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Luke Jordan Lyman Barner Dr. Lauren Mason ENGL 1101H: Honors Introduction to Composition and Rhetoric 25 August 2013 A Response to A Perfect Storm in Undergraduate Education Thomas Benton begins his two-part article, A Perfect Storm in Undergraduate Education with a scathing review of undergraduate students and academic administration, backed by a study published by the University of Chicago Press. Already, as a student, I feel extrinsic to his target audience, and my instinct is to question his seemingly disdainful view of undergraduate students. While much of that view is justified, Benton appears to have overlooked, or at least neglected to mention certain other factors that contribute to the damning statistic that he cites. That statistic states that 45 percent of undergraduate students fail to gain skills that academia has determined essential for students, and Benton attributes much of this to personal failure on the part of students. I will not question the statistic itself, instead I will address what Benton believes it represents, and whether or not it is a failure at all. His argument rests on the assertion that those skills that students are failing to obtain over the course of a four-year education (critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills) are actually essential. Benton briefly veers in the direction of questioning this when he discusses the problem of changing forms of literacy as one of the reasons for the recent lack of learning in college, but fails to reach what I believe to be the logical conclusion. He says that as the new college-age generation begins to change the way in which it writes and reads, and an

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increased emphasis is placed on multitasking, its possible to graduate without acquiring foundational skills. I would take this a step further and ask why those skills are still considered essential when they are becoming outdated and inessential for the majority of people in the modern age. Bentons next paragraph reinforces this idea as well, but he does not make the connection; he says that much of the academic program, particularly general education, seems disconnected from the practical skills needed to secure[] jobs. As workplace technology changes, it seems to me that there is less call for the critical skills that Benton argues for, and greater call for the ability to operate existing systems rather than creating new ones. He points a finger at an increase in plagiarism, which I believe is not exclusively indicative of laziness and a lack of integrity in students. I believe it is also an example of this new generational emphasis on getting the job done using existing resources rather than reinventing the wheel, so to speak. It is, perhaps, an academically and morally destabilizing method, but it seems reasonable to suggest that students feel that it is more applicable to the real-world situations that they are supposed to be preparing for than writing papers and starting projects from scratch, where the end result of their hard labor is restating information that already exists. While I would never endorse plagiarism, I feel that it is worth considering whether or not the skills Benton values so highly are so critical in a modern context. College tends to be seen by my generation as a place to gain vocational skills, while academics such as Benton appear to see it as a place for intellectual pursuit and personal development. However, with astronomical cost of attendance, even at the least-expensive universities, most of my

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generation craves some sort of financial insurance when they invest in an education, and that comes from job prospects. Many new students are less concerned with enhancing their ability to create original work, and more concerned with employability. When getting a job does not require the ability to write a research paper, but it does require the ability to find existing information and resources quickly and efficiently, is it any wonder that students have no motivation to seek critical thinking skills? Many see those skills as college skills that will not apply anywhere else in their lives, and value them accordingly. Perhaps research skills should be taught in graduate programs, and vocational skills should be taught in undergraduate programs, rather than continuing to treat undergraduate education as though it is primarily meant to be a launching pad for a continued college career. Benton paints a dismal picture of undergraduate education, and though his argument certainly exposes flaws in school administration and student behavior that ought to be addressed, I am still unconvinced that education is failing. I suspect that students are still learning, but the skills they are learning are simply different from what the academics are trying to teach. Perhaps academia needs to adjust to society in this case, and not the other way around.

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Works Cited Benton, Thomas H. "A Perfect Storm in Undergraduate Education, Part I." The Chronicle of Higher Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2013. Benton, Thomas H. "A Perfect Storm in Undergraduate Education, Part 2." The Chronicle of Higher Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2013.