Adam Silver | Rethinking and reforming College requirements

On Sunday night, advance registration for next semester will come to a close, and I will have registered for classes I don’t want to take.

According to the College’s website, the general requirements are there because they “expose you to a wide variety of subjects, impart important skills that will help you find a major, and will complement the major you ultimately choose.”

Often times, one of these might be true, but I have yet to meet a student who has enjoyed all three of these tenets. In my experience, I have not found the College’s core curriculum to be as supportive to my well-rounded education as these purposes suggest. Rather, I have found it stands in the way of my academic goals.

It isn’t because I am averse to taking classes outside of my specified interest, but because the requirements are too restrictive — I can’t learn about what I want to learn about.

In my last two semesters at Penn, I need to fulfill the History and Tradition sector requirement, as well as the Cross Cultural Analysis foundational approach requirement. That should be easy — these are academic areas right up the alley of a politically oriented Daily Pennsylvanian columnist.

For those of you who follow my fascinating Twitter, you may have noticed that I have a new obsession: the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church and the conclave (I’m a Jew who likes elections). Over the past month, I have taken it upon myself to learn about the history of the papacy and the traditions around it.

In my obsession over the Church, I realized that I was achieving the goals of the College requirements … with Wikipedia. I have been exposed to a variety of subjects, as the election-style conclave has imparted me with skills that have led me to my politically oriented academic work and my Wikistudies have complemented my major.

So I made it my goal to find a course that would actually teach me about different Christian traditions to fill my last requirements. Of course, one exists. Religious Studies 133, called “Introduction to Christianity,” is the perfect fit. Its description not only includes the word “historical,” but also “tradition.” It must be a history and tradition course. Additionally, I am Jewish, and this class is about Christianity. How could it not be analyzing across cultures? “Introduction to Christianity” has to fill my History and Tradition and Cross Cultural Analysis requirements … right?

Wrong. Of course it doesn’t.

This is the problem with requirements: they don’t make sense. So many courses that obviously should fill them just don’t. The History Department offers 175 different course sections next semester, but only 53 count toward the History and Tradition sector requirement. Shouldn’t every history course fulfill this requirement?

Students who like the requirements argue that they are a cornerstone to a “liberal” arts education (on another note, anyone who likes them is also probably still a freshman). But if they were liberal, wouldn’t we be free to learn what we want to learn about? Instead, I don’t get to learn about the socially conservative practices of the Catholic Church to fill requirements for my liberal arts education. I find that very un-liberal.

The College needs to re-evaluate which courses fulfill the various aspects of its curriculum so that a course that should fulfill History and Tradition does fulfill History and Tradition.

Students who take on minors, double majors, submatriculate or spend their first few semesters exploring different paths often get the short end of the stick. They have to spend their last semesters at Penn trying to sculpt a schedule that addresses all of their stated academic interests, fulfills the College requirements and, of course, doesn’t include class on Fridays.

For these students, it’s difficult — if not impossible — to take a course just because it sounds interesting. The only opportunity to take a course “just because” is through the requirements.

Until the College rethinks, and then expands, courses that fulfill the requirements, you can catch me — and several dozen other students — killing two birds with one stone in “World Musics and Cultures” in the fall.

Adam Silver is a College junior and master of public administration candidate from Scottsdale, Ariz. His email address is adamsilver0601@gmail.com and you can follow him @adamtsilver. “The Silver Lining” usually appears every other Thursday.

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