Haha. I don’t think you were the only one who just tried to take the easiest ones. I think the trouble with perspective is that you generally don’t have it till after the fact. I’m sure most people complain about taking Gen Ed classes, but hopefully we can all think of something good we got out of it.

That article that you posted scares me. I think it is up to the individual. I know for a fact that I am not mature enough for marriage. I have been chasing the best career opportunity the past couple of years. I have traveled all around learning different cultures and broadening my perspective. However, I do want to congratulate you on your wedding! You are very fortunate to grow with someone else all these years!

I really like how you mentioned that we could create our own opportunities. I know many people who are stuck at a job that they do not like. They are just doing it to be paid. They say that it’s hard to leave because they are so specialized. I know what makes a strong candidate is the ability to understand your skills and adapting them accordingly.

I do have to agree with you that we need general education courses. The general education course allowed to me meet people outside of engineering, and helped me develop a new perspective. The biggest challenge was that I did not see that when I was taking those courses. I just tried to take the easiest one. I was lucky that some of the professors that I had made a positive impact on me.

Yeah, this is crazy, it makes you think a lot… and as mentioned several times before, if the House bill is approved as it is, it will harm current graduate students, future graduate students, faculty, university…and society in general… just hoping this nightmare does not translate into reality

Thanks for the article! It makes some excellent points and encouragement for the path forward. Here’s hoping things improve!

Great topic and necessary to discuss especially now! There was a pretty good article on this a while back:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/opinion/dying-art-of-disagreement.html?_r=0

Erin, this is a well-written post. My class paper is in this topical area as well. I think the higher education community may have to move beyond mere acceptance, to full adaptation and usage of alternative methods of teaching and new technologies.

This is very interesting. I agree with you, it will be very interesting that universities will enable students more informal dissertation formats such the one in the article that you are referring to. Always considering that some fields will benefit more than others. Very interesting article!

Wow – I am surprised that a school with as much publicity and recognition as University of Tennessee would choose to hire a coach with a history such as that (even if he wasn’t directly related).