With a rise in students continuing their education beyond high school and gaining more expertise in a certain field, the belief that one’s subject of study is more important than another’s is more prevalent and heated than ever. Students see graduation requirements in subjects other than their own as subtractive to their education in their area of study. Non-science majors complain about the need for sitting in lab three hours, while non-humanities majors complain about the need for reading a series of seemingly irrelevant books. The idea of just “getting the graduation requirements out of the way” is a common thought process evoked to show how little merit, importance or interest students see of other subjects possessing.

Education should not be regarded as this jumping through hoops to satisfy graduation requirements. Regardless of the specifics of the classes students choose to satisfy the requirements, the knowledge they learn can enhance their knowledge even within their own major. For example, the topics covered in science or social science classes can help other majors re-envision context, themes and impacts within information they learn in their own respective studies. At the same time, topics explored in humanities or arts can help other majors apply their knowledge in a new way or think about it differently. Without realizing the full extent to which they do this, students close themselves off to new experiences by terming a class as “just a graduation requirement.” Exploring all different subjects can help students develop an understanding of the overlap in classes. This overlap creates multiple layers of understanding and further enhancing their knowledge.

Understanding how different subjects and ideas overlap can also create more respect between students of different majors. Once a student can see the importance in a subject and how it can be interesting, they can better appreciate why another student would want to study it. This appreciation leads to more respect in general, which is necessary to communicating with peers, professors and the rest of the world.

Respecting other majors, both students and subjects, will lead to a more meaningful education with a depth of knowledge and a better ability to understand other students.