Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Education - Essay Example These days, students are treated with kid gloves in an effort to make them feel better about themselves and not harm their young psyche. However, by misleading students into believing that they can accomplish anything they want to and that simply trying is good enough, we are raising a generation of prideful students who think that they do not need to try harder to be better than the next guy in order to succeed in life. They have become a â€Å"prideful† generation without really having anything to take pride in. That is the argument of Thomas Benton in his article â€Å"the Seven Deadly Sins of Students†, and that is the main focus of this argumentative paper. I will also focus on how the Peter Thiel Fellowship helps to make matters worse for our prideful students because it encourages them to forgo the regular college route in exchange for instant gratification of their ideas. Peter Thiel, the man after whom the grant is named is described as; â€Å"... the Silicon Valley investor who believes more young people should be chasing breakthrough technologies instead of wasting their time and money in college. â€Å" (Miller, Claire â€Å"Drop Out , Start Up†). ... Out of this pride -- nurtured by the purveyors of unearned self-esteem, personal grievance, dumbed-down courses, and inflated grades (often in the guise of liberality) -- the opportunity to earn an education is squandered by prideful students who can make a potential heaven seem like hell. The students of today take pride in being able to â€Å"achieve† without really doing the work. Although there is some good to be said of positive encouragement, the fact that this type of encouragement has taken over the educational system leaves one wondering as to the direction that these students will actually have in their lives. After all, there is nothing worse than being rewarded for mediocrity. Let us also not forget that long known saying â€Å"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.† It is that little knowledge that these students possess that people such as Peter Thiel exploit for all the wrong reasons. Thiel believes that students should not waste their time languishing in college and spending college money that their parents most likely do not have when they can actually be pursuing their dreams and working on turning it into a reality. That is the precise reason that he created the Thiel Fellowship Grant. He caters to the need for instant gratification of the prideful students, forgetting the fact that these are still young people barely out of their teens and without the proper training nor guidance to succeed in their adult endeavors in their current status. That ripening of their minds and ability to manage their lives and professional careers comes with the completion of a college degree. However, Claire Miller (Miller, Claire â€Å"Drop Out , Start Up†) explains that these kids do not understand what they