Melissa Meek, Spring 2009 Features Editor
Students often worry about checking the schedule of classes and making sure the class they need to take doesn’t have any prerequisites before they register. It’s not that strange to find subjects like math or English requiring certain classes be taken before another can begin.
Psychology is just the newest subject to start this.
A certain level of English will be recommended before enrolling in beginning-level psychology classes, but they’re not required.
Within the next year, if more students take English before psychology, and it does improve their achievement, English will be added as a prerequisite.
A basic knowledge of writing and reading comprehension can be useful for any subject.
Pierce College won’t be the first to suggest this and hopefully not the last. Los Angeles Mission College already suggests taking English 21 before Psychology 1.
English is already a requirement to transfer or receive a degree from Pierce, so how does it directly affect students?
Psychology majors must wait to begin their classes until they can pass a certain number of English classes, depending on where they’re placed during the placement tests. This may prolong the amount of time they spend at Pierce, possibly extending the two-year plan most transfer students hope for.
The time it takes them to finish the courses they need will just make them more educated and prepare them for psychology.
Students should take the extra time to take an English class. Even if it doesn’t help with psychology like the department is hoping, it can do so much more for other classes as well.
It might have made more sense to begin this procedure long ago. Pierce may be the stepping stone to four-year universities, but that doesn’t mean our education is lacking in any way.
The goal of any college is to prepare their students and ensure their education will get them a good future. If that means requiring an English class before jumping into psychology, then Pierce should do all it can to help students succeed.
By changing one department’s standards at a time, Pierce can improve current students’ futures, as well as those of the students to come.
Melissa Meek ()