Coming from a freshman in college, I have a lot of experience in this area. I took very few AP classes in high school, and I am awful when it comes to perfecting the art of navigating standardized tests. So for the AP tests that I did take, they did not go so well. Let's put it this way: I'm in an English related major and I didn't even get credit for English. Yeah, that bad. But how does that even make sense? How can I want to pursue writing as a career, but I didn't get credit on a test that is examining your ability to understand literature. It's because students shouldn't be put under all that pressure and expected to do well on a test that's four hours of constant concentration. What if they were having an off day? Or they genuinely cannot focus because everything they've been working towards is all going to be for nothing if they don't do well. However, that's a whole other rant for another time.
I'm here to talk about general education in college. I agree that for some students, it is extremely helpful. It can potentially guide them in picking a major if they're undecided. I totally get that. What I don't get is how every student is required to take these classes, even if they know it's not what they want to do. I'm sorry but, as a filmmaking major, I do not need to know what photosynthesis is or what the Pythagorean Theorem is. Instead of taking classes that have to do with my major as a freshman, I'm pretty much reliving high school with all of these required Gen-Eds.
Speaking of high school, I remember taking calculus during my junior year. Which, for anyone who took calculus, you know that it's literally hell on earth. But anyway, I just remember wanting to get to college because then I could take classes that I'm really interested in. If I could go back to that moment in my life, I would just laugh in her face because I'm not only taking the same kind of classes, I'm paying to take these classes again. (Well… my parents are, thanks, mom and dad!) I really don't understand how learning about the life of plants in biology and relearning fractions and decimals in math - and yes, that is a real college class I'm taking - will help me improve in the future. I already suffered through all of those things in high school. I came to college to get a higher education, not the same education.
So that's my rant on this particular subject. I do understand that Gen-Eds are helpful for some people who don't know what they want to do, but I'm just not one of those people.
