Assignment 4 so far

Kevin Lim

Assignment 4 Rough Draft

The case against college

The general argument that is made by dale Stephens from his work, "The case against college" is that college puts their students into major debt.  More specifically he writes that students do not need a college degree to be successful in life.  In this passage he writes that “Creativity is innate, the problem is that school kills creativity.  Our educational systems cultivate a mindset where children would be rewarded for following directions.”  In this passage he suggests that college really isn't necessary for people to succeed and it really does have many losses to the individual.

In conclusion dale Stephens' belief is that college puts people into debt and it truly isn't necessary in society.  He is definitely right that it does put some students into deep financial trouble but he is wrong when he states that it is not necessary.  Also, the real problem lies not in in the college years of a student, but the years before that, where children go through grade school.  That is the time frame of when the creativity of children is taking a turn for the worse.  More specifically i believe that it is almost impossible for someone to succeed in society without college.  For example, most employers today look for at least a 4 year degree before hiring anybody.  Although Dale Stephens might object that people need college, i maintain that it is definitely necessary in society for people to succeed.  Therefore I conclude that Stephens does speak some truth in his argument but also I see some flaws as well.  I believe that until “The case against college” gets more recognition; it is not truly possible for anyone to succeed by following this method.

Often times when a student graduates from college, they go through the same problems of debt.  There are many exceptions to this but unfortunately, this is the sad truth of it.  Sale Stephens states that college is the main cause of debt because of student loans and that it really isn’t necessary for someone to succeed in life.  I agree with him to an extent.  I definitely see the possibility of a graduate student to go into major debt because of college but I definitely cannot see the possibility of a person succeeding in life and making a good living without a four year degree at least!  Of course there are a few individuals who get very lucky like Bill Gates.  He was able to create one of the largest computer software companies, Microsoft, and he was a college dropout .  Throughout 1995 to 2006 he was the wealthiest man for his time.  Another successful individual is of course Steve Jobs, the co-founder of apple.  Jobs went to college for one semester who quit before he went to work for “Atari and then he worked for Pixar Animations before they merged with Disney.”  These two are one of the handful of people that were very lucky and were given the opportunity to be successful through lucky life choices and business propositions.  This does not apply to the general public, the majority of us are unable to get even the slightest opportunity to make a fraction of what these people make.  However, college gives us a chance to be able to attain this, with a proper education.  If we are able to do something extraordinary that people would acknowledge then we could have a chance to be like Bill Gates, Steve jobs, or Henry Ford. 

Dale Stephens makes a very valid argument, this is especially true on the fact that school kills creativity.  Stephens explains tells us that there was an experiment that tested children about their creativity.  This test concluded that after a few years of children being in the normal education system, they were tested one more time to see what happened.  Originally most of the children tested at a very high level but after the education they received, only about half were able to test at the same ability as they had before.  Stephens states that college is the main cause about this but I do not believe that this is true.  I do not think that college is the main source of this crisis because according to the tests, children would have lost the creativity that they had in the beginning regardless because of the grade level schooling that  they have received since childhood. 

Of course there are many opinions about this topic, many might choose to go and believe in Dale Stephens’ words or maybe students would just acquire an education by traditional means like going to grade school then college.  However if people can see both sides wouldn’t that be ideal?  It is definitely true that college does cost a lot of money but what can most people do about it?  This traditional way of going to school has been going on for many years and most graduates are able to pay off the student loans that they have borrowed.  The problem is definitely on the solution of how to stop the educational system of killing the creativity of the next generations to come.  A change in society is already very difficult to achieve and especially a change in the school system?  Changing years of traditional ways of teaching is definitely not an easy task.  Most prefer staying with the old because it is the easiest way to go and it requires less effort.  Change however is hard because it takes time to adjust.