Course Reading for 9/10/07

If I had read "The Idea of a University" or "The Case Against College" before I had answered the prompt on Friday, I may have had a better response. Apparently, a university education is not going to generate geniuses and revolutionaries, nor will it prove to be a proper place to begin every American's future. Growing up, all I have ever heard from my elders was that the only way I will ever be considered "smart" or have a slight chance at a promising career would be to go to college. I have heard from these same elders that unless one attains an education in college, they will probably live on welfare and work at a local fast-food establishment.
In Newman's "Idea of a University," he makes it known that the reason for a university is not to birth some of the most brilliant of people, it is not a factory that generates Einsteins every four years. According to Newman, the reason behind a University education is to expose its attendees to many different subjects in hopes that each person will become more understanding and knowledgeable of all of these subjects, and hopefully discovering his own niche in the process. I had never really thought of attending a university for that reason, I applied because it seemed like the thing to do.
University isn't for everyone, as told by Lee in "The Case Against College." She writes about how America is obsessed with college, which I happen to agree with, and shares her personal story about her son who was just not cut out to attend university. She shares the triumphant stories about drop-outs like Bill Gates, and expresses a message to her reader that it is okay to question whether or not he or she is really meant to attend college. Many of the people I graduated with did not believe that going straight to a four year university would be the best for them, but the stigma surrounding them because they were not going to college was suffocating them. Some enrolled in city college for this reason. Others are giving excuses that they are going to work for a semester and then eventually enroll. I kind of read that as buying time until these outlying forces accept that these people were not born and raised to be shoved into this educational institution.
I personally feel that I will benefit out of a university education. I do not think that by attending I will be the one who finds the cure for cancer, nor do I feel such an extreme pressure to attend that it is almost discouraging. I want to go because I feel it fits me. This is my second week, however, so I won't get too hasty.