Poll: Do you think incoming freshmen at Kansas University should all be required to take certain classes? / LJWorld.com

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Response		Percent	Votes
Yes		70%	349
No		24%	120
Not sure		5%	27
Total	496
Note: This is not a scientific poll.		Vote in this poll

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profound 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Yes, a class in birth control while drunk shoud be required.

Liberty275 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Will they be drinking during the lecture or coming to class fully inebriated and ready to learn? Sounds like getting drunk and watching softcore porn. Good idea.

:-)

LawrenceTownie 4 months, 3 weeks ago

When I entered KU after graduating HS, I was told what classes to take both first and second semesters. I did not want to take those classes, but I had other ones in mind. Being forced to take those classes was my undoing, I dropped out second semester and did not return to school for many, many years later. My children were almost grown, so I returned to school, getting my AA from Johnson County, then transfering to Washburn to continue. But years were wasted. JOCO was more relaxed on what I wanted to take, they gave me choices. It was not hard to go to class when I wanted to take the course. I say give the kids choices.

chucklehead 4 months, 3 weeks ago

LT, poor advising also screwed me up for years. Bossy faculty member who knew nothing about me other than I was young and impressionable told me to get the BS not the BA, and things went downhill from there.

I am not sure what KU is up to, but teaching up there has shown me that some basics are in order. I teach Jr's and Sr's and I am amazed at what I have to clarify with regard to the English language and its use.

sunshine_noise 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Because kids today are not taught actual "sentence structure" and proper word usage. They are taught "slang" and text "slang" because with the "no child left behind" crap it doesn't matter if a child uses slang to explain an assignment, all that matters is if they do it at all. I know this because my 16 year grandson (back east) sleeps in his classes and laughs about it, yet they will pass him with a D grade if he does ONE - just one assignment each quarter. When I was in school we had to diagram our sentences to understand how each word interacted with the idea. Kids do not have to do this today so therefore they do not complete their thoughts, but abbreviate them with slang usage. Then when you have someone educated come into a store and ask for an item a young person will just stare because they do not understand proper English language usage. (this has happened to me many times and I've had to actually spell for them) One thing that drives me crazy is ending a sentence in a preposition. "Where you at?" Honestly, I wonder what sort of language our civilization will be speaking in 100 years. I envisioned words will be spoken in quips and nods. Perhaps by then human will be able to communicate in ESP.

JayCat_67 4 months, 2 weeks ago

I know what you mean. There was a young lady in one of my German classes a few years back, and the professor was explaining how the article changed depending on how the noun was used. He brought up the "direct object", and this young lady, who was also taking several advance classes, asked "what's a direct object?" I about lost it.

JackMcKee 4 months, 3 weeks ago

A class on proper Jayhawk tradition, a "woo" or " home of the Chiefs" is an automatic F

tomatogrower 4 months, 3 weeks ago

There are common general education classes everyone should take, including and especially Western Civ. Sometimes I think KU is becoming a votech school, instead of a real university. University has the root "univers-". This is related to the word universe. It means "whole". It does not mean specialized job training. That is for the separate schools in the last 2 years to accomplish. Otherwise, they should go to a junior college or trade school.

Get rid of the School of Business, give that to a trade school. Take away the stupid, requirement to have an MBA or even a bachelors.

The School of Education should only start their education classes in the 4th year. The first 3 should be a mixture of math, history, science, english for the elementary teachers, and for the high school and middle school teachers a concentration of the subject they will be teaching.

Pharmacy should probably be a trade school too.

Engineers need to have a universal education, because they are, in reality, practical artists.

Actually I think everyone above needs a universal education, but KU seems to give into the whining and letting people turn it into a job training center. Don't call yourself a university anymore, KU, if you continue down this path.

wounded_soldier 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Western Civ is a great learning arena but we Americans have forgotten that there is life beyond Europe. We should also have Eastern Civ so we know how China, India, The Middle East were created to become what they are today.

George_Braziller 4 months, 2 weeks ago

I took Western Civ and it was a pathetic joke. Had potential to be a great course but it sucked.

Read 34 1/2 pages of Plato and have a multiple option test. Next reading assignment is page 112- 156 of "On Liberty" followed by another multiple option test. The TAs were bored and it was obvious.

We all just showed up for class to get the pain over as quickly as possible.

JayCat_67 4 months, 2 weeks ago

A lot of it depended on the TA, I guess. I enjoyed Western Civ I much more than Western Civ II even though the reading in the second semester was easier and, to me, more interesting. Had a much better TA the first semester.

George_Braziller 4 months, 2 weeks ago

I never had a good TA. It was all just droning boredom for everyone. I kept "The Decameron" because it was the only thing that was interesting. The rest went into a garage sale or the trash after the the class was over.

JayCat_67 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Funny, a lot of them are free for the Kindle now.

George_Braziller 4 months, 2 weeks ago

What's so funny about having real books printed on paper?

straightforward 4 months, 2 weeks ago

These are all classes incoming college students should have taken in high school. If high schools do an insufficient job teaching these courses, that is a different problem to solve. Why make students spend time and tuition on things they should already know. If a journalism student took four years of math in high school, this would unneccesarily stretch out their graduation date and cause them to pay more to get the same degree. Why do they need more math courses?

George_Braziller 4 months, 2 weeks ago

I graduated with a degree in Journalism from KU without a single math credit and only took basic algebra and geometry in high school. My adviser never caught it and I sure as hell wasn't going to bring it to the attention of anyone.

straightforward 4 months, 2 weeks ago

And did you feel like your education was incomplete, or did the quality of your education suffer because you didn't take college algebra?

George_Braziller 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Nope. Managed just fine without it. Never even needed algebra when I was managing two finance departments and writing $250,000 grants.

jhorus 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Incoming freshmen, here's my tips:

Classes, never before 11am.
Beer: it's your best friend, you drink a lot.
Will you have a car? If not, someone on your floor will. Find them and make friends with them on the first day.

overthemoon 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Why waste money on tuition? Some students go to learn something, BTW.

straightforward 4 months, 2 weeks ago

I agree. Students go to college to learn. So why not let them focus their time and tuition on learning more about their chosen area of study? If a student wants to take a wider variety of liberal arts courses that is fine, but they shouldn't be required to.

George_Braziller 4 months, 2 weeks ago

All classes over by noon so you can work in the afternoon to pay the tuition.
Beer sometimes because you have a job.
Have your own car because of #1 so you can drive to your second job.
Rinse and repeat.

sunshine_noise 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Parenting classes, both young men and young women, along with birth control practices and STD education. Not all birth control methods are 100% fool proof, however if someone does find they are pregnant and decide to keep the child, get married, etc. they should be educated in how to care for, raise and understand babies, toddlers and young children and what their responsibility toward their child will be for the rest of their lives. Young men who do not married the mother should understand their responsibility in providing child support. They both need to understand how important setting a nurturing and supportive environment is for their child. Kids today are all about themselves, they end up getting pregnant and either their parents end up raising the child of the child is abused or abandoned. We need to educate our young people in childcare behavior.

bearded_gnome 4 months, 2 weeks ago

of course each college within KU should have core requirements.

across KU: require that everyone can only graduate if he or she can read and write English at or beyond 12th grade; is able to compose at least a suitable 20-page project; and can at least reasonably speak from that topic.

it is shocking how illiterate and incapable in English KU grads are now.