Is college really a corporate machine taking advantage of uninformed students? What is this corporate machine doing to the "American Dream"? Is college really conditioning society for a new economic system?
My mother came to this country in the 1993, in pursuit of opportunity and the American Dream. Unfortunately, she pursuit was cut short when she had me and assumed the role of a mother. She abandoned her own dreams that one day her child would pick up where she left off. Being a first generation college student from a single parent home is not always the easiest. I am also not heavily informed about the system. I'm learning as I go along, like other students like me. I like to call kids like me the "trial-and-error" children. Being the oldest, parents use us to test our parenting skills, the educational system uses us to test out their learning plans, and so forth. So I want to know how college is for the trail and error children. Are we really being taken advantage of? And secondly, am I going to live up to my mother's standard of the "American Dream?"
There is a lot of good information on the issues faced by First Generation college students, and that might make for a more focused topic. You can see, for instance, this student's blog from last semester:
ReplyDeletehttp://lavinascollegeblog.blogspot.com/
As for whether or not college is helping students reach the "American Dream," that is a little more abstract and difficult to argue in a focused way, especially because "The American Dream" is a little vague and not quite an agreed-upon term. I also think that most of the literature would agree with your idea, so it is not in dispute. Practically everything we have read in this class talks about how infrequently college actually helps people raise themselves above their parent's economic level -- how (as the subtitle of Paying for the Party puts it) "College Maintains Inequality." And if achieving the "American Dream" is rising above your parent's circumstances, then, yes, college will rarely serve that purpose for people -- unless we do more to support first generation college students.
I think the Paul Tough reading will be of help to you. And check out the sources used by the student from last term.