Try thinking of this from the viewpoint of senior engineers and employers. When you get to be a senior engineer, do you want the junior engineers and job candidates thinking they alone should define what they need to have done in school, or are the senior engineers and employers really in a better place to do that?
Senior engineers and employers have worked very hard to communicate what college courses engineers need to take through the ABET accrediting program. From the ABET Wiki article:
ABET was established in 1932 as the Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD) by seven engineering societies:[5] The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers – now the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Institute of Electrical Engineers – now the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education – now the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and the National Council of State Boards of Engineering Examiners – now the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).[5]
Education is more than about knowing information, it's about thinking skills and learning how to learn and adapt to changing conditions, changing technologies, and new needs to solve different kinds of problems and communicate effectively over a 30-40 year career. Yes, you probably don't need to know Shakespeare, but odds are your reading and writing and critical thinking skills were not sufficiently developed in high school to serve your employers well throughout your entire career.
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