Editor's Note

It is time to register for classes. Many students who visit their advisors over the coming days will have to decide between the classes they want to take and the ones the university believes they should take, whether or not they deal directly with a student’s major. Higher education in other countries does things differently, focusing solely on utility: you only take classes associated with your major. Nearby, Slate writers debate the two sides of the argument.

Mandatory Non-Major Classes Make You Well Rounded

General education requirements are a vital part of a university’s curricula. Whether your degree is in English or software engineering, having a variety of subjects under your belt is key to the higher education experience.

An English major should take courses in math and science because they teach you about the world you live in. An engineering major is not some lifeless automaton — humans need art and literature to thrive. They might not use their philosophy lessons at work, but it gives them a more nuanced view of humanity. 

The same goes for languages. You might not think you will ever get any use out of those three courses in Spanish until you find a job at a firm that does a lot of international work. 

There is a part of the population that believes college should be a pipeline — in comes a high schooler, and out comes a worker. It is the sort of view of education Pink Floyd satirized in “The Wall.” That view is stupid. The value of education is not in producing workers to feed the machine; it is in creating a more educated society. Society benefits when people know the difference between democracy and authoritarianism, between history and propaganda, and between science and dogma. Ideally, those things would be taught in high school. But there’s not enough time in the day to cover everything they are required to teach. Until there is a fundamental restructuring of our education system from pre-school to post-grad, this is the best we have.

Students may also get “boxed in” by their majors. Topics such as media literacy and standards for reading and writing well should be higher. The required courses are not about making sure you retain content for the rest of your life. They are training you to be a better thinker.

Less ‘Guardrails,’ More Curiosity & Freedom 

The way universities handle curricula now infantilizes the educational process, taking passion and dreams and turning them into an extension of high school. This does not begin to mention that it establishes a hierarchy where language and math departments are prioritized over philosophy, history and English.

European universities, to speak broadly, may miss out with their narrow focus on major-related work, but they make up for it by not subjugating students to sit through something they have no interest in or need for. Academics are supposed to love the process of learning, and it is a university’s job, and by virtue of that, a teacher’s job to inspire the pursuit of lifelong learning. We are teaching them to hate it and transforming the college years into a grind, further perpetuating the diploma mill stigma universities have.

No one is saying the study of history is irrelevant. But it is irrelevant for a student to sit through three years of language that they forget the moment they graduate and do not possess enough fluency to perform any function outside of asking where a library or bathroom is anyway.

Intellectual curiosity should be within students. Why else would they be here? Why put guardrails on it? If we do not believe that they have drive, then what are we pretending to do here? To accept that premise is to give up the plot on the whole process. At that point, you might as well do a degree shop online and just have a degree mailed to you for money.

International transfer students are another factor. While they do not make up a large number of the enrolled population, they would be shocked to see that they have to sit through topics they learned in high school back home. Shock and annoyance would be the best-case scenario; unfortunately, they, like home-grown students, have to pay for the “privilege.”

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