I am currently in my senior year of college, and I’ve already finished my major. Generally, gen eds are completed early in one’s college career before that person moves on to their majors course materials. But because my transition into college was somewhat messy (I transferred three times), I ended up doing things a little backwards. This has never posed as a problem until now, and it is probably for the best because otherwise, I likely would have dropped out.
I am a Professional Writing major, and within my major, I have done nothing but excel. Yet, within the general education courses, I struggle. I find taking courses that I have no interest in especially difficult. Doing poorly in a course that has no personal relevance can be highly unmotivating. I find myself spending more time and exerting most of my efforts on classes that will not benefit me beyond graduation. I am particularly impassioned about this matter, because there is specific general education course that could postpone my graduation.
French has become the bain of my college career. Initially, at the schools I attended prior to transferring to Kutztown, only elementary French courses were required. However, now at Kutztown, intermediate French 3 and 4 are expected of me. This likely would not have been such a big deal if I was informed of this necessity when I had first transferred; then, I could have had the courses over with right away. But instead, these graduation prerequisites were not made known to me until it had been approximately two years since I had taken any course pertaining to the language.
So, I wasn’t able to transition as seamlessly from French 2 to 3 as my peers. Instead, I was thrown back into the language against my will after a two year hiatus. I managed to survive French 3 relatively successfully. French 4, however, is a million times more painful. What is unfortunate is that this is not due to my lack of trying. I am exerting my best efforts, but my current professor is not nearly as forgiving as the previous professor. Many people might question why I do not simply switch into another professor’s version of the same class. The answer is because there is no other professor available. So, unless I suddenly develop a fluency in the language or if the professor becomes less aggressive with her red pen, I could very well have to stay back a semester over a course that has nothing to do with my major.
Ultimately, my point in sharing that specific anecdote was to express how ludicrous it is that a class irrelevant to the major of a student trying their hardest can affect their ability to graduate. Gen Eds are only necessary for students unsure of the their major going to college; otherwise, high school courses should compensate for students that already know their educational path. Asking students to spend additional money on courses that essentially only create unnecessary stress is stealing and most likely a large part of the current mental health crisis among millennials.