Graphic by Sesame Gaetsaloe/The Choate News
Every Choate student, sooner or later, feels the looming shadow of the Contemporary Global Studies graduation requirement. Instead of taking the electives they’re interested in, many freshmen take classes such as Contemporary Issues, World Religions, or Peace and Justice during their first year in order to get their Contemporary Global Studies requirement out of the way. The rigidity of the Contemporary Global Studies requirement constricts students’ schedules and stifles their opportunity to follow their passions.
Choate’s standard core classes — math, science, English, foreign language, and history — are widely recognized as the most basic and necessary classes, so it makes sense that students are required to develop competency in those areas. However, many Contemporary Global Studies classes are humanities based, preventing STEM-oriented students from pursuing their passions until later in their Choate careers.
Although one might contend that the purpose of the Contemporary Global Studies requirement is to teach fundamental writing and presentation skills that students will eventually need when taking higher-level classes (after all, according to the Student Handbook students are “urged to fulfill these requirements as early in their careers as possible”), I’d argue that these foundational skills can be taught in both core and subject-specific prerequisite classes. This way, students can cater their schedules to their passions while also developing these critical skills.
For example, English classes can assign more writing projects to supplement discussions and seminars. Non-humanities classes can work on presentation skills; in math and science classes, students can speak about a researched topic relevant to the subject they’re learning in class.
Furthermore, prerequisite electives that are required before a student can enroll in upper-level classes can refine writing and presenting skills as they apply to a particular field. If these lower-level electives and core classes focused on developing students’ communication skills, Contemporary Global Studies classes wouldn’t need to be required solely to teach new students to write and present.
Teaching writing and presentation skills in core classes and prerequisite electives would create room in the schedule for a student to take more classes of their own choice. After freshman year, students take World History and have more responsibilities on campus overall, which makes finding time for specialized electives more challenging. Without the Global Studies requirement, students would be able to get a head start on taking classes they are interested in during freshman year before their schedule becomes more weighed down.
Moreover, by allowing students, especially freshmen who are exploring new passions, to have more leeway in their schedules, they can take more classes in different fields and sample various areas of interest. This way, as students continue to explore their curiosity, they can engineer their schedule to fit a diverse set of classes or a myriad of more focused ones depending on their interests.
Some students come to Choate with an idea of what they want to pursue, while others’ ideas change over time. After all, isn’t the purpose of electives to help students discover their passions? Students should be able to take full advantage of all the open doors that Choate has to offer, to take “many paths,” rather than having their ambition restricted by the Contemporary Global Studies requirement.
