Response to a response post

Cori's response post:

I am writing this in response to Kayla's post "My Accounting Professor Looks at the Floor When He Lectures". She raises an interesting point when she poses the question "where has my free thinking gone?". Within the American education system, we are taught from a young age to learn information and spit it back out on a test. Beyond that, we are likely to forget the information. The way the system works is that we are taught to absorb this concrete information without question. We are taught to see or interpret things in a certain way and rarely are we encouraged to bring in our own interpretations. The loss of free thinking that Kayla is referring to holds true for many students, especially those in high school. In high school, we absorbed the information, spit it back out on the test, then forgot it. In a sense, our high schools did "brainwash" us. They made us young, un-opinionated robots. College, I believe, is slightly different. In college, more things are open to interpretation, although it depends on your major. For students like Kayla and I, much of what we learn is concrete fact and is not open to interpretation. I am a physical therapy major and in the science and math courses that I take, I mainly learn the facts. One of the things that I like about English classes is that things are more fluid and students can have differing perspectives on the same thing. Learning straight facts can get boring. Speaking of boring, Kayla also addressed her boredom sitting in class as her professor droned on and on. Frankly, who wouldn't be bored with that? No one wants to listen to a professor ramble on about whatever the topic may be. Every college student, and every student in general, has felt this way at some point or another. The extreme boredom and disinterest that we feel is due to a lack of engagement. It makes the class go by faster for everyone if the professor engages the students, rather than just talking at us. She or he will never get through to us if they continue to pour out this information without asking us our opinions. I find that even professors that don't engage with their students tend to appear bored in class. It almost appears as though they've given up hope on trying to get through to us and they are leaving it up to us to decide what we do with the information presented to us. Why is that? Is it because the older generations lack faith in our generation? I've heard from many members of older generations that our generation is too technology-oriented. However, I have to wonder, if they had the technology that we have today back then, would they have been the same way? Most likely, yes. So then why do some of those of older generations criticize our generation? That question, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to. While I may try to rationalize their reasonings with my own analysis, I ultimately can't truly know unless I ask. Anyway, I'm rambling but getting back to Kayla's post, she brought up changing her major in the middle of her post. This thought occurs in almost every student's mind. I myself have questioned why I chose physical therapy and if I should change my major. At eighteen years old, we are expected to know exactly what we want to do with the rest of our lives, yet one month ago we had to ask permission to go to the bathroom. Throughout high school, we didn't get that much freedom to do or study what we wanted. Now, in college, we are given all this freedom and we are thrown into this not knowing how to really navigate our way through life. Most of us are bound to change majors by the time we graduate. In college, there is so much pressure when choosing a major. Not only finding something you like, but also taking a practical approach, and asking yourself, will I be able to make a living with this as my career? It's nerve-wrecking. Anyway, that is the end of my ramblings for today.

My response to her response:

I chose to respond to Cori's post about education because I actually feel differently. In the school systems in the United States, there are core classes that need to be taken by every student all the way from about 3rd grade up until 12th grade. Cori feels how this limits a student’s freedom while I, on the other hand, disagree with that. I think that forcing students to take certain classes is very important because just introducing subjects isn't enough. One or two years of science or history don’t give a student a good idea of what the subject really consists of. For example, science consists of multiple different types. You have biology, chemistry, physics, etc. A lot of students go into college as biology major, or a chemistry major, which is something that they discovered they liked after taking the course, a course they most likely were exposed to later on in their education. I think that if students had taken only one year of a science, they would have never discovered their love for the subject. Also, I think the liberal arts are specifically important in college. Personally, I had only looked for liberal arts universities because it makes a well-rounded individual. Being a radiology major, I already am very specifically invested in my career choice. It is good that I continue to have exposure to the arts and the sciences, however, because it keeps me well rounded and well educated. I took western heritage the first semester and it was one of my favorite classes. Because all I am surrounded with a lot of the time is science and medical terms, incorporating history into my schedule was so interesting for me. Also, liberal arts educations keeps student’s imaginations going, which is something I feel is very important as students grow into more mature young adults. 

In an article I ready from the Huffington Post highlighting liberal arts educations, I had found this quote: 

"Clearly, all successful careers require critical thinking, teamwork, sensitivity to cultural, demographic, economic and societal differences and political perspectives. A liberal arts education provides this grounding. Most people will have six to 10 jobs during their careers, and liberal arts majors are the most adaptable to new circumstances. No one knows what the jobs of the future will be, but a liberal arts degree provides a great foundation for adjusting to new careers and further education. We do know that a third of all Fortune 500 CEOs have liberal arts degrees. For example, Leslie Moonves, who leads CBS, has a degree in Spanish from Bucknell University, and Howard Schultz, Starbucks' CEO, majored in communications at Northern Michigan". I found this to bring up another important aspect of liberal arts. No matter what major a student is or what career they intend to go into, critical thinking, teamwork, sensitivity to cultural, demographic, economic and societal differences and political perspectives are all things that a professional deals with on a daily basis. Just taking courses in a desired interest may not expose a student to the proper skills they need to succeed within their career.

Additionally, it is said that employers are more likely to hire an individual with a liberal arts education as appose to an individual who is educated in his or her specific specialty. So now, not only does a liberal arts education improve daily skills, but also it helps receiving job offers as well.

Overall, in response to Cori’s response on freedom of education, I feel there should not be as much freedom as some people might like to see because it doesn’t create a prepared individual for what a workplace might throw at them. These things include critical thinking, teamwork, general knowledge, differences in cultures, and proper people skills. Liberal arts education kind of gives a student the best of both worlds, so why would you not want that?