this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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I completely agree.
Back when I was taking GEs I had an ancient history class that I just couldn't get. One visit to the professors office hours and he basically guaranteed me a decent passing grade as long as I did the final essay.
His job was to teach and help students pass. He knew his subject wasn't everyone's passion and was super chill about it.
One caveat of this, is in my experience it was younger TAs running 100 level classes that were the strictest. They for whatever reason didn't have the experience or self-awareness to know that their teaching method didn't align with every student.
You also have the viewpoint that some freshmen level classes were designed to specifically weed people out. If you aren't able to have a way to pass those classes, then it was thought that teaching you further would be a waste.
Which is such a poor attitude. Just because someone is bad in one subject doesn't apply to every subject. English, math, and history were all GEs. What use does having an English major be weeded out by their ability to do stats or calculus?
Or a psych major because they have no particular interest in pre-silk road civilizations?
No, but the freshman year is supposed to lay the groundwork for later classes and teach soft skills for use later.
I've found it rare that universities require English majors to take advanced math. However, even within that, calculus is just a different way of preparing logic proofs and statistics is commonly used and misused in developing arguments.
Also, a four year degree isn't meant to be a technical degree, but to help create a more well rounded leader. That means having more knowledge than just the subject. This is the reason why engineers have to take humanities classes.