Comments on: America Is No Longer the Land of the Free

By: Prolly Wood

Prolly Wood — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 06:40:45 +0000

The economic debt students are faced with, has a disproportionate return on the investment of projected earnings, partially due to a small number of students, who after graduation do not work, and drop out of the internship phase, to never go back, because they do not have to, survive on an income because of family, royalties that give them any freedom they want. how those earnings are expected to be managed is the real challenge as to why the american college institution is failing society and not providing communities with an influx of sunny-day picnics with conversation. How we as learners, are supposedly groomed to be intellectual “cowards,” [sic] has more to do with being too intimidated to prove current research as being mutually effective rather than ineffective, as compared to archaic “historically proper” methods that have absorbed about 2/3 of the entire tuition to knowledge to experience pyramid.

By: Sandeep Singh

Sandeep Singh — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 05:16:37 +0000

What next then? It would have been better if the author would have concluded with some insights on possible alternative perspectives or suggested some corrective measures for the alleged decadent educational system in America. This question about future is relevant not only from America’s domestic perspective, but from a global perspective as well, given that America prides itself in leading the rest of the world. The choice left with the reader of this article is to either pretend to ignore it as many other real world social problem or want a bigger debate on the validity of claim being made in this article.

By: Truthseeker

Truthseeker — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 05:38:06 +0000

The author, Mr. Singh, doesn’t explain how to correct the problems he diagnoses, preferring to go on a wide-ranging rampage against various aspects of popular American culture including baseball, basketball, football, celebrity fixation, Facebook and Twitter. After bashing these, he eventually, he gets round to the real culprit, debt: “Why are they not sitting on the lawns and discussing life, love, literature and more? Why are they not hosting debates and discussions on the great issues of our times? Why are they forgetting to be young and living such time truncated lifestyles? A key reason seems to be the ridiculously high fees charged by schools that leave many students with a mountain of debt.” Apparently without the crippling burden of debt students would be doing all the wonderful things they are supposed to, “sitting on the lawns,” etc. What remaining influence the evils of baseball and Twitter would have, if any, remains unclear.

We might guess the author believes free public education would cure the students’ debt-related education ills, but he doesn’t say. In the article by William Deresiewicz Mr. Singh cites in support, the author criticizes elite American education at schools like Harvard, Yale, etc., going out of his way to point out “second tier–not second rate” American colleges still offer an excellent education. Unlike Mr. Singh, Mr. Deresiewicz does not condemn all of American higher education.

However much we are inclined to agree with Mr. Singh on isolated points (Who thinks students obsessing with Facebook is a good thing?) overall we are left with the impression of an angry man more interested in lashing out at America than curing its ills.

By: Larry Beck

Larry Beck — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:36:32 +0000

As the father of a college freshman, I can very much relate to the content of this piece. Most troubling is that many kids who want to explore, want to think and analyze, and want to debate are often underwhelmed by the response of their peers. Life in a world where the virtual is often equated with the actual is dulling the excitement of exploration and learning for today’s college students. Some will break free; others will sink deeper into the virtual morass and waste much of their generational potential.