With registration for the spring semester upon us, it seems that “choices” have been a dominant topic of conversation. Hamilton is known for its open curriculum, and for providing students the opportunity for a broad, liberal arts education. So, theoretically, we should be able to choose to take any class we want. However, a completely individual choice, free of outside pressures is almost impossible.
First, to register, you have to be approved by your advisor. In order to do so, you have to meet with that professor and discuss your options for the next semester. This discussion usually focuses on your interests, and your goals and objectives for your educational career. The professor usually provides advice (which is of course what they’re supposed to do), although whether consciously recognized or not, their words immediately detract from your ability to make a completely independent choice. I know that in my last meeting with my advisor, although I had already written down my top choices for classes, she voiced her opinion, strongly recommending that I consider taking a specific music course. Although it is understandable that she made such a recommendation due to her position in the music department, her advice made me question the classes that I had already written down. Now, I had to consider my own wishes along with hers in my decision for the next semester’s classes, therefore transforming a choice that is supposed to be individual into one that is pressured externally.
Choosing classes in an open curriculum is not always as open as it seems; in fact by the time your registration time comes around, many classes are already closed. It isn’t unfair that registration is dictated by seniority, and times are randomly assigned, but this hinders the individual choice we make. It is not a completely free choice; it is influenced and confined based on the choices that others make as well.
Of course, we can’t make just any choice in classes; we have to fulfill our major and minor requirements. Although this pressure seems to come from the school, it indirectly comes from societal expectations. As we discussed in class, for most of us, not going to college barely crossed our minds. We recognize that people want us to be successful, and based on our surroundings, success tends to be linked to higher education. Within the higher education, we are then expected to declare a concentration. The extent to which this declaration is completely our choice contains a separate set of external pressures that we could analyze as well. But in choosing classes, for one semester alone, the number of external pressures seems overwhelming. So although Hamilton calls it an “open curriculum,” how open is it really?
Great post, Alex!
ReplyDeleteSimply being aware of these pressures in our "open curriculum" is a great step toward making your choices more your own -- not necessarily free from pressure, but certainly more conscious. And that's a wonderful thing (in my opinion!).
I agree with you completely that we have to deal with a lot of external pressures when creating our class schedules. Like I said in my post, the effects of these pressures are not necessarily negative. My mother pressures me to take humanities classes vs. science and math classes so I can get the most out of my liberal arts experience. Hamilton pressures me to take a number of writing classes so that I can learn to communicate clearly. Social norms pressure me to take only four classes a semester so that I do not stretch myself too thin. My major requirements pressure me to take the classes that will best prepare me for a career or graduate school.
ReplyDeleteExternal pressures can be helpful if we listen to them in moderation. While I respect my mother’s opinion, I choose to take all computer science and math classes next semester. I also plan to take an extra quarter credit class. Whether these are a good decisions or not remains to be seen, but at least I can say that these decisions were my own.
As Professor Schwartz says, we need to be conscious of outside influences so that we can be sure that our decisions are our own.
Its amazing that a college that is proud to claim it has an "open" curriculum, is so restrictive on so many levels. Like you said you have to pick classes that prepare you for you major or minor, you have to make them fit all in one schedule, you have to consider the possibility of a choice being full, you have to get enough writing and oral intensive classes, and you have to listen to the peer pressure of those around you from professors to parents to friends. I don't know about everyone else but this list is pretty long for being "open". The funny thing is, is that compared to other colleges, this is "open". Its interesting that we consider ourselves lucky to be so free while choosing classes when we are not even that free.
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