Single disciplines cannot stand alone Chris Blauwkamp In 1862, the United States Congress passed the Morrill land grant act, which established public universities. As the Michigan State web page says, “The core of the land-grant tradition is the belief that educational opportunities should be made available to the widest possible number of people.” The basic idea behind having a land-grant college is to educate people. This, in theory, is the purpose behind any college or university, even Calvin. But what does it mean to be educated? It is not just learning a trade; people did that before we had colleges, and still do now. It means having a basic level of knowledge about our country, our world, and ourselves. Here at Calvin we have a system of core requirements to ensure that we receive this basic level of education. To many people, this system is annoying at best, and often damaging. So what if I am a philosophy major, and cannot pass chemistry (or an engineering major who can’t pass history)? What does it matter in the end? It is perhaps most clear for us who major in the humanities. We need to have a basic knowledge of many disciplines, so when we write about them, we do not look like fools. However, it can be equally important for other majors. If you go into business, knowing how to write well and present yourself well can be of utmost importance in getting promotions. In addition, science majors need to know how to write well if they expect to be published in journals. Philosophy herself can be vital in developing critical thinking skills, and the ability to reason logically and persuasively. In any case, a discipline usually contains unanswered questions, questions that can be only be answered by a different discipline. Science can tell us what the world is like, but not why, and Philosophy can tell us why, but very often not what. History and religion can tell us why, but in a different way than Philosophy. Beyond purely career-related criteria, a well-rounded education is important in developing as persons. We are, as Aristotle said, political animals, and we can only truly find ourselves in relation to others -- to what went before us, and to what is happening now. Meanwhile, classes like psychology can help us understand what is going on inside ourselves. In any case, it is a mark of a well-made individual that one knows a lot about many things. If we did not have core requirements, many of us would lack its well-rounded foundation, both within our discipline and within ourselves. And that, after all, is why colleges exist, to educate us.