Many if not most Community College students are not worth a dam! (degree, costs)
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I teach Management classes in the Business Program at a large Community College as an Adjunct Professor as a second job in the evening. I have also taught full time students in the day time too.
Sometimes when I can't sleep I get philosophical about the thousands of students who have come through my classes in the last 15 years. Many are nice enough and many put in some effort but in general America is in serious trouble if these people are going to someday work in responsible positions in corporate America.
What hits me is how many of the Community College students just don't care, are lazy and not so bright. Many even in their 20s and 30s are incredibly naive about academics, organization and education. They also seem incredibly naive about what awaits them in the real world if they graduate.
Most of the students who come through my Management 101 class will take a handful of classes at the Community College and then drop out and then go into a number of dead end jobs for the rest of their life.
My situation is not unique. My fellow Professors report the quality of students are at an all time low and each year the group gets worse and worse. All in an era when we are facing incredible competition from Asia.
Tell me the students are better in a four year college!
What do you expect from a community college student (in general, the ones in academic programs)? Generally, the students in community college are not ready for education. This can be for many reasons. Maybe they'll never be ready, or maybe they're just slow developers.
And then the education quality at community college is not always the best.
The best students in the CC are in the vocational programs such as nursing, fire science, police academy etc. These are the serious students looking for certification. I don't think the quality of eduction in these types of programs are lacking.
CC's are interesting in that they attract many different types of people. The ones you are complaining about are the HS kids who don't have a clue what they want to do with life, can't get work that pays much, and can only continue living at home with their parents as long as they are "doing something". Yeah, they aren't interested in school they just don't have many other choices. There is a subset among them of kids who don't belong in college at all, a probably didn't do well in HS either, but since they usually are involved in special programs that pays their costs it's what they do. These are probably the fastest growing group of students and why you notice a decline in quality.
I agree that the ones looking for certification are probably the most serious students. As are the ones trying to save a few $$ by knocking out their GE requirements before transfering to a 4 year. And then there are the adults who need to brush up or just want to better themselves, they are fun. I know, I'm one of them!
For the record, Community is currently my favorite TV show
The numbers that I have seen show that the modern USA has become a relatively low-IQ country (average 98, compared with 108 IIRC in Hong Kong). Moreover, our public schools seem to devote most of their efforts and interest toward policing bottom-of-the-barrel students rather than focusing on the best and brightest who might actually accomplish something in life. Add in a culture that seems to wallow in ignorance, stupidity and vulgarity in order to reach the lowest-common-denominator "citizen as consumer" in the pursuit of selling schlock, and we have what you observe. But other than that we're doing fine
The best students in the CC are in the vocational programs such as nursing, fire science, police academy etc. These are the serious students looking for certification. I don't think the quality of eduction in these types of programs are lacking.
Even then they aren't the best students. The better students that go into these programs attend 4 year schools and get a degree.
Workaholic--I agree. My husband and I did some volunteer work at a local community college. They were asking business people from the area to come in and do mock interviews with students that were near the end of their programs. We were both just in shock how unprepared they were. I was actually hoping to find an office manager out of the deal but my then 15 year old high school sophomores were better candidates for the job. These people-and I can't even call them kids because some of them were older then I am--couldn't string a coherent sentence together, they couldn't speak to their job experience, training for the jobs, NO eye contact in the interview. I cut the one kid a little slack as he was only 19 and his work experience was 6 years at McDonalds but after that .
The numbers that I have seen show that the modern USA has become a relatively low-IQ country (average 98, compared with 108 IIRC in Hong Kong). Moreover, our public schools seem to devote most of their efforts and interest toward policing bottom-of-the-barrel students rather than focusing on the best and brightest who might actually accomplish something in life. Add in a culture that seems to wallow in ignorance, stupidity and vulgarity in order to reach the lowest-common-denominator "citizen as consumer" in the pursuit of selling schlock, and we have what you observe. But other than that we're doing fine
Agree. My kid can't get face time with a councilor because they are too busy holding the hands of those on academic probation or whatever. They are focusing so much on helping the ones with the most problems that they have no time to deal with anyone else. I guess they get more $$ from the State or bragging rights about how many disadvantaged students they graduate or something.
What do you expect from a community college student (in general, the ones in academic programs)? Generally, the students in community college are not ready for education. This can be for many reasons. Maybe they'll never be ready, or maybe they're just slow developers.
And then the education quality at community college is not always the best.
And many just know a bargain when they see one. The cost of two years at a community college is less than the cost of 1 semester at a 4 year university and you're taking the same classes.
However, I do think the quality of students is on the decline. Before I left industry, I was noticing that the quality of the graduates we were hiring wasn't up to snuff. We have a generation of kids who were raised as the center of the family who played on teams where there were no losers, where they were giving trophies for just showing up and everyone got a prize...
And many just know a bargain when they see one. The cost of two years at a community college is less than the cost of 1 semester at a 4 year university and you're taking the same classes.
You bring up another issue. Paying for school. It's easier to let someone else pay for it. The benefit of private schools.
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