Useless, Forgotten, and Inadequate: The Problem with General Education in College Degree Programs

Essay regarding the faults of our college degree programs in the U.S.

         Curriculum is, as Clark Kerr has so eloquently said, “the statement a college makes about what, out of the totality of man’s constantly growing knowledge and experience, is considered useful, appropriate, or relevant to the lives of educated men and women at a certain point in time” (1).  Many employers feel that insufficient numbers of graduates enter the workforce without the skills necessary to complete their job.  With so many colleges and universities focusing on a general education for degree programs, one can only wonder if graduates are walking away with the skills they will actually need to meet the requirements of their employers.  There are many reasons why college degree programs should be more field-specifically orientated.  First, general education at most colleges has fallen short of its original goal to provide students with the universal skills needed to lead a successful life in or out of the workplace.  Second, the retention level of courses not related to a student’s degree may well result in lower levels of recall than those of courses that are more field-specific.  Finally, college departments would be able to reduce the cost devoted to courses whose main purpose is to fulfill these general requirements as well as create smaller classroom environments, thereby improving the quality of education for students.  In examining these points, it becomes obvious that eliminating irrelevant courses in degree programs is necessary. 

General education courses are not a new concept for colleges.  In fact, part of the original plan for the community college by its founders was to include a general education element in each student’s course of study.  Over the years, however, general education has fallen short of its goals time and time again.  Broad-spectrum introductory courses are used in the majority of degree programs.  These courses are used to prepare students whose plan is to transfer to a four year university; however, this is only an outcome for a small number of students.  The majority of students spend their years at the typical junior college wasting time and money on courses that are irrelevant to their eventual degree.  The average funeral director or registered nurse, for example, will most likely never need to know the proper structure of an argumentative essay. However, these students could benefit from an English course that would teach more basic grammar skills or resume writing.  These irrelevant courses waste the student’s time and money that could better be spent attending classes that will enrich the career path of the individual student and assist them as they work toward their degree.  Not only is learning these skills a waste of time, but some argue that these irrelevant courses will most likely be forgotten once the student graduates. 

Psychologists Haider and Frensch have argued that “people learn through practice to separate task-relevant from task-irrelevant information, and this is an important element in skill acquisition” (2).  According to their study, a normal part of learning a skill is to disregard irrelevant information and not store it in memory.  This can be applied to college degree programs, proving that the retention level of courses not related to a student’s degree may well result in lower levels of retention than of those more closely related to a student’s course of study.  Students may have a natural tendency to ‘toss out’ unusable or irrelevant information when completing courses.  This is an automatic process that enables the student to recall only the relevant information that might be considered useful in the future.  In this way, they will be learning just enough to complete the course, and retaining very little of the unusable information after the course has ended.  These skills are not only pointless, but also quickly forgotten.  Because of this, the general course not related to the degree is, in effect, useless.  It seems obvious, then, that the best course of action is to eliminate the unnecessary and unrelated courses in a student’s degree program in order to improve the quality of learning for students. 

A college’s goal should be to provide useful and relevant information to the student, thereby giving them the tools to develop the skills they will need in the workforce.  Instead of forcing a future journalist to attend countless algebra classes that he or she will never use, being required to attend a business math course or one that teaches budgeting would be much more beneficial to the student in his or her future career.  General courses, such as algebra, composition, history and science, could more effectively be replaced by related courses that enhance a particular student’s degree.  Although algebra will most likely never be used by a professional journalist, a math course teaching him or her fundamentals of budgeting or investing are skills that would benefit the student throughout his or her lifetime.  In this way, the student’s courses would become a more solid and relevant foundation for the career they have chosen. However, it seems colleges have only complicated the matter of education by cramming large quantities of irrelevant information into a student’s brain " information that will not be properly recalled in the future if it is even used at all.  Eliminating general courses would not only remove the unnecessary information for the student, but it would also benefit both the student and college by reducing tuition costs and class sizes, thereby improving the quality of class time for both students and teachers. 

Word and her colleagues, in a study of Tennessee’s STAR program, which addressed the problems of overcrowding in school systems, stated that “students in the small classes significantly outperformed students in regular classes on standardized reading and mathematics tests” (3).  This is just one of many studies showing that reduced class sizes result in more effective learning by students.  First, the students who are now only taking these courses because it is required would be greatly reduced, if not eliminated, resulting in a genuine interest by attending students.  This would reduce the amount of distractions by uninterested students, creating a classroom environment that would more adequately inspire learning.  Second, it would create an environment where students could more freely communicate with the instructor, as less students means more opportunities for personal interactions between students and teachers.  This would lead students to a more thorough understanding of the presented material.  These items would lead to improved academic performance for students, higher satisfaction among instructors, and a more productive classroom environment.  Reducing class sizes, due to eliminating general courses, not only means more effective learning, but also a reduced cost for colleges, as the number of man-hours for these required, general courses would be reduced.  With the rising costs of tuition at most colleges, it seems ridiculous to waste that money on a curriculum that has become lacking in so many ways.

What colleges once found “useful, appropriate or relevant to the lives of educated men and women” has simply become useless, forgotten and inadequate.  If college degree programs were more field-specifically orientated, students would graduate with a better grasp of the skills that are needed to perform their jobs, once in the workforce.  First, with only a minority of students transferring to a four year university, general education courses are a waste of time and money in most cases.  Second, not only will these students most likely never use this information, but it has been proven that they will not remember the majority of the information once the course has been completed.  Finally, eliminating these courses would result in lowered costs for the college, more effective learning for the student, as well as higher academic performance.  The only clear choice is that colleges must eliminate general courses and focus instead on more field-specific courses for degree programs.  This would, in turn, give us graduates who are more thoroughly educated and better equipped for their chosen profession.   

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