After working as a tour guide for two years, I know that one of the most emphasized talking points used to sway prospective students our way is the Core Program: its the most exemplary facet of the Elizabethtown College experience that speaks to the liberal arts roots of the College, and its a great way to sell the school as a highly interdisciplinary institution that gives you room to grow as a student and person. I have to admit that, after saying it on the countless number of tours I gave, I believed it, and I understand why it’s such a selling point and successful draw for prospective students. On the flip side, I don’t think there’s a more polarizing topic —as far as the curriculum is concerned —among current students.
Simply, I think students who don’t like the Core are operating under the “I don’t understand why I should have to take this course”mindset, and it’s not exclusive to one type of student: liberal arts majors dislike it and whine just as much as science or pre-professional majors. I’ll admit that the notion of having to take another math course after high school was hard to stomach; actually being enrolled in a math course that met three days a week at 8 a.m. was devastating. Never mind that I purposefully took the easiest level of math available at the school and still only eked out a B-. That semester was filled with my questioning the relevancy of the Core program and my explaining to everyone just how pointless it was for me, an English major, to be doing Venn diagram word problems.
We all ended up at Etown for different reasons: small class size, close-knit community feel, an opportunity to play sports, etc. And I think that at its core — excuse me — the end goal of the college experience, frivolous things like “fun”and “making memories” aside, is to develop into a more complete person. Learning, as we know, is not reduced to the classroom, and I think that it’s fair for us to say that the we’ve been handed more opportunities to pursue a broad range of interests because of the nature of the school we chose. That, for me, is where the mission of the Core program stands side-by-side with the extracurricular efforts of the College.
Don’t get me wrong, there are still going to be English majors who complain about having to take math because numbers are evil; there are still going to be math majors who still don’t see value in American modernist literature because reading is hard! This student will complain about that and that student will think those other students are wrong for complaining about such-and-such. And that’s the point. If the goal is to foster an interdisciplinary school, which has students with a broad range of interests and passion, there should be that kind of conversation. Disagreement isn’t always negative. The issue doesn’t lie with the school or the Core program. The issue, if there is one in the first place, is created by the students, and it’s all a matter of perspective.
For me, it’s as easy as admitting to myself that, whereas I hope I never need to look at a math textbook again, I know that I’m not a fully-functioning, “complete”person without having a working knowledge of how it works. I don’t have to really care about the French semi-presidential system of government, but I should view the class that’s teaching me about it as an opportunity and apply it to my life sometime. Therein lies the beauty of a liberal arts institution. More importantly, having those kinds of opportunities is what makes Etown so special to all of us. Whether it’s because we’re citizens of the world —something they really pushed my first year —or because we want to be more competitive and an institution of higher prestige, we’re not just students of one particular discipline at Etown.
We’re students of ourselves. Our reactions to things that we’re taught outside of our chosen discipline may be the most important academic experiences that we have while we’re here. The bonus is then on us to pay attention to ourselves, to gauge our reactions and explore those feelings —explore our core, if you will. At the end of the day, it’s not going to be perfect. People are going to complain and that’s fine. Much like most of the other articles I write, the obligatory call for personal responsibility is here: take advantage of the Core and keep an open mind because it’s your duty. It’s the school’s embodiment of the liberal arts, and whether you enjoy that concept or not, it’s what you signed up for when you accepted your admission here.
