Anyone who went to college probably had to take classes that were irrelevant to their degree or career path. This seems like a minor inconvenience, but there's more to this. Taking unnecessary classes, specifically general education courses, doesn't help college students, but holds them back. The same goes for high school. One student may flourish in U.S. history, another excels in mathematics, and a different student thrives in writing. Most students know their career paths, but taking unnecessary classes makes it that much harder for them to succeed. Taking gen ed, or any unnecessary courses, doesn't help students.
Most pointless classes are usually Leftist run. My sister has completed her first semester in college. One class she had to take is "What is a good life?" UF requires all freshmen to take this. Either you take this course, or you can take a “Quest course,” which fulfills the requirement. There are multiple quest courses, like Lying and Deception, Fairytales, Idea of Happiness (which my sister took), etc. Her class was very Leftist run. None of what was taught in class had ANYTHING to do with Accounting (her major), yet she was required to take this class. These Leftist professors are shoving their biases down freshmen’s throats, which leads to more Leftists. Another issue is how these classes can drop students’ GPA. If a student is looking to go to medical school, that may not happen because they got a B+ in a stupid, but difficult class. These classes 1) cause a student’s GPA to unnecessarily drop (compared to when you’re in a class like Business Finance), which 2) can hold students back. Taking unnecessary classes hurts academic success.
Because these classes have nothing to do with your career path, ultimately, its money being wasted. What skills do you gain from knowing what is a good life? It’s also a waste of time and resources. Instead of those first two years being wasted on useless classes, why not have relevant classes or a work experience program. Students would be able to either get experience or get knowledge to help them. Why do colleges teach skills already taught in high school? Students don’t need reminders; they need to⁸ be taught information related to their major. College is expensive. In Florida, college costs a little over $6,000 per year, so by the end of two years, a student will owe $12,000+, and the money used here will be wasted on courses that are irrelevant to a student’s major. As previously stated, why not allow students to find courses that are tailored to their career choices? I was inspired by Mahgdalen Rose’s video, where she focused on how high schools limit students’ capabilities by making them take courses they don’t need. It falls in line with what I am discussing. Who uses the Pythagorean Theorem in their everyday life? Who dissects animals on a daily basis (unless you’re Jeffery Dahmer)? I would assume few do. Why don’t high schools let students take courses that relate to their field of study? In the video, she explains how she excelled in writing and history, but fell short in math and science. One in the same for me. Instead of making students take all these classes, they should have the freedom of choosing their desired classes. Dual enrollment helped me realize what I wanted to do scholastically, not high school.
Something I want to emphasize on is why student debt is so high. Colleges charge a ton of money; students waste their money taking these classes! Bernie Sanders, Ilhan Omar, and Elizabeth Warren constantly complain how student debt should be cancelled, but did it occur to them that a reason is because students’ money is wasted on these classes? If they really wanted to help student debt, they would encourage colleges to get rid of gen ed classes that don’t help students in their degree. A college student will have thousands owed by the time they’re done with only the first two years in college, and they’ll still have another two years they have to pay thousands. Why not make it so students can save money and not go into debt by removing these classes? Or that students take gen ed courses aimed towards their degree? Excellent solutions!
Students shouldn’t have to take unnecessary classes. And it's not just colleges doing this, its middle and high school: one middle school textbook has their students learning kinky and provocative sex. It just causes them to lose money, time and resources. Where they could be getting knowledge for their careers, they’re wasting time in these pointless classes. Student debt is so high largely because students have to waste money in these classes. If any politician really wants to solve the crisis, they would consider all of what I said, and have colleges remove these classes from a student’s degree audit. Instead of holding students back, let them focus on what matters: classes that will provide knowledge and skills for the field they are studying.
What do you think of these types of classes? Are they unnecessary? Comment what you think!
Sources:
- Video: https://www.pscp.tv/w/cL8EaXR3LTExMTM4OTYyNzUzMjAxNTYxNjB8MXlOR2FwT1ZhZ3FLaiI3TuTggwhgzxx4xy2-v_NiRPa9a47R3ZoIGcmA3h9E?t=53s
- https://www.pedestrian.tv/money/school-useless-things/
- https://northernstar.info/opinion/columnists/general-education-courses-are-a-waste-of-time-and-money/article_9c52826c-6639-11e0-8c12-0019bb30f31a.html
- https://www.valuepenguin.com/student-loans/average-cost-of-college
- https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/1216323860078792704?s=19
Bad news: Trump was impeached by the House. Read this: https://youngpatriotrising.blogspot.com/2019/12/impeachment-hoax.html. Don't worry. It's very upsetting, but it's in God's hands!
Good news: I finished this semester with a 3.5 GPA! A in Family Communication, B+ in International Business & Sales Management!
Only one major university needs to do what you said and then they will all have to. Competition lowers prices at the market. It would be the same for colleges.
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