Project 3
November 11, 2009
Ironic: A Boring Essay On Bored College Students.
When reading the essay on college students and their boredom, “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Entertainment for Bored College Students” by Mark Edmundson, several I felt several strong emotions. Although I do not fall into Edmundson’s target audience, I am still directly effected by his argument because he is basing his beliefs on students of my generation. He has strong bias against students in college today. He feels that college students today do not compare to the students of past years and generations. This essay makes many good points but fails to incorporate what it really means to be a college student in todays day in age. Considering I do not fall into his intended audience, I read this paper differently than those who are the audience. Edmundson does a good job using both Logos and Pathos to reach his intended audience.
Edmundson is a professor who wrote this essay on college students and their “boredom” after he received the feedback from his students. He makes it clear that his students are “decent at best” and feels that they do not take their schooling seriously. For me as the reader, this is the strongest form of Pathos that he incorporates in his essay. He gives an empty and demeaning compliment that affects certain readers in an emotional way. His students told him that they enjoyed his class, but that was not satisfied with that response. Instead he wanted feedback saying they were engaged in the class and learned a lot for him. “I want some of them to say that they’ve been changed by the course. I want them to measure themselves against what they’ve learned.” What he does not realize is that his students are probable just telling him what they thought he wanted to hear, that his class was enjoyable. Not many people are going to feel that their lives have been changed by a course in college. Although a class of Freud, which he is teaching and referring to in this essay, would be an interesting class, not many people’s lives are going to be changed after taking one class.
I feel that Edmundson is not expecting to much from his students, instead, he is expecting to much from todays culture. Today, people feel that their life changed due to a person that enters their life, an event that opens their eyes, or a opertunity that they receive after years of work. Few people are going to feel that their live is changed because they have a better understanding of hoe Freud believes their mind works.
This is just one situation that I feel Edmundson uses Logos, and to me, he missed the mark. Also, I feel that he took the easy route. It seems the older someone is the more they dislike who today’s youth lives and acts. It is easy to complain about the differences between one’s own experiences and the way they see others live. It is more respectable in my mind to accept the differences and showcase the good things about a different generation. As a college professor today, I would think that he could get past the age, technological, and even language barriers and see that students today could even be seen as more complex and sophisticated that past generations.
He finds several ways to say students today are not ficused on school, do not care about learning, and are not as good of students as past generations. I feel his logic here is extremely bias use of Logos that is aimed at the older scholars that this essay is truly intended for. He disregarded the strenght of todays college students in order to form him argument in such a way to reach one specfic audience. Although he is effective in using pathos in this case to touch on the emotions of his readers, he is also selling his students short. Students today have to adapt to more forms of learning and more forms of teaching and more forms of technology in the classroom than ever before. Internet, Powerpoint, E-mail, Blogs, and even texting and all everyday events in a classroom or in the homework assigned by the teacher. No generation before had to be so well-rounded in all forms of classroom technology. These techniques are more useful in todays business world than ever before, therefore, students today are becoming more prepared for the “real world” after college than ever before.
Edmundson says students are not getting their moneys worth and are not getting anything out of college. I disagree, I feel that students are getting more out of college than ever before. I feel that Edmundsons attempt to in using both logos and pathos in this situation, by convincing the readers that students are poor in their studies. Instead I believe that the blame Edmundson lies on the student should actually be placed on himself. Students will get from a class what a professor leads them to gain, if he feels his students are not achieving the high marks he believes they should than it is his duty to lift them higher. Several things Edmundson stated in his essay about the way his class is conducted really show me that the blame is on him, not on the students.
For example, Edmundson talked about how he felt he could no longer correct students because when he did he hurt their feelings and they would to longer speak up in class discussions. This falls directly on the shoulders of the professor.
Edmundson uses effective rhetorical reasoning to manipulate the opintion on the reader. The effectiveness of logic, although untrue to myself, is a good way to alter the view of the scholarlythe Edmundson intended to reach with his essay. He is able to raise emotions by demeaning the students by either calling them “at best, decent” or giving his examples of how they no longer care to learn. Both use of logic and emotion are effective ways to connect with the audience, and as much as I disagree, are effective and make his point loud and clear.
Rhetorical Reasoning Questions
