Gen Ed Review

I am going to try my best not to be completely biased in this post, however I do still hold some bitterness. I get the Gen Ed requirements that colleges have. I mean, I get it! You want to make sure that everyone is one the same level when they come into college. You don't know what their high school was like or what they've been taught for the past twelve years. You want to make sure that standard information has been ingrained in their heads. While it's been a long time since I've taken my Gen Ed classes, I will do my best to remember them.

If I recall, I enjoyed my Gen Ed English courses. They were a good introduction to college writing and a way to warm up your skills for the endless amount of pages you would have to write for the rest of your time in college. My math Gen Ed was a piece of cake because I only needed one semester for my major - a GODSEND for somebody like me. Science was actually pretty enjoyable, since I got to take astronomy and botany. I'm not the best test taker but the classes were kind of interesting for me.

Here's where I get all bitter: history Gen Ed at OU is the worst class I have ever taken. And I had to take it twice. The first time I took it was the second semester of my freshmen year and, I will admit, I got lazy. I didn't show up to class all the time and the attendance policy/missed pop quizzes led me to fail. Okay, so I take responsibility for that. But I will say that the quality of the class was dull. History is such an awesome topic and should be taught to it's full capacity! Not in a room with almost 150 students in lecture format for an hour and a half. I need some discussion on a smaller scale. I need to know you actually care about teaching this subject. But the monotony in your voice could put a 7 year older on a sugar high to sleep in about 30 seconds.

So I failed. And the next year I took it again. And boy did I have the exact opposite problem here. The class size was better - maybe 50 or so students. But this professor taught like he was a kindergarten teacher. I felt as though I left that class dumber than when I went in. I realize, of course, these are all just excuses. I ended up passing (BARELY) with a D. But I was happy to have it done with. Anyways, most people I talked to about it said they took their Gen Ed history at a community college because they heard the one at OU was so bad. I wish someone would have told me that earlier!

Sorry for the rant!

View from my balcony!