Ben Webster

Mrs. Thomas

UWRT 1104

11/3/18

What’s the Point of General Education in College?

Why do some universities require incoming freshmen to take certain general education

classes that are unrelated to their major? These students are paying lots of money to attend

college, only to be faced with classes they are uninterested in and struggle to grasp an

understanding for. Why throw freshmen, who may not be ready for the workload that college

demands, into general education classes? In my inquiry I researched the benefits of general

education in upper education.

UNC Charlotte: GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

The General Education Program is central to UNC Charlotte’s basic mission of providing all of its undergraduates

with a liberal arts education. The Program approaches the liberal arts in its traditional meaning of learning the arts

appropriate for living the educated, responsible life of a free (liberãlis) citizen. It provides all undergraduate

students, regardless of their majors, with the foundations of the liberal education they will need to be informed

people who have the ability to act thoughtfully in society, the ability to make critical judgments, and the ability to

enjoy a life dedicated to learning and the pleasures of intellectual and artistic pursuits.

As a freshman attending UNC Charlotte, and currently enrolled in these general

education classes, my honest opinion about these general education classes is the exact opposite
of that Program Statement. I researched the topic of general education and its purpose in a

university setting.

I first surveyed my English writing class on their opinions about general education

classes to see what other students my age thought. As expected, most freshman thought that their

general education use depended on the class or were pointless. Not a single student responded

saying general education classes were important to their education.

My first article is titled, “General Education: What’s the Point?” by Catherine Seraphin, a

Digital Media Project Manager at Harvard University. She talked about how general education

classes provide students with the opportunity to get used to the rigor of college courses. Which

allows them to form good study/learning habits without being thrown just straight into classes for

their major. They also teach students how to discover new knowledge on their own by applying

the concepts that they learn towards their other classes and their work. General Education is

important for every student to learn because it is better to, “prepare students not for the world

that’s there now, but for the world coming in five to 10 years.” The world is constantly changing
so nobody knows what students really are going to need to be prepared for; so it’s better off

preparing them for as much as possible through general education classes. After reading this

article I was really curious how general education classes would help prepare students for their

careers when they are so far in the future. I agree that general education helps students get use to

the rigor, but why not make general education classes that are focused on a students’ declared

major?

On the contrary, “Why You Should Consider a College That Doesn't Require General

Education Requirement” was my only article that provided an argument against general

education classes in a university setting. The article went on to mention that sometimes general

education classes are just something for freshmen to complain about but other times they may be

an actual concern. For adults with families who can only afford to be a part time student they

may find the cost of general education classes to not be worth it. They should consider a college

that doesn’t require general education, so that they can get their degree in the subject they want

with the least amount of cost possible. I found this article to be the most interesting to read,

partly because it was the only one that offered reason against general education classes.

However, if colleges were to allow adults to skip general education classes, why shouldn’t

freshman be excused from general education too, assuming they have declared a major. Both the

adult and the young freshman have a plan for their education, so why should only one be allowed

to have control over their education?

My second article is titled, “How General Education Requirements Prepare You for Your

New Career” by Grant Tilus. Tilus works for Collegis education and writes student-focused

articles on behalf of Rasmussen College. His article was focused on how general education
classes can improve a person’s application in the eyes of future employers. General Education

classes provide critical skills that help a person stand out as an applicant for a new career. Every

job will have competition so it is important to make your own resume look as good as it possibly

can by taking general education classes to help improve critical thinking. Employers will want

more than just skills to do the job they will be interested in a student with proper thinking and

problem solving skills. According to his article if you, “ask any employer and they will tell you

there is nothing they value more than general education.” Employers are looking for applicants

that have more to offer than just the ability to complete the job. I wonder if this statement would

hold true if I were to interview employers because I suspect it wouldn’t. Also, I don’t understand

how general education can prepare us for life, when my general education class teaches me about

death. I realize that my opinion may be limited to UNC Charlotte, but why not still give

freshmen the most flexibility in their education. They are the ones trying to figure out what they

want to study and do with their lives. As freshman go through college they will figure out what

they want their future to be and won’t need flexibility in their classes. Freshman at UNCC take

“Prospect for Success” classes that do exactly that, at least in theory.

I asked my friend Derek about what that class is like and he told me, “what happens

everyday, everyone gets to class around 4 but 9/10 times the teacher isn’t there and we have

random guest speakers that have no correlation to each other. Everything [he] learned was taught

during SOAR.” So is there really any point in taking a general education class where even the

teacher doesn’t bother showing up to class? It would be better to spread out critical thinking

classes or “general education” classes throughout the middle years of the students’ college

career.
 My other article had multiple authors that were not listed, but included the opinions of the

teachers of general education classes and why they enjoy teaching students about stuff unrelated

to their majors. They found that students with disabilities and low achieving students fine some

success in general education classrooms. The teachers were able to help the students figure out

how to learn on their own and “indicated that they preferred showing students how to learn at the

same time they taught content.” Perhaps teachers helping students achieve both these goals is a

better way to teach general education classes, rather than teaching as if every student needs the

course material for their major. Doing so just causes students to memorize rather than learn.

Teachers enjoy giving students the ability to learn rather than material to memorize because they

can have a bigger impact on a student’s education. They were allowed to do their job in a much

better way for these students. This may have been the best article in describing the benefits of

general education classes. The teachers got to explain why they love general education classes,

and what they feel they are providing to their students. I think that the teachers in this article got

the chance to make a real impact in their students’ education, but here at UNCC, most general

education classes are too specific topics that can’t actually be applied to other classes. For

example, is there anyway to apply ‘random guest speakers’, or dreadful lectures about death and

dying towards my philosophy classes? Not likely.

In conclusion, with all the research presented accounted for, I can agree that general

education overall a beneficial thing for college freshmen, however UNC Charlotte simply fails to

give a proper general education classes. General education is suppose to be a way to “get use to

the rigor of college courses,” with topics that teach about “the world coming in five to 10 years”

(Seraphin). Instead Charlotte is trying to prepare me for life through Death and Dying in Film

and Literature.
 Works Cited

Seraphin, Catherine. “General Education Requirements: What's the Point?” CollegeXpress,

www.collegexpress.com/articles-and-advice/majors-and-academics/articles/college-

academics/general-education-requirements-whats-point/

“How General Education Requirements Prepare You for Your New Career.” How General Education

Requirements Prepare You for Your New Career | Rasmussen College,

www.rasmussen.edu/about-rasmussen-college/news-center/how-general-education-requirements-

prepare-you-for-your-new-caree/.

“Why You Should Consider a College That Doesn't Require General Education Requirements.”

Study.com, Study.com,
study.com/articles/Why_You_Should_Consider_a_College_That_Doesn_t_Require_General_Ed

ucation_Requirements.html.