Samuel Zajde

Dr. Weaver

English Composition 1020

27 April 2022

The Tool of Education

             Starting at very young ages, children in America eagerly dream of going to college. Beyond being a dinosaur or a fire-fighter, the thought of going to a top school like MIT or Harvard to be the smartest person in the world is not an unlikely fantasy for first graders, and while its specifics may change, the soul of the dream often lives on until the very end of a student’s career. Universities are seen as places that can mold us into the people that we want to be and a gate way to grasping the things we want most in our careers. Long has this sentiment been at large, but its scope has had far greater limitations in the past. Higher education was not always considered as something for the many, and much effort had to be pressed on for it to be developed beyond its exclusivity. There were immense reasons for the United States government to do this not among them any substantial political mandate pleading for it specifically. It was instead seen as a tool: not particularly to harness ambition, but to combat rampant poverty and enhance racial integration. The Higher Education Act was one of the most consequential pieces of legislation concerning the relationship between universities and the federal government bringing higher-ed into mainstream American society.

            The Higher Education Act of 1965 was enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson in continuance of his policy campaign known as the ‘War on Poverty.’ The founding goals of this legislation was to significantly escalate the federal government’s role in providing higher education to Americans, and the desire to do this in the context of the ‘War on Poverty’ is because of education’s innate ability to increase economic opportunity. As stated according to David Brown from the University of Kentucky in his article “We have opened the road”: A Brief History of the Higher Education Act, “the Higher Education Act was envisioned as a vehicle for increasing opportunities for traditionally underserved groups, such as racial and ethnic minorities and the economically disadvantaged, to gain access to higher education.” This would not be the first time that higher-ed would be used as an instrument to fight poverty in a grand scope: the NYA, or the National Youth Administration, was a New Deal Program that existed from 1935 to 1943 under President Roosevelt with the goal of offering work and education to those between 16 and 25. In the midst of the Great Depression, the goal of the administration was akin to the HEA (Higher Education Act) which was to offer gateway for unemployed youth to not only be given jobs but training and education required to do them.

            The reforms brought by the Higher Education Act proved to be of great consequence to American society, with many of its programs continuing to exist and be amended to answer a still-developing political vision of how higher education should be perceived and valued. Before it’s signing, President Johnson said “So to thousands of young people education will be available. And it is a truism that education is no longer a luxury” (Johnson 1965). The intention was to transform universities from being a barriered club of elites into an accessible asset any American from any background could choose to attend. Economic aid in the form of grants was offered to both institutions and individuals who did not have the ability to attend college with their own means, as can be seen from this excerpt of the law:

“It is the purpose of this part to provide, through institutions of higher education, educational opportunity grants to assist in making available the benefits of higher education to qualified high school graduates of exceptional financial need, who for lack of financial means of their own or of their families would be unable to obtain such benefits without such aid.” (P.L. 89-329)

To summarize the operational funding of the HEA, funds were endowed by the federal government to each state, which were delegated to form specific agencies that distributed grants to qualified higher education institutions. The grants were then used to develop or maintain universities, and Title IV of the law established provisions for grants to be awarded to individual high school graduates in need of them.

            Fundamentally, the principle of providing economic assistance to students has persevered since the law’s creation, but its implementation has been modified many times often for better or worse. In the late-1970s and 80s, a policy shift had taken place that began to favor loans to provide financial aid instead of grants. As again stated according to David Brown, “starting with the Middle Income Student Assistance Act (MISAA) in 1978, federal policy began to favor loans rather than grants.” (Brown 2016). After the HEA was established, these policy changes pulled higher education away from socialization and towards privatization. Since then, the price of attending college has increased substantially, far outpacing mean household income. The decrease in government subsidies lead to institutions increasing their tuition, and while grant funding also decreased, students began to rely more and more on loans to cover the costs. It has become clear that the original mission outlined by the HEA to use higher education as a weapon against poverty has been drastically altered. Whether or not it is helping people economically, attending college is presently certainly not seen that way, or is at least very rarely spoken about as a serious economic help for the poor and underserved groups.

            The United States has come a long way since 1965, and higher education has certainly changed both being improved and impaired into the vast and powerful institutions they have become today. However different times may be, the founding mission that the Higher Education Act set out to accomplish still today has value. It would be costly unfortunate for such a commanding force such as education to be overlooked for its ability to shape macroeconomic and social struggles in our communities.

Works Cited:

Johnson, L.B. (1965): “Remarks at Southwest Texas State College Upon Signing the

            Higher Education Act of 1965,” November 8, 1965. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. Retrieved from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?               pid=27356

Higher Education Act of 1965 Section-by-Section Analysis. Washington,

              D.C.:U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, 1965.

Brown, D. (2016). “We have opened the road”: A Brief History of the Higher Education

              Act. Higher Education in Review, 12, 1–7.

Mckee, Guian A. Lyndon B. Johnson and the War on Poverty, https://prde.upress.virginia.edu/content/WarOnPoverty2.

Samuel Zajde

Dr. Weaver

English Composition II

27 March 2022

Summary

             The website of UC San Diego is a bold and illustrative attempt to attract students from a high variance of backgrounds that have a drive to change their communities and become “global leaders” (https://ucsd.edu/about/index.html). Through intense language and daring expectations, the school presents itself as a place for high achievers and steep competition. The rhetorical strategies used by the website designers include the assumptions they make about the visitors of the website and the ideal readers, or the ideal students, that the university is actively persuading to attend their school.

Analysis

            Currently, a first-time visitor of the UC San Diego website would be met with the smiling faces of women celebrating “Herstory” Month. There is little to no clutter on the initial home page with wide margins surrounding a brief paragraph relaying the school’s commemoration. There is no confusion as to where to look. Everything to be read is stacked in singular sections and utilizes the visitor’s entire monitor with one message and one-color scheme. After the Women’s History message, newly accepted students are welcomed and asked to “Visit your Applicant Portal to discover more about what makes UC San Diego unique” (UCSD Website- Home page). Very quickly the audience has already been shown a club they are not a part of. An applicant portal is only useful for those applying or have been accepted to the school. The school could have instead further advertised itself with the runner up spot of the home page, but it opted not to because of what they assume about their audience. Perhaps the first time a high schooler visits this site they won’t know when the school was formed or how good or bad their medical program is, but they will know that UCSD is highly competitive school. Assuming this, UCSD web developers further press the nerve of competition. Their ideal readers are the over-achievers, those that seek out to go to the best school they possibly can. Welcoming newly accepted and waving the applicant portal on the top of the front page heavily caters towards the competitive college-searchers that want to cut straight to business.

           Along with high achieving academic statistics, diversity and inclusion is a core value frequently discussed on the website. There is an entire page dedicated to diversity which encourages students to “engage in self-reflection and dialogue” and “become a social justice leader” (https://ucsd.edu/student-life/diversity/index.html) . The reasoning behind why UCSD chooses to prioritize diversity may be multifactored. On one hand, the school is exceptionally diverse with white students comprising only 19.3% of the entire school following Asian (33.1%) and Hispanic (21.9%) students, which could mean the school would be inclined to encourage acceptance and inclusivity to help its student body. Diversity has also historically been a prized achievement that colleges and universities have strived to obtain and showcase, an achievement so widely sought for it even caught the attention of the Supreme Court. Regardless of the reasoning behind it, the website makes it clear that UCSD is a place where diversity is welcomed and happily spoken about, which points to their ideal readers who are willing to work with people who come from different backgrounds. The extent of the school’s diversity incentivizes the website creators to actively seek out these students.

          In accordance with it’s diversity, 17.5% of UCSD’s student body are international students (https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-california-san-diego/student-life/diversity/). This presents itself in the language of certain parts of the website. For instance, a section of the “about” page affirmed that the school would “prepare the next generation of global leaders” ( https://ucsd.edu/about/index.html) and that “UC San Diego first-year and transfer students come from all over California and throughout the word” (https://ucsd.edu/admissions-aid/index.html) — the latter quote coming from their admissions page. This builds on the websites goal of reaching out to specific audiences.

          Beyond academics and the overall structure of the school, there is an underlying assumption within the website over a preference in climate. San Diego is of course located in Southern California, which is a place not so well known for its ski slopes. The website ensures to show very appetizing photos of a warm beach under a low sunset along with pictures of wide, private shores convincingly capable of taking away all of a person’s worries. The website developers clearly assume that this sort of climate is preferable to those applying to the school, especially considering that many applicants would be from California or at least be aware of what the weather would be like there before applying.

Response

          Would I go to this school? Yes, absolutely. If it weren’t for logistical complications, I would very much like to attend that school. For me, however, there would be a big struggle with the heated competition of the school. It is extremely difficult to get in, but assuming that I would for the sake of this question, I would likely feel a lot of unwanted pressure from my peers and professors, whether it be intentional or not. I am the type of person where competition can really hurt my focus. In fact, I would always struggle to finish assignments in high school that were graded on time. In math if I had to beat my pears by finishing an assignment before them, I would be unable to concentrate. The only way I can be successful is if I can completely focus on myself and my work and not have to worry about what other people are doing. Looking over my shoulder to see what my competitors are doing is something I avoid like the plague.

         With that being said, I think I am capable enough to attend this level of a school. I would especially be interested in their global policy and strategy school, as foreign affairs and geopolitics is something that I love to learn about. As seen on their website, this school has so much funding and is so well known across the country that it is a considerable force of opportunity for any student.

Works Cited:

“University of California – San Diego Diversity: Racial Demographics & Other Stats.” University of California – San Diego Diversity: Racial Demographics & Other Stats – College Factual, College Factual, https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-california-san-diego/student-life/diversity/.

https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-california-san-diego/student-life/diversity/

“UC San Diego Celebrates Women’s ‘Herstory’ Month.” University of California San Diego, https://ucsd.edu/index.html.

https://ucsd.edu/about/index.html

            Kacian ‘Kaci’ Downer was born in Jamaica to a loving family that hoped to provide her with the best education possible. After going through pre-school and the earlier parts of elementary school, Kaci’s family was faced with a daunting reality: education in Jamaica, which was not free, proved to be subpar and not worth its cost. Due to this, her family moved to the United States hoping it would offer Kaci, aged 7 at the time, a brighter education that Jamaica was unable to provide.

            When Kaci arrived for her first day of school, she felt as if she had been dropped in a completely unknown world full of short strangers. She knew how to speak English, but not as well as the other students. She sat at a desk in the back corner of the class quietly hoping not to attract unwanted attention. Throughout the year, things naturally became less tumultuous for Kaci, but she was scared about her academic ability.

There are undoubtedly many things for immigrant children to get used to when starting school in a different country. On top of the new environment, language, and culture, the overall difference in scholastic curriculum between different nations can vary greatly. With this, Kaci was confident of what she had learned in 2^nd grade in Jamaica. Though, seeing as how the pilgrims on the Mayflower did not take a sunny vacation to Kingston, there were unavoidably many concepts that Kaci was unaware of. With all of the environmental changes and new information being introduced to her, Kaci had an overall weakened metacognition, which is defined by Stephen Chew as being “a student’s awareness of their level of understanding of a topic.” Essentially, the trepidation she experienced after immigrating to the U.S. made her significantly underestimate her academic knowledge. This greatly hurt Kaci’s confidence in her 3^rd grade year, a sentiment that was unfairly shared by others. It was recommended by Kaci’s administrators that she should be held back to repeat her 3^rd grade year because of her struggle with socially interacting with her peers and teachers.  One of her teachers, however, dissented saying that after seeing what Kaci was capable of academically, she was wholly ready to pass the 3^rd grade CRCT, a competency exam required for students to pass in order to go on to the next grade. This being the primary teacher that was grading Kacian’s work, the school administration accepted for her to attempt the exam. Before resigning herself to redoing the third grade entirely, Kaci would end up taking the CRCT with the encouragement of her teacher and overwhelmingly passed with flying colors.

            4^th grade was different for Kaci. Her ability to succeed despite having to face doubt from not only herself but also of others proved something important: that no matter any reservations others could have of her, she would persevere. At the end of elementary school, Kaci had found her confidence. Her academic self was studious and resourceful. She excelled in math but cared less for social studies as American history was still relatively obscure to her. Overall, school had become a nourishing place to learn and engage rather than being reticent. However, Kacian’s firm progress would inevitably meet a tall roadblock that every student is doomed to face: middle school.

            The transition between elementary school and middle school unfortunately dampened Kaci’s expectations of herself. Kaci sadly had to deal with being bullied by other students. The issue first started in elementary school, and its continuation was encumbering. On top of dealing with bullies, her teachers did not help the situation either. She found that her teachers had taken less interest in her personally, which discouraged her from working as hard as she had before. The middle school she attended required students to wear uniforms. Kaci needed to curl up her pants because they did not properly fit her, which consistently caused her to be in trouble with one of her teachers. Through the experiences that came with overcoming this, Kaci found a wholehearted resilience within herself to once again persist despite being put down by others. By the end of middle school, she was determined to reforge the once high expectation she had of her academic self and push past the distracting relationships she had with other students that did not share her ambition.

            This attitude carried on with Kaci into high school and college like a badge of honor. The foundation of her academic self was built around this: not the mere idea of what she can do, but her proven ability to overcome fierce challenges. The resilience that Kaci finds in herself is an indispensable gift that everyone wishes to have, for the darkest of storms we can find ourselves in are treacherous without it.

Works cited:

Chew, Stephen, and Samford Marketing and Communication. How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 1 of 5, “Beliefs That Make You Fail… Or Succeed”. Samford University, 16 Aug. 2011,      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH95h36NChI.