“There is a sense that the American workforce needs to be more professional at every level. Many jobs that never before required college now call for at least some post-secondary course work. School custodians, those who run the boilers and spread synthetic sawdust on vomit, may not need college—but the people who supervise them, who decide which brand of synthetic sawdust to procure, probably do. There is a sense that our bank tellers should be college educated, and so should our medical-billing techs, and our child-welfare officers, and our sheriffs and federal marshals. We want the police officer who stops the car with the broken taillight to have a nodding acquaintance with great literature. And when all is said and done, my personal economic interest in booming college enrollments aside, I don’t think that’s such a boneheaded idea. Reading literature at the college level is a route to spacious thinking, to an acquaintance with certain profound ideas, that is of value to anyone. Will having read Invisible Man make a police officer less likely to indulge in racial profiling? Will a familiarity with Steinbeck make him more sympathetic to the plight of the poor, so that he might understand the lives of those who simply cannot get their taillights fixed? Will it benefit the correctional officer to have read The Autobiography of Malcolm X? The health-care worker Arrowsmith? Should the child-welfare officer read Plath’s “Daddy”? Such one-to-one correspondences probably don’t hold. But although I may be biased, being an English instructor and all, I can’t shake the sense that reading literature is informative and broadening and ultimately good for you. If I should fall ill, I suppose I would rather the hospital billing staff had read The Pickwick Papers, particularly the parts set in debtors’ prison. “

In today’s society there is a large demand for higher education, and training. It ranges from people in social work, managers or supervisors and even sheriffs and marshal’s. This is an idea that seems to be embraced by Dr. X. That literature could possibly spark deeper thought, and maybe put someone in the shoes of the ones who they are paid to help. It is easy for us to forget the situations that arise in one’s personal existence. That some people really can’t afford to get that tail light fixed, and schooling could remind the officers that pull them over of these similar situations that could happen in their own lives. The people that have our lives in their hands should be sensitive to the personal situation and the individual. Reading literature and feeling as if they could see themselves in that person’s situation may give them more perspective and insight on their lives. Ultimately causing them to do a better job and making the people they are helping feel more comfortable and excepted.

It relates to the text and the overall idea of the paper by expressing his personal opinion that education can better someone’s life. Although he explains the troubles and triumphs alike throughout the article in this paragraph he shows how the literature may actually make a difference in America. That although many people may never pass that class or get a degree, they can still take a piece of knowledge and apply to their life in even the smallest way. We all deserve a good education whether we get it or not and the increase in demand may be a good thing.

As I read through this passage I felt that I understood what he was trying to say, an education can motivate a decision. That someone understanding a piece of literature may increase a deeper understanding for all human emotion. It’s easy to feel that you’re the only that feels the way you do, and relating and reading a piece of literature can make you understand that most of us are similar in more ways that we know. In my personal life I know there has been many times I have read something or heard a song that made me feel like someone else understood the way I felt even in that moment. If you can relate to the ones you work with, for, or that work for you then it would be for a much understanding and comfortable situation.

This passage makes me think about how many people, I have known or know now that have no education. Some people really aren’t made for college and I know this, but many don’t realize that highschool is not even close to it. I’m sure most that never go assume that is almost exactly like it, when in reality it is almost opposite. If our public schools taught our students how to think for themselves and that deep thought and questioning authority was okay to do, then many more of my friends would have graduated. In our world today, it seems that we are numb to other’s plights and just want to move on to the next thing. There is no passion in careers, its simply for a paycheck and that’s it.

These piece seems to be written almost as a conversation with the reader, he explains himself very well and gives quotes and situations out of his own life. The tone shows his subtle honesty that he truly believes education is necessary to those of all different career choices. He expresses his idea and backs it up with many examples that you can imagine in everyday life, like the cop that can try and relate to the poor man during a routine stop of a broken tail light.