General Education Requirements - GenEds - are a part of every college degree be it associates or bachelors, Management or Early Childhood Education. English, math, computer, communications, and Critical Thinking are the 5 core GenEd courses required at Granite State College. Other requisite GenEds are in the areas of Arts & Culture, Literature & Ideas, History & Politics, Science, Global Perspectives, and Social Science. Why are students required to take these courses? What purpose do they serve the major? How quickly can they be taken to just get them out of the way?
I hear similar questions frequently from the students I advise and do not always know how to respond. I cringe however when I hear myself saying "Intro to Sociology is offered in Portsmouth this term. You could take it now to get your social science GenEd out of the way." Ouch! Does that mean if you aren't a Behavioral Science major and don't need Intro to Sociology for your major that it isn't an important class? Of course not! So I am trying not to say that any more and instead encourage students to use their GenEd choices to take classes that sound interesting or subjects they have never studied before. I want to tell students to use these classes to enrich their lives, gain understanding of topics outside the focus of their degree, find interests and talents that they never knew they had and, most of all, savor the learning experience. GenEds round out any degree and enable us to pursue subjects that are sometimes outside our comfort zone or to enhance the degree in creative ways. GenEd courses should be chosen thoughtfully and not taken just get it out of the way...
More on this topic in future posts.
I hear similar questions frequently from the students I advise and do not always know how to respond. I cringe however when I hear myself saying "Intro to Sociology is offered in Portsmouth this term. You could take it now to get your social science GenEd out of the way." Ouch! Does that mean if you aren't a Behavioral Science major and don't need Intro to Sociology for your major that it isn't an important class? Of course not! So I am trying not to say that any more and instead encourage students to use their GenEd choices to take classes that sound interesting or subjects they have never studied before. I want to tell students to use these classes to enrich their lives, gain understanding of topics outside the focus of their degree, find interests and talents that they never knew they had and, most of all, savor the learning experience. GenEds round out any degree and enable us to pursue subjects that are sometimes outside our comfort zone or to enhance the degree in creative ways. GenEd courses should be chosen thoughtfully and not taken just get it out of the way...
More on this topic in future posts.
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