The responsibility of college is not only to build up students the foundamental knowledge of the major that they chose, but also, and more improtantly, to develop their independent thinking and the ability to make rational and practical decision for themselves. Therefore, it is unreasonable and even devatating for colleges to specify all required courses and eliminate elective courses for students.
The reason of this claim that the claimer provide is not valid in the first place. The fact is that people from different background and have different world-view, value system would judge things and make their decisions out of their different interests, it is impossible for everybody to be satified with the same decision. Therefore, people, not only adults but also children and even infants would prefer to make their own decisions based on their own specific situations instead of waiting others to make decisions for them, which might not fit into their best interests. One telling example is that once I was the leader of a group, when we discuss what we should do the celebrate our one-year anniversary, A suggested to have party because she likes parties, and B raised the idea to go camping because he had never done that before, while C would like to have a big dinner because he is a cate-lover and so on. None of them would follow my decision, which is to have barbeque because that is my favorite activity.
Moreover, if colleges, as suggested by the claimer, choose the courses all by their own and ignore the students' interets and decision, the consequence might be disastrous. College students, as a pre-mature group, and with the foundamental knowlege studied in the prior years, has their own interets and to some degree, rational thinking, which means that they have the abiliy to make their own decisions. However, if they cannot choose the elective courses out of their own interests, this decision-making ability might be gone with the time, and finally, there will be brimming with blind-followers in the commencement rather than a group of educated intellects. The examples is just in the Chinese college education. Students are asked to attend several compulsory courses, include military course, modern history of China course, Chinese course, and political course, some of which have been studied in the secondary. In those couses, some students who are not interested just waste their time in the class while those who still have not figured out their interests are just told by the teachers and colleges what their interests should be. This college education system might, in all probility, end up with either students did not have much gains and just fooling around in the college for four years, or students without their own thinking and decision, and could only follow others' direction, named nerd. Neither of them is favorable to our society and to their on career.
Colleges, like I state at the beginning, should not put their minds wholly on choosing courses for students. Instead, it would be much more beneficial for them to focus on cultivate students in a reasonable way, that is train their independent, creative and critical thinking, foster their ability to make rational and practical decisions, help them to establish their own value system, and ultimately, guide students to find their own life path.
All in all, it is unsound for colleges to specify required courses and eliminate elective course for stuedents out of the reason that students prefer to follow directions rather than making their own decisions. Rather, colleges should leave the decisions, not only in the academic fields, but also in other relevent areas, to the students, through which to cultivate students' thinking and decision-making ability, while directly or indirectly, pilot students to the right way in general.