Mark Edmundson On The Uses Of Liberal Education Analysis

“On the Uses of Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students”, was written by Mark Edmundson in 1973. Edmundson conveys his ideas in an authoritative, straightforward manner although his writing is somewhat muddled. His arguments are clear but I had a hard time understanding his writing because he states his arguments after giving an example of what he is claiming. This makes his writing long and drawn out. I had to read and re-read his essay to understand his arguments. He does brings up several valid points. He writes to everyone but especially directs his writing towards teachers and students at colleges and university. He argues in his essay “On the Uses of Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College …show more content…
Edmundson rambles on and on in his essay so I did not really understand him at first but then as I read further on, I began to agree with him. He has several valid arguments.
One of his first arguments was that consumerism is polluting the education system. He claims this by equating the class evaluations at the end of the year to consumerism. Edmondson says that when students fill out evaluations they are, “playing the informed consumer, letting the provider know where he’s come through and where he’s not quite up to snuff” (323). His statement is so true! When I fill out my evaluations, it is rarely on the quality of information that I received in the class. I usually express my opinion of the teacher. Like I did, other students evaluate their teachers and they tell administration their opinion of the teachers. Edmondson explains that this is attitude is not completely our fault. He suggests that at universities, college students and teachers, who are at these universities, focus on how much the students like the classes, rather than the information found …show more content…
For example, he argues this when he mentions giving his students the course evaluations. Some of the comments he received in them were, “the teacher was interesting”, or, “he was funny”. Not one student commented on the information they got in the class. This is because consumers, also known as students, want their experience at school to be fun and entertaining. They do not care about exercising their brains in the classrooms. This is why professors are under pressure to be more entertaining and not so boring with their lesson plans and lectures. Should teachers be entertaining to their students and keep their classrooms full or should they teach in a way so that kids receive a lot of information that might be boring in its delivery? Students who are not entertained in their classes are able to withdraw from them around the third week of the semester without having to pay for the class. In turn, the number of withdrawals from a particular subject sends up red flags to the college administrators. Suddenly no students are in those classes, which concerns administration. Thus, something must be wrong. The idea that is