Making It Work: The Bell and The Bowl by Dushyant Rakheja

I am getting a degree because I want to make money. I am getting a degree because I want to make money. I am getting a degree because I want to make money. Call it a completely normal statement; nothing about it stands out as odd apart from the fact that I wrote it thrice. It is what we all believe, and it is flawed.

When I was seventeen-years-old, my parents allowed me to watch a movie with my friends for the first time. Feeling like the king of the world, I went to buy popcorn during the trailers. As I was waiting in line playing with the only thing in my pocket, my dad’s debit card, a thought swept over me harder than a tsunami; someday I will have to spend my own money to buy the popcorn, the movie ticket, and the water! I went back home and handed the card back to my father without any grease on my fingers. The strength of the thought threw me into such an absolute anxiety about how to earn money that I forgot to order popcorn. This lingering unease was all I could talk to my friends about for the next couple of days. Unsurprisingly, they had had the same thought way before I did and were also looking for solutions. We shared our ideas on our communal bench, the one by the window in the corner. We took down notes during lectures hoping to scientifically analyse the historical decisions made in our civic society. However, we were only young seventeen-year-old brains with no real-world experience. All the ideas that we could come up with were too simple, according to our parents. So, naturally, we turned to them for advice and learned something we would never forget.

Having gone through the same phase, my father had an exact cure to my itch: “Go to college and get a degree. If you score all ‘A’s you will earn enough riches to dwarf a small nation. Score one B and you’ll just be getting along. Anything below that and you can call the assistant because you are not worth the time” (Rakheja). That is, in closest translation, what my father said to me, just as his elder brother had stated it to him. Later when I consulted my uncle, he confessed to quoting my grandfather on that occasion. One can assume that my grandfather probably quoted somebody ancient who came before him. Going to college for money, therefore, seems like an inherent knowledge passed down through my family. By conversing with people in my classes I discovered that this knowledge is not just my heirloom; we all have it. Consider the clear indication in my roommate’s prompt reply to my questioning his major: “I am an accounting major so I can get a job as an accountant. I gotta pay the bills” (Galietta). Everybody wants to study a subject to “get a job” in that field. It has been conditioned into us like the bell and the bowl of food that was conditioned into Pavlov’s dogs.

During the 1890’s, a Russian physiologist named Ivan Pavlov conducted research in classical conditioning by examining dogs’ saliva in response to an induced stimulus (BullyingNewsVideo). He would ring a bell and give the dogs a bowl of treats. In time, the dogs started to associate the sound of the bell with the bowl of food, thus releasing happy hormones whenever the bell was rung. After a while, the dogs got elated by the mere sound of the bell even without the chow in sight, thereby being conditioned to like the chime. Using the same logic, one is conditioned to stay in crippling college debt.

There is no denying that the cost of college is increasing exponentially. Take Hofstra University, for example; their per year tuition rates went up from $20,999 (inflation adjusted) in 1998 to $43,960 in 2018. Similarly, the City University of New York’s rates went up from $5,091 in 1998 (inflation adjusted) to $17,910 in 2018 (Chronicle of Higher Education). The cost of attending each college throughout the U.S. went up almost every year of the decade. If one was to take an economist’s view, it only seems fair to raise prices. Since it is seen as an essential product (diploma) and service (learning) by the people, they are bound to indulge in it. As Thomas Frank notes in “The Price of Admission,” “An annual pass to Disneyland would also cost $54,000 if society believed that what it took to make you eligible for success was a great many hours spent absorbing the subtle lessons of the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage” (par. 5). Even so, it is not necessary for the bowl of crippling debt to follow the bell of college. The bowl that leaves a student crying on their floor eating ice cream while re-watching the same Disney movie for the 19^th time is avoidable. Alas, my strolls through campus and its neighborhood have pointed out that we do not want to evade it!

Every person I know would love to have less debt, but they are not willing to work. Obviously, they want a job, but they desire the immediate rags-to-riches story because they want to be Princess Diana. Nobody notices the “Help Wanted” signs posted in the windows of shops that are within a ten minute walking radius of the campus as they are too busy shining their tiaras. My own roommates, who have more debt than I do. would rather make fun of me for waking up at 6:00 am to go to work than get off their Playstation and work alongside me. By lounging around and complaining about not having enough money or required job experience afterwards, we allow our comfort zone to become a limiting threshold. Certainly not everyone may want to be waiting tables til midnight, but I have also seen a “We are Hiring” poster outside the same Target Superstore for the past month. These are not jobs that pay $250 or $300 an hour as we would like them to, but it is still progress--- the building block of human society. These $7 or $8 per hour jobs keep us from being monkeys with suits and ties hanging in our wardrobes. Everybody seems to be so content with being in the state of having debt that they forget what being human is.

Slow progress over centuries is what led humans to rule the food chain. It is these increments, i.e., low paying jobs, that will continue to lead our march towards the top. It is not as easy as going out with our paper degree, handing it over the counter, and coming back with money as if we are buying bread from a grocery store. It involves long hours of collecting small slices that will eventually bundle up to a big loaf (Farquharson). Not only is it about small slices, but American citizens can make their college lives easier in big sums---even if they do not have an academic scholarship!

The ROTC program at most universities is available for anyone with an average GPA of 2.4. The program’s recruiting officer at Hofstra University also mentioned that there are scholarships that can amount to half the cost of tuition (Massidas). Since room and board amount to the second highest cost contributor in college, Hofstra, like many American universities, provides free room and board to active ROTC members. This is just one way to cut down college cost without being an academic or athletic genius. All it takes is a little snooping around.

Amidst all this “give me what I want because I want it” mindset that we carry, the go-getter sense has been lost. The sooner one realizes that they cannot beam up to the rich life, but rather will have to put in some effort, the closer they will be to their American dream. I am an international student from a middle-class family who is not allowed to work in America. However, while nobody was looking, I was able to add two slices to my bread fund. If I could, that means native-born Americans do not look closely enough. Are we letting opportunities pass us by because we are blinded by the end goal? There is a treacherous track we must tread before reaching the ribbon. As the product of our parents’ money, having almost nothing to our name, why should we be afraid to start from level negative one? We have got to stop getting happy at the sound of the bell and go look for the bowl.

Works Cited

BullyingNewsVideos. “Classical Conditioning – Ivan Pavlov.”  YouTube, 13 Sep. 2008, https://youtu.be/hhqumfpxuzI.

Chronicle of Higher Education, The. “Tuition and Fees, 1998-99 Through 2017-18.” Chronicle, 28 Nov. 2017, https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/tuition-and-fees.

Farquharson, Tajear. Personal interview. 10 Nov. 2018.

Frank, Thomas. “The Price of Admission.” Thomas Frank. Harper’s Magazine, Jun. 2012, Web. 16 Nov. 2018, https://www.tcfrank.com/essays/The_Price_of_Admission

Galietta, Noah. Personal interview. 1 Mar. 2018.

Massidas, Wilfred. Personal interview. 5 Nov. 2018.

Rakheja, Anand. Personal interview. 1 Aug. 2015.

Because “Every Atom Belonging to Me as Good Belongs to You” by Sadie Schofield

As a college student in the twenty-first century, I have realized that we go through many obstacles throughout our undergraduate career. We deal with admissions, career training, and learning how to build a community for ourselves. I have had the privilege and woes of experiencing all of this on my own. I have had to fight to be able to apply to college, to determine my future, and to take my first steps into this strange world. Having the privilege of being able to apply to college should not be taken for granted. Many people do not get the opportunity because of their religious beliefs. As a Baptist woman, going to college was demonized by my church community. They thought that if one went to college one was going to forget all of their values and jump head first into the temptations of the world. Because I was raised a Baptist, I have had many things stacked against me. My pastor told me from a young age I had to be submissive, quiet, and have a man handle my problems. I was not supposed to grow up and take charge of my future. Instead, I was expected to be a mom and take care of my children while having dinner ready on time.

I was stuck in phase one of Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development. “This is the stage that all young children start at (and a few adults remain in). Rules are seen as being fixed and absolute. Obeying the rules is important because it means avoiding punishment” (Kohlberg diagram 1). I had to mindlessly follow the rules that were set up for me, preventing me from thinking for myself. I was under constant observation as my pastor and his wife tried to turn me into a cardboard cutout of someone else. For a long time, I just accepted everything I was being taught and considered this strange reality normal, not knowing that there is a whole world full of opportunity and adventure. Because of this, being able to apply to college, let alone the dream of getting admitted, did not seem like an option for me. Sofie Ramirez stated it best when she wrote, “We cannot get admitted [to college] if we were too self-involved to branch out and become well-rounded people” (Ramirez, par 2).

I was taught being different and having my own thoughts were wrong. When someone new and different came to my church for the first time everyone would judge them based on their appearance. How was someone like me supposed to become a well-rounded person if I was being taught to judge people before I even knew them? Whitman stated, “Whoever degrades another degrades me” (Whitman, par 24). So, why was I being taught that just because they are different, it is wrong? My pastor only taught me these things because he was afraid and believed that “places like colleges are a gilded re-education camp, where innocent children of the entrepreneurial class are turned into brainwashed Maoist cadres, chanting slogans and grinding away the hours in a sexual frolic” (Frank, par 3). However, even though my pastor thought this, he gave me permission to attend college based on my high mathematics grades. He only permitted me to do so because he wanted me to teach at the private school I attended. I blindly accepted his offer not wanting to be unable to provide for myself.

This unhappy situation had happened so frequently among the women in my church. It happened to a close friend, who got married at nineteen. She never attended college or had a stable job making her unprepared for what life was about to throw at her. Sadly, the man she married passed away and she was left with two young children and no clue how to provide for them. This situation scared me greatly and was the turning point for when I started to think differently, breaking me out of Kohlberg’s first stage.

In Pablo Freire’s Banking Concept of Education, he states, referring to our educational system, “[Learning is] motionless, static, compartmentalized, and predictable” (Freire, par 2). “Students are force-fed information only to barf it up during a test” (KP). This is a way of learning we are forced to adapt to. It limits our creative imagination and causes us to be mindless zombies. Thankfully, my twelfth- grade teacher, Mr. HT, taught me to question everything I learned and to make my own judgment based off of my analysis. He was a key component in helping me decide my career. He encouraged each student to ask as many questions as possible believing that “authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication” (Freire, par 22). He wanted us to grow as thinkers and learners. He taught me that just because someone is different it does not mean we have the right to degrade them. It was because of Mr. HT that I had the hope of changing from my pastor’s original idea as a teacher to something that I wanted to do. I felt the need to write. I wanted to be able to impact the lives of others the same way that he impacted mine. I wanted to be the light that broke others out of their cave like mentality, where they only see shadows of things and not the whole picture (Plato). Mr. HT expanded my mind, helping me to look at the bigger picture instead of conforming to what others expected of me. He made me realize that, even though having a family is a wonderful thing, “I only have one shot at this life so why not make the most out of it” (Mr. HT)?

When I finally arrived at college I was there to learn and make the most out of life. I was, however, greatly shocked by the people I met there. Especially folks who were proud to be gay, proud to stand up for their beliefs, and people who had high goals they wanted to reach. I was not used to people being proud of who they were. These new people were not afraid to show their differences. That is a beautiful thing. Too often we try to conform to what we believe as perfection instead of taking a good look at ourselves and loving all of our flaws. We also should learn to build community with people who are different than us instead of restricting ourselves to individuals who think like us. “Being open to diversity is the cure. . . and the secret code to serenity” (Weber, par 9). Just from being at college I have learned that people change people. Some might state that this is the meaning of life; however, how are we supposed to grow from someone when they are exactly like us? Someone who changed me, and I grew to know, and love is Sarah Baum. She is completely different from me in every way. She made me, a straight woman, realize what life is like as a lesbian. She taught me to use terms like “they and them” instead of putting people in boxes by calling them “her and him.” By watching her actions, I learned that I am the next generation. I need to have a voice and to stand up for what I believe in. If I had not have added her to my community I would have greatly missed out on an opportunity of learning what life is about. Because of the impact of Mr. HT and Sarah, I was able to open up my mind to different ideas of thinking and realize that we are all connected to each other. Like Whitman so eloquently stated, “For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (Whitman, par 1). 

Works Cited:

Gordon, Paul Kirpal. 4 Dec. 2018. Class discussion

Lawrence Kohlberg, “The Stages of Moral Development,”

http://www.suttonclassroom.com/uploads/9/0/6/0/9060273/lawrence_kohlberg_chart.pdf

Ramirez, Sofie. “The Gift that Keeps on Giving.” Personal Essay. 30 Oct. 18

Whitman, Walt. "Whitman's "Song of Myself"" Modern American Poetry. University of Illinois, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2018.

Frank, Thomas. “The Price of Admission.” Harper Magazine. June 2012

Paolo Freire, “The Banking Concept of Education,” https://www.everettsd.org/cms/lib07/WA01920133/Centricity/Domain/947/BANKING%20CONCEPT%20OF%20ED.2.pdf

Mr. HT. Personal Encounter. 2017

Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave,” PDF & https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=plato+allegory+of+the+cave+cartoon&view=detail&mid=C711AFC2F023B84F2320C711AFC2F023B84F2320&FORM=VIRE

Weber, Deanna. “Leaping out of the Cave and into the Light.” Taking Giant Steps, Kirpal Gordon, 11 Sept. 2015, http://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2015/09/leaping-out-of-cave-and-into-light-by.html

Crawling Like a Snail by Yunfei Feng

 

In the TV series, “The Good Wife,” Alicia Florrick, the main actress, said she needed to deposit a large amount of money in her account, probably $750,000, because her two kids were going to college. A famous lawyer in that series, Alicia won the state’s attorney election in the latest episode and she said the salary of state’s attorney cannot cover her children’s college tuition. Although these words are just the actor’s lines, I believe they reflect the serious challenge that college students and their families are facing.

 

With the sky-rocketing increase in tuition and dormitory fees nowadays, college graduates routinely begin their working lives deep in debt. They are burdened by these overwhelming debts from the beginning of college life, having no time to take a rest. A survey shows that the total amount for a student without scholarship in college is $60,000 per year, even higher than the average salary of a male who has an undergraduate diploma in America. There is no denying that the tuition is a devastating debt for a middle class family. Furthermore, American families usually have more than one child. Despite more and more females choosing to work in order to enrich their lives and fulfill their dreams, there is a large portion of women who become housewives when they have a baby or get pregnant. If the whole family is only supported financially by the male parent, it is obviously not enough when their children go to college.

 

Here is a description in the article “The Price of Admission” written by Thomas Frank:

In March 2012, when the Republican front-runner, Mitt Romney, was taking questions at a town-hall meeting in Mahoning Valley, Ohio, a high school senior rose to explain that he was on his way to college, but that he worried about the cost. In response, Romney gave one of his patented lessons in managerial smugness. The solution was to “recognize that college is expensive” but that competition “works.” No “government money” would be forthcoming under his regime. And so it was up to the student-consumer himself to “shop around,” compare the goods offered up in the freewheeling marketplace of educational choice, and make the best decision he could.

 

When I read this paragraph, I felt angry. The government’s attitude should be changed. The aim of government is to provide benefits and services for its residents. Education should be the basic right for a child. Everyone deserves the opportunity to be educated and absorb various types of knowledge. If a government cannot provide these chances for its citizens, it is not a competent one. When a student is faced with the choice of which university he wants to apply for, he should not focus on money, at least not as the priority. He should choose a place where he can get help to achieve his dream and broaden his horizon. He should choose a place where he can grow up and become a better man. He should choose a place where he learns how to hold the world in his heart and pursue the truth instead of studying hard in order to repay loans.

 

University life is a period for transformation. Students learn professional knowledge and identify the direction they want their careers to run. They arm themselves with all the information they can get and experiment constantly with new ways to pursue their dreams. They are just like the sun at 8 or 9 o’clock in the morning, warm and lively. They gather strength and prepare everything they will need for future success in college. Being deeply in arrears is not a position which stimulates their will to fight. On the contrary, it is the snail’s shell which can drive students crazy. College students carry heavy debt in the exact same way that snails carry heavy shells and crawl slowly. They will be afraid of the amount of the capital which needs to be invested into their project and deny their original thoughts in order to save some money. They will be timid to dream something big because they cannot afford it. They may give up their favorite major and choose another one because they need to find a well-paid job to repay the debt after graduation. They struggle helplessly in a hard life.

Money isn’t everything. However, it is indeed the key to all doors. Without money, you can do nothing. When all your savings are dispossessed by the “crazy” tuition, you have no wings for dreams. Although there are many favorable policies related to student loans, they cannot solve the basic problem. The tuition has grown too rapidly in recent years. Student loans only delay the problem from erupting for a while. It cannot solve the problem ultimately. If the tuition keeps growing, the problem will be fuelled and is going to be worse.

 

In my opinion, government should be responsible for the “horrible” tuition. Universities are not merchandise put on the shelves waiting to be bought in the market. Governors should not request students to choose their universities from the position of being consumers. I don’t agree with what Mr. Romney said in the meeting: “Consumers shop around, they compare and contrast, and they get the best deal they can, reassured all the while by their awareness that competition works. Just don’t come whining to the government for help” (Frank). Applying to universities is one of the most important decisions in a student’s life. It is just like the process of choosing a spouse. The “personality” and “ability” should be considered first, not the costs. That is the reason why we need a government---to protect its citizens and guarantee their basic human rights. Relevant policy should be legislated to control the growing cost of tuition according to the inflation and the economy. Combined with the GDP and the average income in each state, government should recommend corresponding tuition for each university and stipulate that the floating between the actual tuition and the recommend one cannot excess a certain range.

 

Besides, the Departments of Education and Treasury should cooperate and supervise the flow of funds in each university. Colleges should report their expenditure at the end of each year to these departments and make a detailed budget at the beginning of next year. If there is something unreasonable, government can take measures to rectify the situation. Schools should control expenditure and publish important decisions and donations regularly to the students and parents. If a college wants to make a pivotal assessment like building a stadium or other infrastructure which will cost a lot of money, they should convene the students’ representatives, analyze the advantages and disadvantages for them, ask for their opinions, let them be a part of the decision committee and vote for the proposal. Students should be informed where their money is going and become part of the decision-making process.

 

Frank also notes that twenty years ago, the Department of Justice charged the Ivy League universities and MIT with conspiring to restrict financial-aid awards, and thus to fix prices. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh even called the schools a “collegiate cartel.” The Ivies settled immediately after the suit was filed in 1991, signing a consent decree that forbade them to collude over tuition, salary, or financial-aid awards, but I should mention that the decree expired in 2001. Looking back from twenty years on, it’s clear that the Ivy League schools did little to keep their promise. Some believe it may have driven costs even higher. All these famous universities regard their prestige as a selling point based on the common sense that we live in a “knowledge economy” and the diploma from prestigious school is the credential towards a successful career and happy life. As rational people, we should realize that the college degree and the brand of world-famous universities is not the conclusive element of our lives. What really matter is who we are. The abilities and qualities we own are the genuine gems, not the degree. The diploma cannot represent anything and is only a souvenir of the most beautiful days in our lives. It isn’t a pledge which will win success. You need to win your success by yourself. From this point, there is no reason for us to pay so much for the prestige. The training system and the teachers in these famous schools may be one of the keys to cultivate the best students, leaders and millionaires, but the most critical factor is your intelligence, hard-working manner and creativity. If we can change our mind and pay more attention on the improvement of our own abilities instead of pursuing the prestige of school in order to satisfy our vanity, the tendency of tuition increasing may be slowed down even restrained.

 

The unreasonable tuition is a nightmare for many students and their families, and it should be controlled immediately. Only in this way, can more young people get the chance to be educated and allow the country to become better and wealthier.

 

Works Cited

Frank, Thomas. “The Price of Admission” Harper's Magazine. June 2012. Web.

 

Yunfei Feng is now a senior student in China. Upon receiving her bachelor's degree in July, 2016, she will work as a junior data analytics specialist in Shanghai for Opera Solutions Corporation. Two years later, she hopes to apply for a master’s program in the USA.