America wins when the voiceless have a seat at the table, when the vulnerable are protected, and when working families have the same political clout as the wealthy.
Every day seems to bring news about another for-profit college scam. Hundreds of thousands of students have been deceived, misled, and harassed into enrolling at these schools where they end up with a mountain of debt and a worthless degree.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the deceptive practices of for-profit colleges that exploit students, leading them into debt for degrees that hold little value.
Dick Durbin's quote addresses the growing concern over for-profit colleges that mislead prospective students into believing they will receive a quality education, only to leave many with significant debt and degrees that do not enhance their career opportunities. This statement underscores the urgent need for accountability in the education sector, emphasizing the plight of students who fall victim to these scams and the broader implications of such exploitation on individual lives and society.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing education reform, one might use this quote to emphasize the dangers of for-profit institutions.
More from Dick Durbin
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You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do—and they don’t. They have prejudices. They may like Henry James, but what if you don’t want to write like Henry James? They may like John Irving, for instance, who’s the bore of all time. A lot of the people whose work they’ve taught in the schools for the last thirty years, I can’t understand why people read them and why they are taught.
We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate.
Great knowledge is requisite to instruct those who have been well instructed, but still greater knowledge is requisite to instruct those who have been neglected.
Consequently, the only thing I learned in school was typing. In the old days, people like me who don't have college degrees had a hard time thriving in society. But today, the ability to learn on your own or from your peers has become really easy. I think this change is leading to a fundamental disruption in education. Independent and lifelong learning are really starting to peak - there is an inflection point coming around how people learn.
The thing I loved the most - and still love the most about teaching - is that you can connect with an individual or a group, and see that individual or group exceed their limits.
And that's why books are never going to die. It's impossible. It's the only time we really go into the mind of a stranger, and we find our common humanity doing this. So the book doesn't only belong to the writer, it belongs to the reader as well, and then together you make it what it is.