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本帖最后由 CEH 于 2013-10-12 12:05 编辑
13."Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student's field of study because acquiring knowledge of various academic disciplines is the best way to become truly educated."
It is not a new phenomenon that many students are required to attend several courses besides their major field. The professor who insists on this practice claimed that it is beneficial to student all-rounded education. As far as I can see, however, it is a complex issue and it is imprudent to require every student to take courses like that.
Admittedly, a variety of courses can bring a lot of benefits to students not only in their study but also in their daily life. On one hand, courses outside their major can open a new door, which is a new field, to students. If a student who always studies the mathematics attends a music course, she or he would likely realize the magic of music and how it affect people's motion and behavior. When he or she feels tired in daily study, he or she can relax herself through the songs. In contrast, a student in Music College can find more beauty of science via the knowledge of physics, chemistry or mathematics. On the other hand, learning knowledge of other fields will broaden one's visions and improve his or her academic ability. No one could deny that the society has the trend of interdisciplinary, including the communication between different disciplines. In this way, students who take courses from more subjects will come up with more ideas than those who just study what they are required.
Nevertheless, the issue is far more complicated than we ever thought. What we should be aware of is the difference among varied students, including their background, interests, habit, and ability of learning and whether they could manage their time effectively. For example, for some students, it is easy to grasp the material of their own field and thus they have extra time to obtain more knowledge. For them, the requirement mentioned at the beginning is reasonable. On the contrary, others cannot complete the daily task as well as the former students. It is horrible for them to attend extra courses. The proper choice for them is spending more time on the materials of their college. Besides, interests also should be taken into consideration. As Albert Einstein, a famous scientist in the world has said: Interest is the best teacher. Without the interest, student would not acquire more benefits even if they attended several courses. Therefore, unless universities have full considered the factors from all, at least the majority of those aspects, it is hastily to require every student to take a variety of courses outside the student's field.
In fact, there are some alternatives concerning this issue. A compromise can mitigate it easily. They can encourage, rather than require, students to participant those courses, along with offering more and better opportunity, not only courses but also lectures, for varied field to who have interest in. To avoid the laziness of some people, universities could make some praises or awards to stimulate students. However, one should be mentioned is that the quantity of courses students take in is not the standard to judge the effect of the the requirement. Otherwise, they will misunderstand the goal of education.
To sum up, whether students should be required to attend a plenty of courses apart from their field or not is not a simple question. Many factors should be taken into account in order to achieve its goal: cultivating a more educated person. Meanwhile, there are some other alternatives for the issue. Considering it from other perspective is not a bad choice.
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