The picture below is of a SRU student named Josh, who I know because he is the President of Pro-Life SRU (which I'm a member of). Josh posted this on Facebook and I wanted to share it because I had just been having a similar conversation with someone (regarding scheduling and some of the classes we have to take). As a Secondary-Ed English major I have to take a few classes I'm really not looking forward to taking, and I think I could get so much greater value from taking a class that I WANT to take. For example, instead of taking intro to music/dance/theater, I'd rather take Civil Liberties (from the Pol.Sci. department). Instead of taking one of the required communications classes (because I've taken public speaking and intercultural communications), I'd rather take Intro. to Russian or Women in Politics. We've all found ourselves in this position? Why is the system the way it is? There's better uses for our time and our money, and those so-called "filler" classes should be something we want to take for personal enrichment. If the only reason we're required to take them is to make us more 'well-rounded' by taking courses out of our major, shouldn't we have more choice?
I can understand your frustration. English Ed. majors have to take Intercultural Comm, Human Diversity, and Mass Media & Society. Yes, these are good course to make us "well-rounded" but they offer little towards our professional development and towards our own personal interests. Liberal studies are good in that they help us gain a better understanding of the "real" world, but I think we'd get A LOT more out of it if had more choice.
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