Paula De Los Reyes
Ms. Nguyen
English 1301
Sept 26, 2015 Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here? In this literary piece “Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?” by Dr. Mark Edmundson published on the 74th issue of The Oxford American Magazine, many compelling points are taken into account to describe his view on education. He starts off by commending his main target audience – the incoming students as they take on a new adventure and map out their educational path during the early stages of college. He launches on his concept that university education is not solely a stepping stone towards an established profession, rather an arena in which we work on those philosophical questions such as ‘Who are you?’ and ‘What are you doing here?’ in order to eschew the wrong course of life. Edmundson also challenges the audience to analyze what college education really offers to them, arguing that the sole purpose of the subject should be self-fulfillment and not just to cultivate knowledge but more importantly to defy the standards and morals it presents to them. He advocates that we should live a more purposeful life by pursuing what we desire the most to obtain spiritual fulfillment rather than monetary. The author promulgates a variety of propositions on the subject but mainly, his key objective is to intensify the mindset of college students in order to define the true significance of higher learning. Today’s education is evolving frantically and whoever thinks that the subject can be substantiated by a piece of paper has been misrepresented by their own judgment. He asserts that to get an education, one has to fight against the institution he finds himself in - to be “strong”, to “struggle and strive” for the purpose of quenching one’s thirst for comprehensive knowledge. Although Edmundson succeeded in triggering his target audience’s