Clean the floors Cinderella, cook dinner Cinderella, do everything we tell you Cinderella. As a college student, I frequently feel like I’m just a servant out to please someone else. In recent months, I have felt more like I am here for the school rather than the school being here for me. I am nothing more than a source of money to pay the professors, support the sports teams and give publishing companies a reason to write a new edition every year.
My money also goes to “beautifying” the campus. No one will ever convince me that the construction is benefiting me in any way, especially when I can’t even hear my Spanish professor speak over the obnoxious drilling taking place in the next room. One valuable skill I have learned in my three years at N.C. State is lip reading, but it’s pretty hard to do when your professor is speaking another language.
If I’d had the choice, I would have dropped the course when I realized construction would be an issue on a daily basis, but I didn’t have that luxury. Spanish is a general education requirement for me as a communication major. Basically, the state of North Carolina is telling me that I will learn Spanish whether I want to or not, and I have to pay for it.
It would be like if the government made people pay to do jury duty but still required them to do it. It would be something they had to do even though they didn’t want to, and on top of that, they have to pay for it.
I would much rather take my three credit hours and put them toward something else that I am actually interested in and will benefit me in my job. Mastering how to count to 100 and order from a menu in Spanish will not help me in my career as a writer for an English publication.
A faculty committee at Harvard University recently recommended that the school’s undergraduate students be required to complete a religion course before graduation. Whether or not you are a religious person, you should not be forced to take a course concerning the subject. Religion can be a very sensitive subject, especially in a country full of religious freedom and differences.
I do not understand why committees of stuffy old men and women think they have the right to dictate our educations. We are paying to get an education, so why can’t we choose how we get it? If we know what we want to do with our lives, we should have the opportunity to take as many classes in that field as we want without having to waste time in classes that will not benefit our careers.
Not only do general education requirements seem to benefit the school more than the student, they can actually hurt students’ success.
The majority of students at NCSU have higher major GPAs than overall GPAs. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why that is.
I have heard the following reasoning over and over again — the general education requirements are in place to guarantee a well-rounded education for all State students. No, I’m sorry, that is what high school was for.
I went to a public high school, and back then, I was willing to put up with the occasional moronic teacher with his or her stupid-looking “wall art,” but now, not so much. I have four years to gain enough knowledge to last the rest of my life, and re-learning the stuff I let myself forget after high school is not what I had in mind.
If colleges were here for us, they would listen to us rather than to a committee that we never even come into contact with. They would appreciate our concerns and realize that in a changing world, other changes may be necessary.
If I’m lucky, one day before I graduate, I will be able to walk from my car to a class without seeing a detour sign, sit through an entire lecture without hearing a drill and read a news release about the abolition of general education requirements.
E-mail Meghan at [email protected].