A brave new bookbag

Registration for spring semester is a few short weeks away. That likely means you’re either cherishing the new method of semi-excusable procrastination that is bookbagging or dreading digging through course guides and taking a step closer towards the post-Duke future. For second semester seniors, this iteration of bookbagging might seem particularly tedious. They have been through the process seven times before and the magic of course selection has grown dull. Their explorative freshman spark muted, many will not take full advantage of the opportunity a final semester at Duke presents.

A considerable number of seniors will instead opt to underload. Having received job offers, they will convince themselves that they have earned a chance to “take it easy” during their last stretch of classes until graduation. And while it is true that a “darty”-friendly might seem more conducive to a fun last semester though, any senior halfway out the door ought to consider whether the rarity of intellectual curiosity and breadth of resources they have at their fingertips is worth blowing away for four months of relaxation. Many seniors, after May, will wave good-bye to academia and move permanently into the workforce. They will never again have the chance to so freely tap into the boundless resources of an institution like Duke. Having already paid tuition for the chance to engage fully at Duke, they ought to take full advantage of it.

A few other seniors, instead of relaxing in their last semester, will choose to dive even deeper into their major this spring, taking courses to give themselves a competitive edge. That is admirable, but not if it comes at the expense of exploring new topics. The core of a liberal arts education lies in teach students to approach problems from a multitude of angles. If a student packs their first three years full of statistics courses, reaches second semester of senior year, and decides to take four more, they limit the number of angles they know how to approach problems from. For example, if the referenced statistics major wanted to explore why a certain group of people vote less often than others, they might be able to build a Bayesian network to help their research but without having properly explored classes, might not be able to deeply explore the literature of that group and solve the problem from another angle.

Curricular tunnel vision is not unique to students in their final year. Many of us are guilty of sticking to a comfortable track and failing to deviate from it. We are wrong to do so. This university does not aim to produce graduates with infinitely deep knowledge of one or two topics. It looks to create rounded, interdisciplinary scholars. Statistics classes should be grounded with philosophy classes, expanded with economics classes and furthered with public policy classes. Class planning and bookbagging should be thought about from the bottom-up rather than top-down. We should look to see how we can expand our base of knowledge rather than how we can fit five additional finance classes onto an econ major. Rather than constraining ourselves with double major requirements, we should linger on department course lists tangentially related to our interests and expand boundaries. A good number of new classes should offer a radically different way of thinking than our previous courses have.

All of us, seniors included, should bookbag daringly.