Shane Wade
Opinion Editor
The semester has just started and some of us will be finishing off the last of the dreaded “general education requirements.”
But while sitting in a class with upward of 100 other students, take the time to consider the academic and practical value of the course. The average history major won’t be so moved by an introductory course in psychology to change their major, nor will it be particular relevant to their future career aspirations or major coursework. Furthermore, it detracts from valuable study, work or leisure time that’s already thinly parsed.
For the most part, general electives are a waste of time, and consequently, money. Universities would be better off, in terms of improving four-year graduation rates and satisfying their customer base, if they abolished elective requirements for students and allowed us to instead focus on what we came to school to study.
The time for expanding and broadening our minds to other fields was, or should have been, high school. Learning to appreciate art or the value of anthropological excavations, while valuable and worthwhile ventures, encompasses experiences that should have been taught in a less tiered academic environment.
This is no fault of the individual, but rather a public education system rooted in inefficiency. Students in elementary school, not adults that are firmly rooted in their native language, should be the ones required to learn at least one foreign language. High schoolers should be the ones taking introductory psychology, sociology and anthropology classes.
At a time like this, when students and faculty alike are hard-pressed to fulfill assessment benchmarks and minimize their amount of debt, it’s an unaffordable luxury to mandate students take such classes. It’s also an affront to their intellect to suggest that they haven’t already explored other subjects and fields.
It’s unfortunate, but taking an introductory class for a subject non-critical to the expressed purpose for being here, while experientially valuable, has become too tiresome and costly for students. A 2011 publication titled “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” by sociology professors Richard Arum and Josipa Rokas, supports this claim, finding that “after two years in college, 45 percent of students showed no significant gains in learning; after four years, 36 percent showed little change.”
If we must continue to have general education electives, the entirety of a student’s general requirements should be compressed into a single course or course-block, with weekly shifts in the studied material. Students will have broadened their minds, dipped their toes in a variety of subjects and been adequately teased by potential paths to follow.
General education should be more adeptly expanded to address our changing work and academic environment. Introductory courses that teach students the basics of Java, network security, personal finance management or even cooking provide practical and applicable knowledge in fields that students will deal with in daily life.
At VCU, students are required to spend 33-48 credit hours, roughly one and a half years, pursuing general education requirements. In a time when the very viability and worth of a college education is being questioned, we must leave no stone unturned and ask ourselves whether those 33-48 credit hours are a useful use of our time and money.
While it’s important for individuals to be well-rounded, it’s more important for them to be able to complete their higher education goals within a reasonable timetable and at a minimum cost.