Colleges Worth the Price SummaryBrandon Lamp English 102 Summary Essay Jan 25th 2016 Colleges Worth the Price Summary Are colleges meeting the proper requirements to teach students the proper skills and challenge their minds? That is the issue stressed in “Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?” by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus. The authors believe that schools do not teach enough useful information or teach properly enough for the prices the schools charge. Even though Hacker and Dreifus believe some colleges properly meet needs for students in modern time, they also believe that many colleges have strayed from their original goal to challenge the minds of their students and need to look into changes in order to better meet requirements for 21st century students. Many would think that some schools are exceptions and believe the universities are worth the cost. An article states, “Notre Dame has a 13-to-one student-faculty ratio, and only 10 percent of the classes are taught by graduate assistants”(Hacker and Dreifus, 184). This is just one example of a school that properly teachers students in the eyes of the author. They give numerous examples of other colleges that teach students in various ways or give lower tuition to meet the ways they teach. The University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss, is an example of a college that has made changes in order to better teach students. Ole Miss used to have riots in the past but is now a thriving school that teaches students in great ways. Hacker and Dreifus want other schools to do the same changes to possibly better themselves as well. It is often said that colleges are taking on many roles and not doing them well enough. The authors state, “... have lost track of their basic mission to challenge the minds of young people”(Hacker and Dreifus, 180) In this quote Hacker and Dreifus are saying that colleges are not truly teaching students in the proper way. New students need new ways of learning to truly grasp the knowledge. The authors believe that teachers in colleges need to engage all students. Many students sit in the back and avoid being in discussions or activities, but in order for more students to do well, they all must interact. A huge issue that is referred to very often is that they want the professors to challenge the minds. Hacker and Dreifus believe that in order to fix these problems the colleges need to be open to change. They think that colleges could do many simple changes that will dramatically increase the learning process. One example is giving techno-teaching a chance. The authors say, “Unlike a textbook, software can pose interactive questions, review answers, and tell students to try again, offering hints on where they may have gone wrong” (Hacker and Dreifus, 180). This would be a simple change that could allow students at colleges to truly grasp the information being taught through interactive ways. Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus wrote in "Chapter 14/ Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?" and both clearly believe that colleges need to change ways of teaching and acts around campuses in order to better challenge minds of the students attending schools. They know that not all schools are in need of the changes but most are. Hacker and Dreifus know that some colleges teach students very well and give good value for their teaching, but they believe that the majority of colleges need to change the way they teach in order to better meet needs for upcoming students. Works Cited Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. "Chapter 14/ Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?" They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.um |
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