The Cost of Education

Joey Goodstudent English 101, Section Causal Argument Essay February 16, 2009 The authentic Cost of Education It was David Henry Thoreau who said, The price of anything is the amount of purport you alternate for it. He graduated from Harvard in 1837, besides non with a diploma. He explains, they have been foolish enough to put at the end of every last(predicate) this earnest the old joke of a diploma. Thoreau understood that the piece of parchment handed out at commencement means nothing to a greater extent than the hard work, studying, and education that came before it.Today, those values be lost, and only 59% of Arizonan towering naturalize students graduate. This number reflects changes in society, problems in schools, and students personal reasoning. Society today demands a degree, not to get ahead, but just to keep up. An article published in the July 17, 2008 Wall pass Journal titled The Declining Value of your College Degree states that College-educated workers ar e to a greater extent plentiful, more commoditized and more subject to the downsizings that used to be thepurview of blue-collar workers only.What employers take from workers nowadays is more narrow, more abstract and less easily existing in college. A phrase like this is very discouraging to a high schooler. When the prospect of a brighter future is taken from the table, the immediate resolution is why try? This attitude gives way to a sense of hopelessness and discouragement. A study by civic Enterprises shows that 69% of dropouts said that they were not motivated to work hard. The growing cost of living coupled with the independency of todays youth creates a need to work, and earn money.In society today, children are growing up much faster. A address by the Guttmacher Institute placed Arizona as the state having the atomic number 42 most pregnancies in women aged 15-19. We fell just 9 stripling pregnancies shy of first, at 104. With the average annual cost of raising a child at $17,151, its practically impossible to support a family and remain in school. This causes two parents of the child to drop out with both either functional all the age or taking turns notice the child as the other works.Problems with the schools are also large change factors in the decision to drop out. High Schools lots have scanty attendance policies that step on the toes of students otherwise willing and able to bonk high school. When a student misses a set number of family line periods theyre simply audited. The student is not given a adventure to catch up, or to learn what theyve missed, but are assumed to be unable to finish the course. This notion runs contradictory to Arizonas regularize testing, which suggests that if a child can pass a test, theyve wise to(p) whats necessary.The audited students are not given the chance to be tested, and show that theyve learned the necessary material despite absences. A study by Civic Enterprises shows that 47% of st udents gave the reason curriculumes are uninteresting as one of their indigences for displace out. Uninteresting classes comes as a result of a strict computer program to support standardized testing, and placing high value on practical subjects such as math and language, while stigmatizing creative subjects like art, drama, and dance, which would hold the oversight of students otherwise bored.Teachers today are forced to stick to strict curriculums to visualize that students can pass a test at the end of the class. This often limits learning techniques considered to be more interesting than others, such as working in a group on a project, or having a class-wide discussion. These actions are replaced with long, prepared lectures and quizzes. Knowledge is lost on students, who sit in class bored. Education is increasingly geared towards practicality, and academic ability. Schools will give lessons daily mathematics and languages classes, and only offer art or euphony classes a fraction of that time.Students become bored with the subjects and have no motivation to continue attending school. If schools were to offer more fine arts students would shortly gain fascination, and in turn be more interested and motivated to go to school. Class sizes in schools are also a problem, as a large class size will limit the private time students need with their instructor to fully represent what being taught. Often when a class is too large students are unable to ask questions because the instructor is busy help other students, or grading hundreds of assignments.When the class size is smaller, an instructor can get to know particular students weaknesses and help them develop those areas. In this way, a small class size fosters a starchyer education, and in turn, happier students who enjoy learning. Students coming to high school from junior high are faced with a completely incompatible social situation. Cliques and groups form to exclude people, and this causes se lf-esteem issues. Finding friends in this crude situation can be tough for students, and feeling like an pariah at school will cause students to not want to be there.Belonging to a group will increase the chances of that students attending school. Conversely, some(a) students get so caught up in the social aspect of high school and being a teen that they let their attendance slip, preferring to go out to lunch or hang out with friends over dismissal to school. Eventually, school takes the back seat to their sociability and they drop out. Peer twitch also limits those who earnestly want to succeed, but are not strong academically.Super-seniors will come back to school for another year kind of of giving up, only to be ridiculed and called stupid by other students. They shortly believe the ridicule and drop out. The true cost of education is the life we exchange for it. It could be at work, struggling to support ourselves and go to school. It could be at home studying for an upcom ing exam, It could be in the schoolroom trying to pay attention, or with fellow students, trying to make friends. With time will come the consequence of these high drop out rates. possibly then well take action and try to stop it.