Students today don̢۪t seem to realize what being a student means.

To wit: you complain about general education. I know I did. Given how many of us hate it so, it̢۪s rare that a comrade tries to set us straight.

Who wouldn̢۪t complain? General education is nothing if not 50-plus units of non-major classes, and students are frustrated about it.

Despite this frustration, the average student would probably agree that wanting to learn is more valuable than any midterm or final. That epiphany, more often than not, takes some amount of reflection.

With all these courses, perhaps there̢۪s little time for reflection. Most students I know don̢۪t care to try, either.

Public speaking and basic literacy may come in handy for everyone, but the catalogue is crowded with multiculturalism and upper-division sciences — fields too divorced from anything non-major students find interesting.

Wanting to learn finds a student seeking out knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Sure, the willing and life-long learner ends up better-rounded than peers forced under the most rigorous general education framework.

Boy, does Fresno State seem to have such a rigorous general education framework.

The California State University system requires a minimum of 48 semester units across the system. Fresno State requires 51. The three extra units come by way of the 4-unit math and science classes.

Fresno State students can̢۪t complain about general education more than anyone else in the CSU system.

Debate among yourselves about whether that’s a rigorous framework, but I’d guess that nine out of ten glossy-eyed students agree on three points — G.E. is useless for our future careers. We weren’t motivated to learn in G.E. or even like it, and it’s at least twelve classes forged from tedium, plus or minus Computer Science 1.

Let̢۪s start at the very beginning. It̢۪s a very good place to start.

Find the average Glossy McEyed, a physical therapy student who needs Latin, and he’d show you the exception to the rule. “What use is art history for future police officers,â€Â he’d ask, “or math for tenors?â€Â

You never know when you̢۪ll need it. At least 46 percent of college graduates are not hired or will not seek jobs in their field, according to a 2004 Oklahoma State study. This means a good amount of students go on to a field other than their major. Some even go through programs just knowing that they̢۪ll never go into the field.

Sound obscure? Probably not. I did that, and I doubt I was the first.

All I needed from Fresno State was a bachelor’s degree, so I shacked up with the journalism department to take advantage of the 15-unit block of liberal arts electives — units from previous majors filled it easily.

I had a lot of majors during my first three semesters — I was like a fat kid in a poisoned candy shop. Motivated to learn, I couldn’t decide on just one subject.

Then math stopped being fun once I got out of calculus, and neo-Marxist debate and discussion of “Huckleberry Finnâ€Â soured me to the English major.

I still played logic games and read sturdily tattered library editions of Vonnegut even after switching to news writing. They have nothing to do with print journalism, but I kept them going anyway. Since when does a focus of learning mean academic blinders?

Too many of my friends complain that the university doesn̢۪t motivate its students to learn, too, as if the burden of motivation were on professors in drab colors and poor attitudes.

They maintain that the university encourages students to take the barest minimum of classes — a cohort of elective-filling bowling and social dance classes included — and that students have no time for anything else once they’re are over and done with general education.

There’s always time for “Cat’s Cradle.â€Â If you’ve read it, you know what I mean.

Chances are, you aren’t filling up your Friday nights and lazy Sunday mornings with work. If you are, there are weeknights and whole afternoons you could probably squeeze in a chapter or two — Vonnegut novels read fast, so one chapter a week is a bare minimum.

The burden of motivation is on you.

Get motivated, and get over your stubbornness. To the inquisitive mind, the subject is never boring. It̢۪s only professors and their classes that are.

Even if the only merit a subject has is a scholarly discussion of its merit, that merit is nearly always heated and, consequently, interesting. If you don̢۪t find something interesting, work at it.

Which brings us back to the first point — what should it mean to be a student?

Learn willingly, and on your own time, however much effort it takes.

Careful about that learning habit, though. You might end up enjoying it.