Liberal arts education: broaden minds by narrowing focus

Most serious students have no interest in graduating college as one- or two-dimensional… Most serious students have no interest in graduating college as one- or two-dimensional people. We would rather be diverse, complex, multi-faceted – the type who drop names at cocktail parties; everyone’s favorite Trivial Pursuit partner.

In most cases, we look to the liberal arts schools, such as Pitt’s College of Arts and Sciences, because we believe that fulfilling requirements in different academic areas will fashion us into the well-rounded individuals that we’ve admired. This is both a noble and attainable goal.

But it could be more attainable, and CAS could make it so by sticking to electives and canning requirements.

General Education is only as good as the students who participate in it. Or perhaps more accurately, it is only as good as the students are motivated.

If every Film Studies major to come through the system were eager enough to learn that he put 110 percent into the Gen. Ed. classes, as well as those within his major, the liberal arts setup would work perfectly.

But, generally speaking, once students decide what they want to pursue, they would rather devote their time and energy to their major, without having to bother with other, less relevant topics.

For instance, Pitt’s School of Engineering requires General Education classes, but they vary, depending on which type of engineering you want to study – chemical, civil, computer, etc. Engineering students take Gen. Ed. classes that are directly relevant to their concentration.

The same approach could very easily be applied to CAS, so that students could develop a deeper understanding of subjects related to their own interest and talent, gaining a deep appreciation for their area of expertise.

Most majors CAS offers are broad in and of themselves, and are hard enough to tackle without being watered down by Gen. Eds.

A subject like anthropology, for example, offers a world of study opportunities, and anthropology students would be better off devoting all of their class time to their enormous subject, rather than being required to take extraneous math or literature courses. If they decide they need to take these other courses as a break from the norm, they should be given the option, but not handed the requirement.

Two years ago, I was a gung-ho sophomore lit major with two natural science requirements to fulfill. I didn’t want either of them, since I already had a lengthy, considerably more interesting list of English courses to take, so I checked for an easy way out. I found my escape in a class called Astronomy 0087, “Basics of Space Flight.” The course description listed 0087 as “A new, self-contained 3 [credit] course for students not majoring in the physical sciences.”

The last part of that description is very telling, because it could just as easily say, “for students seeking a way to avoid studying the physical sciences.” Space Flight’s grading scale was comprised of only two scores – midterm and final – no attendance, and, best of all, a grading scale that passed anyone who finished above a 15 percent. After the first day of class, I felt half relieved, half frustrated.

Classes like this one, designed for and pandering to kids who plan on skipping, highlight the weakness of liberal arts. Please understand that I am not bragging when I say this – I skipped Basics of Space Flight on a regular basis, learned nothing of value, earned an atrocious percentage and walked away with a grade that didn’t hurt my QPA.

This class isn’t the only weak course in the CAS catalog. Space Flight and others like it show that the administrators are already aware of my stance – it’s pointless to require a lit major to study astronomy, so you send a Get Out of Jail Free card to accompany the requirement, which, in turn, just makes it all more pointless.

I don’t think the Gen. Ed. system in CAS needs to be abolished, necessarily, but it should be modified, and students should be able to stick closer to what is truly relevant to their educations. The result will be more focused, intensive, well-rounded degrees, and I doubt we will see a notable drop in cocktail party name-dropping.

Eric Miller can name seven of the solar system’s eighteen planets. Quiz him at save101@hotmail.com.