The Humanities requirement should be scrapped
The Humanities requirement has existed almost as long as higher education has existed, which is a very politically correct way of saying that college administrations have been torturing students for a very long time. Personally, I feel as though the amount of work I have due this week is a violation of the Geneva Convention.
For those of you who have not taken humanities yet, it is a general education requirement that most colleges have, entailing the analysis of aspects of human societies and what it means to be human. Depending on what humanities class you sign up for at Geneseo, you either read Ancient Grecian history books and the works of Plato, or the works of Thomas Paine.
Some of that might actually be interesting to you—I personally think Plato’s ruminations on the elements sounds like a guy who got super high, started talking, and wouldn’t shut up, but maybe that’s just me.
Regardless of what humanities class you took, it has been an ongoing source of stress that detracts from most students’ excitement for college life. A student in another class I was taking asked me if the humanities class I was taking at the time was hard, and I answered, “It’s not hard, but every time I go to class, I want to die.” I kid you not, the professor looked over at me and said, “Yes! Same!”
This is coming from a guy who actually taught that class—in fact, he taught it so much that he asked his bosses to stop making him teach it because he was sick of it. No cap! Not even the professors like teaching that course.
This begs the question—why is it around? If nobody likes teaching or taking humanities, why is it required? There are two answers to that question: Tradition, and money.
Let’s start with tradition. Approximately 50-100 years ago, the idea behind going to college wasn’t just so that you could get a good job that paid well, which is still the reason we all sacrifice our mental health to be here, but to polish you up for high-society company—in other words, it gives you a surface-level understanding of some old texts and history so that when you go to a fancy party where your CEO’s father-in-law starts interrogating you about your life, you have something better to talk about than the black-out sessions you have every weekend with your friends. It serves you in that you know about all the same dead guys that everybody else does.
Besides the fact that I would rather jump off a bridge than talk about Plato at a party (even a very nice party), the Humanities requirement has also historically focused on the same people—primarily the perspectives of dead white guys. I’m not saying that those people weren’t influential and important, because they were, but now that we live in a world where we have access to more information about other cultures and influential authors, a little diversity would be refreshing—not to mention just plain called for.
The only other reason to make humanities a requirement is so the university can charge you for it. I already pay too much to be here, so in my opinion, I don’t need to take yet another class. Knowing what happened at Corcyra doesn’t make me a more well-rounded person. It just doesn’t.
The good news is that Geneseo is diversifying their Humanities requirement to include more cultures and a more diverse selection of authors, which is beyond cool. Hopefully, future generations of students won’t be so depressed about the Humanities requirement.
