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Jacob Denson
Comp 105-09
Essay #3
October 19, 2014
You Cant Teach Common Sense
Before globalization, a company would compete with another company within the same
nation, and the smarter, more innovative, and adaptive company would thrive. The greater
company would continue to expand, create jobs, and sell goods and services, therefor fueling the
sp

economy of the nation. If the lesser company were to fail, the economy would not suffer because
the greater company would then take its place; the nation would remain undamaged. I argue that
in todays globalized economy, a nations economy is very similar to a company in that the
economy composed of smarter, harder working individuals will triumph over a lesser economy.
vague - define your term;
what kind of individual, then,
Although, the difference between a national economy in a globalized world and a company is constitutes
a "lesser economy"
that unlike a company, if a national economy falls behind the competition, the nation suffersin this analogy
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greatly. In order to avoid falling behind, the workforce of a nation, its citizens, must be at the
intellectual forefront of the world, and that all begins in school.
According to the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, the United
States is currently ranked 36th in education in the world. If the country plans to continue being a
leader in the world economy, and arguably a world superpower, something must be done to
improve our schools. I dont speak purely from facts and statistics, but from firsthand experience
as well. I took it upon myself to go above and beyond the basic requirements for school and took
CP Algebra 2, CP Chemistry, Trigonometry, AP Statistics and AP English. I consider myself to

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be a well-rounded, driven and intellectual individual who actively sought to excel in school, but I
hardly feel like Im capable of competing in college, let alone in a globalizing world. As advised
by my school, I took both college prep classes my junior year, but it was nearly two years until I
even saw the college classes that I was preparing for. I could hardly remembering anything from
awk

those CP because they were so long ago, and in all honesty all theyve done for me was look
good on a college application. Students are being advised to take classes in preparation for other
classes that they wont have for years, and by the time they take the college classes, they will
have forgotten most everything the CP classes taught them. It makes sense to take college prep
classes right before you go to college, but schools advise to take them years in advance,
awk

essentially making them useless. Part of the reason why this nation is falling behind
economically and educationally is because of how the schools are being run.
Cortney Armstrong, a fellow high school overachiever and University of Michiganexplained to me, "High...

Dearborn student, explained to me that, High school doesnt prepare you for college or real
awk (no comma after "that")

life at all. She went on to say that, College gives you an insight into what its like to be a part
same as above

of something highly competitive and important like a globalized world, but students are often
pushed away from college, and comparatively speaking, I couldnt agree with her more. The
cost of college pushes away many people because of how absurdly high it is, and that was her
main selling point. Nearly everyone in this country who goes to college at the beginning of their
awk/wdy

adult life is enveloped by thousands of dollars of debt. In fact, student loan debt is currently at a
whopping 1.2 trillion dollars and is the second-highest form of consumer debt in the nation
(thinkprogress.org). The fact that a person has to put themselves into significant financial debt in
order to compete globally and better their life and country is absurd, and other nations have
already realized that.

good point; well said

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Germany recently passed a bill that completely abolished tuition fees; they realize the
importance of higher education in regards to their country. The selfishness of Americans and the
we/punc.

fact that they are, for the most part, unwilling to help the nation unless it directly and
immediately betters their life is what holds us back as a country. We are so focused on profits,
quarterly statements, and our own immediate, personal situations that we refuse to help future
generations and therefor the nation as a whole. The United States government currently spends
about 170 billion dollars a year on subsidizing colleges and student loans, while the total amount
of student debt last year was just below 63 billion dollars (thinkprogress.org). The government is
capable of paying all tuition fees nearly three times over without raising taxes a single cent, but
refuses mainly because of the pressure from private colleges. They would have to lower their
tuition drastically in order to stay competitive if the government paid for all non-private tuition,
so because of a select few corporations the overall knowledge and economy of future generations
and this nation is significantly hindered.
In order to improve our place in the world, we need to better how our schools are run and
how accessible they are. The government needs to stop catering to the wealthy few and look at
the broader picture. Education is the key to a healthy economy in todays and tomorrows world.
People need to look outward to other nations and see that free education is not only possible, but
it is beneficial. Politicians need to focus more on whats right and best for the nation and stop
worrying about getting elected next term. Being a leader is about making hard decisions that
nobody else wants to make; its about doing what is right regardless of how youd be viewed.
Politicians, the leaders of our once great nation, need to go back to making those hard,
unfavorable decisions for the overall betterment of the country they swear to. Reduced tuition
needs to be pushed more and become a serious topic, even if it angers the wealthy few who

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support the politicians. Quality education is a basic human right and needs to go back to being
treated like so.