I think it's safe to say the popular opinion when it comes to gen ed classes in college is that they suck, we hate them, they're unnecessary and excessive and don't even pertain to our particular degree so why even take them? I get it, and on some level, I do agree. It is definitely annoying taking classes I don't find interesting or that I feel don't benefit me as much as other classes might. Lack of interest in a subject makes it really hard to pay attention and complete the work on time. But as annoying as they are, general education classes are there for our own good, whether we want to admit it or not, and there are solid benefits in taking a broad range of courses.
First, the definition of the word itself pretty much sums it all up: general education. In fulfilling a certain university's set of required courses, whether or not you have chosen your area of study, you're forced to broaden your education beyond the confines of your major. Yes, maybe you're awful at history and don't want to ruin your GPA or maybe you don't see the benefit in taking yet ANOTHER course in essay writing, but if these classes were unnecessary they wouldn't have stayed implemented for so many years. While it's great to become a master in the areas in which we are most interested, it's important to also know a little bit about everything to be able to carry intelligent and relevant conversations in the real world.
Second, there is a large percentage of people who head into college with absolutely no idea what they want to do with their lives, and that's okay! This is why we have gen eds; they're the perfect way for a student to get started in their first year taking a bunch of general classes to earn credits while figuring out which subjects most interest them.
Third, even if we think we know what we ultimately want to spend the most time studying, there is always the possibility that a subject may surprise us along the way and make us question. There are only so many courses that high school offers, so prior to college we have only been exposed to so many areas of study. There's a strong possibility that a class might come along and force you to think in a way in which you've never thought before or develop an unexpected passion for. Deciding what we want to do for the rest of our lives is such a huge, overwhelming decision, and it's better to have taken an array of different classes to figure out what truly inspires us most.
Without general education classes, we would feel an immense amount of pressure to plan out our whole lives at such a young age, even more than we already do. And for those who have known their passion since middle school, you may come across a class that surprises you and make you re-think everything. So yeah, it's annoying sitting in a classroom that you feel forced to be in, but in the long run, it definitely does benefit us and we should remember they are designed to help us, not hurt us.
