Dear GNED Classes,
Whether it’s some science class with an unscientific name, or taking a musical history class, you’re all the same GNED requirements. I have to take you to seem like a “Citizen Leader.” Even though these are skills that I am paying to have and will never use again, I will still take them to seem like a well-rounded person with you on my transcript.
Sure, I love that I can take some BS class that will raise my grade point average, but what is the real point of you GNED requirements? I want to take one of your many offerings and actually take a class I will enjoy and learn from. Why not have a class where I can learn to file my taxes, cook a dish that isn’t instant ramen or how to make myself more marketable to future employers? Instead, I have to take a gym class.
Not that I don’t find being healthy important, GNED requirements, but don’t you think it would be more valuable to learn about healthy cooking and eating, STDs and self-defense techniques? Other colleges actually let one pick a sport that would be more appealing to them instead of doing general physical education that all the education systems have been doing since the first grade.
Have you ever thought, GNED classes, that there are many more art classes that would be better Goal four classes than an architecture class? If students had the option to take actual craft classes, then they would have a class to look forward to and get to say they took that ceramics class in college. Of course, some may argue that then the classes would fill up with students who don’t care and take resources away from actual majors and minors. However, if an underclassman is taking these classes and trying to find their major, having these classes would be a way for them to try out the major and see if it is right for them.
The same idea could be said for other classes as well. Longwood is known as a liberal arts college, so let other majors like criminal justice, liberal studies or other majors be involved in the Goal eight requirements list of options. Goal one does allow for undeclared majors the option of finding a major within that specific LSEM, but for those that are searching that are already declared it would give them a chance to find what they are looking for.
GNED classes, you make a great cushion for my GPA, but your classes can seem dull. If there was more diversity within your programming with options that catered to all, they wouldn’t seem like such a chore. I wish that more of your goals, like the option exists for the Goal 10 language requirement, could be duel-enrolled at other universities that offered those crazy and cool special topics classes that discuss everything from the physics of comic books to the analysis of bad Super Bowl plays. You’re taking a step in the right direction with your new, syrupy science option, but it will make the classes more fun for the students and professors to teach classes they actually find interesting themselves.
Hugs and kisses,
Longwood students
