How Not To Get Into College

Pressure makes things hard for people, it puts them into situations where they can’t hear their inner voice. “How Not to Get into College” by Alfie Kohn and “Manhood” by John Wain have many interesting similarities and differences. “How Not to Get into College” talks about how students are pressurized in many ways and they race for grades forgetting about the knowledge, whereas “Manhood” is a story about a boy named Rob and his father (Mr. Willison). Rob’s father wants Rob to be athletic and do things that he was not able to, during his childhood. The purpose of this essay is to prove, both “Manhood” and “How Not to Get into College” are similar to each other having few differences. We let pressure take over and blind us, it allows other people …show more content…
The education system takes over students’ lives in “How Not to Get into College” but Mr. Willison handles Rob’s life in “Manhood”. The students’ life is controlled by education system of the schools, the students are forgetting about gaining knowledge and worrying about getting A’s. Kohn clearly blames the education system, saying that “In effect, I was blaming the victims rather than looking at the systematic factors that turned them into grade grubbers”. Kohn is saying that the system has turned the students into grade grubbers interpreting that students are racing for the grades, because the system has turned students this way it satisfies with our point that the system is controlling the students. In “Manhood” Rob’s father, Mr. Willison is restraining Rob’s life by making him do activities that he is not interested in. For example, when Mr. Willison takes Rob for a bicycle ride and he gets extremely tired, so says “Dad, why did we have to come so far, if we’ve got to get back for one o’clock” Mr. Willison replies to Rob saying “Nonsense! There’s no reason why tow fit men shouldn’t cycle twelve miles in an hour and ten minutes”. As we can see that Rob didn’t want to do any of this, but Mr. Willison compelled Rob to do it. If we take a glance at Mr. Willison’s words, we see that he refers to himself and Rob as “two fit men”, this tells us that he is treating Rob as a man and he forgets that Rob is just twelve, so he controls his life and makes him do things that is out of his ability. Lying creates a border between the two pieces of writing and it results in being a difference. Rob lies to his father under pressure in “Manhood” but the students don’t lie under pressure in “How Not to Get into College”. Students and Rob both are following other’s directions while in pressure, but the difference is created by a lie that Rob tells his dad, that he has been selected for the