Long, Alyssa: Paglia

I disagree with Camille Paglia’s essay Revalorizing The Trades. In my opinion, the college education system is fine as it is, and there is no need to restructure a system that benefits and prepares students with knowledge for real world situations. Paglia’s main point is that colleges should focus on specialized trades to prepare students for “real” life. If students simply wished to be prepared for a single trade then they should go to a trade school. Trade schools are generally two-year colleges set up to do exactly what Paglia wants from the university college setting: specialized education systems and programs for honing the trades. To me, college education is designed to provide a solid basis for how to deal with others and communicate with future peers in a field; it is not for learning how to groom and ride a horse, or for finding the fastest way to boost a business and to increase profit. If students look to only learn one trade, not have a grasp on communication within that trade and other fields of experience, then they should go to trade school and specialize. However, college education in a four-year university setting prepares students not only for their field, but also for interaction between diverse fields and studies. Professors who mentor students outside their field of experience are examples of this type of communication. Even though they are at the university in roles to train students in a particular field, it is understood that they are also role models for students to understand how others in different settings communicate, as in professor to colleague or professor to student.

To disagree with Paglia further, students specializing in the trades hurt society. But the college education system encourages modern society’s concepts of a well-educated person. In the middle Ages, specialized trades characterized life: there were blacksmiths, laborers, servants, rulers, and protectors, such as knights. Everyone in society had a specialized task that they were expected to accomplish otherwise society did not work well as a whole for the good of the people. The Middle Ages are past but people are still expected to conform to society, but to do so in a way that encourages all aspects of intellectual thought. With the Enlightenment came change. Science and the arts were expanded, and everything was under question for testing. I disagree that we as a society should backtrack in our college education system. Changing the system to specialized trades would do just that; everyone would have a task with no room for expansion of thought or possibility of change.

The current college education system has much to do with rounding students in a way that would expose them to people outside their field of study. Basic concepts such as English, Mathematics, History, Grammar, and Psychology are all part of students’ training in becoming a college graduate; these concepts are taught to all students because they are vital after college. People must make connections to each other; communication in life is extremely important. If students did not have the same background, the same knowledge, the same outlook on what defines an educated person, then what would be the basis for hiring one individual before considering another for the same job? How does an employer make a connection with the tentative employee vying for the same field? With the college education system, communication is made easier.

Therefore, I completely disagree with Paglia. The college education system is fine as it is at the moment; specialized trades are not necessary to prepare students for “real” life.