The Accessibility of Education

Education and its accessibility are the underlying themes in Professor X’s essay, “In the Basement of the Ivory Tower”. In his essay Professor X discusses his carrier as a college professor and the varying abilities of his students. He has students who are only pursuing a college degree to advance in their carrier and even some students whose only goal is to receive a certain number of required credits to ability for a carrier in law enforcement. While many vocations in today’s society require some sort of higher education, Professor X states that not all people are cut out to attend college. He uses the example of a student in his class named Ms. L. Ms. L struggled throughout Professor X’s entire course. She had never used the internet, was unable to put a clear sentence together and did not have the ability to grasp the concepts needed to write her assignments. While Professor X would have loved to pass Ms. L out of compassion, he had to fail her in the course. Ms. L was a smart women, however she was simply not fit to take a college level course. Like many Americans, she struggled to find work in a society that so highly values education. The truth of the matter is, not everyone is suited for college. Their age, maturity, comprehension level and their former education all play huge roles in their ability to achieve success in higher academia.