“Connecticut College educates students to put the liberal arts into action as citizens in a global society.” (Connecticut College’s over-arching mission statement)
Every college seems to have an opinion on them. Whether they decide to obsessively load their students with requirements, or avoid them all together as part of their own philosophy.
In turn, each college student has his or her own opinion of these requirements. Personally, I like the goal that Conn’s requirements hope to achieve. I think it is really important to take classes outside of your own discipline. Some people come to school thinking they know exactly what they want to do and tend to shut out other possibilities in favor of their supposed one true passion.
However, GenEds, whether you like them or not, force you out of your box. I took a random Art History class to fill my Area 7 (Historical Studies) requirement, and I ended up absolutely falling in love with it and declaring it as my minor. Admittedly, it is impossible to be happy with every single requirement class you take. You will inevitably take that one math or language class that is the bane of your existence for a semester. Is it ideal? No. I honestly have few complaints. Even though “requirement classes” may not pertain exactly to what I want to be studying, they activate another way of thinking. Trying new things is what college is all about.
This being said, I also believe there is room for changing the way in which GenEds are presented to us, starting with the Foreign Language Requirement. In my own experience, it seems that this is the area that gives people the most trouble. I am a Hispanic Studies minor and don’t see that is absolutely necessary to take a foreign language while in college. To fill the current requirement, a student must either take a semester in an intermediate (usually 200-level) class or a year in a beginning level class for a new language. If a student is not interested in pursuing a language, I feel like it’s an added, unneeded stress. Before you chomp my face off to show your disagreement, I believe not necessarily in eradicating the language requirement, but in giving another option for it. As stated in our overall liberal arts statement, the goal is to make us “citizens in a global society.” I think it would be useful to add an option by allowing the requirement to be filled by taking a class about a culture other than your own.
In general, I feel like the globalized aspect of our education isn’t embodied as much as it should be. The GenEd areas are split by discipline (Physical and Biological Sciences, Mathematics and Formal Reasoning, Social Sciences, Critical Studies in Literature and the Arts, Creative Arts, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Historical Studies and Language). There are several options for each area and it is rare you end up in a class you absolutely hate. However, I think that for some people, it would be really easy to create a four-year plan that is still narrowly focused because there is very likely something within your major or something very related to it that will fill each requirement. I realize that there are some provisions against that; for example, some majors put a cap on how many credits you can take in their department.
“I think it would be more effective to divide the requirements by issues or constructs that are present or problematic in society as a whole. I think we should have requirements divided Religion, Gender, Sexuality, Class and Race,” said Jamie McKaie ’15 who majors in Gender and Women’s Studies.
I think this is an interesting concept. Especially in hard science majors and mathematics, it is difficult to incorporate a global perspective. By requiring classes to at least introduce or relate material to one of these constructs in some way would make way for opportunities for a more connected understanding. All in all, I think the entire curriculum should operate similarly to CISLA with the same emphasis on global understanding.
I’ve said a lot here. Not all of it is feasible or immediately (or ever) possible. It really just goes to show how complex the entire issue of General Education requirements is overall. It is not an easy debate and it is not something that can be changed all at once. This means it is incredibly important to make your voice heard as our own GenEd requirements are revamped. Even though the changes will, most likely, not be put in place until after I graduate, I will be interested to see where our liberal arts mission statement goes and develops into during the next several years. •
