I really think higher education needs an overhaul in this country. I feel a little ripped off from my higher education experience. Less than half of my classes had to do with my chosen subject, there wasn't enough sections of the classes I had to take, and there wasn't even close to enough equipment.
Let's put all that aside right now and talk about the useless general education requirements. I understand the thinking behind them, they are supposed to make us more well rounded and better informed. That's a great goal, but the gen-ed requirements that most people take fall very, very short of it. What use is a class on astronomy in the the real world? What about a class on linguistics, how am I going to use that? Why don't we rethink these classes and make them more useful for the people taking them.
What I suggest is something a little more practical. Instead of a class on theoretical mirco-economics, how about a class that talks about economics that we will see in our everyday life. (Someone in my micro-econ class asked the question “How is any of this used in the real world or business world?” My professor's answerer was: “Nothing in this class has anything to do with the real world, this is all theoretical economics.”) This class could talk about world trade policies, how raising or lowering the interest rate a certain times helps or hurts the economy. How about how raising or lowering taxes effects the economy? There are any number of things that could be talked about in an economics class that deals with real world, day-today economics.
How about a class that talks about the history of war. A class that talks about American politics. What about a biology class that talks about biology in reference to health. You know stuff that we will actually use. Stuff that will help us to make informed decisions at the polls, or about what car to buy, or any number of other things that impact every American much more than any of the stuff you get in the gen-ed classes now. Maybe if people had some of these classes rather than a class about the history of sentence structures people would be able to choose better politicians and demand we only go to war as a last step and that when we do things are planned out.
I'll most likely come back to this topic in the future because I think we need to make education work for us and should actually try to accomplish the goal of helping people be more informed and well rounded in their day-to-day lives.
Let's put all that aside right now and talk about the useless general education requirements. I understand the thinking behind them, they are supposed to make us more well rounded and better informed. That's a great goal, but the gen-ed requirements that most people take fall very, very short of it. What use is a class on astronomy in the the real world? What about a class on linguistics, how am I going to use that? Why don't we rethink these classes and make them more useful for the people taking them.
What I suggest is something a little more practical. Instead of a class on theoretical mirco-economics, how about a class that talks about economics that we will see in our everyday life. (Someone in my micro-econ class asked the question “How is any of this used in the real world or business world?” My professor's answerer was: “Nothing in this class has anything to do with the real world, this is all theoretical economics.”) This class could talk about world trade policies, how raising or lowering the interest rate a certain times helps or hurts the economy. How about how raising or lowering taxes effects the economy? There are any number of things that could be talked about in an economics class that deals with real world, day-today economics.
How about a class that talks about the history of war. A class that talks about American politics. What about a biology class that talks about biology in reference to health. You know stuff that we will actually use. Stuff that will help us to make informed decisions at the polls, or about what car to buy, or any number of other things that impact every American much more than any of the stuff you get in the gen-ed classes now. Maybe if people had some of these classes rather than a class about the history of sentence structures people would be able to choose better politicians and demand we only go to war as a last step and that when we do things are planned out.
I'll most likely come back to this topic in the future because I think we need to make education work for us and should actually try to accomplish the goal of helping people be more informed and well rounded in their day-to-day lives.
2 comments:
I couldn't agree more -- although I feel that the classes I've taken have given me a well-rounded education, it isn't because of the general requirements.
Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't. I took astronomy, thought I'd hate it but learned a lot of new things and it gave me a new understanding of the universe, what I was seeing in the sky etc, that I otherwise would never have even considered. But in terms of practicality I agree wholeheartedly, to be honest a class in basic business etiquette would be useful, like how to handle different situations in the work world to as basic as how-to-tie-a-tie (I still don't know...) and how to know how much you should be expected to earn (for those entering first job interviews for a "real job")
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