<p>Hi! Its me again. I have taken your feedback from the last essay I have posted, and applied it to this next essay. I was wondering if someone could please grade or critique this, give some sort of score, and tell me if I'm headed in the right direction. Thanks!</p>
<p>Assignment:</p>
<p>I cannot comprehend those who emphasize or recognize only what is useful. I am concerned that learning for learning's sake is no longer considered desirable, that everything we do and think must be directed toward the solution of a practical problem. More and more we seem to try to teach how to make a good living and not how to live a good life.</p>
<p>--Adapted from Philip D. Jordan</p>
<p>Essay:</p>
<pre><code> The notion for the love of knowledge has been pressed to extinction. Society has replaced this mindset with a harsher one. As global citizens, our ultimate goal is to acquire practical skills that will allow us to gain as much wealth as possible, as opposed to living life to the fullest. The novel In Dubious Battle, the Great Depression, adn my own personal experience expose the proliferation of this mindset.
In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck exemplifies the obsession of making a good living through the apple pickers of Central California. When the protagonists, Jim and Marc arrive to unionize the workers through a Communist Revolution, they meet a worker named London. London, a man who was strong with his hands, had aspired to be a carpenter when he was younger. However, instead of working towards his dream, he learned the practical skill of apple picking, simply because the wage was higher.In current times, members of society are willing to sacrifice their true dreams and lifelong learning for practical skills which lead to short-term economic benefit.
History dons its own example through the Great Depression Era. The Great Depression resulted in an unemployment rate close to 25%. Due to socioeconomic situation, vagrants gave up their pursuit of knowledge or desired skills, and focused on practical skills that would allow them to earn their daily bread. Although vagrants were discontent at the prospect of giving up their dreams, learning practical skills was the only option that remained to fight off poverty. The Great Depression and the economic instability that followed led to the creation of an ideology the emphasized learning to gain social or economic benefit as opposed to gaining knowledge.
As a student, I also experienced a similar phenomenon during course selection for the following year. A close friend of mine had always expressed interest in computer science; he always conversed with me about programming and participated in various coding competitions. To align himself with this goal, he decided to take AP Computer Science the following year. Later, my friend admitted to changing his mind- he had taken Physiology instead. He had decided that it was more logical and practical to learn medicine, which was a field with lots of opportunity and potential. Also, salaries for doctors were higher, and he could facilitate the health of his family as well. Society has become so attracted to learning in a practical manner, that even the next generation of students are deviating from their true passions to accommodate a "matter-of-fact" standpoint.
Society no longer believes that working towards one's passions is an efficient approach. Instead we as global citizens have become attracted to the acquisition of potential knowledge that will allow us to make a good living, rather than a good life.
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