During my first semester at university, I, like everyone else, took useless general education classes. I am a mechanical engineering student, and some of the gen ed courses I took were philosophy, history, and psychology. Things that had nothing to do with engineering.
An argument can be made that it teaches one to be more well-rounded. But I am of the opinion that one becomes this way by living on planet Earth. I don’t think that our time is best spent in three hours a week of psychology classes, when I could simply read a Sigmund Freud book in my free time, if I wanted to do so. Also, was this not the point of high school (which is a tax on innovation and true learning in itself)?
Even the most useful of those classes was nonsense anyway (in my humble opinion).
I believe that universities should teach relevant skills to one’s major, and gen ed classes are a waste of time and a cash grab by the universities. Time in university could be cut down by at least a semester if they were removed, or alternatively, replaced with relevant courses to make us better engineers.
Let me know what you think in the comments. Share with a friend if you find it interesting.
