Annotated Bibliography

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        In the article “Academic Inflation”, (2010) Sir Ken Robinson implies the importance of going the extra mile when aiming for a college degree because your standard bachelor's degree isn't going to cut it nowadays. He explains that 20 years ago a bachelor degree could get you a well paid and respectable vocation, but now day's there is an inflation of degree's and a bachelor degrees seems to be a dime a dozen. The purpose of his article is to inform his reader's how rigorous it is to obtain a respected job in today's workforce, not to discourage them but in order to encourage them to reach for an mba to set them aside from the inflation of bachelor degree's. His article is essentially targeting high school kids and people currently enrolled in college.


Citation:


"Academic inflation" The Problem of Academic Inflation.Web. 18 Apr. 2011. http://www.degreesinbusiness.org/resources/economy-education/Academic-Inflation.aspx.




In the article "The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation", (2002) Alfie Kohn clarifies grade inflation has been going on since the 60's and 70's his definition of it is "upward shift in students' grade point averages without a similiar rise in achievement--exist, and that is a bad thing". Kohn supports his claims through credible information from researcher's gathering grade results from over 3,000 institutions in the past 30 years. The purpose of his article is to make fellow reader's understand that there has been an extreme lack of performance in classrooms but seemingly the grades are getting higher in order show them our college's curriculum's are softening and need to be reformed.
Kohn targets any person who is dubious about colleges.


Citation:
Kohn, Alfie. ""The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation"." "The Chronicle of Higher Education. N.p., 8 Nov. 2002. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <http://www.jmu.edu/stem/outreach/documents/2002--Kohn--Dangerous%20Myth%20of%20Grade%20Inflation.pdf>.

Thesis

Through our countries past two centuries the United States has gradually lost its empowering ethics. Once we were an economically thriving coutnry, who had precedence above all, we were the template for an ideal coutnry. But through time we evolved from hard working and ambitious americans who had absolute faith in our government to a new aged american who has lost near all patriotism and scavenges to find any way to do the bare minmum and be financially well off. American education has completely paralled these ineptidtudes. There are many reasons for decline which attribute to the quality of education, but the bottom line is our education systems needs to be completely reformed. We can no longer use teaching techniques that were implemented 100's of years ago. We need to be innovative and creative in order to grabbed our students attention whereas they will be fond of learning and utilize ever bit of information that has given to them. Along with this reformation the difficulty of curriculum needs to be raised. Your degree shall be earned not given to you

World Cafe

This blog's purpose is to dial in on our MWP3 concerning education and grasp a sense ofwhat our peers feel about current education and future education. Reading some of my classmates blogs i have mostly read about the negative aspects of education, I must agree. I feel the college institute has become a depository for money and has lost focus on productivity and functionality. Anyone is able to recieve a bachelor degree with just minimal work. A bachelor degree isnt as prestigious as it use to be, students are now able to obtain a degree with just studying little as 5 hours a week, thats cake! But what it does is cause inflation and the value tremendously deappreciates. For instance my cousin went to the university of utah got his degree in socialology, which once he got out there were no jobs that needed his abilities. And just the other day he applied for a miniumum wage maintence job, finding out their were 23 applicants that had a college degree, its crazy. This is where the college and advisors need to step in and stop saying "well what are your interest, what do you like to do?" If you say art then your going to be an art major. They need to ask well what do you like to do and lets see if there is any demand for that vocation. I feel with our current technology our society should be more intelligent then ever. We have such quick access to an infinite amount of prudent information. Creativity and Intelligence should be thriving.

College the Easy Way: Weekend Blog

                This article is great because I think many Americans feel college is mandatory for young people to succeed in life but when they hear about kids not expanding their knowledge nor really gaining anything from college it is solely blamed on the students not the institute. But essentially it is both sides fault because if students aren’t willing to put the effort to obtain a college degree they should be failed because it is a reality check when they have to apply themselves in the real world’s network of jobs. College was such a cruise for the kids that when they actually have to do work they are aggrivated and they aren’t use to having to critically think or be held accountable. Therefore it is hard not to just look at a college as a depository for money. College is suppose to prepare you for life and create the work ethic and knowledge in order to be successful in the workplace. Yet today’s college seems to be a social kick for kids, enabling them to party every night and still achieve a B OR B+. I’m sure you could ask several adults if that is similar to what their job envirorment is like and it would be an irate no. So seems college is just a system to pump kids in out as quickly as possible so they can get the next batch and make money. Through personal experience I feel high school prepared me more for the real world then college is teaching me right now. In my history class I literally have not learned one thing this semester entire semester. Luckily not all my classes are like that but it definitely is time for a reformation in the college system. Your degree should be earned not handed to you.

Precis on Race to the Top

            In the articles "Grading the Education President", (2011) debater's assert the importance of a innovated and reformed american educational system, which some back Obama's intuitions but others feel his motives wont prevail. The debater's support their claims through referencing the state of the union address and past movements that intended to reform american education but miserably failed. Their purpose is to provide their reader's with different points of views on the topic and intel the ramifications that will have to be taken in order to create a powerful movement to bring back innovation, creativity, and excitment to schools. The debater's tone's are indicative and target America in a whole.