General education courses getting in my way

[mege]

That's how it should be in the first place. The bulk of these general education courses should be taught in HS, not in college. I don't think gen ed is a bad idea, only maybe it's just my school in specific that requires way too many of them (60 credits). Besides, gen ed requirements are usually different for B.A vs B.S degrees no? In my school it isn't.

Maybe that's the symptom of why the Liberal Arts approach is widely used? If High School graduates are entering college unprepared, why not make the foundational learning manditory?

For me, going back to school (I'm almost 30 and in college as a junior), I have to take 16 credits of a foreign language. I had 4 years of language in High School, but still I am required to do this. Luckilly, aside from the language classes, I only have to take an art class of some sort to finish my gen ed requirements.

The biggest downside, I see, to the gen ed requirements - is there are so many classes offered that qualify for these liberal arts requirements that students can choose their way out of what truly is important. Maybe call me old fashioned, but I don't think someone's liberal arts education should be filled with classes titled Gay History 1990-1999, Music of the Extint Amazon Tribes, Modern Art Appreciation, and the History of Women in the Year 1420. I'd rather see mostly classic history required and maybe a topics class, or two - but allowing someone to pigeonhole themselves away from mainstream topics defeats the purpose IMO.

 

[daveb]

Requiring students to take courses they otherwise would eschew bolsters the enrollment in those courses. Through that and the tuition paid it helps to support those academic programs and departments.

And there is always the off chance that one or more of those subjects will awaken something in you. I had to take a course called Business and Society which traced the history of business from medieval guilds to modern times. I have to say, it was surprisingly interesting, and twenty years later it still helps me to understand certain current events.

The best classes I ever took were those not in my major - ethics, English composition, and archeology. Of course, it was the instructors/subject matter in combination that made these the best classes, not the subject matter itself.