students will learn less. Instead the learning time is increased during the learning period according to Zemsky one of the authors of what’s college for (Bollinger 33). Professor Lamar has also dismissed Obama’s suggestion of extended education. Instead, he argues that the country requires vocational programs, which requires extended skills, which have been disregarded with many people opting for national education standards such as preparing students for college. Lamar suggests that instead of the radical renovation of the community college system aiming at preparing students for work, the Obama government should instead focus its resources on the job apprenticeship training. Lamar gives an example of the CVS pharmacy chain, which is a chain of aspiring pharmacists who work as apprentices in thousands of pharmacy stores all over the US. With this kind of programs developed in each field of education, there will be specialization and mastery of skills in the desired field of education. This is the reason why 40% of apprentice students in US are on high demand compared to college students (Jacques Steinberg). Conclusion In conclusion, it is evident that a 4-year college degree is considered wasteful and not only in terms of time but on other resources such as school facilities and money. For this reason, there have been suggestions especially by Lamar on how to reduce this time with inclusion of higher ability credits to produce highly confident and skilled labor for the country. Other authors have also offered their solutions especially with regard to apprenticeship and other on job training programs instead of four years in college. For this reason, we offer our recommendations regarding the education system in the country and hope for an reforms in high school and in colleges. Works Cited Alexander Lamar. The Three-Year Solution. 26 October 2009. 2013 . Bollinger, Lee, Michael Crow, Elaine Tuttle Hansen, and Robert Zemsky. What’s College for Anyway?: A Symposium. 26 October 2009. 2013 . By Marc Parry, Kelly Field, and Beckie Supiano. The Gates Effect. 14 July 2013. 2013 . Jacques Steinberg. Plan B: Skip College. 15 May 2010. 2013 . James Altucher. Skip the diploma: 8 alternatives to college . 29 March 2011. 2013 . Nelson Libby. To Reach Obama's 2020 Goal, Colleges Need to Support Adult Students, Panelists Say. 19 January 2010. 2013 . The Whitehouse. Building American Skills Through Community Colleges. 6 April 2013. 2013 . Read More