Liberal Education is meant to cultivate students, which means it intends to help with personal growth, knowledge, skills and also gives them the opportunity to learn about a variety of subjects including a specific field of their choice. This sounds very much like the purpose of college and lower level educations. David Brooks, who wrote “The Organization Kid” explains his views on liberal education and its effects on students. Brooks argues that these students are extremely intellectual, very respectful and motivated but that their educational upbringing and expectations put on them have left them as nothing more than programmed robots that take orders and have no character. This becomes evident in his interviews with students from Princeton…
. While Hedges presents some great points in his essay, I feel that because of his over-generalization of America, he has completely neglected those individuals who are not in a trance. There are some individuals who are educated enough to detach themselves from what they are exposed to in the media.…
During the 18th and 19th century, the United States was experiencing rapid expansion and growth. The purchases of a wide expanses of land, like the Louisiana Purchase, allowed for the territorial expansion of the United States. This allowed presidents after Thomas Jefferson, who spearheaded western expansion, to follow suit with the idea of expansionism.1 While many other treaties and purchases helped with America’s growth, other factors also played into American territorial expansion. The very idea of Manifest Destiny, the success of colonization by the British, and speculation were factors that helped prompt the western expansion.…
1984 Conformity in America America: land of the free, right? Well, maybe not. 1984 portrays a totalitaristic society that seems far from the world we live in today, at first glance. But at a closer look, there are many chilling parallels between these two universes which are typically thought to be opposites. Of course, there are resemblances in surveillance and maybe even propaganda, but we generally do not believe conformance exists in our society.…
The article “Understanding American Worldview” by J. LaVelle Ingram is an article that talks about how the American culture is different than the culture of immigrants. There are five American worldviews that this article summary will be covering. The five worldviews are focusing on the future, humans should be able to control nature, people can be counted on to do the right thing when they are given the chance, a person’s needs and wants are more important than their families, and what one accomplishes in life is much more important than the way they act. People in America focus more on the future than the past. This means that American parents are more likely to save up for their kids’ college fund instead of buying something that they need…
For this second essay, I decided to write about the Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt essay, “The coddling of the American Mind”. In their essay they argue for how, even though cognitive behavioral therapy can help with rise of mental health concerns among college students, colleges and universities too often gravitate toward promoting emotional reasoning (9-11). Therefore, I will argue for what colleges and universities should promote cognitive behavioral therapy while reducing emotional reasoning. For instance, I will explain the benefits of doing this and what might be some disadvantages in applying this therapy and as well as providing what are the obstacles in implementing it. Finally, I will support all these with supporting details from…
I’ve always seen myself as a realist. I try to plainly say things as I see them with as little bias as possible. Alongside that I have also given my best effort to try and see things from other perspectives. There is always another way to look at life and all of its bits and pieces and I love challenging myself to do so. Frankly however, it is far from easy.…
The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis are novels based on lectures given by the author that pursue the theme of man lacking empathy. Within the first book, The Abolition of Man, Lewis describes the importance of basing all judgments we make on what he calls the Tao: the conception of human behavior that, historically and in different moral traditions, has been considered good. As an emotion is not a judgment, it can be said that emotions and feelings do not respond to logical reasons—yet, they can be reasonable or unreasonable. Lewis states that “the heart never replaces the head; but it can, and must, obey it” (The Abolition of Man 19). Therefore, if Aristotle says that the aim of education is to get the student to have predilections and aversions for what corresponds, “the duty of the modern educator is not to cut down forests, but to irrigate deserts”, that is, the way to help the student to defend oneself properly against false feelings is to inculcate fair feelings (The Abolition of Man 13-14).…
Briefly describe what you believe is a major domestic problem confronting the United States - socially, economically or in health care. Indicate how you think this problem should be resolved. Moral ineptitude and impudence have eaten into the moral fiber of American society. Respect for one another has become something in the dim past. Technology and the media are used as conduits by the youth to vilify, lampoon and rain verbal tantrums on the fellow teens.…
Published in September of 2015 by The Atlantic, “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt describes how the overuse of trigger warnings is ruining students’ education and their ways of thinking, while also addressing steps to counteract this crisis. The authors’ main argument states that students are starting to implement an ideology that erases any mention of words or ideas that could potentially offend them or students around them. Lukianoff and Haidt argue that this proves to be extremely disadvantageous for not only their quality of education, but their future professional life as well. They state this new wave of trigger warnings perpetuates fear, poor personal skills, a lowered quality of education, and…
Political-correctness, described by Bill Lind on “The Origins of Political Correctness,” as a form of cultural Marxism due to the totalitarian ideology parallels, has currently shaped the way Americans process issues. Sadly, the problem is that many Americans simply can't recognize deficiencies anymore living with this belief . Political-correctness is a way to avoid offending, or hurting another person's feelings by for example, removing certain art, music, sexism, racism, etc.. Throughout the nineties and to this day, offending someone because something may possibly exhibit their “social disadvantages” or how they are “discriminated” has been considered unfathomable. This has gone to the extent of changing social norms, such as the word criminal.…
The African American race is a group amongst many that faces difficulty in finding success through their art whether they are musicians, artists, writers, or dramatists. To make a change for themselves, there have been African American individuals who have united to establish movements with their motive being to seek liberation. Of the various movements formed, the Black Arts Movement was very popular. Unlike most articles, Larry Neal’s The Black Arts Movement was an effective piece that explicitly defines what the movement’s purpose is and why he believes individuals (black in particular) should engage in its political and social aims.…
Tom Nichols, author of The Death of Expertise, effectively conveys his view that the blatant excuses and mindsets of citizens made to ignore the experts of today can have negative impacts on the American culture, as well as touches on how it is impossible to continue this structure without disasters to follow (15). Nichols does this by giving examples of the characteristics of the people who are creating this influence, deeming them “explainers” to which a reader could relate to by thinking of examples in their own lives. (13). He also gives historic context of the problem throughout time to set a foundation of his argument while also touching on how the it has changed to the point where it becomes dangerous. Nichols argument especially becomes…
It believes that free will is a vital part of our subjective experience of ourselves. Therefore, one of the strengths of the humanistic approach is that it emphasizes individual choice and responsibility. It satisfies most people…
Political correctness is a problem that has swept over America in recent years. Every word anyone says in all walks of life, from politics, to business, to school, has become politically correct to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings. Everybody is a victim and everybody gets butthurt at the simplest words or phrases that come out of a guy’s mouth. The American society as an entirety has become too politically correct, from the politics of our government, to the businesses of our economy and the people who represent them, and to the classrooms of our nation’s high schools, colleges, and universities. How is the term “politically correct” defined exactly?…