"Should Undergraduates Specialize?" Response

I chose to reflect on this reading because I felt that the opinions of Patrick Allitt were ones with which I agreed firmly. The statement "I think more American colleges should offer the chance to specialize right from the outset to those students who want it" is very agreeable because some people know exactly what they want to do and know what they are passionate about. Like Allitt says, the American system is unlike the British because the student has to pay for those costs of education since they are benefiting from the education. If we are paying thousands of dollars, we should be able to choose if we want to specialize right away rather than having general education classes, considering we have to deal with the costs.

On the other hand, students also should have that choice to take general classes if they are undecided on a major, which is where I stand. Personally, I have no idea what I plan to major in, so taking a variety of classes has helped eliminate some possible ideas I've had for majors as well as sparked interests. All in all, I agree that there should be that choice of having early specialization.

One other point I wanted to touch on was the topic of college applications. In America, you cannot simply rely on academics and the grades you got in high school to be accepted into top colleges. Allitt makes the point that his daughter was encouraged early on to join many extracurriculars, anything that will make her stand out above just academics. While I do agree that people should be accepted on more than just grades, the extent is almost ridiculous. A lot of the clubs at my high school ended up with students who really did not care what the club was about and did not participate to their fullest potential. They would just join to be able to put it on their college applications and make themselves "look good". Just an interesting thought I guess.

"Should Undergraduates Specialize?" Response

The points that Allitt portrays in this essay were very intriguing to me. The way he presents the pros and cons of the schooling systems in Britain and America brought up certain points that I had never thought of before. Something that many people should reflect on is his argument that education isn't "one size fits all." There are ups and downs to both specialized and liberal arts education; consequently, neither of these systems are perfect. Allitt's essay provoked in me the idea that education will probably never fitsociety's exact needs or interests. Some students are ready for a vocational school right out of high school, and some need that broad spectrum that a liberal arts school provides so they can find what it is they want to pursue.

"Should Undergraduates Specialize?" response

Patrick Allitt makes it clear that college education in England is very different from an American education now. Anyone could have guessed that. I understand his point that students should specialize because it makes them much more aware of their field and they get a more in depth understanding of it; but, just has he made clear before, education has changed. A college education used to be rare, now it is a commodity. Basically every high school graduate goes to some type of college these days. There is not really a need to specialize in an undergraduate degree. The current undergrad degree is the equivalent to the old high school degree. Now, students will get a masters to be ahead of the curve and to get a good job. A masters degree is the place where students should specialize in the field of their choice. Then, they will be old enough to decide what they want to do with their life and will have had enough prior education to have a well rounded knowledge of different topics as well.

"Livinging 'Savage Inequalities'" Response

In this article not only did the fifth graders surpass the expected response to "Savage Inequalities", but they even took it a step further by acting on their response. They were given an example of a similar situation to their own and took the old cliché that they "could do whatever they put their minds to" and actually did something. What really drives it home is the adult mindset the fifth graders took. It really saddens me that the board would not take the fifth graders response. The board could not see past the age and/or race of the fifth graders when they are really the ones most affected by the injustices dealt to their society. I am glad that through the help of Mr. Schultz their voice was heard and they did make a difference in their school and community.

"Shitty first drafts" response

While reading "shitty first drives" I had a really easy time connecting to the feelings of the authors who sit down and all they want to do from the begining is write a perfect paper, one that doesnt have to be edited or revised. Of course if we did this it would save us time and energy, but the author of the article makes a good point when she says creating a first draft that doesnt necessaraly flow is a good thing because one sentence that you write could create a whole new idea that would make the paper even better. I agree with the author when she says that alot of times those things you write down in "shitty first drafts" that make an excellent paper wouldnt come up if u were trying to write close to perfect from the get go. Just being able to relax and get all your ideas down on paper is the best way to start a really good paper. Its nice to sit down and not have all that pressure on ur shoulders, feeling like you need to be perfect, becasue eventually, your paper will be perefect, if you just relax when u start! I thought that article was really well written!

(the blogging generation freaks me out)

The truth is I’ve never been truly comfortable with the notion that there are public sites containing the thoughts and ideas of anyone that has the accessibility. Free, (in all sense of the word) press is a great thing. Okay. Sure. I get lost, though, thinking of the fraction of the billions of people in the world who own blogs, and how many of them believe they are ground-breaking, completely original, and absolutely have this inherent human right to blog. From my perspective and previous experiences, there are two kinds of blogs. Mostly, there is an abundance of small blogs, mostly with few subscribers and containing few original thoughts. The latter (and lesser) are great lists and pictures and essays and stories, fictional or nonfictional, the Standout Blogs. Despite this, I still can’t shake my uneasiness towards blogging. More often than not, I come across writing that is wholly self-indulgent and vain, or filled with lols and slang, or just the opposite, with overuse of precious rhetoric and vocabulary. I’m frazzled of wondering if blogs are supposed to be all about you or about populations. I believe that a blog should have writing without any agenda to sound like anything more than who you absolutely are. There shouldn’t be predispositions about fame or popularity. Forget the feigning for attention. Leave the obnoxious wordplay and write. Even while writing this, my jumbled words sound so wrong. My opinion now sounds more decadent than anything I could ever remember reading. I’m wriggling with discomfort with every tap of the keyboard. I guess I’ll have to try to find a balance of this so vain, so modest, essay-like, conversationalist type of writing. For now, I'll stick to my fail blog.

Response to "Clutter" by William Zinsser

I feel that "Clutter" by William Zinsser emphasizes a really important point that people often ignore when they're writing; Words may sound great altogether in a sentence, and your point may get across successfully, but normally a lot of your words are unnecessary.

Zinsser says, in addition, that "each profession has its own jargon to fire at the layman and hurl him back from its walls," referring to the icky style that politicians and professionals use when speaking to the public. This is the most striking point to me because society seems to think that confusing the public will save us from knowing the grim realities. I'm sorry, but no -- its all unnecessary and annoying to me. Zinsser is right in criticizing this, and thats why I like his article and connect with it very well. However, this is a very professional sense of 'clutter', and we are just college students writing essays. Either way, we have our own 'clutter' that we could clean up on, which Zinsser writes about.

This is definitely an article that I would use as a remembrance for writing better essays. It will really help me with writing college-level essays and eliminating the unneeded sentences and words in my papers, and I recommend the rest of you remember the points made in "Clutter" as well for the future.

Drafts and Blogging

The article “Shitty First Drafts” was a very informative article and really hit home for me. As a student, writing has been ingrained in my mind. We have all been taught to write multiple drafts for papers, but I think that as we get older this idea isn’t as appealing. In high school it is obvious to see the people that actually take their time to write a good paper and those that put it together the night before. Those students fail to write multiple drafts and turn in their first draft because they procrastinate until the last second, and their grade reflects their effort. Writing is a difficult skill to achieve and very subjective and therefore many people fail to put forth the effort. I think reading this article was helpful because most times we sit down and expect a masterpiece to flow from our fingertips but in reality it takes time, revising, mistakes and much more to come out with a good piece of writing. Anne tells use to trust writing processes because they do lead to success.

I thought the article about blogging was interesting because it has become widespread throughout the Internet. I think teenagers thrive in blogs because they are more technology savvy and because they use the colloquial language blogs are known for.

California University System

Here is an interesting article about the current budget crisis at the University of California.

Ivory Tower Blog Response

The Basement in the Ivory Tower seems to be a reference to Professor X teaching "at colleges of last resort". The Ivory Tower is a metaphor for college, where the professor is teaching the students who are only good enough to get into the very lowest level of college. Often times, they feel that society requires everyone to have some kind of college degree; however, Professor X makes the point that this is, in fact, destroying the accomplishment of a college degree. These people come in expecting to put forth the minimum amount of effort and pass, but instead are flunked because they just don't belong in higher education. The problem is perpetuated even more, now that colleges seem to be preying on these people just to make more money. Professor X calls this "the gulf between academia and reality", as colleges admit people they know will not be able to live up to their academic standards, but are still allowed in because of the profits they represent. Of course, it looks good that so many people in America go to college but, as Professor X points out, that while it would be great for sheriffs, bank tellers, medical-billing techs, and child welfare officers to be versed in great literature as it's a route to critical thinking its still impractical for their careers. Professor X is put in the unfortunate position of introducing these people to reality like many other Professors across the country and trying to keep a college education worth something.

The Ivory Tower

The metaphor of the "ivory tower" has always interested me. Whenever I hear the phrase, I picture something out of a fantasy novel. When I walk the halls of Helen C. White (the location of my particular real estate in the 'ivory tower'), however, I think that the phrase doesn't quite capture my day to day reality. The flickering fluorescent lights are just too real.

I suppose the metaphor is more about isolation than any specific image (in my mind this suggests more "tower" and less "ivory"). In fact, according to my not very reliable Internet source, the metaphor alludes to a passage from the Songs of Solomon that suggests purity. The same source suggests that in the nineteenth-century, the phrase could have been used to refer to towers in Oxford. Now this I believe.

To the extent that the metaphor suggests isolation from the world, I think it is valuable because it helps us question our own academic practices. Yet, it is also valuable to remember that it's not all or nothing - the ivory tower and the world can be related in complicated ways.

Welcome

Welcome to our class blog! This blog is a forum for us to respond to the readings for our composition class at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. The class considers the place of education within society, while also examining how 'place' matters to the quality of education. We will think about material places, such as schoolrooms, geographic regions, and specific universities, but we will also investigate how people use place figuratively to make arguments. In addition to our writing on this blog, we will be writing essays that will help us contribute to the ongoing discussion about the role of education in society.