Mosley, Lora: Paglia

Jobs are declining, making it hard for people to find jobs, and there doesn’t seem to be any hope in the decline stopping anytime soon.  That means college graduates will have a hard time finding jobs.  Employers want someone who can do the job with as little training as possible, which means they should already have experience doing the job.  College students don’t really have that experience because colleges today don’t give students the hands on training that employers are looking for.  College is supposed to prepare students for the real world.  How can colleges to that if they’re not giving students the proper training?  There are many ways colleges can prepare students for the job market.  Internships, interview etiquette, and teaching courses relevant in the job market are good first steps.

            

Colleges should help students find internships.  Internships give students a taste of what a certain job would be like.  They get the experience employers would like prospective employees to have, and students have a greater chance of getting a job following graduation.  Interships could be described as students getting trained before applying for the job.  It’s also a chance for students to see if they want a job similar to their internship.  No one knows for sure if a job is for them until they try it out first.

            

Another reason college graduates don’t get a job is they don’t know how to dress or act in a job interview.  They may dress and act like they don’t care about getting the job, though they really want it.  They were never shown how to act during the interview or how to dress for the interview.  The interview is the first impression for one’s potential employer and the most important key to getting a job.  It’s easier for some people to look good on paper, but not so easy in person.

            

Lastly, colleges don’t teach courses relevant to a student’s major during their freshman and sophomore years.  What is a journalist supposed to do with college algebra?  What is a math teacher supposed to do with philosophy?  It doesn’t make sense to put students in courses that don’t have anything to do with their major.  If colleges would take all four years to teach students about their major, not add all the irrelevant courses to their curriculum, it would make students’ lives easier and more prepared for their job.  Colleges seem more focused on making students take all kinds of classes that are irrelevant to their major, rather than on educating students about their specific majors.  That leaves students very unprepared for the job they obtain after they graduate.

            

Colleges don’t seem to give students the hands-on training needed to make it in the job force.  It’s not fair to the students that colleges fail in that aspect.  Jobs are declining rapidly each day and it’s not going to stop anytime soon.  Colleges should realize that reality and step up their game.  They should help students get more internships; they should teach students proper interview etiquette, and they should teach students things that are relevant to their majors.

Collins, Aerriel: Paglia

The makers of The Chronicle Review asked scholars and illustrators to answer this question: What will be the defining idea of the coming decade, and why? Camille Paglia expresses her concerns for our country’s stability and economy through a brief essay. She discusses political issues such as outsourcing and even suggests that the modern college education is inadequate for today’s society. She explains that college mainly prepares students for jobs that focus on skills in office situations, and it needs to stress more on skills in manual labor.

I strongly agree with Paglia's statement, "College education, which was hugely expanded after World War II and sold as a basic right, is doing a poor job of preparing young people for life outside of a narrow band of the professional class." Only one out of every five college graduates are hired within the first six months of graduation, according to one of the leaders of Walgreen’s. Jobs are lost everyday due to companies downsizing or choosing to use foreign labor. When a company chooses to move its factory to a different country because it will have cheaper labor, the company is outsourcing its potential jobs. There are not enough "office jobs" to substantially support our economy. In order to keep America running smoothly we need to get back to the basics and supply Americans with manual labor. Stop outsourcing and allow the Americans to do the dirty work. This will allow an immense increase in the number of available jobs in our country.

Paglia’s article brings up many issues in our nation’s economy. Our middle class is being denied hundreds of possible opportunities, because businesses are willing to do anything possible to save a little money. If businesses would suck it up and pay the extra price for American employees, then there would be a better circulation of currency in our country. If they gave more Americans a steady income, the average American would have more money to spend. The money a business gave to an American would either directly or indirectly go straight back into that business one way or another.

            

Paglia’s article brings up many issues in our nation’s economy. Our middle class is being denied hundreds of possible opportunities, because businesses are willing to do anything possible to save a little money. If businesses would suck it up and pay the extra price for American employees, then there would be a better circulation of currency in our country. If they gave more Americans a steady income, the average American would have more money to spend. The money a business gave to an American would either directly or indirectly go straight back into that business one way or another.

Person, Sarah: Paglia

Many people, including Camille Paglia in her article Revalorizing the Trades, feel that colleges and universities are not preparing students for the real world as well as they should be. Both institutions try their best to prepare their students, but currently are not doing a very good job. However, universities do a better job at preparing students than community colleges do. Preparing for life after college is important and students should enter the world prepared for the challenges they will face.

Universities do a better job at preparing students than community colleges, and even trade schools in my opinion. Universities provide an environment in which students get the opportunity to take a wide selection of classes, which help them to become well rounded. The students are well rounded, however, their schooling is longer. But, I think that helps students to become more proficient in their profession. For example, nursing majors might have to fulfill a speech requirement. The nursing majors are not gaining any medical knowledge by taking the speech class; however, these classes will most likely help them to communicate better with their future patients. Universities are better because the schooling lasts longer again because of the varied classes they have to take. The four to five years that most people attend universities allows them to grow and to mature so that when students graduate they are usually very mature and ready to take on the world. Another advantage that universities have is the skills that are incorporated into the curriculum. Research has shown that most employers want their employees to have some skills in team work, flexibility, computer skills, communications skills, and many others. Most universities try to incorporate building these skills in the curriculum. A third advantage to a university is the atmosphere and the resources that students have access to. For example, at a university there are Greek fraternities and sororities, more activities to participate in, and more organizations to join. At a community college the organizations are much smaller, and in some cases, there may not be many organizations for students to join. The larger resources are also a plus to universities. Universities usually have resources such as large libraries, tutoring groups, writing centers, and computers that can be used by the students.

Even though I believe that universities do a better job at preparing their students community colleges have some advantages, and some people would argue that they actually do a better job. One of the benefits of going to a community college is that students are not in school as long. This is because usually they are only required to take classes that will help them in their particular major or occupation. For example, a student majoring in nursing may not have to take a speech class. Another advantage to a community college is that it is cheaper. The average community college usually costs about $5,000 a year, which is much lower than the average $20,000 per year at a university. Yet another advantage to going to a community college is the quality of the professors who teach there.

I would have to say that colleges and universities are not doing all they could to prepare their students. However, I believe that universities do a better job than community colleges and trade schools. Preparing for life after college is very important and should not be taken lightly.

Stone, James: Paglia

Agriculture: A Few Feeding Many

A seed is planted. After many rains, a sprout shoots up from the earth. And after many more days, a huge tree stands rooted where once that tiny seed was planted. A farmer plants a great many seeds, and from the care given to that seed food is grown that helps to feed us all. And yet, without a working and scientific knowledge of how and why that seed works, the modern day farmer would never have come this far.

Camille Paglia said, “Concrete manual skills, once gained through the master-apprentice alliance in guilds, build a secure identity.” That quote immediately got me thinking about farmers. Farmers work hard so that we don’t have to. They supply food, not only for the world, but for themselves as well. However, the number of farmers and farms are slowly diminishing in the United States. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, there were only 2,200 farms still active in the United States in the year 2008, and that number had decreased significantly in the past several years.

The education and further education of farmers is needed to keep them up to date with all the current technology used to increase yields and profit from food. Without constant learning and application of the new skills, the farmer will become obsolete very quickly. The way that farmers operate today is very different than the way that farmers operated thirty, twenty, or even ten years ago. 

Paglia also stated that, “Vanishing of jobs will plague the rest of this decade and more.” While this problem is serious and true, that will never be a problem with farmers. They will always be needed to provide food for the world. The only issue that could cause problems for the modern day farmer is that there is no financial security in farming anymore. That is why the number of farms and farmers are decreasing throughout America. 

As I stated above, farmers are have a constant need to continue their education. That helps them to develop better methods of production and inspire new ideas. If farmers could develop faster methods of growing grain, then they could increase production and profit for their farms. In order for a farmer to discover this, however, they would need to have a working knowledge of grain growth, genetics, and chemistry. These fields are constantly changing and evolving, and therefore require extensive refreshment and additional learning.

All in all, I believe that Camille Paglia shares a misconception with most people in the world. She doesn’t understand that farmers, and agriculturalists alike, are constantly adapting to new methods of farming and science to help keep up with the ever growing human population while fighting against bacterial and viral assaults from nature. She says that college doesn’t prepare its students for the real world. But in all reality, what could get more real than feeding billions of people? 

Bower, Leigan: Paglia

In “Revalorizing the Trades”, Camille Paglia writes about how universities these days are doing little to nothing to prepare their students for the real world, as well as how hands-on jobs are being pushed out the window. She believes that there “is little flexibility in American higher education to allow for alternative career tracks” and that “the pressuring of middle-class young people into office-bound, paper-pushing jobs is cruelly shortsighted”

I agree with Paglia’s views when it comes to universities not preparing us for the real world. In this day and age, college is nothing more than a glorified high school; professors coddle their students, deadlines are extended, and tuition payments aren’t met. Students can go weeks without showing up to class and still pass; try this in a real-world job setting and that person will be without a paycheck. “When middle-class graduates in their mid-20s are just stepping on the bottom rung of the professional career ladder, many of their working-class peers are already self-supporting and married with young children” . I agree with the sentence above; students these days have more options available than simply getting a job. Most college students these days still rely on their parents or guardians to pay their bills and bail them out of trouble when need be; students don’t know a thing about fiscal or self responsibility. Unlike their high-school-diploma possessing, got-a-job-right-out-of-high-school peers, they don’t know how to support themselves when they finally do great because they spent an extra four to six years being spoon-fed by the people who are supposed to be teaching them how to live on their own. This is going to cause them to not know what to do whether they get an office job or a field job.

Speaking of office or field jobs, I do not agree with Paglia’s statement that middle class young people are being forced into office positions. There are plenty of jobs which are field positions; some of which are the jobs that hold society together. Police work and forensic psychology are field positions; those workers do not sit at a computer to do their job. Most researchers and scientists work in the field instead of in an office, and those are two of the main occupations that professors try and push their students into becoming. I believe that this sentence comes from Paglia’s own perspective and not from any kind of actual research. Also, Paglia writes that there is a shortage of jobs where you work with your hands; this is not true as well. Carpentry, construction work, and architecture are all jobs where people work with their hands in creative ways. There are many trade schools and colleges that offer classes in these types of jobs, especially architecture.

            

Camille Paglia has provided us with a paper that, to me, is written largely from her own point of view. It is true that most universities do not prepare their students adequately enough for the real world, but it is not true that they are trying to force them into office positions. Nor is it true that there is a shortage of jobs where people work with their hands.

Bryant, Alexandrea: Paglia

Flexibility in American Higher Education

“Yes, an elite education at stratospheric prices will smooth the way into law or medical school and supply a network of useful future contacts… There is little flexibility in American higher education to allow for alternative career tracks.”  This statement given by Camille Paglia in her August 2010 article “Revalorizing the Trades” in the Chronicle of Higher Education could not be more incorrect.  There is an immense amount of flexibility in American higher education.  One does not have to limit oneself to law or medical school to gain future contacts or simply to receive an education from an accredited university and have a successful career.

If one is looking for a university to supply a network of useful future contacts that certainly does not limit ones available choices to law or medical school.  There are wonderful opportunities to surround oneself and become acquainted with future contacts at local universities in the form of Honors Colleges.   As stated by the National Collegiate Honors Council one of the basic characteristics of an Honors Program or Honors College is to “emphasizes active learning and participatory education by offering opportunities for students to participate in regional and national conferences, Honors Semesters, international programs, community service, internships, undergraduate research, and other types of experiential education.”  Honors Colleges open the doors to so many opportunities to excel in one’s future career.  

There are many colleges and universities to choose from.  There are a total of 58 colleges and universities in the state of Arkansas alone.  Going beyond Arkansas one would discover hundreds of universities in America that offer a wide range of degree plans.

The career tracks accessible through America’s higher education are nearly endless.  Degree plans offered range from Physics to Early Childhood Education.  Southern Arkansas University offers a total of 81 bachelor’s degree plans and eighteen at the master’s level.  Southern Arkansas University has four academic colleges; these are the College of Business, College of Education, College of Liberal and Performing Arts and the College of Science and Technology.  All offer bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees.  Elsewhere in the United States universities and colleges offer hundreds of degree plans.  These degree plans make accessible the many career tracks found in America and beyond. 

Because of the great flexibility in American higher education colleges and universities are able to hire experts in the field to instruct students.   If there was “A radical stripping down of course offerings, with all teachers responsible of a core curriculum” that would immensely lessen the flexibility of higher education, as most current experts would not be capable of teaching those core classes.   Therefore Paglia’s suggestion would limit the pool of instructors a college or university could hire. 

There is a vast amount of flexibility in American higher education.  One does not have to limit oneself to law or medical school to gain future contacts.  Honors Colleges and Honors Programs offer notable gateways to future contacts.  There are hundreds of colleges and universities in America that offer many degree plans that lead to numerous career tracks.  

Kasper, Kody: Paglia

Indecision with Choosing Majors

                  Camille Paglia is telling the population of young Americans who are going through the higher educational system that they are not going to be happy by choosing a high paid non-artistic career. She says that because they will not be working with their hands, “They bear little relationship to the liberal arts of broad perspective and profound erudition that I was lucky enough to experience in college in the 1960s,”and that the young people of America will become machines. Every person is meant to do something with their life; someone must pick up garbage on the side of the road and someone with too much money will give away free cars on television. The social structure cannot work properly without all of its niches being filled. The indecision many college students face is, exactly, whether to go for the moneymaking career--to go straight into the working field, or to major in a subject they enjoy yet end up pursuing a career that has nothing to do with their chosen degree. Indecisiveness does not prevent happiness, humans change their minds literally all the time, but not utilizing their powers of mind makes them unhappy. I plan on becoming a nurse practitioner, but that is not keeping me from having a hobby on the side that makes me happy. Ironically enough, my hobby is to be artistic in every form, I love to draw and paint, but I will not be unhappy just because my career is not as fun as my hobby. The cynical nature of Paglia’s article strikes me as nothing more than the words of an irritating old woman stuck in the ways of her past.