First Readings

The Idea of a University
I agreed with a lot of things in this article. It talked about how at college we don't only get an education but we gain skills and experiences that are the building blocks to the rest of our lives. Newman said that we learn to adjust and fit in with others, which seems true to me because most of us are thrown into this place called college where we are immediately given more responsibility, we have to learn to fend for ourselves, and we are put into a bigger fishpond if you will. Now we are faced with more diversity and we have to learn how to fit in and interact with all these new and different people. Newman also says that we learn about our own opinions and about the opinions of others. This is a good point because to be able to adapt to others we have to know about their opinions because this is all part of knowing about them so we can adapt to them.

The Case Against College
I think that this mom was a little harsh about the college thing. She seems too obtrusive into her son’s life. I get where she is coming from when her son was kind of wasting her money by not taking college seriously but couldn't she have said he could stay in college as long as he paid for it. Then he could have at least had the choice to stay in and work or take out a lone to pay for it himself. That could have taught him responsibility too. But she decided to make the choice for him.