Alfred Lubrano's The Shock Of Education

In Alfred Lubrano’s The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts, the conception that college alters the bond between past and present is heavily implied. Lubrano discusses how change occurs within thoughts, familial ties, peer interactions, and socioeconomic status. The author takes advantage of numerous techniques including anecdotes, contrasts, and inductive reasoning in order to explain the change occurring due to the pursuit of knowledge. Lubrano’s whole essay is a collection of personal anecdotes regarding how the “Great Change” dismantled relationships with family as well as dredged the trench between classes even deeper (531). Relationships were destroyed due to the change in thought process, which the reader can see with Loretta Stec and Rita Giordano’s stories. The author also makes his point by observing the differences between social classes that can widen the rift between said classes as well as families. Lubrano states that “middle-class
The author reflects on specific instances relevant to him as well as people who have shared similar experiences. He then goes on to make broader generalizations based off of the collected data. For example, in all the anecdotes, the student breaks a strong connection with either their family, peer, or loved one due to the expansion of knowledge they were exposed to. Lubrano makes the point that while college kids are off formulating their own views, their close ones are at home unable to break the mob mentality and “shared opinions” that thrives within the working class (535). Hence the change of views between family and student also thrusts the student into a state of isolation in which they become a pariah. Is this always what happens to families when a child pursues what they consider to be in their best interests? Probably not, but based on Lubrano’s use of inductive reasoning it’s likely to be the most common