I am now over halfway through my fourth semester as an English major at Binghamton University, and I can’t help but feel a little frustrated, a feeling I know many of my fellow English major friends share. The English major at BU is unstructured. There are hardly any prerequisites for classes and it’s quite flexible. Because of this, I am almost finished with my major in my second year, which, economically, is great, yet I can’t help feeling as if I’ve been missing out on my English education at BU.
The stereotype of the English major is somebody who is “taking the easy way out” by writing a few papers and analyzing a passage any way they feel. Studying English doesn’t have to be this way. English can be challenging. It can involve complex arguments about what a text reveals about us or the world. It can involve an interesting discussion on semantics, or a talk about historical context and what we can learn from it. BU fails to provide English students with that experience.
I don’t want to completely bash the department. Flexibility in a major is good, but without any structure, classes fall short. I’ve had a few amazing professors who were really engaging and push their students. Others, while certainly knowledgeable, act as if they’ve given up or couldn’t care less about our critical thinking skills which are supposed to be the foundation of an English major’s expertise.
To give a specific example, I took Intro to Theory/Criticism last semester. I couldn’t help but feel frustrated that this class wasn’t a prerequisite for upper-level classes. What is the point of learning about Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida if no other professor or students include theory in our critical discussions of texts? It makes theory class feel like isolated knowledge, rather than something that we are encouraged to apply in other classes. I know we as students can do this independently, but if theory were essential, students would be more likely to incorporate it into discussions. Students could learn on an equal playing field.
Beyond this, the department needs to stop catering to popular interest with classes that simply sound fun. I’m frustrated that I can easily take a class on gaming, zombies or children’s literature, but struggle to find a class that reads James Joyce or T.S. Eliot. In my years at BU, I’ve read more challenging works on my own time. Students could benefit from a more solid foundation in English that shows through the classes on their transcript.
The professors and students are less to blame than the structure of the department. A more rigorous program could weed out people studying English because “it’s easy” or because they’re unsure what else to take, leaving it to students that actually care about literature. It could also give students the necessary tools to properly discuss texts. We have some great professors and great students. Make English a major that reflects that.