A Lack of Meaningful General Education Courses

Educational goals are seen to be an area of great concern in the era of globalization. Universities will continually play a immense role increasing a better society. (S. Chinnammai, 2005)

In addition to Mark Edmundson, Danielle Weiner-Bronner, a young reporter with a history in The Wire and has made appearances in The Huffington Post and Rueters , wrote, “What’s Wrong with American Higher Education” published by Huffington Post in 2011. Bronner, like Edmundson, highlights changing expectations of the American student which consists of developing into a highly regarded, intellectual thinker to financial security (Bronner). At last, while many professionals focus on the flaws of administration’s business pursuits, Greg Lukianoff, tPresident of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and Johnathan Haidt, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business wrote, “The Coddling of the American Mind” where authors

He believes that there are colleges that are still challenging enough for the talented and bright students, but he also tells the students that are not ready for college, to not go to college. Even though the mentally challenged students will obtain a college degree, they will still have a huge problem with finding a job. These slower students are one of the reasons why the value of a college degree is declining together with the whole American education system. America’s education system is rapidly declining, and the government is not trying to fix it. If there would be a problem with the American military, the government would pay millions of dollars to fix that problem. They should look at the European education system and take something

In my opinion, the greatest challenge my generation will face is the difficulty of attaining an education. Several problems occur when Americans do not receive quality education or cannot afford post-secondary school, and people who come from impoverished or even middle class backgrounds are the most at risk for economic hardship and the mental and health problems that come with an excess of stress because of it. To ease this issue, it must be approached from an economic position, and it has three parts: affordable college, accessible birth control, and an increased federal minimum wage.

More and more college students seems to be asking the question of why are general education courses like math and history still mandatory to graduate. In this twenty first century, fast paced world we live in college students are focused more on career planning. In countries like Europe college students are not required to take general-education classes and are more focused on their majors. The argument can be made that colleges should not require students to take general education courses. This decision in turn would help college students with finances, time and energy.

How I feel about free education is that it should be free for everyone who is going through a struggle

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think” (Albert Einstein). There are different types of teachers or instructors, those who tell, those who coach, and those who mentor their students; just as there are different types of schools and classes. Each person chooses their path and education, either with or with or without support.

Those pursuing higher education within the United States are facing financial obstacles and unfair opportunity, especially pertaining to those living within poverty. Whether or not our upcoming generations will be given the same, if not a greater opportunity towards higher education, is dependent on our countries decision towards educational reform. Higher education through the spectrum of equal opportunity, is generating concern from both the public as well as the government; and while the topic continues to be debated, the debt surrounding our countries educational system continues to grow. The Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has brought this issue forward by creating a National Commission to address Higher Education on a governmental level; the National Commission is directing the attention towards the countries costs and accountability pertaining to higher education.

Introduction: General education classes are simply colleges cleaning up from where high school failed. They are charging us to reteach skills

In search of an innovative general education program I came across a list of twenty-five best colleges and universities. On that list is the College of Atlantic which caught my attention. Why? The school offers only one major program in Human Ecology and all students in the college are subject to it but in a different way (Young et al, 2006). As opposed to Southern Adventist University a traditional cafeteria -style.

Learn means “to gain knowledge or skill (of something) by study, experience, or teaching.” Throughout their years of school, understudies feel they have ingested a lot of data. But when asked to examine what they learned, they are unable to. Sometimes they recite something like, “In Fourteen Hundred Ninety-Two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” The students are not given an explanation of what that means. Paulo Friere believes that the problem with the education system is that teachers merely tell students to memorize the material, and all the students do is spit the information right back out. They don’t understand why it’s important, so they aren’t gaining any true knowledge. While I will agree Friere’s “banking system” does exist, an analysis of my own experiences demonstrates the system isn’t broken like he claims because most teachers want their students to be successful throughout life, not just in the classroom.

Over the years, high schools have evolved in their thinking of what type(s) of curriculum students may require in order to pursue their future career goals. In the past, the general consensus was to include both academic courses along with vocational classes (i.e. wood shop, home economics, typing). Then, for a time, public education chose to divide student populations into two groups: college-bound and career bound. Those students who were not academically inclined per se, were relegated to the vocational “track” and were assumed not to be a good candidate for college. More

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”

Bowen (1977) stated the goals of higher education are related to three main functions: education, research, and public service. However, conflicts remain between higher education’s purpose and function. Bowen provided several examples of this conflict including John Stuart Mill’s 1875 inaugural address as Rector of the University of St. Andrews. In his address, Mill stressed the university’s function is not to teach professional knowledge, but rather to teach that which will help in directing the use of future professional knowledge. In his mind, the university’s purpose was to develop capable and cultivated human beings (p. 40). Bowen further addressed the concept of educating the “whole

In the last millennium, collegiate level learning has become one of the central tenants of Western Culture; this ancient system of sending our brightest youths to epicenters of knowledge is falling from grace and has become an enormous waste of time, wealth, and resources. The invention of the Internet has had an enormously profound effect on people, especially their ability to access knowledge. Because of this change, all of society’s structures have had to adapt and embrace a new way of being, fitting into the molds of expedited process created by the internet. Institutions across the world have attempted to keep pace with these advancements to varying degrees of success, however western societies have only made small steps towards a full adjustment to the world’s new reality. Higher education is superfluous in the modern world; it is excessively wasteful and unnecessary because of its reliance on the wealth of citizens and state, technology’s newfound ability to streamline education, and a system of learning that does not prioritize long-term retention of knowledge.