In “The Commencement Speech You will Never Hear,” Jacob Neusner states that graduates need to realize that the university has prepared them “for a world that does not exist,” where “failure leaves no record.” And teachers have prepared “an all-forgiving world” that does not really exist for students; in other words, they have not taught students how to face the real world.
However, I just agree partly because some examples Neusner mentioned are too extreme to be convincing. I think Neusner should think over whether his evidence is common phenomena or just isolated examples. Timothee also argues that “He (Neusner) is completely ignoring all the pressure and hard times students go through to make it at college”. I believe that failure does leave record, and therefore college is not an all-forgiving world at all.
I do not agree with the idea that of “failure leaves no record” because it is not always the case in all colleges. In my opinion, failure does leave a record. For example, if a student fails an exam and he or she has to takes a make-up examination. No matter how high the score he or she gets later, the student can only get grade of 60. Moreover, the student can be disqualified from applying any scholarship or other rewards no matter whether he or she passes the make-up examination. Yet, in some universities the aftermath of the failure can be worse in case a student do not get certain amount of credits may lead to failure to obtain the degree. A student’s poor performance may make others tend to regard the student as not competent for the job. Namely, rather than deal with failure with no concern, most college students always behave as carefully as possible to avoid failures.
In addition, Neusner mentions “smiles and easy Bs” is teachers’ choice to avoid being bothered. However, “smiles” will transform to “fierce faces” and “easy Bs” will become not that easy to get if you often do not hand in homework in time. “It is not ‘an altogether forgiving world,’ and by no means have teachers ‘pretend not to care’ when deadlines are not kept or when things are not done at the time they are supposed to be”. There is no doubt that this bad “record” will live in teachers’ minds.
All in all, I believe college is not an all-forgiving world. The failure does leave record for every college students. What students have done in colleges does have some effects on their future. For us, work hard on our own plus teacher’s helpful suggestions are the best preparation before entering the real world.