Coming in to this year as a freshman in First Year College, hoping to eventually be accepted into the Engineering School here at NC State, my mind was very one-dimensional in the sense that I would be focusing only on the classes for my major (Physics, Calculus, etc.). After working through these first two weeks of school, as well as reading this composition by Norman Cousins, I am tremendously more appreciative of the field of humanities. Cousins makes a very significant point in his writing: in this postmodern world we live in today, American education is relying on people to become specialized to get through their lives. In relation to Cousins title “How to Make People Smaller Than They Are”, I believe this is considerable, but not completely true. I do not believe that it is entirely the university that is at fault, but rather the individual. Of course, it does help to have requirements in the fields of study, but I am aware that here at NC State, three Social Science classes are necessary to graduate, as well as being somewhat proficient with a language. Cousins does make not of this, although I believe that personal liberty gives us the capabilities to extend our knowledge to the greatest lengths, and to become the person we desire. Yes, students these days are less rounded than anticipated, but we cannot rely on the educational system to help us prevail; we must rely on ourselves.
“The main difference between High School and College is that new types of intellectual work are required at the college level.” I cannot think of a better way to describe my transition from High School to College. Meiland penetrates deeper into this statement speaking of rationality, irrationality, theories, hypotheses, and the belief that things known as “factual information” may perhaps be well supported at the present, but can turn out to be false. These distinctions of my rising education have predominately been illustrated in my English class. The class is...