Perspective: Don’t shrug off your general education classes

Starting my senior year of college means finishing up the last of my general education requirements. Like many students, I often find myself complaining at the thought of having to take a class I have little to no interest in and that I would more than likely not end up using in my career path. But I think many of us GW students, since we are so focused on our career goals, forget that our general education classes are not just filler classes that make our transcript look more well-rounded or a way for the University to get more money out of us — they do have a purpose. These classes are meant to teach us essential foundational knowledge for understanding the world around us, regardless of our major. College is not just meant to hyper-focus us on our degree or career path, but to ensure we come out of our education as well rounded individuals who can have something meaningful to add to the conversation throughout our lives, no matter the subject. This is even more critical during a time when misinformation runs rampant on social media. Having the solid understanding of core academic concepts that comes from a liberal arts education will allow us to detect when we are being misled. While the classes can seem like a nuisance, we should not be underestimating or undervaluing what these classes can bring to the table, and instead we should be seeing them as classes that are giving us the necessary information that allows us to truly call ourselves well-educated adults.

GW requires all students to take one course in math or statistics, one science or laboratory class, critical thinking courses in the humanities and social sciences and a University Writing course. Additionally, the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences requires students to take one critical thinking course in the arts, an additional science or laboratory class, an additional humanities course, a course that includes a “global or cross cultural perspective” and a class that involves civic engagement. These requirements ensure all students are exposed to a comprehensive liberal arts education regardless of their major.

After teaching us about the functions of the Electoral College in my eighth grade U.S. History class, my teacher told us we now knew more than 40 percent of Americans. That estimate was a bit off, as a survey from 2016 by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that around 31 percent of Americans cannot correctly define what the Electoral College is. But after my teacher said that, I had a newfound respect for history and the classes I am forced to take. And as I have grown older and find myself in college, taking classes as part of my general education requirements that are not directly tied to my major, I have realized that the purpose of these classes is to ensure I don’t become a part of that 31 percent of Americans who cannot describe the basic functions of our government. I may be getting a journalism degree, but could I really call myself an educated individual if I didn’t have a basic understanding of the three branches of government? Career preparation is not the only value we are supposed to get from our education. Perhaps the greatest value is the knowledge we obtain to become critical-thinking citizens in the world who are able to comprehend the systems that dictate our everyday lives. Just because it is not something that I will encounter in my job does not mean it is less valuable, and that is how we should be seeing and treating our general education classes.

This sort of education becomes more essential in a time when misinformation is so prevalent in our society. We are most vulnerable to misinformation regarding concepts that we do not fully understand, so the more we equip ourselves with knowledge in a wide variety of subjects, the less likely we are to fall victim to misinformation. As advancements in technology and communication have grown, so has misinformation, and social media itself has allowed that misinformation to spread more quickly and easily, especially in relation to public health. Usually, strategies to combat misinformation are to double-check information, but an easier way to not believe misinformation is to already have in place a basic understanding of how science, health or data works.

For example, last year saw a rise in people on social media confidently proclaiming that raw milk is actually good for you and that the government is, for some reason, robbing people of the benefits of raw milk. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seemingly led this raw milk craze, as he said he drank raw milk often and would fight the Food and Drug Administration’s “aggressive suppression” of raw milk. I remember seeing some of my family members buying into this belief and watching them drink raw milk across the table from me. I knew that my cousin, like many of us, had been told that raw milk is risky for you, but simply being told something isn’t good for you will never have the same effect as understanding the science behind it. One biology class is enough to clarify to anyone that milk pasteurization simply destroys pathogens and bacteria and does not affect the taste or nutritional value of food. Raw milk can cause illnesses like salmonella, listeria, and e. coli, and milk pasteurization largely prevents this by eliminating the bacteria found in raw milk.

If you are an English major or studying something else in the humanities, it is highly unlikely that you need to know in your everyday life what pasteurization is or how it works and how it makes food like milk and cheese safe to eat. But learning about topics like this is still important because it informs you about the world around you and makes it harder for you to fall into the trap of misinformation. And that is the skill our general education class equips us with. Many of us may not be excited to take classes like statistics and might not actually end up using it in our career, but statistics and data classes teach us to at least understand that correlation between different variables does not mean causation. That in itself helps you to combat misinformation on the news and social media and to question when people may try to confront you with that logical fallacy. In a society where ordinary citizens vote to decide who represents us in our government, educating yourself on a wide variety of issues ensures that you can make informed decisions when contributing to our democracy. Whether we like it or not, the concepts and skills we learn about in our general education history, science and literature are all around us and it can only help us to be equipped with that knowledge.

I know sometimes learning about these subjects isn’t fun and leads to many sleepless nights of studying and cramming before an exam on material you could not care less about. However, we need to remember that learning in itself is a privilege and there is value in that. Our education is not something to check off our list to get into the workforce. We have an opportunity — that not everyone gets — to attend an institution that is here to further our learning in multiple subjects. Every time that I feel exhausted at having to open another textbook, I remind myself that not every person in my family has had the same opportunities as me and that I should be grateful for getting to spend these few years dedicated to learning. Learning is not always — and should not always be —a means to an end, and the simple exercise of digesting new information can in itself be fun, and it’s an experience we will never have easier access to as we do in college.

The job of a university is not simply to prepare us for our careers and the workforce, but to actually help us have a deeper understanding of simple concepts or situations we may come across. Perhaps the most common complaint I have heard, and certainly have said at some point, is that we will never use a certain subject in our daily life. But the reality is that our daily lives are made up of an assortment of every subject imaginable. That is when those classes we do not want to take, like science or math, come into play and are needed to understand those concepts so we do not fall into the trap of misinformation.

This piece was originally published by The GW Hatchet on September 10, 2026.