My idea for a topic is the Irony of the College Student. It seems that many college students have unreasonable spending habits and lack of time management, issues of which students only have themselves to blame. I plan on focusing a critical lens on the student who complains about the cost of college, but wastes money skipping class; the student who pays for a meal plan between $500-$1,000, but spends money at Chipotle instead; the student who questions the cost of living, but does not involve himself in organizations and activities. This topic appeals to me because every student can relate to it somehow and it may encourage wiser usage of money and time among college students.
(Personal responsibility, decision making) While the privatization of colleges sets up college students in a poor financial situation, the students can ease the strains of financial debt by making the right short-term and long-term choices. Find the middle ground.
The Truth Behind Truancy: Student Rationales for Cutting Class
You sound like what Jacob Hacker (from our "Understanding Privatization" collection) calls a "Personal Responsibility Crusader," as you seek to "privatize" the blame for students' money shortfalls by focusing on their individual choices rather than on difficulties presented by the system or by poverty. You are welcome to see things that way, but you will need more than anecdotal evidence and you will have to engage with counter-arguments (such as the research discussed in "http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/your-brain-on-poverty-why-poor-people-seem-to-make-bad-decisions/281780/>Your Brain on Poverty" -- or, to give a caustically funny collection of counter-anecdotes: I recently read Linda Tirado's "Hand to Mouth" which offers a first-person account of how poverty makes it difficult to save or manage money, though it isn't directly related to the college context).
ReplyDeleteYou may want to find a way of focusing your topic or your analysis. There is an interesting article in today's Targum about procrastination. That might help focus your topic, as student time use is always a challenge at college and there is a body of literature on the topic. Alternately, you will want to engage some more with the "Brain on Poverty" research:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/your-brain-on-poverty-why-poor-people-seem-to-make-bad-decisions/281780/
You are welcome to arrive at a pro-privatization conclusion. But you need to at least engage with the alternative view: that privatization focuses us away from a larger social understanding and puts the onus on individuals to find solutions to the challenges of being poor and 18.