Free Essay: General Education Should Be Optional in College

Every school wants to produce the best students, which can help them in life after graduation. General education is a program that is taught in colleges and other tertiary institutions and is taught to children based on state standards and tests. The school provides placement for students because they have to spend time learning the program. This persuasive speech argues whether general education should be optional in colleges.

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First, general education provides students with the opportunity to enhance their ability to think critically. With these skills, students can develop excellent communication skills as well as mathematical concepts. General education stimulates students’ capacity to think critically, be creative and enrich their knowledge for the natural world. Looking at the nature of the job market today, to some points, it has been proven general education skills are essential, especially in marketing and journalism. General education further helps in broadening various disciplines academically and prepares students for additional instruction.

With consideration to other colleges and universities like Brown University and Amherst College, which has general education been optional, the students enjoy some benefits. Students save a lot of time and money because they do have to pay for classes and spend time attending classes. One of the colleges offering general education is Colgate University. However, the general knowledge in the college has been made cheap for students because the institutions do not focus on profit-making but instead focus on increasing the number of students. The school is ranked 34 out of 1727 schools all over the country. Before students could enrol for a significant course in any field, they require students to have joined for a general education course.

Another reason why general education should be optional in colleges is that most of colleges believe general education class only makes students better-rounded. Therefore, colleges and universities believe that general education requires students to prepare for the unknown. Students can change their interests and careers as a result of acquiring general knowledge. The education provides skills that cannot be found in textbooks, for example, problem-solving experience and analysis. Many students in colleges believe that the time they spend on concentrating on general education does not pay. Most of them would instead prefer part-time work to pay for the class they attend.

Colleges and universities are more into how students could learn writing skills and be able to communicate through written messages. This implies that a student who is not pursuing general education will in disciplinarily have no knowledge about the classes and how useful they are to them. General education gives students the ability to discover and explores options available at a particular school. It aids in creating specific outcomes regarding what they have learned and how they can transfer what they have learned in the real world.

Colleges offering general education believe it will make students better critical thinkers. Although I think this does not put into consideration that those students enrolling in general education classes will register in other courses. For instance, what is the essence of an engineering student entering a foreign language? This shows that these students would likely have to waste time and vast amounts of money for something that would not benefit them in future. Therefore general education classes should be optional for all colleges in the United States.

Most of the colleges offer student option for taking the general education with replacement with character curriculum. For instance, if a student chooses to take a course in a particular college, the virtues for that course have to be taught as the student progress. The character curriculum defines the students’ ability as they grow to make changes to their moral truth. A general proficiency test for the students in general education is a requirement in most institutions, although passing the test will not result in a credit.

In Ozarks College, the assessment program calls for students to show understanding for liberal arts tradition, demonstrate understanding for biblical and Christian worldview. Students must also show evidence of knowledge and competences that marks a person being educated. Other students want to join colleges that do not offer general education courses (Mattingly, 2012). But looking at the matter at a different angle, other courses such as history and art gives students opportunities to engage more with new people, especially for the opposite sex. I think this might be more beneficial because it may find opportunities reasonably comfortable because of much networking.

In conclusion, in most colleges, you will find students enrolling for general education courses due to the pressure they get from their parents and maybe the culture of the colleges. However, I think this doesn't seem right the colleges and they should consider making these classes optional. It should not be made as a requirement for all schools in the United States. I think these course are generally not important for college as they can still pursue them when they done with colleges. Rather than combining them when at school, it is recommended for people who are fresh from college, and therefore, general education should be optional in colleges.

Work Cited

Mattingly, R. S. (2012). The impact of re-accreditation processes and institutional environment upon a community college's efforts to meet minimum standards for assessing general education. Temple University.