Letters to the Editor

Posted on February 11, 2008

In defense of the disciplines

After reading “Grievances against GenEds” on Jan. 31, I almost crawled into my bed and sobbed. General Education serves a very relevant purpose—whether they offer enough of a course variety is another question altogether. Whatever the case, the truth is that we can adopt a genuine appreciation (and resulting skill) for subjects outside our major, and we should. Multidisciplinary scholarship and exposure is key to survival in any professional arena. (A person not schooled in some business, communication or technology is almost destined to work beneath someone who is.)

We must abandon any negative stereotypes resulting from bad experiences with these subjects in high school. Back then we received instruction from educators, but at JMU, this institution of higher learning, we are lectured by academics, scholars and researchers—leaders in their field. Inherent to them is an indelible enthusiasm for their subject, which they attempt to rub off on their students with varying success. The only advice I can offer is to try to appreciate the topic. JMU’s mission is to produce “enlightened citizens,” Renaissance men and women, not people who believe that “unrelated” disciplines simply have nothing to offer.

In specific defense of the sciences, I cannot argue that the course material initially may seem to lack practicality and application. However, what they accomplish well, by any measure, is teaching us how to think logically, abstractly and analytically, and is indispensable to students from any discipline.

Laurence Lewis
senior physics major

Barack and his barrage of young supporters

The candidacy of Barack Obama has excited a whole new generation of previously disinterested young Americans. As stirring as this youthful involvement portends for the future, some older members of the Democratic Party seem averse to joining the movement and instead expect these young people to temper their idealism and switch allegiance to a candidate of their elders’ choosing.

This is not going to happen and if the incipient enthusiasm of these young people is squelched, the bulk of the newly involved will drift into the dead center of an empathic public that has little faith in any political party’s capacity to set this nation on a path that bodes a more promising and inclusive future for working and middle class, and destitute Americans.

Before Democrats let this happen, best they remember John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural charge to the citizens of those times: “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”

Sam Osborne
West Branch, Iowa