Hailey Morse

ENG 110-C

August 30th, 2017

Higher Education

“A genuine higher education is unsettling; it is not meant to be a cosy experience” Higher Education in my point of view is a great adventure, something good to learn about, and also something fun and memorable. To me higher education is a great thing because i’m learning what I want to do in my life after these 8 years go by. As in the article from Martha Nussbaum she states “..but about challenging the mind to become active, competent, and thoughtfully critical in a complex world.” This quote pushed me to think that I don’t only have to go to class and do work, but I also need to be involved with many different things in life, in school, and with my friends. Nussbaum’s passage really made me think and believe more about what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. “Another aspect of the U.S educational tradition… is its characteristic emphasis on the active participation of the child in inquiry and questioning.” this quote to me is saying that participating in college or any type of schooling you’re doing something great for not only you but the world, your life, and maybe also your family life.  

Barnett’s view on higher education was a very different point of view and also a very different pathway. As he said “no matter how much effort you put in, or how much library research, there are no final answers.” In his article he’s saying that no matter how hard you try in school, in class, or even with homework, there’s not going to be a final answer to anything. Not that you’re not going to do good in college but no matter how much time you put into your work there’s never going to be a final answer or decision. College is not meant to be a relaxed place, you have to work hard everyday to get to the future and put yourself in the place you want to be. When Barnett says that college isn’t supposed to be cosy, it made me think about how right he was, he couldn’t explain something more perfectly than he did there. Even though some points of this article I did not agree with, Barnett still put a lot of effort into trying to say how he felt about higher education.  

Barnett’s and Nussbaum’s articles are different in various ways, but also state eachother in some certain ways. Martha’s article is saying that in cultural traditions education is just not about the passive assimilation of facts, but in Ronald’s article he’s saying students see things in different ways and higher education experience isn’t complete with certain things, but it doesn’t always end the same way. Both these articles are very good, they state each other back and forth but Barnett’s view is a little different than Nussbaum’s. I feel that Barnett takes education a different way than Nussbaum does but they both agree upon what each other say. Each article explains a lot about how each one feels and to me I thought that Nussbaum’s was a very thorough and explanatory article.  

Like I said before higher education to me is great, I’m super excited to go through college and be where I am today and also in the future. My take on higher education is if you don’t go to a college/university you still could get a good job or you might not get a good job. But also if you do go to college you can end up failing school or you can get out and have the best job ever, and absolutely love what you do. Either way you go in life you can always end up doing something you may want to do or something completely other than what you want to do. Some people may change their mind throughout the years of college, change their major, or even stop after 2 years with nothing, but at least you put the time and effort into schooling and tried either you hardest or didn’t try at all. As me being a person in college now learning new things, trying new things, and experiencing something out of the range of Vermont, I really like what I’m doing and hope to make a great future out of what I have. Even though I’ve only been in college for 8 days, this is something I will never forget because I’m having such a blast.