By Jacob Peller, Staff Writer

Published Sep. 10, 2014

I, like many of you, came to college because I was told that it would open the floodgates to many new skills and opportunities.

Of course, college’s sole goal isn’t to simply broaden your interests.  Instead, it’s meant to train you for specific fields of work.  For instance, you may have an interest in science that needs to be narrowed down into a more specialized field, such as biology or chemistry.

And the funny thing is that even those fields are further subdivided in order to allow you to specialize in a focused area for a future career.

This reality, however, oftentimes confuses students and leads them to question the true purpose of some college courses.

In short, college offers classes of all kinds so you can do exactly what you want to do, but only so long as you never stray from the university’s preapproved path.

After a student declares his or her major, they’re given a list of required classes that they must complete for graduation.  Embedded in this list is a group of free electives, which are supposed to include interesting and unrelated classes that any student has the power to take regardless of its ability to fill any of the required credit hours.

But who’s to say if these classes are simply padding for the student?

I’m a theater major, and as such my classes are predominantly the aspects of theater.

The courses cover everything from: acting on stage, scenery, costuming, and even the business-oriented functions concerning theater management.

This may seem like a large area to choose from, but it doesn’t cover everything.

In truth there are a number of classes that aren’t offered to the average theater student, because they’re put on reserve for students enrolled in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program (BFA).

While this common occurrence shouldn’t typically pose a problem, as there are many classes available for all students in advanced subjects, it is a huge issue when certain classes are not offered for the rest of the student body.

In this case, students may have an interest in a certain field of theater, but since they didn’t get into the BFA program they’re unable to take any of these classes.

Jordan Cranford, a theater student, told me, “I have an interest in film, but I can’t take many of the classes because they are only offered to BFAs.”

This, he explained, is critical because he has a far greater interest in the field of acting in film than acting on stage, which is the predominant area covered in theater classes.

It seems to me that the issue with college in general is that it is less about learning for the sake of learning and more about being programed to learn only a single skill that could prove to be useful in the business world.

Under this system there is absolutely no room for creativity or personal spin on your list of talents.

Instead, you run the risk of wasting time by not fulfilling any of the courses that are required by your particular major or college.

We pride ourselves on individuality, especially when it comes to our hobbies, likes, dislikes and personal beliefs.  In fact, we show pride in the very qualities that make us unique.

Yet, it seems that the school structure currently in place handles our large and unique student body as carbon copies of one another when it comes to the path of study we are forced to take.

The university, for some odd reason, believes that everyone must take the same classes regardless of their usefulness.

To use a metaphor: no matter how hard I try to sew, I’ll never be able to sew a straight line.  I don’t like it; I’m not good at it; it’s just not practical for me to learn how to do it.

College is undoubtedly the prime moment in all of our lives to learn.  Frankly, it represents the one time when we can dip our toes into various fields of study and find which category suits us the very best.

But don’t be surprised when you find something you’re truly interested in and the class says that it isn’t “for your major” or “you’re not in the right program.”

If I can’t actively peruse knowledge for the sake of knowledge, then there is something seriously wrong with the education system.

The moment the university stops you from taking a class, they’re preventing you from seeking knowledge.

So much for “broaden your horizons.”