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Teresa Marie Durham Dr. Lauren Mason English 1101H: Honors Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric 24 August 2013

Response to A Perfect Storm In Undergraduate Education A perfect storm is a terrific phrase for the catastrophe that has become our higher education, let alone the primary education. There are such variations, so many difficult and challenging obstacles that no one knows where to begin the discussion. To start, I completely agree and understand how limited professors are and the origins of the reasons Dr. Benton listed. However, some of these reasons are more at fault than others. Lack of student preparation is certainly the first to come to my mind. Tackling these roadblocks and moving them out of our career and educational pathways will be quite a feat. All the same, I feel as though at least one alumnus of any of our universities or colleges could have handled it before now. By definition limited means restricted with reference to governing powers by limitations prescribed in laws and in a constitution. Governing powers represents the teachers, school boards, so on and so forth. Limitations are the standards our high school and middle school teachers have tried to teach us but with all their restrictions it is hard for them, apparently, to educate us adequately. So college professors routinely encounter students who have never written anything more than short answers on exams, who do not read much at all, who lack foundation skills in math and science, yet are completely convinced of their abilities and resist

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any criticism of their work, to the point of tears and tantrums. The rate at which thi s is increasing is exponential, because the risk has become a teachers livelihood instead of just the student failing. It is certainly not easy going to class every day with a teacher that is not entirely focused, doing half of his/her job, to an over stimulating classroom with a professor that is an expert in the field they are professing you. Students are mostly adrift almost everywhere, floating in the wreckage of a perfect storm that has transformed higher education almost beyond recognition. There are no standardized tests in the college/university dimension. And that is what it is, a completely different dimension. I still cannot comprehend why primary education focuses solely on soaring test scores, yet says high school is to prepare you for the college experience. Where, if at all, does that show? That is right; it doesnt, which is just another way to swindle our students out of a decent education, in the end. For all that, I am finding it hard to see how a respected and well-educated student or professor through the aid of a governing body and statistics could not have already solved these problems in theory. I am well aware action on these matters is a different issue entirely, but surely people on the higher end of things can see standardized testing, let alone increasing the amount, is not the way to go about preparing our children for the real world or col lege. As most students are now a day, I go to college so I will make better wages eventually than I would if I had not. However, if it was up to me, I would take courses in most art forms, brush up on my math, health, and fitness. Doing that in this economy would be a bad judgment on my part. Most of my peers would not see it that way, unfortunately. College is either a

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career-booster or a waste of time and money in their eyes because they see it as too large of a risk to put so much capital and chance losing it all once you get out and cannot find work. This quote by Dr. Benton demonstrates how potential students view college : The patterns of selection and resource allocation-and the rising cost of college education- are not driven by educational needs so much as they are the result of competition for the most enjoyable and least difficult four-year college experience, culminating in a credential that is mostly a signifier of existing class positions. What I am telling you is, sadly, this statement is entirely accurate. This makes for a perfect storm, indeed.

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WORKS CITED: "Limited." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, Web. 24 Aug. 2013. Benton, Thomas H. "A Perfect Storm in Education (Part 1).pdf - Google Drive." A Perfect Storm in Education (Part 1).pdf - Google Drive. Web. 24 Aug. 2013. Benton, Thomas H. "A Perfect Storm in Education.pdf - Google Drive." A Perfect Storm in Education.pdf - Google Drive. Web. 24 Aug. 2013.