Is general studies a waste of time?

Is general studies a waste of time

This is a question that students have been asking themselves for a very long time. General studies has always been that class that people don’t take seriously because they feel like nothing they learn in it is going to help them in life. They also hear people who already graduated college and have their degree and they tell them that general studies were the most useless because they never applied them to their careers.

In this article we are going to be talking about the reasons why this continues to be a requirements and why they need to remain part of the learning process of a college student.

What do you learn in general studies?

There are many topics that you will learn about during your general studies classes. You will be given some basic information on the similarities and the differences between cultures and the use of proper language. You will also learn the role that art plays in society and some examples of very specific artwork that has transcended time.

You will also learn about beliefs, religions and the many ways in which people see the world based on the values that they have been given from a very early age. The freedoms, the responsibilities and the rights that people have and how they will be different in all regions of the world.

Then you will start learning about the most important accomplishments of science and how this has molded society. The origins of the universe and the many forms of energy and natural sources will also be part of the studies. Keep in mind that all these subjects will be taught at a very basic level, but enough information will be provided for it to be helpful for you.

Why is this not a waste of time after all?

There is a very good reasons for learning all of this general information. It’s unite true that you are probably never going to need to use it in your career because no one is going to be testing you on general knowledge, but this general information on how the world works, how cultures differ and how society has evolved, will allow you to have a much better idea of how the world works, how people from other cultures think and how you should behave depending on the kind of person you are dealing with.

There are many different engagement rules in all social environments and we are all connected in the modern world, so we need to learn to deal with all kinds of cultures successfully.

This is the main reason why it can be so important for someone to be able to understand these subjects as much as possible. It will help you have a clearer connection to the world you live in and that is a very powerful weapon for any individual, regardless of their profession.

We all need to have general culture about our past and our present as a species and with a world that is connected in so many ways, we can’t afford to simply focus on our local history and ways of thinking.

General studies in the modern world

The biggest issue that some students have with general knowledge in the modern world is that they feel it can be easily obtained online. We are certainly living in a completely different world now and all kinds of general and not so general knowledge can now be found online for no cost at all. Perhaps the Millennials are a generation that finds this kind of assignment even more frustrating and pointless because they grew up in a world with plenty of information available to them.


There is no way to deny that general studies allow us to understand out world a little better and they also help us learn to deal with people from different cultures and with different beliefs. If this allows for tolerance and better understanding of the world, then it should still be considered useful, even if the information is available so easily. Most people will never learn this general information on their own because they will also find it to be useless if they are given the option to learn it.

This is the main reason why it should remain as part of any higher learning education process in order to ensure that the students graduate with enough general knowledge to handle every aspect of the engagement they have with other people in their personal and professional life successfully.