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5 Reasons Why General Education Classes Are Generally Asinine

You know this to be true.

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5 Reasons Why General Education Classes Are Generally Asinine

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I may be a whiny college student, but at least I'm a whiny college student with valid points!

They're superfluous! 

I can't wait until I'm a teacher, teaching English, going over "A Tale of Two Cities," with my classroom, when all of a sudden little Jimmy raises his hand and asks me about the differences between geological forms and faults. I can rest assured knowing that I took college Earth Science and can answer his question without hesitation! Right? Yeah, no.

I understand how quintessential something like Earth Science would be if one were to become a seismologist or a geologist, but for the 99% of college students who aren't going into rock studies (no offense geology nerds), it's absolutely useless information. Now, I know some people will say, "Oh, well then don't just take a different science credit/lab credit?" Admittedly, it's a fair retort, but the simple fact is that chemistry, meteorology, biology are all equally niche in everyone's day to day lives, too! Don't even get me started on required math credits, either. I'm so happy I'm spending thousands of dollars a day to be retaught how to multiply fractions. I can't wait until a serial killer has a gun to my head and asks me to cross multiply one-half by two-thirds.

By the way, anyone who tells you that "math is important because you use math every day!" Is not deserving of your love or trust. When I cook I google the conversions between ounces and cups and I'm shameless about it, because the technology we have at our fingertips is more practical than constantly remembering such mundane things. My dad drives a semi-truck for a living, could he write out how many gallons of gas he burns on his two hundred miles plus work day, but there's no point. The information is useless much like Reasoning and Argumentation (aka learning how to properly use the term "Strawman" 101).

They're waste of resources!

There's nothing worse in this world than wastefulness, and that's all general education courses are. They waste professors' times, students' time, money (which I'll elaborate more on in a bit), the fact that they're required and often have to hold dozens of students means that they need to have larger classrooms, these courses are often 8 a.m. classes and 9 a.m. classes which can really make schedules in general a mess.

The information is rarely helpful!

Going back to the scenario I stated in point one, there is no way in God's green earth that I will never need to know how to find interest on a loan. That's not what adults do, that's sure as heck not what teachers do. It's useful information sure, but at the end of the day how many people just go "It'll be paid off when it gets paid off!" There are little to no practical applications of most general education courses. Why not make personal finance required at the college level? At least then it's applicable to life after college, life after student loans. What isn't as applicable is taking a general math course that teaches you how to multiply fractions (riveting, useful stuff, you know?) and how to determine how much you're spending in coffee every day if you buy two $3.20 coffees a day from Starbucks.

They're a waste of money!

Luckily, I attend a school that allows us to rent books. I honestly couldn't imagine have to pay for textbooks for general education courses. Especially since textbook usage is so hit-and-miss in most courses related to majors! Beyond that having to get things like calculators, protractors, and whatever else one might need for science classes, I can't fathom how big of a bill that'd start to accumulate! This is, of course, ignoring the elephant in the room that is just how expensive college classes are in general. College costs already are a slap in the face and some gen. ed. courses honestly just feel like a cash grab.

They don't care about you learning the information!

I understand that the purpose of general education is to give every student a well-rounded education and help familiarize them with other branches fo study. The way I see it is like this: school systems have 13 years of education (if not more when you include pre-K) to teach us math, science, history, and language arts. That's 13 plus years to make us get it, but the simple fact is no one really cares if we get it. In English class, when was the last time you recall your teacher or professor sitting down and reviewing grammar with you. When has a math teacher ever had you long divide aside from that hellish year of fourth grade? Mitochondria aren't even the powerhouse of the cell, so science has failed us all too!

At the college level, it's even worse. Odds are you'll just be crammed into a lecture-style setting and be forced to listen to some professor list things off of a PowerPoint slide with 60 to 70 other students who don't care about the subject matter and will demoralize you with their constant complaining! Side note: how bizarre and irresponsible is it that colleges have classrooms of 70 people, IF NOT MORE? It's widely acknowledged and accepted that smaller class sizes and more personal means of assisting students has shown increases in scores when that one-on-one environment can be upheld. I'm a pretty happy student, but people in my Quantitative Reasoning class in conjunction with the... novice... to put kindly professor have made this semester one of the worst ones I've had thus far.

Thanks for listening to my loosely organized rambling, I sincerely hope you never have to experience a general education course that makes you feel as frustrated and screwed over as I have.

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