Are Too Many People Going to College?
Is it really necessary for such an excessive number of people to head to college? This is a question that has been pondered over many times in the past few years. With increasing tuition and increasing attendance, college is becoming "not everything that it is cracked up to be." Charles Murray wrote the article entitled "Are Too Many People Going to College?" In the article he makes the arguments that the concept of college is slowly changing. Social norms are destroying the system. People get way too ahead of themselves with their life plans, and as a result the system is suffering. Murray states that too many people are going to college, sending the current system into a state of disorder.
According to the article, most students should have already learned what they will be educated on in college. Murray says that most core knowledge should be taught in the K-8 grades, while high school should be more survey courses such as humanities and social sciences. He also says that liberal education is most effectively taught before college. Art, music, and literature are just as essential as science and history.
Society has beat it into our minds that if we want to make money the only way is through a college education. However, Murray brings up that this is a poor decision. He states that the majority of people think that the reason to go to college is because of the social norm of getting a BA will automatically secure a job. Murray proclaims that, "There has never been a time when in history when people with skills not taught in college have been at such demand at such high pay as today..." (Murray 236)
The author projects this point through the example of a student who is under this pressure to attend school but has the skill to be a successful electrician. He did research in the field and decided to attend a university. But Murray explains that if this student had done a more thorough search he would have found...