Believe it or not some majors require courses that students are able to fit into 1 or 2 years of college studying. In just one year students are able to graduate with all the courses needed for their major. Despite how good this sounds, I still don’t think any student should choose to take this route.
The reason why it takes four years to earn a bachelor’s degree is because students take many classes that aren’t technically related with their major.
Some students have been questioning the requirement to study for 4 years while drowning in debt when you only need to study for just a year with classes in your major.
It’s the perspective classes that have nothing to do with our majors that broaden our view on the world. Augustana college encourages students to take many classes that are unrelated to their major. Which is how most liberal arts colleges work.
Steve Jobs, one of the most successful people in the world once said: “Technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with the liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our hearts sing.”
Harvard, the most known college with the highest reputation, is a Liberal arts college. It also aims to impart a broad general study to its students. Broad studying
allows students to develop better critical thinking skills. It allows them to think outside the box by introducing them to different perspectives.
Instead of thinking in just one area of study, students are able to explore different topics. These topics help them in the long run as well.
The most formally educated people with a lack of liberal arts knowledge in the world seem to be the ones who are causing some of our biggest world issues. People with associate, bachelor, master and PhDs’ are the same people who are cutting down trees and destroying the environment.
We have many problems that lie in the foundations of a traditional education. One of the biggest problems with education is the lack of looking at the big
picture. Students are taught to think inside the box. One might master their own work, but when presented with a simple problem, they won’t be able to figure out how to solve it.
The system is failing to educate us to think broadly and it is failing to make us acknowledge patterns.
Cleverness comes from mastering one’s own work. Intelligence comes from thinking broadly. A clever economist would see technological innovation continues to improve energy and resource efficiency, whereas an intelligent economist would see the larger economy is everywhere showing signs of stress and breakdown.
Being in debt is nothing compared to lack of knowledge. I don’t want to think “inside the box,” I want knowledge.