God Damn General Education Requirements!

[Dreamstalker]

Exactly, and to tell you the truth, that's one of the reason I admire the liberal arts people (despite my rantings), they are usually the ones who feel the way I do! Hell, I even found some of that stuff interesting, but enough is enough!

Ditto. Intro To Religion was interesting (we had one of the Christian Brothers in the school as instructor, who woulda thunk he used to be faculty advisor for a frat when the school had them?), but really not relevant to either of my majors.

[Rageaholic]

It isn't. Job specific training can be found at a variety of community colleges and vocational education facilities*. Knowing the history of the world and about other countries makes you a better citizen of Planet Earth. And I will stubbornly stand by the belief that knowing the great works of literature of the ages also makes you a better, more knowledgeable human being.

I don't know about vocational colleges, but you can't get business degrees at community colleges. They are 2 year colleges, where you can transfer your credits to a U. Besides, at a cc, you still have GE, it's just more specific at university.

[blas87]

I don't plan on going into liberal arts or anything similar, but bullshit like this is one of the things that holds me back from going to college.

My little brother isn't even university..he's going to a tech school....and he has to take bullshit classes that he already took very similar ones like in high school.

I want to be a paralegal (one day a lawyer). Try to put me in a physics or chemistry class, I will not even consider that school.

[Rageaholic]

As for great works of literature making me a better person, I don't think it changes who I am in that respect, but knowledgeable I'd agree with.

QTF, it's great for those majoring in literature (or an english profession), but not for everyone. I could see how basic history, science, math, and english could be needed, but still, shouldn't that be taught in grade school? 12 years should be plenty of time to learn that stuff.

[Rageaholic]

My little brother isn't even university..he's going to a tech school....and he has to take bullshit classes that he already took very similar ones like in high school.

Damn, and I thought tech schools would be more geered toward a specific field.

Like I said: WHY TAKE STUFF YOU ALREADY LEARNED IN HIGH SCHOOL?! (or at least should have learned)

[Greenday]

Like I said: WHY TAKE STUFF YOU ALREADY LEARNED IN HIGH SCHOOL?! (or at least should have learned)

GPA boosters.

[AdminAssistant]

Like I said: WHY TAKE STUFF YOU ALREADY LEARNED IN HIGH SCHOOL?! (or at least should have learned)

Because people aren't learning this stuff in high school. Trust me guys. Not to get all soapbox-y, but I teach at a college. An R-1 state university. I GTA an Intro class for the arts, and most of my friends GTA World Civ. These kids, the products of a K-12 education inspired by NCLB, do NOT know basic history. They do NOT know how their own government works and are barely even aware of the fact that there are other countries in the world besides ours. They can't even write effectively in their own language. If you don't believe me, I have some finals I could show you (well, I can't, FERPA, but still).

Believe me. They need more English, more history, more civics, more ethics. Because if we don't give them this stuff in high school, then don't give it to them in college....then we have supposedly college-educated adults running around who don't know how their government works, who write in lolspeak, and who never learn how to critically analyze anything. They can't communicate professionally, aren't educated voters, and believe whatever the news tells them is so.

[Greenday]

They can't communicate professionally, aren't educated voters, and believe whatever the news tells them is so.

Most of the population can't do that regardless.

I can see what you are getting at. I remember spring 2007, we were discussing things the surprised us or something like that and I mentioned how my sister had no idea who Obama was. The class was silent. Not one person in the class, including the teacher, knew who he was. A part of me died that day. It's something I've learned in college. I honest to God wonder how so many stupid people got so far in college.

[AdminAssistant]

Oh, wow, I remember discussing Obama in my Honors - American Government class when he first got elected to the Senate!

Oh, and stupid people get into college because of open enrollment policies at state universities. In a lot of places, if you graduate high school with a C average, you've pretty much got a free pass. No SAT or ACT requirements for enrollment (although those may be used for class placement).

[jackfaire]

Oh, and stupid people get into college because of open enrollment policies at state universities. In a lot of places, if you graduate high school with a C average, you've pretty much got a free pass. No SAT or ACT requirements for enrollment (although those may be used for class placement).

It's also all of those "honor roll" students.

At my highschool if you weren't as smart you were put in a class with the same name ie English that would teach you things like the dewey decimal system and second grade level stuff then give you an A. Enough of the dumbed down courses and you were a straight A student and made the Honor Roll whereas some students getting Bs in AP classes couldn't have made it if their lives depended on it.

[McDreidel09]

As a recent high school graduate, I can tell you all now why kids don't know these things. This is exactly what I told my English Comp teacher when she was wondering why we don't know grammar very well.

It's because high schools are so focused on doing well on testing. They have to be or they get no funding. Instead of learning about grammar, we had to learn techniques on how to do well on our tests and how to fill the little circles in. I am not kidding you. I also got a chance to see lesson plans and the stuff they do is limited to what meets the goals that is set down by the state. Sadly, this is reaching the elementary schools also. Basically, I blame the No Child Left Behind Act.

And my professor agreed. She is from Texas, where this act originated, and said that it's not doing the students any favors.

I'm ashamed to admit this, but I didn't even know what the true definition of novel was until I misused it in History Discussion. I always thought it was interchangeable with book, but it's not. I gained most of my knowledge through reading about it on my own time. Should a college student know how to properly use a comma? Yes s/he should. Does s/he know it? No.

ETA: I think that No Child Left Behind should be abolished so students can learn what they need to learn and then not have to take GE.

[jackfaire]

General Eds have been around since I was in high school which predated NCLB and we were actually taught things and we still had to do them. My senior year of High School I took Intro to Psychology. My freshman year of college I took the same class.

I slept through the college course because it was the same material and passed it with a B. I am not great at tests most times.

[AdminAssistant]

Also remember that not all high schools can offer specialty classes. My high school didn't offer Intro to Psych, for example. Gen eds are a way to make sure all students have the same base knowledge of certain subjects. And yes, some colleges do offer ways to test out of these pesky requirements if you've taken the appropriate high school classes.

[sarasquirrel]

i hate gen eds as well.

ive already completed 5 years and this is my last semester, as long as i dont FAIL

i can see taking A course of each subject but not multiples.

on my SATS i got a 450 on the math (back when it was 800 and 800) so i had to take a placement exam for my college.(state university really ;P) i got placed into math 099. had to take that to take math 101. i did fairly well in 099 and failed 101 twice since im horrible at algebra. passed on the 3rd time and took one other math course. turns out math 101 doesnt even count as a math credit. WTF?! and math 099 doesnt count towards graduation WTF>!

mind you i am a geography major. you know how many times ive had to use math? almost never! and it was simple crap too.

one thing that pissed me off when i applied for graduation was my minor credits. my first 2 years i was an art major and changed it to my minor. i took 21 credits, yet they just floated there not sitting in my minor section. damned school. at least they fixed that.

so this semester, my final one i have 2 geography classes and an economics.

why economics? because i needed 3 credits in gen ed. too bad the school couldnt use the damn math 099. so as long as i get a 60 in that class im good. and need at least 70s in my geog classes.

*crosses fingers*

[Nyoibo]

The problem boils down to this, courses must be tailored to the lowest common denominator, and and that denominator is pretty bloody low.