Sometimes the best way to learn about a culture is not sitting at a desk in a classroom and listening to a professor lecture about it. Sometimes the best way to learn about a culture is to go into the real world and live it.
That is why the university’s newest requirement for Spanish majors was a good decision on behalf of MSU academic officials.
Beginning in the fall, undergraduates who declare Spanish as their major will be required to participate in a Spanish-speaking study abroad program, internship, service learning program or on-campus residential program.
Students who declare the major before the fall don’t have to complete the requirement, but we encourage them to take advantage of one or more of the multitude of programs highlighted in the new requirement.
Although these programs have not been Spanish major requirements in the past, students have taken advantage of them for years because they are aware of the benefits to their own education.
By requiring Spanish majors to participate in one of these programs to earn a degree, university leaders have acknowledged what educators have known for some time now: The best way to learn about a culture is to experience at least some immersion in it.
We hope the trend of applying study abroad programs and other cultural-experience opportunities to major requirements catches on across other fields of study at MSU.
But there is one catch if academic officials plan to make study abroad and similar cultural-experience programs requirements for the plethora of majors they would be beneficial to - cost.
A university education is expensive. And even though MSU has been a national leader in cost constraints, it is not an exception to that fact.
If university officials continue to want to tack out-of-classroom requirements onto degree programs, they also must work just as diligently to provide as much financial help as possible and constrain program costs for students who must comply to with those extra requirements.
MSU boasts the nation’s largest study abroad program, offering more than 140 programs in more than 50 countries. And it is MSU President M. Peter McPherson’s goal to see that at least 40 percent of graduating seniors have a study abroad experience during their college careers.
It is pleasing to be assured MSU is a leader in trying to provide its students with opportunities to learn outside the classroom. It’s even better, as evident in the new Spanish requirement, to know MSU leaders have a commitment to teach their students outside the classroom.
Although some professors may not like to admit it, their classrooms are not always the best places to learn. Technology is shrinking the world more and more every day. If Spartans are to go out and make a difference in the world, they need to go out and learn in it first.
