Rhetorical Analysis of Learning By Degrees
In Learning by Degrees, author Rebecca Mead argues that a college degree is necessary for people of the modern world, not only for their financial benefit, but for their ability to be well rounded citizens, capable of independent and intellectual thought. As an author and contributor, Mead has covered a large variety of topics ranging from profiles of acclaimed Broadway playwrights to social commentaries on the concept of the “American” wedding. Her argument for this article is centrally based upon the principle that a college education is not purely an economic investment for the sake of a high-paying job post-graduation. Rather, she believes that it is an investment in one’s critical thinking skills, their worldliness and experience with the cultures and accomplishments of humankind, and their ability to listen and then respond with an informed viewpoint. Mead presents a strong argument in this article, with specific appeals to logos. She accomplishes this by guiding the reader to look past the veil of a solely fiscal argument, and to see how the benefits of college can be much more than a well-paying job.
Many, many people have written about how college can be a waste of time, such as Bryan Caplan, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, who said “Selfishly speaking, it doesn’t really matter why your degree pays, but from the point of view of taxpayers, it matters a lot whether people are actually learning useful skills in school, or whether they’re mostly just getting a bunch of stickers on their forehead. ‘Cause you can’t have a whole economy based on stickers” (Barro 1). Mead counteracts arguments like these by dismissing the notion that a college education is a solely economic venture used for job hunting, by instead arguing that it is designed to build people up into strong, well-rounded and informed citizens.
Mead designs a solid argument with two main strategies that really work well together. First, when quoting the professors and those in favor of the skip-college side of the coin, she includes their credentials after their quotes. This feels like an attempt to show the hypocrisy of their stance. After all, how can they claim that college does not equal financial success if they themselves are the owners of BAs and PhDs from prestigious universities? Her use of irony here is very convincing. It paints the professors that advise skipping college as hypocritical and disconnected. In addition to that, she also turns the argument of college being a tool for financial success completely on its head. She further expounds on this by bringing up a point that most alumni and faculty of VMI would find some degree of agreement with by stating that college is not only a means of furthering your economic status, but it is there to ensure that one develops the critical thinking skills to become a well-rounded citizen. This was strikingly similar to the words said by Col. J.T.L. Preston, “The healthful and pleasant abode, of a crowd of honorable youths, pressing up the hill of science with noble emulation, a gratifying spectacle, an honor to our country and our state, objects of honest pride to their instructors, and fair specimens of citizen soldiers…”(VMI 1). Mead’s liberal argument of college being a self-development tool bears a stark resemblance to this quote held in high regard by one of the more conservative military colleges in the nation.
Mead begins the article by describing how the job outlook of 2010, is a fair bit bleaker than it was before the financial crisis of 2008. She then goes on to inform the reader that those graduates with degrees in the STEM discipline have the highest chance for employment after graduation, and in addition to that, have the highest initial salaries as well. She then transitions into her explanation of professors with multiple degrees expressing their views that college is unnecessary. This is followed by her quoting of the same professors and her inclusion of their various credentials and diplomas. Mead goes on to explain that this attachment with skipping college can partly be due to the success stories of people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, both of whom did not graduate college before starting their respective businesses. These are, as she discusses, outliers. These two examples, although highly successful, do not represent the whole of those who dropped out of college. The author then brings up an interesting point about the role of education and politics. Although this tangent does display a small amount of bias towards the Left, she does make an interesting point about politicians with education being chastised as “pinheads” and how populists without degrees can appear as the lesser of two evils due to their lack of “dangerous intellectualism”. Next, she moves on to one of the best arguments in the entire article. She admits that college is much more expensive than it used to be, and that for some, it may not be financially viable. She further continues by saying that degrees are still routes to economic advancement, but in addition to that, they are tools to improve one’s critical thought, to expose them to the accomplishments of mankind, and develop them into active listeners and intelligent responders. She further supports her argument with a story about a mail carrier in Britain who went on to graduate with a philosophy degree from Oxford, and how anyone, mail carrier or not, can all benefit from a liberal arts education.
Among the strategies employed by Mead in her writing, the one with the most punch was her inclusion of the professors who were against college’s various degrees and credentials. To quote a specific line from the article, “Special note should be taken of the fact that if you have an economics degree you can, eventually, make a living proposing that other people shouldn’t bother going to college. This, at least, is the approach of Professor Richard K. Vedder, of Ohio University, who is the founder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.” Although this is not one of the direct mentions of the professors and their credentials, it serves as an important beginning to that argument by stating that those with an economics degree can make a living later on by telling people they do not need to go to college. She further expands on Vedder by quoting him again and this time, including his PhD from the University of Illinois. Mead continues to use this strategy by quoting Professor Lerman and including his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Using this, she paints these professors who are stating that college is overrated as hypocritical and elitist. Making it seem like they are so far removed from the common people they preach to that they cannot possibly understand what they are talking about.
Mead’s other chief argument is that college should not be viewed only as a financial tool to get one a higher salary upon graduation day. Rather, she claims that a college degree exists to help the person studying to receive one by forming them into a well-rounded and well educated adult. After admitting that degrees are indeed helpful for furthering one economically, she dismisses this view as true, but too utilitarian. She goes on to say “Unaddressed in that calculus is any question of what else an education might be for: to nurture critical thought; to expose individuals to the signal accomplishments of humankind; to develop in them an ability not just to listen actively but to respond intelligently.” This is the key point of her entire argument, one that really brings her article together. Many of the arguments that are in favor of skipping college in order to either save money or enter an in-demand career use the notion that certain college degrees sometimes cannot help you to earn a higher salary when you enter the workforce. Mead admits this argument does have some merit, and states that it is true that some college degrees are there specifically for improving one’s prospects at a high-paying job. However, she dismisses the notion that some degrees are useless by claiming that those same degrees are not there for economic advancement in the first place, but there to improve the recipient as an overall person, to make them more intelligent and informed citizens. Mead’s argument sounds very similar to the VMI Mission itself, to produce “educated and honorable men and women, prepared for the varied work of civil life, and imbued with love of learning…” This statement from one of the more conservative colleges in the nation is indeed similar to what some may consider a liberal argument. Specifically, imbuing their students with a love of learning. That speaks directly to Mead’s argument of college leaving graduates as well informed and intelligent people.
In this article, Mead presents a formidable argument which tackles both the value of a college degree, as well as the hypocrisy of those suggesting it is not necessary to be successful in life. She supplements her first argument well by claiming that the value of a degree lies not within its monetary value, but within its ability to transform one into an intelligent graduate, a similar view to the one found in both VMI’s Mission Statement and the Inscription on the Parapet. She then supplements her second argument by including the credentials and degrees earned by the very professors who are claiming that degrees are not necessary for success. Overall, Mead has put together a chain of solid arguments that convey her point well, that being that college degrees are still important, and should not be regulated to strictly professionally-inclined disciplines.
Bibliography
Barro, Josh. “College Is Wasting Time and Money, According to George Mason University Economics Professor.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 20 May 2019, https://www.businessinsider.com/is-college-a-waste-of-time-and-money-bryan-caplan-2018-2.
Mead, Rebecca. “Learning By Degrees.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 31 May 2010, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/06/07/learning-by-degrees.
Staff. “Rebecca Mead – Contributors |.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/rebecca-mead.
“VMI Archives Photographs Collection.” CONTENTdm, https://vmi.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15821coll7/id/3616/.