In these troubling economic times and with student loan debt recently overtaking credit card debt, students cannot afford to waste their time with bogus general education requirements.
Instead, colleges need to replace general education requirements with making studying abroad mandatory, something which will actually affect a person more than pointless courses.
Yes, the economy is crap, so it would pretty difficult to make studying abroad mandatory at this time, but hear me out.
Traveling to a foreign country – outside your comfort zone – is something that lets a person really get perspective on life, and would be something beneficial to the country as a whole.
However, we are currently a culture of isolationists. The U.S. Department of State estimates only 27 percent of Americans have passports as of 2007.
If anything illustrates my claim, it’s the statistic above.
Having grown up with my dad in the U.S. Foreign Service, I’d always thought of passports as a pretty ordinary thing for a kid to have. Imagine my shock when I was denied for certain licenses because, “A passport was not a recognized form of identification.”
Are there legitimate reasons why many Americans don’t travel? Of course there are, and in no way am I disputing it. But some things can be changed to make it less of an obstacle.
The average public college student in the U.S. pays around $7,000 a year for in-state education, according to the College Board. This is by no means a trivial amount of money. For most students, however, we waste the first two semesters on general education requirements — information most of us will never need in our careers.
Looking at the University’s general education requirements, one can see everyone needs 39 credit hours to graduate — more than two semesters for the average 15-hour student.
Frankly, I find this a waste of the students’ and the University’s time and money. We are paying around $14,000 a year and risking hurting our GPA for information some of us will never use. While potentially helpful for those undecided in what they want to study or in making a well-rounded student, there is an alternative with potential to do both.
The University is part of the International School Exchange Program, making it possible for students to study abroad. In addition to in-state tuition (which scholarships would still apply to) as well as University room and board, a student would only have to pay $1,340 to participate in this program. This makes it possible for someone to study abroad in Italy for less than $7,000.
Possible study abroad destinations for a University student include France, South Africa, China, Australia and Japan.
So here’s my point: Why don’t we get rid of the wasteful and pointless general education requirement and replace it with a travel requirement?
This way, students can still focus on their major, or if they’re undecided they can go through a variety of courses.
More importantly, students will be forced out of their comfort zone and work with people outside their own culture — both of which are educating experiences.
The lessons taught would be important as our world continues to progress around us and cultures continue to be forced into contact with each other. These are experiences which will stay with you much longer than some English composition or trigonometry class ever will.
For example, poverty has never hit me quite as hard as seeing the destitute conditions some Cambodians live in and the extent some would go to for money. Seeing the collateral damage from America’s wars firsthand will also never be a thing easily forgotten, either.
Sure, implementing something like this wouldn’t be an extremely easy thing to do, but in the long run it would be worth it.
Our culture as a whole can change from this isolationist apathy to something far more global and international. We can help to break the stereotypes held by both ourselves and foreigners, and  maybe, just maybe, our politics can improve on the global scale because of it.
If nothing else convinces you, remember this: in most countries, the drinking age is 18.
Zachary Davis is a 19-year-old history sophomore from Warsaw, Poland. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_zdavis.
 
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Contact Zachary Davis at [email protected]