Reinsberg 1
Kashtin Reinsberg
Lindsay Drumm
English 111
19 June, 2014
C/C Draft
Addressing the Same Problem
Is it too late to deal with this serious problem we have effecting our future? Academic
articles show that there are answers to these problems but it might be too late to change what is
going on. “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: I. As Lite Entertainment for Bored College
Students” by Mark Edmundson and “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose are two articles
that use similar and different ways to explain what is happening to the universities today.
Edmundson and Rose explain what is happening to universities in different points of view, as
well as the different tone they use trying to solve the problem but they do both touch on the
whole concept of being average.
Through both of these articles the authors use their own personal experience of what is
happening in the college world today but from different points of view. Rose focuses the student
point of view and how he grew up. Rose explains the hardships he had when dealing with school
and what some of the problems are. An example by Mike Rose, Professor in the School of
Education at UCLA, explains “One day in the December of my senior year, Mr. MacFarland
asked me where I was going to go to college. I hadn’t thought much about it. Many of the
students I teach today spent their last year in high school with a physics text in one hand and the
Stanford catalog in the other, but I wasn’t even aware of what “entrance requirements” were. ”
Reinsberg 2
(311). There he touches on some of the problems that are happening now in the college world.
Like he explains the “entrance requirements” which he didn’t even really know. She is showing
that he recognizes what is happening with getting into college these days. Also he explains that
that when he was in school, he did not even think about his future and what he was planning on
doing. So in contrast to how he was explaining some problems, Edmundson explains the
problems for an instructor’s point of view. Edmundson, a Professor of English at the University
of Virginia, explains, “Teachers who really do confront students, who provide significant
challenges to what they believe, can be very successful, granted. But sometimes such professors
generate more than a little trouble for themselves.”(Edmundson 289). Then he goes on to
explaining that students would just get offended and run to the deans and councilors office.
Proving that teachers are scared to personally teach the students because you might offend them.
So Edmundson is defending why he cannot make personal challenges for students because he
doesn’t want to risk a student running to the dean’s office. He is using the instructor’s point of
view to discuss a problem happening with instructors and students. So unlike how Rose uses his
personal experiences as a student to explain some problems with universities, Edmundson uses
his personal experiences as instructor to explain university problems. Their differences from
explaining these problems continue onto the tone used to discuss the problems.
Tone is the attitude of the article and/or reflects the narrator’s attitude. In both of these
articles by Rose and Edmundson, one uses a positive tone to these problems they are addressing
and the other uses a negative tone towards the problems. Both authors do well addressing these
problems but Rose just has more of an upbeat attitude to solving these problems. He seems to
just be positive all the way through. For example in his article to prove this is, “Four more years
of religion classes and four more years of boys at one school, girls at another. But at least I was
Reinsberg 3
to college. Amazing.” (Rose 311). He is just focusing on looking at the good parts of actually
going to college. He understands the challenges and problems dealing with going to college but
he is very optimistic about the situation. A couple paragraphs later he writes, “But it was an
introduction, a phrase book, a Baedeker to a vocabulary of ideas, and it felt good at the time to
know all these words. With hindsight I realize how layered and important that knowledge was.”
(Rose 312), it’s all just positive thoughts towards what college has done for him. He is just
positive, and wanted to send the message that we can conquer these problems. Unlike that tone,
Mark Edmundson is negative in his article. He just is negative to everything is explaining really.
He addresses these problems but kind of doesn’t really care, he just lives with it. The tone is not
inspiring anyone to try to change the way things are going. For example he explains, “It’s my
generation of parents who sheltered these students, kept them away from the hard knocks of
everyday life, making them cautious and overfragile, who demanded that their teachers, from
grade school on, flatter them endlessly so that the kids are shocked if their college profs don’t
reflexively suck up to them.” (Edmunson 286) Here he is explaining a problem with the
education system and never really is positive about it or even trying to find a solution.
Edmundson adds, “Schools want kids whose parents can pay the full freight, not the ones who
need scholarships or want to bargain down the tuition costs.” (287). Again he keeps with this
negative tone, never really positive about this problem he is addressing or trying to explain any
positive parts about scholarships. The tones they use can be different but they still can be on the
same page about the problem with being just average.
Even though both these articles explain the problems with universities in today’s world a
little differently, the purpose of the articles have their similarities. Both articles are similar
because they both recognize the problem with students is that they just want to be average. It is
Reinsberg 4
even one the article’s title, Mike Rose explains his personal experience of students that just want
to be average. He has a perfect example from his article, “We were talking about the parable of
the talents, about achievement, working hard, doing the best you can do, blah-blah-blah, when
the teacher called on the restive Ken Harvey for an opinion. Ken thought about it, but just for a
second, and said “I just want to be average.” That woke me up! Average?! Who wants to be
average?” (Rose 306). His direct experience is a great example on one of the biggest problems
that are happening to the college community. He questions being average because students are
not trying to be the best they can be anymore they are just wanting to get by. Even Edmundson
kind of explains that same problem in his article. He writes, “Most of my students desperate to
blend in, to look right, not to make a spectacle of themselves.” (Edmundson 285). Right there
Edmundson writes about students want to blend in and to be average. This problem again shows
up about students wanting to be average, I am thinking that it is a pretty serious problem that we
can only change ourselves. They both explain that by being average you will not get anywhere,
you have to keep adding more to your resume. Only if every college student would understand
this concept.
In conclusion, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: I. As Lite Entertainment for Bored
College Students” by Mark Edmundson and “I Just Wanna Be Average” by Mike Rose, both
touch on the problems we have with student and instructors in universities. Even though both
articles do explain that, they explain it in different ways. Using their personal experiences to
explain these problems and tell it from separate views. Also they used different tones to grab the
audience’s attention. Continuing to the one of the biggest problems in today’s world. So even
though both articles are about the universities and its problems they can have their differences on
how to address them.
Reinsberg 5
Works Cited
Edmundson, Mark. “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: I. As Lite Entertainment for Bored
College Students.” Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in the 21st
Century. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013. 282-294. Print
Rose, Mike. “I Just Wanna Be Average” Exploring Relationships: Globalization and Learning in
The 21st century. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013. 295-312. Print