The primary objective of General Education is to provide an opportunity for students to explore knowledge in a variety of disciplines, to discover unknown interests, and to develop communication skills.  Administering changes to the current General Education system has great potential to improve upon it, as the current system is far from perfect.  However, the extent of which each student benefits from General Education depends heavily upon its applicability to each student’s unique interests and education goals.  I thereby believe that a flexible approach to General Education is the best option.

 There should be two separate Gen Ed routes for incoming freshmen to select based on their personal preference: exploration emphasis and skills emphasis.  The exploration option should be more catered toward students who are unsure of what degree to pursue, or simply desire to attain a broader understanding of the world.  Whereas the skillsoption  would more directly benefit students who know the goals of their education at Penn State and wish to improve upon skills that can build a foundation for the field that they are pursuing.  The skills courses would be focused around modern standards of many employers, such as computer skills, media communication skills, etc.  Both the exploration and skills options have flexible courses to cater to each student’s individual preferences.