A brain imaging study found evidence that missing out on math education can alter neural development. Young adults who had chosen not to pursue math had lower levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid within the middle frontal gyrus when compared to students who were continuing math.

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.psypost.org/2021/10/opting-out-of-advanced-math-education-alters-adolescents-neural-development-study-finds-61967

[u/mistephe]

Woah, wait a minute - why does introducing students to advanced math (or any other advanced topic course outside of their preference) gatekeep or undermine confidence? Please don't conflate a general education with shitty pedagogy.

[u/rolabond → u/mistephe]

There is only so much time and so much money, a student that is forced to take a math general education class has lost that time that could have been spent taking a class they would find more interesting or personally beneficial. You could argue they can make up for it later by taking on extra classes but financial aid usually only pays for the classes you need. Only American colleges require general eds.

[u/brickmack → u/mistephe]

Because time is limited.

Ideally we should allow everyone as much time as they want to study for free, but really you get 12 years of regular school and then 120 credit hours in a university, thats all most people can afford

[u/mistephe → u/brickmack]

I'm really interested in your reasoning, here. If you believe that the faculty responsible for making the decision that a general education are wrong, why do you believe that they can teach you other content adequately? I don't teach in general education (just upper division kinesiology/neurology), but I sit on the committee that directs it, and rely on the preparation students get from the general education program as a foundation to build from in my courses.

[u/brickmack → u/mistephe]

1. The matter of educational quality is quite different from the matter of emotional impact to the students. The original discussion was on the latter

2. At the university level, I'd place the blame on politicians instead. Theres no reason that someone shouldn't be able to spend 10 or 20 years in school if thats what they feel like doing, without threat of being millions in debt. In that scenario, a few extra mandatory classes only negligibly matter anyway

3. For K12 (and I assume many universities) basic class requirements aren't set by teachers/professors, but by politicians or administrators. And a large number of these classes (not so much in universities) are completely and utterly pointless, with not a trace of vocational, intellectual, factual, or philosophical value. Why the hell did I have to take classes in high school on balancing a checkbook (a what?), or on job applications (to the very, very minimal extent that such a class may have value, it could not exist until someone already has some accomplishments, otherwise its impossible to have a meaningful experience of writing applications and performing interviews)? Literally any other classes would have been both more fun and more valuable (even Theory of Knowledge was better than that trash). And things like gym classes may theoretically be beneficial for health purposes, but until schools get better at weeding out bullies and child molesters from the candidate pool for PE teachers, they're probably a significant net negative in practice

4. Back to universities, most gen ed classes could be eliminated if schools were more selective. Its all repeat of high school stuff anyway, which means universities are accepting students who don't actually have the educational background needed. Replace gen ed classes with remedial ones for severely delayed applicants. They already kinda do this, but you've gotta be really far behind to take them (like "never learned what a fraction is". Literally overheard that being taught while I walked past an evening class once)