Getting Started

Starting essays will never be a task I get excited about. I typically put the paper off until the night before it is due, then blankly stare at the word document that only has two words on it (my first and last name). I think really hard for five minutes then take a five minute phone break, allowing this to go on and on until the right words come to me. This blog post was no exception. I had never written a blog so deciding how I wanted to approach the assignment was difficult for me. Blogs are also entirely different from essays so I knew I couldn’t develop my argument the same way I did in my essay. I decided to reread my essay a few times and pinpoint the ideas I wanted to draw upon in my blog post.

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Blogging An Essay

I assumed this assignment would be extremely hard and require a lot of effort to make a blog post powerful like an essay but casual like a conversation. Although, once I got my ideas straight and started writing, the assignment was not too difficult. I knew what I wanted to say, however making the same argument with the allotted word account was challenging. Turning a 6 page paper into an 800 word blog required a great deal of condensing, editing, and summarizing. Being able to link evidence made things a bit easier because quoting every text from every source would require many more words to be used.

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For me personally, I struggled with the essay more than the blog. Gender roles in homosexual relationships is not a common topic to relate to education, especially for someone who has no previous knowledge of the issue. I had to educate myself first on what I would be writing about before I could even make a case that what I was writing is something I firmly believe in. Therefore, developing a strong argument, that also made sense, took some time. Turning that essay into a blog was a bit easier because all the hard work had already been done and my sources were readily available.

The Fun Stuff

There were a few things I enjoyed while making this page. I liked fooling around with my online voice in my introductory post and tried to give my writing some personality. It’s always impressed me how great authors can incorporate humor or unique word play to spark interest and give the reader a sense of what the author is like.

 Source: Epilepsy Association

I also enjoyed designing the page however I pleased and picking visuals that appealed to me and improved my work. I was always that little kid who looked at the pictures rather than reading the book so being able to pick images that I liked was fun for me. Looking at other people’s blog designs and images was cool too to get a feel for how other students went about their blog.

Overall this was one of my favorite assignments this quarter and is a good way to get students to practice different forms of writing. It also allows individuals to learn more about themselves as writers and incorporate a more opinion-based voice into their text.

Breaking The Binaries

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Before diving into the argument on higher education, I’d like to first address the binary views society has towards many important topics. We have grown towards the idea that topics must be viewed as black and white or left wing and right wing. We apply this style of thinking to politics, religion, and especially gender. One gender issue that I believe can be best used as a lens for viewing the higher education argument is that of gender roles in same sex relationships. With gender roles we typically believe that there must be a man and a woman in a relationship so people apply this to same sex relationships as well. Society then defines who’s the man and the woman in the relationship based on the masculine or feminine traits being displayed. Stephen Mays goes further in the argument in an article: “What about gender roles in same sex relationships?” This is a way of thinking that must end so that it is not used in other areas.

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So What’s The Deal With College

I started with gender to explain how the same style of thinking is used in higher education. If one attends college, he/she is intelligent and understanding of the benefits college provides. Whereas if one doesn’t attend college he/she is assumed to be unintelligent and ignorant of the “importance” to attending a four-year university. Just as with behaviors in gay relationships, one can behave against the social norm with college and still be intelligent or successful.

College may not be for everyone and while the average salary for those with a bachelor degree is higher, there are circumstances where going to college for some may not be beneficial. A student’s major, career intention, and happiness all play factors into whether college will profit a student. Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill would agree with this and make their claims in their piece titled “Should Everyone Go to College?” 

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Another problem developed now with college is that the bachelor’s degree isn’t as important as society makes it seem. Kids are now going to college simply for the degree and not the knowledge and skills that can be acquired from it. Therefore students can spend loads of money just to get a degree when their four years is up, only to come out with same level of intelligence as the average high school graduate who has been working for the last four years. Charles Murray makes his case for this idea in his work titled “Are Too Many People Going To College?” (Hint: the answer is yes).

 Source: Conway

Other Alternatives

The grey area tends to be deemed small for higher education, but in reality there are many other options besides attending a four-year university or not. Perfecting a skill or profession that does not require a college degree is a great idea for those who have no clue what  they want to major in and end up finding a job in a field where the degree isn’t necessary. The junior college route is also a smart alternative to save some money and knock out introductory courses that are very similar to those of a university. Online educations could even be pursued and could provide the same information that can be acquired through college. One would also be able to explore their interests in ways that aren’t possible in college and learn on their own time whenever he/she pleases.

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Making This Magic Happen

Everyone is different, has different needs, and is in different situations. Therefore making higher education decisions should be based on what’s best for the individual but they must know that there are more than two routes and their is nothing wrong with whatever route they choose. Just as we develop our gender based on our own identity and not personality traits, we develop our intelligence based on what we see as valuable, not what society believes is. Eckert and McConnell-Ginet explan this concept as well in “Learning to Be Gendered.”

It’s time to make a change and we as a society must collectively open our eyes and accept what’s not “typical” so that we can change the way we think. Thanks for reading!

About Me

Hello everyone! My name is Jason Dicochea and I would like to welcome you to my blog. I’ll start with a little introduction so that you may have an understanding of the mysterious man behind the screen. I am an undeclared freshman baseball player at Santa Clara University and am in my last week of fall quarter before finals (Yay finals!). I love the school I attend so far, but cannot wait to head home for winter break to sunny Redondo Beach, California. Back home I enjoy going to the beach and spending time with family and friends, all information that can be found in the bio of my eHarmony profile. I love to be outdoors or sweat my heart out in the gym, but also to spend time in deep thought and embrace music.

My Blog

Time to get past the yap-yap-yap about my personal life and get down to this blog. The main points I will be getting at in my blog will relate to higher education. I plan on establishing the grounds that college is not necessary and one’s level of intelligence should not solely be based on whether they’ve attended college or not. The Bachelor’s Degree has gained too much credit and importance to the point where kids are going to college and paying incredible amounts of money only to receive a degree and dismiss the knowledge that could be obtained. I will be voicing my beliefs and attempting to get readers to realize that we must break our binary views of education as well as other controversial topics including, but not limited to, religion, politics, and gender. Stay tuned!

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