Part of the excitement of college is that you can take whatever classes you want and acquire whatever knowledge you desire. Whether it’s anthropology, statistics, wine tasting or even walking for exercise, you can expand your education in whatever way you see fit, right?

Well, sort of.

If you take the right prerequisites, are in the correct major and fit other qualifications (such as being 21 for the wine tasting class), then you are usually free to take whatever class you wish once enrolled. The exception is in lower-level language classes for “heritage” speakers of the language.

A heritage speaker is someone who knows a language as a result of listening and speaking, usually a birth language or language spoken by parents. Individuals who are native speakers of a foreign language are restricted from enrolling in classes of their language at a 100 or 200 level.

Many universities, including Iowa State, have language requirements for graduating students. These usually require a student to have taken two or four years of a foreign language between high school and college. This means that even native speakers of a foreign language have class requirements to meet.

The university’s policy of keeping heritage speakers out of lower level classes has an admirable explanation: to get those speakers to advance their education in their native tongue instead of allowing them an “easy A” that came at little educational cost.

What’s interesting about this is that if a student tests out of English 150, for example, that student can still choose to take it at any point. Proving their aptitude in an area does not bar that student from taking a class that they are “overqualified” for.

And sometimes, going backward to take those lower level classes can be beneficial. For students who have waited some time between high school and college, or for those who feel they can’t recall necessary knowledge, taking a class teaching things they already know is a very good idea.

In the end, it’s up to an individual to know if they are prepared for the next level of classes or not. Nobody should be able to make a student jump into a harder class if they really feel that they aren’t ready for it.

It could be argued that some students may take the lower-level classes for the sole sake of an improved grade point average. Though that might be true, it still doesn’t excuse the fact that only certain classes for certain students are restricted. If a person who has prior experience in coding takes a low-level coding class for the benefit of an easy A, then a person who has experience with a foreign language should be able to do the same.

Regardless of the logical justification for this university restriction, there are some people for whom it is just unfair. An international student might have grown up hearing his parents speaking a language and have learned it as a result. However, what if the parents didn’t know how to read or write that language? What if it wasn’t the national language and therefore not taught in schools?

In cases such as these, there may be a student who can fluently speak a foreign language with the best of them. But that student might not be able to read a textbook or write an essay in that language no matter how hard they tried.

Technically, these students would be “heritage speakers” and thus banned from enrolling in the lower level classes of the language on which they grew up. However, it is simply not fair to force these students to take a class in which they would be utterly helpless.

Unable to read the textbook, lecture slides or complete the first essay, students such as these would be completely incapable of succeeding in an upper-level class.

The reasons behind university language class restrictions are clear. As an institute dedicated to education, it makes sense that we would encourage students to challenge themselves and not take classes in which they know they can succeed.

However, since this regulation is not maintained across all fields of study, it’s simply unfair. If heritage speakers can’t take lower-level language classes, then every student should be screen for abilities and made to only enroll in classes in which they have limited knowledge.

It doesn’t matter if a student is taking a class just for a good grade, to catch up on lost knowledge or to learn something completely new. Unless restrictions are made equally for all classes and students, keeping specific students out of any class should not be allowed.