Blog #2 - Leisure College, USA

In Leisure College, USA: The Decline in Student Study Time, Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks reflect on the decreasing number of hours that University students spend studying on a weekly basis.  The authors state that, “in 1961, the average full-time student at a four-year college in the United States studied about twenty-four hours per week, while his modern counterpart puts in only fourteen hours per week.”  It is mentioned that this drastic decline in study time may be due to several differences in the college atmosphere between today and forty years ago including advancements in educational technology and a higher number of students holding jobs while attending college.  At the same time, the authors imply that Universities don’t hold their students to as high of standards as once was considered acceptable.

While the authors do pose many valid points, they fail to address some factors that would have balanced their argument to a more positive perspective.  Babcock and Marks argue that falling standards and students demanding more leisure time are two main reasons why student study time is continuing to decrease.  While this may be, they’re unsuccessful in mentioning the large amount of extracurricular activities that students are encouraged to partake in.  These activities are ones that could help students in building a resume and ultimately getting a successful job.  The authors bring to light many possible reasons why study hours have decreased over time, but their argument would have been much more convincing if they had taken these previous aspects into consideration.

Blog #1: Newman Summary

John Henry Newman’s articles, Discourse V: Knowledge its Own End and Discourse VI: Knowledge Viewed in Relation to Learning are reflections of the education one may obtain at a University and define the true meaning of a liberal education.  In Discourse V, the author admits that although there are many different paths of study that one may take at a University, it is important for students to remain open to and educated about areas of knowledge different from their own.  Newman emphasizes that Universities should expand their branches of study in order to benefit the students because, “though they cannot pursue every subject which is open to them, they will be the gainers by living among those and under those who represent the whole circle.”  By being exposed to a wide range of subjects, students of the University will be well-rounded learners while pursuing a narrower path of study. Newman also argues, in Discourse VI, that in order to be a successful learner, students must become engaged in the ideas they are learning, a process he calls “enlargement,” rather than simply memorizing and reciting the information.  He reasons, “enlargement consists, not merely in the passive reception into the mind of a number of ideas hitherto unknown to it, but in the mind’s energetic and simultaneous action upon and towards and among those new ideas.”  Therefore, in order to obtain a true liberal education at a University, Newman believes that students must become knowledgeable in multiple areas of study while becoming engaged in the subjects at hand.  It is this type of education that will have a lasting impression on the lives of University students, and will benefit them for the rest of their lives.