College Is A Waste Of Time And Money By Caroline Bird

Ashley Loker Project 3 Mr. Lawson 6 October, 2017 Rhetorical Strategies in Bird’s â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money† The decision to obtain a higher education beyond high school is no longer a question of if, but when. This is the question that author Caroline Bird discusses in her article, â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money,† written in 1975. This text strives to convince students, parents, and advisors that obtaining a degree might not be in the best interest for those involved. Circling around the idea that college is requirement and no longer an act of free will. Bird starts the article off strongly by building her credibility through her own personal research and other credible sources as well as appealing to readers†¦show more content†¦Stating that in the amount of time one would spend in college, a person could invest that money and have a greater earning potential than a person with a 4 year degree. While there are some students that thrive in an academic setting, the determining factor in financial prosperity is more likely due to initial intelligence and family background instead of higher education. College may be a great place for those who are truly drawn to academic work, but it is has become a waste of time and money for those who are reluctant or feel pressured. Caroline Bird makes use of strong evidence to support her claims by restating the research conducted by authors, economists, students and even cites herself on numerous occasions. â€Å"I looked for answers with the journalistic tools of my trade - scholarly studies, economic analyses, the historical record...parents, professors, college administrators, and employers. Mostly I learned from my interviews with hundreds of young people on and off campuses all over the country.† (Bird, 11) To establish credibility you must posses four things: trust, relatability, authority, and reputation. Bird does a great job representing these criteria throughout the article. Along with citing her own research she restates the research of at least 12 other sources within the paper, continuing to contribute to the credibility. Using these sources gives way to a more truthful and unbiased point of view that is not the authors.Show MoreRelatedCollege Is A Waste Of Time And Money By Caroline Bird 1066 Words   |  5 PagesCaroline Bird starts by building her credibility through her own personal research and other credible sources as well as appealing to readers through logical reasoning using numerous statistics but fails to convince readers and discredits her ultimate goal through a disconnect in her use of analogies. In the article, â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money†, Caroline Bird explains why higher education is not always the right choice for students after high school. The author believes that students doRead MoreAnalysis on Caroline Bird ´s College Is a Waste of Time and Money637 Words   |  3 Pages In â€Å"College Is a Waste of Time and Money,† written by Caroline Bird illustrates that college is not for everyone. There are many reasons that Bird lists so that readers and colleges can understand that tuition is never going to decrease. Bird uses diction, tone, sentence structures, locos, ethos, and pathos to prove that college students attend college hoping to get a better job and people who decide not to go to college do not want to waste their time and money. First, a college student suffersRead MoreCollege is a waste of time and money1196 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Sorayah Vuningoma Professor Scott English 101 Rough Draft College is a waste of time and money In Caroline Bird, â€Å"College is a waste of time and money,† Bird discusses why college is not necessary for everyone. She states that many college students are in college not because they want to but because they have to. Bird came to realize that college students don’t feel needed. They are led to believe that getting a college degree is important because it’s a way of getting higher chance ofRead MoreEssay on Is College Worth The Effort?883 Words   |  4 PagesIs College Worth The Effort? College has been a total waste of your time and money! Imagine telling that to a student who just finished four years of hard, grueling, expensive work; or, even worse, a parent who paid for their child to finish that same grueling work. But, in some ways, that statement can’t be any further from the truth. College can prepare a student for life in so many more ways than for a career. However, in the way that college is supposed to prepare soon-to-be-productiveRead MoreCollege Is The Waste Of Time And Money1502 Words   |  7 PagesIn â€Å"College is the Waste of Time and Money†, author Caroline Bird argues that college is not better suited for those who are looking to be financially successful. This is based on the facts of a low turnover ratio of students in colleges and universities and calculation that money spent on college would have yield higher returns from other businesses such as new venture and start-up companies. Bird urges us not to spend time and money on colleges and universities. It is true that colleges a nd universitiesRead MoreCollege life or your life? In our society in this day and age a secondary education is certainly800 Words   |  4 PagesCollege life or your life? In our society in this day and age a secondary education is certainly not a preference or pleasure, but somewhat of a requirement. Students are basically grown and accustomed to consider that one needs advanced schooling in order to be successful in life. In addition, President Barack Obama gave a speech and he stated that, â€Å"If you think education is expensive wait until you see how much ignorance costs in the 21st century† (Obama). But then as technology continually advancesRead MoreEducation Is A Waste Of Time And Money1487 Words   |  6 Pagesimportant, some believe that college is a waste of time and are forced by their parents for the fact that they think college education is essential for the American dream or being successful in life. Some may believe that knowledge is the key to one’s success. Colleges can put an enormous amount of pressure on students because they need to keep a good GPA otherwise they have a chance of getting kicked out. I believe that sometimes colleges can waste your time and money by giving you classes that youRead MoreCollege Is A Waste Of Time And Money853 Words   |  4 PagesHigh School in Valley Steam, New York, interviewed 300 college students at random and 200 of them didn’t think that the education they were getting was worth the effort.† (Bird 220). The idea of continuing education after graduating high school can be very questionable for some students. Many students side with Caroline Bird and her theory that education serves very little purpose in the job market in her essay â€Å"College Is a Waste of Time and Money†. But inevitably, students believe that post-secondaryRead More Exploring Birds Article, College is a Waste of Time and Money530 Words   |  3 PagesExploring Birds Article, College is a Waste of Time and Money In the article College is a Waste of Time and Money, Caroline Bird explains why higher education may not be the best choice for high school graduates. Bird writes that students do not attend college because they want to, but because of what others expect. College is merely the trend in todays society. It is an escape from the real world. Students may be shuffled into a system that is neither financially nor academically beneficialRead More Caroline Birds College Is a Waste of Time and Money Essay1684 Words   |  7 PagesIn her article â€Å"College Is a Waste of Time and Money†, Caroline Bird attempts to pursued her readers that colleges are overflowing with students who don’t belong there. Her article first appeared in Psychology Today (May 1975). Since this material is outdated, I find it hard to believe that most of the responses by students and parents quoted in the article still hold true. The author has set out to pursue the readers that college is a bad and unn ecessary choice for today’s youth. Yet the author

Original Writing †Prose A day in the life of Lauryn-Emily Jones! Free Essays

I woke up feeling worried about the day before me, The other staff members had warned me that Thursday was always the worst day but refused to tell me why. Since Monday I had been working in the oncology outpatients department of the city hospital and so far had dealt with all the different emotions adequately. It was hard work not because of the jobs I had to do but because seeing people in and out everyday either recently being told they had cancer or having suffered for years they were still sad when they got bad news and happy when they got good so all the emotions were mixed up. We will write a custom essay sample on Original Writing – Prose: A day in the life of Lauryn-Emily Jones! or any similar topic only for you Order Now When I walked in on Thursday morning just before nine as I had for the past three days things looked normal. The walls which had been freshly painted were looking bright and fresh and all the staff still looked happy and were smiling so I hoped it was going to be a good day. I went behind reception and there was nothing to do so I stood and watched the people. Most were quite old but all had someone with them for support. I wished silently that everyone that day would get good news but I knew deep down that it was not going to happen and I felt a slight pain in my heart for all the people sitting there, Who were not lucky enough to be seen by some of the best doctors in the world. The disease that was slowly killing could be cured in some cases but it also had lots of side effects to go with it including hair loss, feeling sick at most times, plus the risk of killing too many good cells while killing the bad ones and being in great pain a lot of the time. As I stood thinking about all these things something suddenly popped into my head, What about all the people that did get better? These people included my own Nan who had suffered with throat cancer for a long time but was now cured? This is the proof that these treatments although terrible did work and that even if someone is diagnosed with cancer things can get better. I carried on looking around when a little girl who I later found out was only four came running in, She seemed to know her way around the department and as I looked I realized she did not have very much hair and then I saw her mother. She was a feeble looking woman in a wheel chair; Her husband was pushing her along as she was too weak to do it herself. I decided to talk to this wonderful family and found out the mother had been diagnosed with cancer not long after the doctors told her their daughter had a brain tumour and without a lot of operations and radiotherapy would not live very long and if she did she would be very weak for a lot of her life so may not enjoy it as much as she could. I watched the girl. She was very small and thin and she had tiny patches of hair on her head where the chemotherapy and radiotherapy had made it fall out. Her mother said she had a cancer which they could not specify because it was a mixture of two and she had to have more tests until they could find out. The little girl continued to run around and say hello everyone always keeping a massive smile on her face! This made me smile and I noticed that her father was a very strong man who obviously loved them very much. They soon had to go as the little girl had to have some more radiotherapy. As soon as they went I decided to see what I could find out about radiotherapy. I was told that if a child has to have radiotherapy they get fitted for a mask which fits right over their face, head and neck this is then sent to be made into plastic mask. When the mask is sent back and the child is ready for the radiotherapy, because they can not stay still enough the mask is put over their face with only two little holes for breathing as eye holes are too dangerous. The mask is bolted tightly to the table to stop the child moving because the equipment they use is just a small laser. Unlike chemotherapy it can only be used on the affected part of the body to kill the cells and not on other parts of the body as it kills too many cells and can be very harmful. I stood and thought about this for a minute and wondered whether I would be able to cope with this and how that lively, amazing little girl could cope with it and was told by the lady who does the radiotherapy that most of the time patients have to be put to sleep because they get too distressed by the mask. This thought frightened me and once again I thought how lucky I was to be a normal, healthy 15 year old girl. I found that being in radiotherapy was too distressing and decided to go back up to oncology but when I walked in straight away everything was different, the atmosphere had changed while I was away and I could feel it. I carried on in through the doors and as soon as I got round the corner I realized the whole of the oncology department was full of young men! To any other teenage girl this would be wonderful but to me it was scary. I turned to look and saw a young man no older than 22 sitting in a wheel chair and when it came to going to have his blood taken needed help to get up because he was so weak due to the all the treatment and the disease. I went back behind reception and carried on looking around when I was startled by a lad who slammed his arm down on the desk he looked at me and I noticed he was about the same age as me and he did not look very happy, he had another lad with him who I guessed was for moral support they both smiled at me but the smile was small and not very positive. I decided to go and sit with the lads to see if they would talk to me. I explained what I was doing and they were ok to talk to me. The lad who’s name was Rikki told me he was 15 and had been diagnosed with teratoma cancer when he was just 13 and had recently had an operation to try and get rid of it after chemotherapy failed. The other lad who was there was his best mate Ashley, he had been there through everything and they were very close. He said today he had come in to find out whether they had got rid of the cancer or not but was told the chances were small, he gave me a glance his eyes looked sad but I could tell there was a glimmer of hope in there but as he explained he didn’t want to get too excited for just in case the news was not good. He said he had to stay for a while because he also had to have blood tests and that he would come and see me before he went. I looked at the time and realized I had missed nearly half of my lunch! Although it was raining I wanted to go and sit outside in the fresh air so I could think and I had a chance to clear my head, I watched the people walk in and out and made the decision I would take each day as it comes because I never know what is around the corner, I also decided I would keep very busy after lunch so I could not think about it to much as deep down I was very distressed and was finding it very hard. When I had finished my lunch I went back in to find the waiting area not so packed but was still full of young men waiting to see the doctor. I went to find one of the nurses to talk to and came across Zoi, she had been in the oncology department for 2 years but was leaving soon as she wanted to finish training as a nurse because she never had the chance to do the things she had wanted. We talked about all the people and my feelings; she said the best way to deal with it is to just pretend that everyone was going to be cured and to think myself lucky it was not me. It sounded like a good idea and she also told me Audrey my supervisor wanted to see me at 3 o’clock. We went back to reception and I was asked to do some filing and pulling. This meant taking people’s notes and putting them back on the shelves and getting the lists for the next week and pulling all the files for that which is hard because sometimes they are not there so I have to go to other places around the hospital. Once again when I was reading through the lists thinking about whether I had seen any of the sets of notes I was startled by a hand slamming down on the desk but this time when I looked up I saw a smiling face! It was Rikki again but this time he had the kind of smile I knew no one was going to get rid of! I asked him what the doctor said and in the most wonderful happy voice I have ever heard he said â€Å"It’s gone! † I smiled at him and he carried on jumping around laughing and then proceeded to try and get me to go to the pub with him to celebrate. We chatted for a little while then I realized I had to get on with my jobs so he gave me one more very happy smile and walked off. Even with his back to me I knew he was going to be smiling for a very long time and it was going to take a lot to get rid of that smile! How to cite Original Writing – Prose: A day in the life of Lauryn-Emily Jones!, Essays

Dead Poets Society free essay sample

Everyone in the school knows better than to mess with Mr. Nolan. 2. Is Mr. Keating successful as a leader? Mr. Keating is very successful as a leader for many reasons. He has a different style of teaching and encourages his students to be free thinkers and shows them a new way to look at life. Carpe Diem was a main theme throughout the movie and was very positive for his students. He pushed for diversity and change making sure that his class was different and one that the students would look forward to. Mr. Keating also has many traits of a leader such as intelligence, sense of humor, enthusiasm and insightfulness. His true characteristic that really stands out is his charisma. When the students began standing up on their desks in front of Mr. Nolan, undermining his authority while saying â€Å"Captain, Oh Captain,† solidified Mr. Keating’s success as a leader. On opening night, Mr. Perry shows up and stays to watch the show, although he is not hesitant to discipline Neil afterwards and tell him that he is to be enrolled into military school, where he will become a doctor. Unable to deal with the situation, Neil gets his father’s gun and ends his own life. Neil’s suicide was more than just that, as Emerson stated, â€Å"Standing on the bare ground – my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space – all mean egotism vanishes† (Nature 366). When Neil ended his own life, he did it to set himself free. Mr. Perry represents conformity and egotism that Emerson was talking about, which vanishes after Neil is dead. Neil was forced into a mold his whole life, one that did not fit him whatsoever, his death represents the mold breaking and how Neil can now be truly free because he has been uplifted. The school that the boys attend is called Welton Academy for boys and it is true to four pillars: tradition, honor, discipline and excellence. The boys have a different idea; they refer the school as â€Å"Hellton† and to the four pillars as travesty, horror, decadence, and excrement. Neil Perry was not the only one to face challenges at â€Å"Hellton,† the majority of the boys did. The students of Welton Academy were under immense pressure that was placed upon them by their parents, the staff, and/or both. After attending a few of Mr. Keating’s classes, the boys began to show their true colors. Neil Perry became the leader and enforced all of Mr. Keating’s teachings, Todd Anderson was able to break out of his shell, Knox Overstreet unveiled his hopeless romantic persona, and Charlie Dalton was fearless in exploring poetry. Emerson once said, â€Å" We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents† (Self – Reliance 369). Here, Emerson is portraying the fear and dawdle the boys showed when asked to dispatch their dutiful ways and do things they actually enjoy. One of the many principles of transcendentalism is the pledge to â€Å"make your own way† and the boys eventually grew ill of always knuckling under, so they shed their skin in order for their true selves to emerge. Although transcendentalism is primarily viewed as straying from tradition, the element of nature and the simplicity that comes along with it are also very salient. Emerson believed that nature resembled many aspects of human life and correspondingly said, â€Å" †¦ the power to produce this delight (man being connected to nature) does not reside in nature, but in man, or in harmony of both† (Nature 366). Neil felt especially bonded with nature at the conclusion of the play, where he was a forest nymph, because nature symbolized freedom. One of Neil’s primary props for the show was a crown made out of twigs; the branch-like crown is relevant because just before he committed suicide, Neil had placed it on the windowsill of his room; once again showing that the only way to be purely free was to end his own life. Simplicity and nature go hand-in-hand when concerned with transcendentalism because in nature, one needs nothing to have a rich experience. Thoreau, a transcendentalist author who cut himself off from society for some time, stated, â€Å"Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Walden 367). This quote hits the nail on the head when it comes to the actual Dead Poet’s Society, when the boys would go to a cave nearby and simply read. Not only were they cut off from society within the cave, they had nothing in there except themselves, a couple of books, and a candle to illuminate the pages; nothing else was needed. Each and every one of the members let the words they read or heard sink into their soul and take them to a different world that would be otherwise unheard of. Todd Anderson was new to Welton Academy and also Neil’s roommate. With an older brother who was valedictorian of his class, Todd was constantly under a huge shadow. At first, he was very timid and would ward off any attempts made to anyone who tried to change him. Mr. Keating, however, actually succeeded in getting through to Todd, by making him go through his thought process aloud after being asked several questions. As with all his students, Mr. Keating was the same. He actively expressed his innermost thoughts and aided the boys to find themselves, nonetheless some students did not understand. Specifically, Thoreau mentioned, â€Å"The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear it† (Walden 379). The â€Å"poem of creation† that Thoreau is talking about is very much like what Mr. Keating attempted to relay onto his students, that if you confidently advance to the life you see for yourself, then you will have truly lived and witnessed happiness. Todd was so affected by Mr. Keating that when he returned to the classroom, to pick up his personal belongings after being blamed and fired for Neil’s suicide, Todd was the first to get up on his desk and yell â€Å"O captain, my captain† before Keating left. When Thoreau said â€Å"†¦ but few are the ears that her it† he was right; only the boys who understood and took in what Mr. Keating taught stood up on their desks, the rest sat their and obeyed the headmaster, the conformist of the film. The damaging effects of conformity, beautiful sense of nature, and emphasis of simplicity and individuality are shown in many elements throughout Dead Poet’s Society and are ultimately highlighted by Emerson and Thoreau’s philosophies, making the overall concept of transcendentalism understood. Mr. Keating, the transcendentalist voice of the film, showed his students that they could surpass the mediocre conformist lifestyle through creativity and persistence to reach true freedom and happiness, reaching transcendentalism. Works Cited Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature. The American Experience. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010. 366-368. Print Emerson, Ralph Waldo. â€Å"Self-Reliance. † The American Experience. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010. 369-370. Print Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. The American Experience. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010. 378-387. Print