For a lot of people, a broad education sounds like the only logical choice.
Making “the core curriculum” a mandatory part of their schooling does not bother them, for they see the benefits of being a well-rounded individual. And I cannot argue with that. If someone feels the need to “cover all of their bases,” so to speak, then, by all means, they should go for it. But for some people, this versatility is not quite as appealing.
Some people are more focused on obtaining a degree in a specific field and would much rather avoid all courses that are irrelevant to their major than be required to waste their time and money on them.
This whole debate all boils down to a simple matter of preference. But that’s the point. Our preference would grant us more freedom if we could utilize it to a varying degree.
And, with this variance, there would be much more individuality. The possibilities would be seemingly innumerous.
However, with core classes being a mandatory part of a university education, we are much more uniform. We are much more confined this way, unable to exercise our preference.
Now, these “activists of liberal arts education” will argue until they are red in the face of all the different benefits of having a broad education. They will speak of certain employer expectations, acquired skills and diverse experiences that our sought for in the workplace. However, could we not address employer expectations in a different way?
A person majoring in English would need to take more than just English – this is true, but they could probably afford to miss a math class or two.
So, I may be going on a limb here, but if we appointed people, like academic advisers, to simply recommend courses that would be relevant to either your major or career path (or both), then we could have the best of both worlds.
People looking to be well-rounded would have that option, and people looking to be suitable for a particular career would, likewise, have that option. And with every student expected to partake in a “diverse education,” do we not lose a bit of diversity?
True diversity would be every student deciding for themselves, with the help of a more experienced and knowledgeable adviser, the exact nature of their education. Will we ever be granted such freedom? Or we will continue to go into debt whilst taking classes that do not pertain to us?
