Liberal Education Case

Mark Edmundson's "on the uses of a liberal education" displays how corrupt the current education system is. He raises problems of consumerism in colleges and also indicates that college's students lack intellectual curiosity. The multiple choices student have today in college have made the college a facile learning environment, resulting in complacent students. He ridicules the fact that students can withdraw from classes with a one month left in semester. In the beginning of the text, Edmundson depicts a classroom he particularly doesn't enjoy on evaluation day. He explains he is fearful of the students will think of him but also states that he often gets good reviews; just not the types of answers he wants. He admits that he dislikes the image of himself emerges from the evaluation forms, the image of knowledgeable, humorous detachment and bland tolerance. Reviews like "the class is interesting" and "I enjoyed the courses" are not what he is looking for. Instead, he wants the students to be challenged and changed by his class. Edmundson emphasizes that colleges have taken a change for the worst by portraying that they are devoted to consumerism and entertainment. Colleges are made more appealing to informed consumers, can be called students too, by consumerism of college campus by building news dorms, renovating student union and improving gyms with newest machines. In my opinion, the college is no longer a place to study and has become a place where students can entertain themselves. As he quotes "Colleges don't have admissions offices anymore, they have marketing departments", he's making his argument credibility by proving that colleges have become marketers have to sell their schools not based on education but based on the facilities provided for the students. One of the issues he dislikes is that students think that a good class is a class which is enjoyable and the courses are made enjoyable. I disagree with his arguments because I believe classes must be enjoyable so that students can learn with passion, making them think critically. But Edmundson thinks that a good class is one that challenges the students and changes them.

Edmundson argures that colleges students lack passion; meaning they do no study what they are interested in. One reason for this is that they are worried about their future, status quo and financial success. The majority of student are desperate enough