So I'm thinking most people took what I said in class incorrectly. So I want to clear it up. YES I think learning about volcanoes, or the water cycle, or history are very important. I think that every child should learn about these things as they are going through grade school because it's knowledge that, though it might not ever be useful in your life, you should know and understand for the sake of not looking like an idiot when someone talks about evaporation. Personally I loved earth science. I still love earth science. I think that kids don't know what they are interested in so we need to expose them to everything we can before they can make up their minds. My point isn't even related to an elementary education. In college we are told that we have to have a "rounded education" so we take nutrition, astronomy, Greek mythology, and Yiddish. Please tell me where in my teaching career it is going to be beneficial for me to know all the Greek gods. Even if need to know this information for a lesson, I'll use the Internet to look up basic stuff that I will talk about with my students because, quite frankly, they probably aren't going to need to know all of the Greek gods either. My comment in class was directed towards the fact that there are so many other things we could be learning about our actual career rather than wasting time on subjects that aren't significant to us and if you try to make the most of your degree and take more classes in your field then you might as well have flushed the money down the drain because they don't count towards your precious piece of paper.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the classes I had to take that were outside of my degree, but sometimes it just seems silly to put so much emphasis on GEC classes when there is so much to be learned about the core of your major.
Here's a link to a blogger who shares similar feelings to me about general education.
http://northernstar.info/opinion/columnists/article_9c52826c-6639-11e0-8c12-0019bb30f31a.html
I understand your resentment towards taking unnecessary GEC courses, especially since we're paying for it. However, like you said, "we need to expose them to everything we can before they can make up their minds." I'm sure there are several students who know what they want to do with their life the second they graduate, but nevertheless, there are also countless of students who still don't know even after all of those years of exposure. I was actually one of those students. Who's to say when we have had enough exposure? Even full-grown adults go back to school because they were not satisfied with the career they ended up with. Plus who knows, if you like a GEC course enough you may even decide to switch your major. Regardless of the subject, learning is learning, and the information you attain in class will stick with you and can only benefit you in the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lindsay. Obviously, in grade school, part of being in school is having a well rounded education, so it's necessary to take classes that we will never use again. No child is the first grade has any idea what they what to do when they are older, and taking those classes helps. But, in college it seems somewhat silly. The chemistry, biology, and physiology I took here are never going to help me. I think that most of us who are HDFS majors can say that we are not prepared at all to go into a classroom and teach students after we graduate. I wish that instead of all the GEC's that I have taken while being here, I could of taken classes that would prepare to do what I want in the future. Student teaching isn't even a part of our curriculum. So, now that I am getting ready to graduate, I feel like I wasted money going here and I'll have to waste more in grad. school.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete