Pretty much every college student is drowning in debt and each course they take costs thousands of dollars. A good amount of the classes they take don't even pertain to their major. More often than not, the information learned in gen ed classes is forgotten right after they hand in the final. Mandatory gen eds for college students are just another way for colleges to squeeze out some more money from these already-poor students.
Let's pretend you just finished high school are are starting college in the fall. You love biology, so you chose to be a biology major. You're in the process of picking your classes, and see that you have to take a writing course and a calculus course. "Those classes have absolutely nothing to do with my major! Why do I have to take writing and calculus when all I need to know is biology??". And those are just SOME of the classes that you are forced to take that will not help you whatsoever with you major. You could imagine how aggravating it must be to have to spend thousands of dollars on courses that won't help you in life at all.
I was able to sit down with Monica Newton, a freshman at the University of New Hampshire. She is a biology major that is currently enrolled in a freshman english class. When asked her opinion on mandatory gen eds, she mentioned how she wished that the gen eds helped her more in courses for her major. She said that, in a writing course, she should be taught how to write scientific papers, and that "we don't need all this fluffy bullshit".
Now now, I know what you're thinking. "English and math give us basic skills that are universal". You probably think that they're very much necessary and that they give students skills that will help them succeed in courses for their majors. They also give students additional life skills than can be used outside the workforce. It gives graduates who are unable to find a job that reflects their major something to fall back on. While that may be somewhat true, there is a simple solution to this that will also save college students literally THOUSANDS of dollars. Strap yourself in, 'cause you're about to go for a wild ride.
The skills that are taught in gen eds in college can easily be taught in high school. All that they need to do is make high school english a little bit more in depth and start teaching higher level math earlier. For example, instead of waiting until high school to teach algebra, start in middle school. That way, when high school students get to college, they only need to take classes that pertain to their major- biology majors taking science courses and engineering majors taking engineering courses. It would make college a lot more efficient and college students would definitely be on board with the change.
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