There are electives and there are electives
When I was in my third year at the University, I had some slight headache in choosing my electives — for both first and second semesters. An elective is a course specified by a department which a student can take in order to make up the required additional units for award of a degree. I was required to take 12 units of external electives in order to get a minimum of 40 units, including my departmental electives and compulsory courses. Before then, I’d immediately considered myself a public relations and advertising major, with a flair for writing and teaching languages.
The choice of electives gave me a slight headache because no French courses were available in 300L then as European Studies students must take a year off for Language Immersion at French Village in Badagry, Lagos. All my electives, when I was in my first and second year, were taken from Department of European Studies and English hence no headache at all. English department seemed a better option, but, apart from English Syntax and Lexis I took in my first semester, I didn’t find any course that interested me in second semester at that time. So, I went to the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy in my second semester. Took one elective from Philosophy — Metaphysics; and two electives from Religious Studies — Gospel According to St Matthew, and Religion and Social Conflict. All courses, both first and second semesters, are registered together at the very beginning of the session.
In school, I’m still very particular about my grades. We all should. But as much as I’m particular about grades, what I’m more particular about is acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competences, and choosing ‘proper’ electives that align with my career choice and overall goal. I think the choice of right electives can make a difference in your eventual career or field.
I’d never taken an elective because it was seemingly easy to have an A or most students are taking it. Hence jumping on the bandwagon. One of my lecturers once commented that students of Communication and Language Arts who take some courses in classics, religious studies, philosophy, history, are just amassing junk. This is his sentiment, but it’s arguably true, especially for students in CLA. Students in Communication and Language Arts should take more electives from English, Theatre Arts, Linguistics, European Studies, and perhaps Anthropology.
As much as what my lecturer said is sentimentally true and relevant, I think we must, however, still take electives for the fun of it. Fun of it, this has little or nothing to do with ‘junk’ electives. And there is nothing particularly wrong with a CLA student, who so much wishes to become a pastor later in life, taking all his electives from Religious Studies department. Or a CLA student with a music career or acting or dancing taking all their electives from Music department or Theatre Arts.
Looking back on my 300 level, second semester courses, I wished I’d actually taken some pains to collect an Add and Delete Form and replaced the courses with sociolinguistics, English semantics, creative writing or something in African Literature. I may not have got As in most of these courses or even Bs, but the knowledges would be substantial. Not having lots of As or Bs in these courses can have bad effects on one’s CGPA, I know, but not being better equipped or armed with the requisite knowledge and skills needed in your career is worse.
