2008 Woodie Awards
From the editor's desk: The pain of forced classes
Katie Newingham
Issue date: 9/20/07 Section: Opinions
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In high school I was told one of the best things about college was getting to experiment with lots of new classes and having this wondrous ability to pick and choose classes and try your hand and something new each term. The practicality and actual ability to experiment with classes at Union is quite the endeavor. Not only is it hard to get into classes within your major, try taking a class in someone else's major, good luck.
The flexibility to "play" around with classes is very limited. Between the focus of getting a major and minor completed as well as the endless and what seems pointless general education requirements, playtime can turn into overtime very quickly.
This term I am taking two general education requirements and I feel like a fish out of water. I am not a science or a math person by any means and I am stuck taking two subjects simultaneously (bad choice on my part but I've never be able to get into either before) that I really cannot stand and that are flat out hard for me. Regardless of them being low levels, I don't care what the number is I am incapable of seeing cell walls in microscopes and forget basic math. I was surprised to hear the term "PEMDAS" actually used the other day. I'm lost and loathing ever second of it.
I know the purpose of general education requirements has a positive intention, but once trapped in these classes that intention seems to be skewed more to student torture and GPA destruction. Sitting down to do math problems is painful. I am an anthropology major; therefore I prefer reading and paper writing not theorizing about numbers.
At some point there was a hush hush debate about allowing students to either choose math or science instead of doing both but that blew over. Although students like myself would still have to struggle in one of these subjects it's better than the current situation. It's just frustrating to sit down and do tedious general education homework when I know as soon as the class is done I'm permanently chucking the calculator out the window. I know I will never wake up one day and decide to be a mathematician or a scientist so taking these classes now from my point of view is a waste of time.
The flexibility to "play" around with classes is very limited. Between the focus of getting a major and minor completed as well as the endless and what seems pointless general education requirements, playtime can turn into overtime very quickly.
This term I am taking two general education requirements and I feel like a fish out of water. I am not a science or a math person by any means and I am stuck taking two subjects simultaneously (bad choice on my part but I've never be able to get into either before) that I really cannot stand and that are flat out hard for me. Regardless of them being low levels, I don't care what the number is I am incapable of seeing cell walls in microscopes and forget basic math. I was surprised to hear the term "PEMDAS" actually used the other day. I'm lost and loathing ever second of it.
I know the purpose of general education requirements has a positive intention, but once trapped in these classes that intention seems to be skewed more to student torture and GPA destruction. Sitting down to do math problems is painful. I am an anthropology major; therefore I prefer reading and paper writing not theorizing about numbers.
At some point there was a hush hush debate about allowing students to either choose math or science instead of doing both but that blew over. Although students like myself would still have to struggle in one of these subjects it's better than the current situation. It's just frustrating to sit down and do tedious general education homework when I know as soon as the class is done I'm permanently chucking the calculator out the window. I know I will never wake up one day and decide to be a mathematician or a scientist so taking these classes now from my point of view is a waste of time.
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