JBU: The Destruction Of College Students

In the reading “The College Dropout Boom,” the author, David Leonhardt, describes the college admissions system as being ruthlessly meritocratic. When looking at the word meritocratic, one can visualize it as the construction of two parts: the word merit and the suffix “-ocracy”. The word merit can be defined as the deserving of reward for past actions and the suffix “-ocracy” is understood as a form of governing body. Therefore, meritocracy without context means a form of governing body which rewards deserving individuals based upon their past actions. From this definition, it is quite obvious why David Leonhardt used the word meritocracy to describe the college admissions system. According to Leonhardt, students are admitted into college

In his work entitled “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts”, journalist and author Alfred Lubrano poses the question of how receiving education can lead to a harsh reality. Lubrano explains that as a child works toward a higher education, there are certain aspects of life they are forced to leave behind as they enter into a new existence. According to Lubrano’s statement, “At night, at home, the differences in the Columbia experiences my father and I were having was becoming more evident” (532). Additionally, Lubrano states, “We talked about general stuff, and I learned to self-censor. I’d seen how ideas could be upsetting, especially when wielded by a smarmy freshman who barely knew what he was talking about” (533). In answering this question, Lubrano must explore the types of conversations that occurred with other family members, the disconnection from his peers, and how segregating himself from his family

In “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts” Alfred Lubrano uses his personal experience with college education and his parents to come up with the statement that “Every bit of learning takes you further from your parents". In his writing, he goes over how his eyes were first opened to the idea that school could bring you further from your parents, when he read a book titled “Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez”, where the writer was quoted as saying “Home life is in the now, school life exists on an altogether different lane, with an eye towards the future.” Alfred’s belief throughout his article is that school brings you to a reality that separates and distances you from your parents and home-life.

College is the next stepping stone to better or advance ones social standing in life, whether it is moving from a blue collar lifestyle to white collar, or to continue to further their career path. However, it comes with an “unavoidable result.” Alfred Lubrano discusses this “unavoidable result” in his text “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts.” Lubrano discusses the topic of how furthering ones education opens more possibilities but at the same time distances those held most dearly. He explains that the more knowledge gained, the bigger the gap caused between friends and family due to differences in levels of knowledge. That distance is greatly increase if one comes from a poorer region where blue collar workers are the social

The "Juvenile Justice: Policies Programs, and Practices", believes that schools that have an unconstructive or a negative environment, as well as an excessive amount of misbehavior and conflict between the faculty and students, and students against other students, are issues that can trigger juvenile violence in schools. In addition, juvenile violence tends to happen more often in high schools and middle schools that are located in poor urban areas (Taylor, Fritsch, and Caeti 58-60).

This to me can be summed up in one word: sad. It’s truly saddening to me that we’ve become this way. Where everything is taken to the most extreme levels and assumed to be hate speech or that it of course must be meant in the worst possible way. There are of course times where people do take things too far and mean them in the worst of ways. Although, that is not what this is about. This is about the destruction of free speech to the extent of teaching people to might as well not have “free thinking.” We might as well go around apologizing to one another for the things we thought or even almost thought. Not to mention if we almost, or almost though about, them being said? Wouldn’t that be

Kris, a wife and a mother, worries about the increasing cost of higher education. She and her husband have a two year old daughter whom they are determined to send to college. They want their daughter to succeed in life, but they have to weigh the complications of going to college as well. “I have always thought about college as a “catch 22”...You’re taught from a young age that in order to achieve the “American Dream” you must graduate high school and go to college,” Kris contemplates (Kris 5).Throughout Kris’s ten years of experience with college, she has seen the tuition increase to shocking heights. In fact, she claims that community colleges cost as much as state colleges did when she first started her college hunt. Back then, she

Children are at a higher risk of becoming emotionally unstable when they are continuously being pushed, and left with little to no comfort, while being degraded by a parent.

​Did you know that in the US, only 16% of household include a married couple raising their children (​Krogstad). Alfred Lubrano in his work “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts”, talks about the changes he experienced in college and how it affected his relationship with his parents (531-537). Lubrano claims that the enrichment of education expands the distance between the college students and their parents (532). I disagree with his point and suggest that it is not the college education that creates the distance, and in some cases the aloofness is caused before reaching the college age. Several factors contribute to dissonance in parent-child relationship.

First generation college students are those who are seeking to be the first in their family to earn a degree, according to UCLA. First- generation students can come from low, middle, or high income families without a history of going to college. Families of first generation students can either be supportive of the students plan for a high education or make them feel family pressure to enter the workforce right after high school like they did. First generation students often do not know their options regarding higher education and have fears about going to college and it’s cost. Currently, 42% of UC undergraduates are first generation.

Within Kohn’s essay he responds to the accusations of selfishness and ungratefulness given to the younger generations today. He finds it ridiculous at this point how stereotypical the beliefs of older generations are about younger generations and their more liberal thinking, it's always the same accusations again and again. Kids are always ungrateful and they never learn to appreciate what life they have been given, is too overheard within this topic, “ they have become our society’s conventional wisdom about children...it will almost be from this direction”. Kohn also says, that too many always claim that discipline from the parents is too common, “If the subject is discipline (and limits imposed by parents), the writer will insist that kids today get too little”. He states that these claims are all misconceptions and both the child and the parent should not be at fault because these myths are just not true, there is no evidence to show, “what impact, if any, this practice has on the kids”. Statistical evidence also shows how these assertions are wrong by showing how all articles that condemn young people are merely recycling the same information and, “only 27 percent of educators in the sample report having seen “many” examples of overinvolved parenting”, this is a very low number from a sample of families within school districts. Kohn demonstrates that even educators who see the children year-round don’t see the “common” overbearing parent raising their children to be narcissistic and egotistical adults.

As a child becomes a teenager they go from knowing right from wrong to having the ability to do more things without parental supervision. This kind of freedom without having someone to monitor your actions can lead to these young people doing things they

The lacking role of parental figures, mostly the father figure, leads children every day to self-loathing, behavior problems, poor academic performance, commitment of crimes, etc. Children, mostly boys, that grow up with that lack of a father role usually go more towards being the everyday criminals if they don’t have a sense of discipline, or if they don’t know right from wrong.

Edward Peselman writes about social structure, social status, and social power in the essay "The Coming Apart of a Dorm Society." The essay begins with the commencement of freshman year at college, when the narrator moves into his dormitory along with five other young men from different walks of life. Not only are the six freshmen from different backgrounds, but they also demonstrate unique personalities. Dozer and Reggie are the narrator's two roommates. Eric, Mark, and Benjamin lived across the hall. Because they occupy the same geographic space, the six men develop a sort of pecking order. They create an artificial power structure in which some of the men, namely Erik and Mark, attempt to dominate the others. Ultimately, Benjamin buckles under the pressure and leaves the dorm: an act that the narrator lauds as being righteously subversive.

The cause of behavioral and/or emotional problems among our youth could come from being raised in a single parent home. Many children resort to negative acts of behavior because of limited parental supervision within the single parent household. Children are two to three times more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems in single parent homes (Maginnis, 1997).