[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by fastball

I think right there is the problem. Far too many subjects are considered essential when they are not. There are far more elective requirements today than there used to be. Universities need to quit indoctrinating students with copious amounts of frivolous information.

I had a big problem being required to take arts and humanities classes for my engineering degree. To me they were absolutely wasted classes, a waste of my time when I could have been working on my projects, and I told my professors flat out their class was a waste of time and I'm only there because I'm required to be. I got straight Cs and didn't care.

I guess you and I will see this very differently.

You are probably right about the proliferation of filler electives, this wasn't as bad in my day. Otherwise I respect your stance on those wasted classes, but disagree in general, one doesn't always know in his teens and twenties what will be useful in their future.

(I taught computer science classes in a college for a total of 9 years, and heard this same argument from students nearly every week. You don't want to end up one-dimensional when you graduate. At the same time those random useless courses that are shoved in because professor XYZ loves them gotta go. Ironically, debates over this and other dubious department policies was one of my reasons for quitting...)