During my first week of classes, I gave a simple writing assessment to ensure that the students enrolled in ENG 121 were ready to be initiated into academic discourse. The prompt given across every section of the course was: “Why are you attending college?” The criteria for evaluating the essay was plain:
focused main idea,
- reasons that support the main idea,
- details supporting the reasons,
- a clear conclusion
- demonstrate a good understanding of sentence structure
For the most part, students composed decent essays. They all used the question to jump-start their essay, and they used some variation the five-paragraph-essay format, which, I imagine, has been reiterated in their English coursework since late-elementary school. Of course, many of the essays pointed out some glaring weaknesses in maintaining control of their ideas and understanding the function of punctuation. These weaknesses gave me hope as I could begin to tailor future instruction to meet their needs. However, a majority of the essays demonstrated a logical fallacy I’m not sure I can correct, or for that matter dare to discuss with my students: getting an education equals getting a high paying job.
The claim getting an education enables one to get a higher paying job is not without its merits. A lot of jobs, especially first “professional” jobs, require applicants have a degree. Some of even specify what type of degree an applicant should have. But beyond the qualifications posted on monster.com, Craig’s List, or in the local newspaper’s classified section, the idea of a degree equaling financial success has been a part of our collective rhetoric. I am not surprised that these fresh, excited faces enter college banking on the idea that there is a pot of gold at the end of the commencement speech.
In some form or another, I feel a responsibility to nurture that belief. I am, after all in my professional capacity, a representative of higher education. I want to appeal to the students that learning to write effectively will lead them to the goals, and attending college is an important step in enriching their lives. Yet, I cannot help feeling somewhat uneasy letting the belief that education equals monetary success go without questioning that statement. I mean, I have a graduate degree and, much like my students, I am wondering, as the title of this blog suggests, if I have enough money in my bank account to indulge in a two-dollar cup of coffee.
Granted, many of the students enrolled in my classes were not expected to move beyond a high school education. During my interview for my position, my department chair told me that these students are not your typical suburban students I worked with as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the “Research 1” university where I got my training. In fact, he said, “when we do get those students, we wonder: what are they doing here?” Using his comment as a reference point, I was not surprised when the themes that a degree could be a panacea to the woes of poverty, immigration status, and familial indifference appeared in many of the essays. However, their addendum that the degree would minimally ensure financial success, while logically supported, left me wondering if I didn’t challenge that assumption, could I be perceived as a snake-oil salesman when they didn’t pull upper-five to six figures after graduation?
Ultimately, I believe education and more specifically higher education is a place that fosters critical awareness. A place where students and teachers nuance their understanding of world, challenge simple answers, and reap the rewards of finding something. Technical and material skills are secondary. However, maybe we need logical fallacies and pre-determined answers such as a degree equals a high paying job to drive us to learn and hopefully thrive in the world of education where the mechanics of learning are not always visible or material. I know that I hold the belief that this position, despite the meager financial compensation, will forward my career and eventually grant some more material benefits in the future. So, until I can move beyond providing my students with the necessary toolkit to write well in this environment, I will allow simple answers to the complex question: “Why are you attending college?”
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