Class Recommendations
I recommend that college students take college courses that challenge their comfort zone and make them uncomfortable by causing them to question deeply held assumptions.
Take college classes that challenge your comfort zone and force you to question some of your most deeply held assumptions. These classes can be painful, but so valuable.
Some of the best classes I took in college were ones that made me feel very uncomfortable and challenged my assumptions about how the world works.
In one of my very favorite classes, my class debated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The professor urged us to join a debate team that represented a side we totally disagreed with. Now, I didn’t know much about the issue at the time, but because I’m Jewish, I assumed I would be on the side of the Israelis. So I took the professor’s advice and joined the debate team that represented the most radical Palestinian viewpoint. Most of the other Jewish students in the class did the same.
At first, we didn’t know where to start because we all thought the Palestinians were dead wrong and lacked logical arguments to back their cause. So we started doing research, and that’s when things started getting uncomfortable. I realized that the Palestinians have rational, intelligent arguments for feeling the way the do, and that the Israelis have not always been unquestionably right. When the debate was over, the professor asked the class which side we most supported. I didn’t answer, because I was very confused, and when I walked home from class, my body was shaking. I realized that throughout my childhood, in Sunday School and even from family members, I’d learned things about Palestinians and other Middle Easterners that were inaccurate and just plain racist. I always assumed that I was too “enlightened” to have internalized racist views, but that class made me reconsider.
This debate did not totally change my mind on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But because I was put in the position of having to consider a different viewpoint, I now see this as a complex issue where different people have perfectly rational reasons for reaching different conclusions. I’m grateful to that professor for gifting me with this painful experience.
As you choose your classes, don’t be afraid to take ones outside of your comfort zone. And check out my recommendations for classes that I feel can beneficial for all students to take.
