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rmilitello's picture

Requirements

 I feel that the faculty at Bryn mawr has done a good job in trying to come up with a curriculum that will support the mission of the college. However, I do think that as much as supporting that mission is up to the faculty, it is up to the students as well. Bryn Mawr certainly does a good job of providing a rigorous education. Though, as much as I like the idea of a closed curriculum sometimes it can feel a bit restrictive for some. For example,   I don't agree that one math class is going to "give the student an appreciation of the value of quantitative analysis", sometimes if students have a difficult time with math after one math class they never want to take it again! However, the mission statement does say that it tries to "encourage" a pursuit of knowledge, so the truth is, that if it doesn't work out in one subject, the point is the student tried a number of things, not just the things she thought she would be good at. Sometimes it just so happens that we think we won't like something, but because we have to take it we end up realizing that we might really like that class after all. 

I think that the new requirements may help in that it is trying to uphold the part of Bryn Mawr's mission statement that says Bryn Mawr values "critical, creative and independent habits of thought." I think that with some of the new requirements, for example the new language requirement, will help to encourage a greater pursuit of knowledge. People don't like doing things because they have to, but rather because they want to and are genuinely interested. I think that a greater freedom of choice makes for a more student population that is much more enthusiastic about the education they are receiving. 

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