If you make it through college without hearing about why marijuana should be legalized or the obesity epidemic in America, you are part of a minority.
Professors assign projects exploring societal ills in many general education history, psychology, English and communication classes.
Even if you spend your time in general education courses just scrolling through Twitter, you should be well versed in the ills plaguing American society. With a few clicks of a button, any student can get access to studies, data and scholarly articles regarding obesity, marijuana, education, and any other societal ill they wish to explore.
Journal writing is one way schools can meet the goal of developing a student emotionally, intellectually, socially, culturally and physically, according to a study published by the National Council of Teachers of English. Journal writing is a way to foster growth and help students through self-discovery.
Journal writing refers to the private, self-expressive, and reflective writing one can do as a way of understanding self, according to the study.
“As the Flagship institution of the state, the vision of Louisiana State University is to be a leading research-extensive university, challenging undergraduate and graduate students to achieve the highest levels of intellectual and personal development,” the University’s mission statement reads. 
If the University’s mission is to foster both intellectual and personal development, some of its general education courses should focus more on self-reflection and less on the regurgitation of facts about issues we read about in the news and on Twitter every day.
The emphasis on a research-extensive education does not exclude personal research. Some students don’t know what their parents do for a living and others may struggle with understanding the motives behind their own actions. The solution to both of these problems is research, but not the type of research we do on our laptops and by copy and pasting from scholarly articles.
Searching for an article or study to back up your stance on a societal ill is much easier and more concrete than sitting down and taking a moment to reflect on why you have the stance you do. Though not equally difficult, both are equally important in intellectual and personal development.
Professors should not stop pushing students to explore societal ills, but they should do a better job of fostering introspection and self-analysis through assignments. Professors should implement weekly journals and essays of reflection before and after assignments to help students assess their own values and opinions regarding a societal problem, which is just as important as learning about the societal problem itself.
Journals should not become diaries, but instead should foster thought through focus questions and assignment-relative prompts. Students should not only express what they did for a project, but how it made them feel and what changes of thought, if any, occurred because of it. This type of reflection also allows professors to have a dialogue with students on a different level than instructional or everyday classroom dialogue.
Making something better requires identifying flaws, assessing necessary changes and implementing them. This is true for problems in American society, which begin with problems in each one of our selves whether it be confidence, self-esteem, pride or selfishness.
Intellectual and personal development go hand in hand, and time spent getting an education should develop them both equally to ensure the highest possible level of success of students.
Breanna Smith is a 21-year old mass communication senior from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.