Iman Usmani
General education, the 39 hours of random classes we have to take to graduate, is a foreign concept here in London, where I am studying abroad. Sitting in my history class, one of the first questions I get when I meet someone new is, “What is your program?” When I tell them that I am not a history major and that I am just taking a history class with them to fulfill a requirement for my degree, my local London classmates get confused.
Students here, rather than having four years of college like we do, participate in a three-year program where their classes are chosen for them and only pertain to their major. Initially, that sounds like a good deal. You save a year’s worth of tuition, don’t have to take classes that you aren’t necessarily interested in and can get into the workforce a year early. Further, since the programs here are three years, many students take a gap year after high school, which always sounds good. One of the biggest differences in courses is that English law students take just three years of classes, rather than in the States, where students take the typical undergraduate track and then attend law school afterwards.
From the Brits’ perspective, they are a little jealous that I get to take classes that I choose “for fun.” I asked my English roommate what she thought of the American GEP system and she said, “I think it’s potentially quite good thing because you end up more well-rounded,” in her pristine south English accent.
And, I guess she is right. Currently I’m taking an ethics class, a European history class and an art history class — all three are courses that I wouldn’t have picked if they didn’t fulfil my general education requirement. It often seems pointless to students when they sign up for gen-ed courses, however they often enjoy those classes the most. For example, prior to realizing that the university I am at has limited history classes, I wasn’t even thinking about taking my art history class. It was my last choice. However, I am now so happy that I got into this class. Every class ends the same way: with my mind blown. The professor gives us images to look at and asks us what we think the story is in the painting. I’m almost always wrong because my professor will explain it afterward and tells us about some tiny detail in the painting that symbolizes the story of the entire painting. It’s pretty epic.
So, why do we have to take general education courses? According to NC State’s GEP Mission Statement, we are required to take GEP courses because the classes “lay the foundation for involvement in [our] communities as responsible citizens and leaders” and because they “prepare [us] for the changing demands of professional career.” General education courses are meant to make us well-rounded and equipped for being good citizens within society. Joseph Urgo of the Huffington Post says, “We don’t need citizens participating in the American democracy who don’t know how this particular democracy works,” and overspecializing in one field can create a lack of analytical skills within students. With a range of general education courses, students pick up on how to sort through the overload of information that we receive nowadays.
Another major reason that general education courses are worth our time is that they help create communication and interpersonal soft skills that are useful throughout your future career. As the CEO of Cellcom puts it, “The knowledge I use as CEO can be acquired in two weeks … The main thing a student needs to be taught is how to study and analyze things (including) history and philosophy” which can be acquired by taking general education courses. Although some people may see it as a waste of time to learn things you won’t need for your future career, it is more about how you are learning. According to Psychology Today, the general education courses that we are required to take help deepen our thought process.
General education, although it may initially seem like an inconvenience, I realize now that without them, I wouldn’t get to take cool classes outside of the scope of my major. We shouldn’t look at general education courses as if they are simply hoops to jump through before we get to the classes that we really want to take, rather, if you pay attention and choose a class that is completely out of your comfort zone, it might just end up being your favorite class of the semester.