General Education classes are mandatory at every college in America to complete a degree program. Typically, these are the classes used to ease new students into college or to help those who are undecided to decide on a major. Their general purpose is to give college students a “well balanced education” so that we are cultured and can learn real life skills that could apply to any major. While their purpose is well intended, some of the classes I have found to be less than beneficial to me in the long run.
The pros and cons of general education classes have always run through my mind, especially while I was taking some mundane classes as I have in the past. Granted, some have been useful and made me more well rounded as a person. But, the truth about how skewed the need for general educations can be came to me when I recently was trying to apply for an internship, yet had no idea where to start. However, ask me to say a sentence in French and I could certainly do that.
Language is a very valuable skill in today’s modern world and I greatly applaud anyone that can speak and understand any other language besides their original. It has always been one of the hardest subjects for me to master. It was hard enough for me in high school and I thought I was done with language classes for good considering I knew I would never want to have a career that involved speaking another language. Then when I switched my major to Communications and saw it was a requirement to take a language, I never felt more defeated. I have thankfully just completed all of the required French courses I needed, but I feel as if it was almost a waste of time because I know I will never speak a word of French again unless I travel to a French speaking country someday. While it is useful for anyone interested in International Business or being a translator, I wish I had been given the option rather to use my time in college to take courses I found useful for my own career path rather than be forced to take classes I know I will never use during my employment somewhere.
Writing a resume, cover letter, and even professional emails are important for anyone of any major. Everyone applying to a job after college needs to know these skills. My college offers a class that would help me in these skill sets but it is not a required course which seems very odd to me. Every time I have tried to take it in the past, the class has been full. But, the English and writing classes I was required to take all made sure I could perfectly write and cite a ten page research paper on a topic I was not interested in. I agree that English and writing classes are very important and necessary general education classes and I also agree that knowing how to cite sources and properly write a research paper are very important. However, if a writing class were to focus even a small part of the semester on resume and cover letter writing, I think it would greatly help all college students. Even if some already do know how to write one, having a required class that touches on those skills can help students to improve a resume as well.
Needless to say, I have not enjoyed taking most of my general education classes and I suppose this could all be a matter of opinion, the specific classes I chose to take, and the professors I had for these classes. But when I knew I was attending college, I was hoping I would have more freedom to chose more classes I see fit to help me with my career in the long run. Yet when I am sitting in those general education classes I feel as if I am right back in high school, putting minimal effort of work in, and watching the clock every class thinking of all the other tasks I could be doing during this class time instead. Again I am not bashing any particular subject or saying one is better than the other, I simply wish the education system in America would be reviewed to ensure that the classes we are taking are truly benefiting students.
