Is Diversity In Education Essential?
Is Diversity in Education Essential?
During the course of this essay I will present a response to the letter "Education as a commodity" and explain why I disagree with Guerber's weakly substantiated argument. I shall address the three prevalent premises offered by the author, while further critically evaluating and revealing their flaws, truths or irrelevances.
It is clear from the letter, the author has concluded that universities who take diversity into account when selecting future students, are doing so wrongly. He believes it is unfair and irrelevant to education. "It does not, and should not, educate one group of people over another because of their race." (Guerber 1999). This topic of affirmative action, quotas and diversity in university selection, is a much talked about subject, especially in the United States of America. With regards to this essay I shall concentrate on the issue in America, as it is most relevant to the article.
letter, he argues that students purchase ONLY an education of universities and nothing else should be included in this equation and that diversity therefore is irrelevant.
Looking at this sweeping statement's reasoning logically, it can be plainly seen that the correlation from the one statement to the other, is not completely justified. In order for him to make that particular statement true, he would have to answer the questions: Does or should education include diversity, or is diversity essential to a good education? If he himself had answered those questions, then perhaps there would be no need for me to write this essay.
He solely views education as a commodity. A traded item, that is an item that is bought and sold. Unfortunately education is a unique product. It is paid for but it is not sold. Education is earned through hard work, learning, critical thought and studying. Education is the transfer of skills that accompanies growth and maturity, which transforms a...
source:oppears
