BY: BEATRICE JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Since the time of the ancient Greeks, humanities have been an essential component of the educational process. When I found out that STLCC had dropped several classes within humanities, I was disappointed, but not surprised. Several classes throughout the years have been given the chopping block, including Intro to Comparative Politics and Cultural Anthropology, however, the class removal that I find the most recent removal I found the most troubling was the removal of the Argumentation and Debate class.
Understanding the construction of an argument is critical to the ability to comprehend the world around you. Additionally, I find it incredibly troubling how economic factors are obviously being prioritized over the education of our students. While I couldn’t find any information about dropping the class from our course schedule, I can’t think of a reason to stop offering the class that does not, in some shape or form, come back to money.
Additionally, while I enjoy the wide breadth of classes offered by Meramec, I simply refuse to believe another class couldn’t have taken the back burner, so that an essential communication class which is offered by practically every high school, college, and university in the country, could be taught. Or even better, if we didn’t have so much construction going on all at once, we’d have some spending money without our classes suffering. All-in-all, ANY educational institution ever choosing to get rid of a class should take a deep, hard look at what they are choosing to do through the lens of a place of learning first and foremost, not a place of business.
Shouldn’t a place of learning prioritize offering basic classes that benefit our students over income? How can Meramec offer such a wide breadth of classes, yet not offer basic classes in the CORE 42? How can we spend thousands of dollars on an electronic whiteboard (see the second floor of Science West) and pretzel warmers, yet classes like this are a problem? How can we make these choices when we still have ASBESTOS in parts of many of our buildings?
Style over substance seems to be the new Archer way.
