“Who are you and What are you doing here?” Article Review

Introduction

The central idea presented in the article Who Are You And What Are You Doing Here? By Mark Edmundson is the life in college from the first day of it to the struggle throughout the period. The article contains all the aspects of college and people who will influence the students. Those people will be teachers, administration and peers whom the student will interact during his or her time in the collage. Author emphasized on the value of collage by giving the argument that collage have become the part of our lives and this was done due to the influence of society. Using the knowledge which students will get from the collage will help students meeting ends. There are several points which have presented throughout the article with the prospect of teachers, students, family, influential people and friends. While on the other hand, some of the points contains the outside forces which will influence the students and those are market conditions and the political demands which are now the part of education system. Furthermore, the dominant theme of this article is student struggle and the need to understand those struggles which will be discussed further in this essay by highlighting what students needs to know.

Discussion

There are significant circumstances pointed out by the author which should always be under the consideration of students and the understanding of those circumstances can be get from the teacher. First of all, the collages were used to be strict about the performance of the students which no longer left in the collage system and this lacking greatly influences the grades of students. Eventually those low grades have influenced the respect of the students in front of the teachers. When imposing the strictness, the administration have to deal problems arising in result of those strictness and that is the sole reason of no restriction by avoiding the possibility of any problem.

The learning outcomes of the students are quite low because teachers have lost the important of the work they are doing. The learning outcomes can only be raised by the help of teachers but the focus of teachers have shifted to other things instead of student performance. The reason behind those strict rules which were once the part of collage system is to ready the student for real world but now how those students will compete in the world if the students are free to ignore the studies and can take any day off. IN the start of the article, the author stated his own story when he asked for the advice from his father regarding which courses he should pick and his father replied that a student should only go for those courses in which they are interested rather those which are known for the excessive earnings. The failing of career is always because of wrong decision students take while selecting the fields because those fields which are not according the taste of students will soon make them exhausted and they will get bored with their jobs.

Moreover, the writing style of the author succeeded in catching the attention of his readers, especially the attention of students which are much needed because they are the one who will have to face the all the ups and downs in the collage. The fight is not limited when it’s come to take the admission in the collage but it’s only the start of struggle which will continue happening to the administration and after that with the outside world. The example at the end of the article given by the author can help the readers understand fully the concept of this article is that becoming doctor will only please the society but choosing the field with student’s own desire will make him/her happy.

Conclusions

The author indeed achieved the purpose of his article by presenting the understanding of the struggle students have to face from collage life to practical world. However, by using his personal life experience and hypothetical example related to career he supported all the claims which he had presented in the article.

Works Cited

Edmundson, Mark, and Mark Edmundson. “Who Are You And What Are You Doing Here?.” Oxfordamerican.org. N.p., 2018. Web. 14 Feb. 2018.