opinion
KANSAN.COM | THURSDAY, NOV. 3, 2016
Hostess Ho Hos are filled with delicious creamy center. But every time I eat them, I'm filled with self loathing.
diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs, who's ready to work?
I'd like to switch to a diet of wholly organic, homegrown memes but the cost and time commitment involved are just way too high.
If the bus you're waiting for starts with a 4, there is no reason to run...just wait 5 minutes. Trust me there'll be another
Sees girl vaping *tips fedora*
It's hard to give out candy on the darkest street on the planet.
Do I want to be feared or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me
everything hurts
The amount of satisfaction I get from seeing my teachers make a typo cannot be overstated.
When u design business cards in class instead of paying attention
Today I'm doing some Halloween activities to get me in the spooky mood. Nothing makes me scared and angry like homework.
like homework.
Sitting down to take a test in a class where you missed almost two straight weeks of lectures is a great feeling /sarcasm
Who needs classes when you're just planning on marrying someone rich
If you see a sad man vaping, is he vaping because he is sad or is he sad because he is vaping?
When you're planning on skipping class and then you see your prof on campus
It's November and it's 80 damn degrees outside. I should be done sweating by now.
Obama, don't gobamall!
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Uri: Core weakens the value of a degree
IKE URI
@ikeUri
Photo illustration by Missy Minear
A part from making it through one day of Calculus II, I've never set foot in a math or science class in college. While I joke about my lack of scientific background with my pre-med friends, I've come to realize, as I prepare to graduate, how much knowledge is missing from my undergraduate education. My ability to stay away from anything involving numbers is thanks to the KU Core, made mandatory my first year here. The Core, while drastically increasing flexibility for students, cheapens the value of a KU degree, depriving students of the necessary components of a liberal arts education.
There is value in the Core. I've been able to take a broad range of classes, sampling history, political science, and psychology. I've had the time to focus intensively on my major, giving me the resources to conduct independent research, and I'll somehow graduate with three minors. But, while flexibility is nice, I lack the quantitative backing that I would have received under the University's former requirements. Looking back, I wish that I had been pushed to dabble in math and the natural sciences, and, as I'm sure anybody majoring in those subjects will readily point out, my high school biology and chemistry classes that I got college credit for are not equivalent to studying those topics at a large research institution.
With the creation of the KU Core in 2013, the University effectively cut general education requirements in half.
from about 70 hours to just 36. Rather than demanding specific classes like Western Civilization, the Core emphasizes broad areas of learning. While these changes were made to increase four-year graduation rates, make it easier for students to do research and study abroad and increase the number of people getting three minors, they have instead weakened the value of a liberal arts education.
It's easy to overlook the importance of more traditional general education requirements. Beyond getting out of Western Civ., students can now more easily launch on specific tracks with little impetus to explore subjects outside of their area of interest. They can fulfill the requirements for the Core with relatively random classes that often don't truly connect to broader themes. For many, this is desirable. It shortens the educational path toward their career and allows them to avoid particularly pesky classes such as Western Civ. or calculus. However, it undercuts the value of higher education. Learning at the undergraduate level is, at its core, a process of exploration, with a strong emphasis on the liberal arts. While more traditional undergraduate paths may seem more restrictive, they instead prompt students to explore a variety of disciplines, giving them two years of consideration before having to commit to a major.
The importance of broader general education requirements goes far beyond allowing 18 year olds more time to choose their life paths. For our future, the world needs a population educated in the liberal arts. Studying philosophy language, literature, the natural and social sciences, mathematics and history gives us the background to address problems that our generation faces, making connections between seemingly disparate topics.
" Leaping into
a narrowly focused program immediately out of high school does both the individual and society a disservice."
The liberal arts engender empathy and understanding, which are necessary to engage with others who may not hold our own views. Without the liberal arts, we lack the ability for productive dialogue and debate, the basis of our democratic society. We also struggle to understand our place
in a globalized world, failing to recognize how our actions affect those thousands of miles away.
While training in narrative and storytelling may seem silly to a chemistry major just as classes in biology may seem unnecessary to my fellow sociology majors, engaging in a broad range of academic interests is important.
Leaping into a narrowly focused program immediately out of high school does both the individual and society a disservice. Sociologists must understand both narrative and the natural sciences to work effectively on issues related to climate change, just as the climate scientists who produce data can better serve the world if they know how to connect their research to economics, politics and society. Topics that require such interdisciplinary thinking permeate our world today.
Studying the liberal arts, being able to form connections between
disciplines and understanding others through narrative is necessary to operate effectively as a global citizen.
As our climate changes and economic and political processes go awry, we need broad thinkers and dedicated learners to tackle these issues. Narrow-minded specialists who have not read Kant, gained experience in a lab and studied the failures of history cannot properly address the issues of our world. Global citizenship requires the ability to analyze critically and respond with broad capabilities, connecting expertise with larger trends. The University is taking away the requirement to think broadly from its undergraduates, leaving them less prepared to engage with the challenges that we will all need to solve.
Ike Uri is a senior from Concordia studying sociology.
- Edited by Cody Schmitz
Befort: Uncertain grading curves harmful
> BRIDGETTE BEFORT
@bridgettebefort
The semester's midpoint has now passed. Most students have taken their midterms and received their grades, for better or for worse. From now until the end of finals the main worry of many students, aside from the presidential election, will be grades. However, with this worry comes the problem for many students of having no idea where they stand in a course, the result of a concept called "the curve." A blessing and curse, the curve terrorizes the campus leaving students with no idea where they stand in a course or what it will even take to get the A.
For the naive freshman, fresh out of high school and thrown into the rigors college, a test curve is a device used to rank students in a class, so that a certain number
The problem with curves, however, is they are not applied until the end of a course, after all of the final grades are in. Throughout the semester professors rarely give students accurate knowledge of their current grades in a class. Thus, students have no idea what their grades are until the final grades are posted a week after finals are over.
get an A, a certain number get a B and so on. Curves ensure there is a range of grades, from excellent to dreadful, even if the scores of the entire class are below 60 percent. At the end of the semester a curve is helpful for most students because their grades are raised, and they scrape a B (or an A if they're lucky) in a class they were previously failing.
As an example, after completing all of the coursework in a class, a student can take a final
not knowing what he or she needs to score to achieve a certain grade because a curve may be applied which will mess this prediction up. Also, students may receive failing grades the entire semester and still scrape an A in the class,or they may be successful all semester,do poorly on the final,and receive a C in the class.
Overall, college courses are filled uncertainty: students have no idea if they are successfully learning material or if they just have the illusion of doing so.
This grade uncertainty can lead to high stress levels, anxiety and general demoralization, which is unhealthy for the campus climate. Stress and anxiety can be good motivators to achieving in classes, but can also cause damage to mental health.
Students who have failed every assignment
throughout a semester, without receiving reassurance that they will not fail the class, may drop out of the class, a major. or college, or may be so convinced they will fail a class that they won't bother studying for the final, even if a curve meant they would pass.
In fact, a 2010 study showed that grading on a curve discourages studying, indicating students who are convinced they will get a certain grade feel helpless: even studying will not help them achieve a better grade.
Grade uncertainty is a poor motivator and assurance from professors that harder work will pay off is not as helpful as it sounds. Both students and the grading system must change. Students should put in the effort to succeed in classes and not rely on a curve, while also remembering that, unless they drastically mess something up, they
will not fail a class. The grading system should do a better job of letting students know where they stand in a course instead of letting them suffer through a semester believing all of their efforts are wasted only to give them an A and make them wonder why they got it.
Mental health is a huge issue in college and grade uncertainty plays a big role in it. The college education system is not creating better informed citizens ready to enter the workforce, when the system is causing mental health and personal success problems preventing students from succeeding in school.
Bridgette Befort is a junior from Topeka studying chemical engineering.
- Edited by Missy Minear
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