To those students in new general education courses—the Rollins Foundations in the Liberal Arts (rFLA) Neighborhood courses—I have one question for you: How are you finding the experience?
Even if you thought one of your teachers was great, or a course was fun or interesting, do you find that the program furthers your liberal arts education?
One more question: has anyone else asked you this question? Are you left with the impression that the school wants input from you and other students? Or are you left with the feeling that it is what it is and there is nothing students can do about it?
Paraphrasing one of our most famous graduates, Fred Rogers, “we live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say…’It’s not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond.”
If you think the rFLA Neighborhood requirement is serving you well, great. I am focused on your success and am delighted the school is meeting your needs.
If you are unhappy with the rFLA Neighborhood requirement—the content, the disruption to your schedule, the limited choices, the overly complicated structure, or the time wasted marching around with a banner for a Neighborhood you chose, but to which you have no loyalty—why would you?—I want you, using Mr. Rogers’ words, to respond.
What about a different GenEd model, one that solves the problems with the old alphabet soup, but still ensures Rollins students are liberally educated and exposed to new ideas outside their major?
It is called TENS.
It will not take a whole pamphlet to explain this alternative. You will not spend a day in a Rollins College Conference (RCC) course learning about it. And you certainly will not march around the gym with signs like you did when you were six years old.
TENS is a 10-course GenEd curriculum:
– RCC
– One foreign language course at the 200-level or higher
And ANY two existing courses in each of the letters:
– HumaniTies (one of which is ENG 140)
– Expressive Arts (one of which is Health & Wellness)
– Natural Sciences, Math, and Statistics
– Social Sciences
What do you think? I want to know.
My email is akupetz@rollins.edu. Please send me your thoughts with me. I will bundle them all together—in support of TENS and against it – and anonymously share them with those that brought you rFLA.
Thanks for responding.
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