McMillan Cottom’s article “The Education Gospel” begins with an example about the author working out a way to pay for a technical college with a student named Jason. Jason was highly religious person with extreme test anxiety, coming from a rather poor family he had no one to cosign his loan if he defaulted on them. He only had an aunt who was elderly and on social security, which meant that a loan may not be the best for financially or health wise.
After coming to this realization, Cottom get talked to by his boss about what they actually do at their business. They are meant to close deals, not to act as a therapy clinic of provide advice. This made Cottom question the morality of the job. In the midst of this doubt, she decided to talk to a military veteran, Michael, about what Michael was advising his own kids to do. Michael’s oldest decided not to go to the Technical College they worked out, and Michael did not question this, as he did want his won son actually attend the college they worked at.
All of this was preceding the 2008 recession, and people failing to pay back their credit card loans. This connected to the artifact that I will be analyzing for the first project. This gave me an interesting personal connection to this piece of work, as many before the 2008 recession saw it coming and realized that to profit off of it they would need to bet against the market. If the people that saw it coming profited, they would only do well on the backs of people losing their jobs and homes.
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