*The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own and not indicative of the views of Her Campus or Her Campus at VCU*
General education was not a term I had heard of until my first semester of college. I sat down with an academic advisor during orientation to select my first handful of college courses. I was so excited. I had chosen to pursue international studies because of my love of travel and new cultures. After spending the majority of my time in high school waiting to get into the real world, I was ready for this first step. I struggled through many of my classes because I cared so much more about “real life” education rather than pre-calculus. So, when I sat down and the advisor told me to start my semester off with math and a simple English class, I was a little annoyed. But, I powered through the easiest math class I could find and slept through the English class that pretty much existed to teach people how to write, which is something my high school had grilled into me since day one, despite the fact that I passed advanced placement English with flying colors in high school. They still wanted me spend a large portion of my time paying for classes I had already taken or had little interest in.
General education (GE) is so important. Anyone who is able should have a general understanding of important things like basic math, reading and writing skills, history and other topics that are foundations of the world around us. That is why elementary, middle and high school education is so crucial. They cover basic, general education.
Why then would a system set up to further one’s education make students start at the beginning and go over topics that have already been covered and that was required to even apply to college? I passed required education and am paying so much money to become specialized in a field I care about. A well-rounded education is really important in aiding college-age people with growing and learning, which is why I was really excited to take some of my GE classes. Some of them encompassed topics that are not taught at all high schools. I took an anthropology class, a gender sexuality and women’s studies class and an introduction to psychology class. All of the courses were new subjects to me and I learned so much. I think that the gender sexuality and women’s studies class was especially great because it taught me so much about intersectionality, marginalized communities and furthered my interest in women’s rights.
I think that a few required courses are not too much to ask. Maybe the first semester of your college experience should cover topics you may not have encountered in high school like rhetoric, psychology and gender studies so that students are shaped to be well-rounded people and properly reflect the intelligence and intellectual flexibility that any university would want to encourage in its students. But forcing students to spend literally thousands of dollars on classes they have taken before and do NOT need is so unnecessary. It wastes our time and our money. It is a ploy to make students be in college longer than they need to so that the university can get more money.
Universities should encourage their students to get out of their comfort zone and provide diverse and engaging topics of study without forcing us into more debt.
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