Purposes Derek Bok

Part A: Bok served as the President of Harvard after bring the Dean of the law school. He had 6
books published about higher education. He is now the Faculty chair of the Hauser Center and
Teaches in two schools. Carnochan asks questions concerning the lessons and information
students should get out of their 4 years in college. He also asks how they will be able to use that
information in order to teach the younger generation to grow and improve. Critics made an
assumption that there must be one purpose to college that is being overlooked. Three authors,
Bruce Wilshire, Charles Anderson, and Bill Readings all have different opinions on what that
single purpose would be. However their opinions are labeled as suspect as a single purpose
would be far too narrow in order to influence multiple forms of growth. According to Stanley
Fish, the only proper ends of the university are those that involve the mastery of intellectual
and scholarly skills. His opinion however does not correspond with many institutions.
Institutions usually intend to go beyond intellectual pursuits. To Fish however, there are ways to
many factors to develop character. He encourages universities to teach what they know. Fish
overlooks that admissions policies, extracurricular life and residential living arrangement can
contribute to a students development. College graduates are to a students development.
College graduates are more active with civic duties than those without college education.
Colleges cannot teach their students everything there is to be prepared for civic work and duties
because there are way too many things to be informed about before they go into adult lifestyle.
Certain courses increases a students willingness to vote or improve their communities.
However when college seek to improve student behavior. According to author, Giroux, UCs
should consciously adopt a political agenda and promote it through their teaching and writing. It
is also emphasized that students should feel free to disagree with their professors. Attempts to
change and improve student behavior should not be by force but by persuasion.
Part B: Students need to communicate well and write well to speak clearly and persuasively.
Having these traits are essential in almost all careers. Faculty members from nationwide polls
consider it the most important purpose of education. Some psychologists say there is no critical
thinking but only endless series ways to reason about different kinds of problems. There are
many qualities of mind & habits of thought that may help resolve a wide range of problems.
Some of these qualities are as known an ordinary reasoning. One quality is an ability to
recognize and define problems clearly. In conclusion, college cannot be based off of one single
purpose because it would be way too narrow to teach broad and multiple topics.