Abstract

General Education is very important in a student’s life. General education is used to diversify the education of a student by building experience. General education is the way that a student can get involved in different areas of study and get better-rounded education. Without general education classes, a student lacks the experience needed to bring new ideas to the world. General education should be used to let students explore new areas  of study in ways that will let the students connect to those areas of study later in life. These classes should be used to encourage the students to think in new innovative ways that are outside of their major.

Introduction

The Gen Ed reform plan highlights three possibilities for education: themes, skills, and exploration. Right now the Gen Ed program has many options and has little limitations. When we first started discussing, the general majority was in favor of the exploration option for Gen Eds. This option is based mostly on freedom in your education. There would be a small requirement for skills and themes, but the majority of he courses could be random. The problem is that this option can lead to easy classes that lack rigor. The other popular option was the skills option. Many people felt as though skills are a very important base for education. It was also discussed that the knowledge learned in skills classes is applicable to every major and is useful in everyday life. If this was the only option than there would be no exploration or variation in learning or education. The least popular option is the themes option. There are many issues with this idea. Most students are questioning what they want to do when they get to college and want to explore the options offered. Making them not only specialize in their major, but also in their Gen Eds is challenging and offers less room to broaden your education. By making the students categorize their Gen Eds, they limit their own experiences and don’t have as rich of an education in the end.

The plan that should be put into place is skills based exploration. This would be beneficial to the students because it would open doors to new experiences, but also teach the skills the students need in everyday life. The university should take the Gen Ed courses offered and work in more writing components and other skill based learning techniques to teach students how to apply the skills learned to new fields and teach them how to diversify their skills; the students would have the freedom that they desire while also learning the skills that they need.

Themes

The new concept on the table is the themes option. This option highlights the appeal of containing your education to a basic theme. Themes can be interdisciplinary courses that are focused into one broad concept of learning. This option is good for general education because it makes the program more structured and gives general education more of a focus. General education can be thought of as unorganized and pointless; themes give the building block classes a meaningful purpose in a students education.

Themes in education seem like a good idea, however there are many problems with this learning technique. Experts raise the questions of transfer credits. With this unique system it would make it very hard for a student to transfer to Penn State and still graduate in the standard four-year period. It will also affect someone who changes majors. Will certain majors become associated with certain general education themes? This option is good, but alone it causes more problems that are not evident in the exploration and skills option.

Exploration

The exploration option is the most freedom-based option. Exploration allows students to be introduced to new areas of study. This will diversify the students learning and allow them to be exploring the different options offered at the university. This option differs from the Themes option because it does not limit the courses available to the students to fill the general education requirements. By limiting the students education the students are not gaining enough experience in other fields other than the students major.

Many professionals use the argument that exploration based general education is not “rigorous” enough. These courses are thought of as easy course that a students uses to boost his or her GPA. This makes general education feel like a waste of time, credits, and money due to the courses being spot fillers and useless requirements. General education is not taken seriously and is given a reputation of being easy “A” classes. Adding themes can fix the rigor issue that is evident in the current general education curriculum. By taking away the exploration aspect, you limit the students freedom in college and don’t let them gain the experience needed to survive in the world outside of college.

Skills

            The basis of education is the skills based general education curriculum. This program would incorporate more courses to teach the students the essentials for surviving in the 21^st century. Every student needs a very strong foundation in the areas of reading, writing, and technology. These are the most important components because they can be applied to every area of study and are utilized in everyday life. Life will be a struggle if a student does not learn and practice these necessary skills early on in their education.

Students pay approximately $201 a month on a ten year loan on their general education courses. An educator says, “$201 a month is a bargain if the GenEd curriculum helps our students land excellent jobs. And we know from talking to employers that they want the very skills the GenEd curriculum is designed to cultivate: written and verbal communication skills, numeracy, global fluency and critical thinking.” Skills based learning is the most essential area that employers look for in potential applicants. If you cannot use these skills correctly, you will struggle to find employment and you will not get a good return on the investment that is your education.

The Reform

The general education program at Penn State should be a combination of the skills and exploration based learning. The exploration option allows the students their first taste of freedom in their education. This can diversify the student’s learning and introduce them to many new fields of study. The skills option is the building blocks for all areas of study. These basic skills are the most important components to education and are essential for getting jobs in the future. To combine these options, the exploration-based courses should be required to incorporate a certain amount of reading, writing, and technology so the students can learn the basics in every field they study. This option will create a strong foundation for learning and will also give the freedom in education that the students desire. This option does not incorporate the themes option due to the lack of freedom that this option creates. If a student would like to center their education on a theme, they can do just that. Not every student should be required to limit their education, but the option should be available if any one student would wish to do so.

The Gen Ed reform plan highlights three possibilities for education: themes, skills, and exploration. Right now the Gen Ed program has many options and has little limitations. When we first started discussing, the general majority was in favor of the exploration option for Gen Eds. This option is based mostly on freedom in your education. There would be a small requirement for skills and themes, but the majority of he courses could be random. The problem is that this option can lead to easy classes that lack rigor. The other popular option was the skills option. Many people felt as though skills are a very important base for education. It was also discussed that the knowledge learned in skills classes is applicable to every major and is useful in everyday life. If this was the only option than there would be no exploration or variation in learning or education. The least popular option is the themes option. There are many issues with this idea. Most students are questioning what they want to do when they get to college and want to explore the options offered. Making them not only specialize in their major, but also in their Gen Eds is challenging and offers less room to broaden your education. By making the students categorize their Gen Eds, they limit their own experiences and don’t have as rich of an education in the end.

The plan that should be put into place is skills based exploration. This would be beneficial to the students because it would open doors to new experiences, but also teach the skills the students need in everyday life. The university should take the Gen Ed courses offered and work in more writing components and other skill based learning techniques. This would teach students how to apply the skills learned to new fields and it would teach them how to diversify their skills. The students would have the freedom that they desire while also learning the skills that they need.

State Paddy’s Day is a student made holiday in State College, PA. Originally, the holiday was created due to the fact that ST. Patrick’s Day was over spring break. The students wanted to celebrate the holiday with their friends here at State College, and thus a drinking holiday was created. This holiday tends to bring in students from other schools around the state which causes trouble for the town and the University. In the article State Patty’s Day 2014: Penn State Makes Biggest Effort Yet to Keep State College Dry on Unofficial Drinking Holiday, they talk about issues with State Paddy’s Day and the correct way to solve this issue.  The current strategy for stopping state paddy’s day is closing the bars in state college. Closing the bars in State College will not stop the student made holiday because The bars lose money, it encourages house partying, and it attracts unwanted attention to state college.

According to the article, every bar was compensated for the loss in revenue for state paddy’s day. Penn State University paid for the town of state college to go dry for state paddy’s day. Every bar was given an amount ranging from $2,500 – $7,500 to eliminate alcohol for the entire weekend. There is a better way to spend students money on campus. This tactic hurts the students who don’t party or who aren’t old enough to go the bars being paid off. Also, this hurts the town. The bars are a large part of the economic growth of State College. They will lose money and could be financially hurt from the loss of sales. Countering that argument, it could be said that this money is being invested in the student’s future. If this holiday is stopped now, than the students in the future will not have to deal with the problems associated with this holiday.

Closing the bars in town will not stop the partying. This holiday is an issue mostly because it brings in busloads of students from branch campuses and other schools that cause problems. These students are not drinking age, but that doesn’t stop them. Closing the bars will only stop those who are legally able to drink in the bars. This strategy will encourage secret and illegal partying. House parties will become popular so students can avoid the public and the police. The only good idea about making the town of state college dry is the fact that they also closed the bottle shops, and beer distributers. If the students can’t get the alcohol, than they can’t party and get in trouble.

The article states that all out of towers found with alcohol will be prosecuted right away. This sounds like a good way to deal with problems students, but it will draw more attention to the town and what goes on here. The holiday may not have been as big of a deal if there wasn’t so much attention put on the subject. On the other hand, if the students know that the police are serious about enforcing the law, it will scare them into not drinking and in part stop the holiday in the end.

State paddy’s day is an issue that needs to be dealt with, but closing the bars is not the option. It hurts the town, encourages house partying and attracts unwanted attention to Penn State. This is a hard issue to deal with, but the current tactics will not stop the holiday.

Option #1:

State Patty’s Day 2014: Penn State Makes Biggest Effort Yet to Keep State College Dry on Unofficial Drinking Holiday

http://www.universityherald.com/articles/7812/20140227/state-pattys-day-2014-penn-state-makes-biggest-effort-yet-to-keep-state-college-dry-on-unofficial-drinking-holiday.htm

Introduction

1. Background on why State patty’s day is crazy
2. Closing the bars is the wrong option
3. The bars will lose money, it will encourage house partying, it attracts unwanted attention to state college

Paragraph #1

1. There is a better use for students money than closing bars
2. Argue that spending the money on closing the bars will help the students future

Paragraph #2

1. Closing the bars and beer distributers will not stop students from partying
2. Counter argument about taking away the bars and beer distributers will provide less opportunity for students to get ahold of alcohol

Paragraph #3

1. By prosecuting out of town offenders right away, the town attracts negative attention that can be avoided.
2. Counter argument that saying that the out of town offenders  will be watched will scare off people who are coming to state college to cause trouble

Conclusion

1. Conclude from intro paragraph about bars closing