Jonathan Dresner sends me this link to a Jay Mathews piece in the Washington Post in praise of community colleges: The Workhorse of Higher Education.
It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been over eleven years since I was hired for a full-time position here at Pasadena City College. I still remember the date of my first-level interview, April 8, 1994. It was a Friday afternoon, and it was the day that Kurt Cobain’s death was announced; I was listening to KROQ (LA’s alternative-rock station) and heard the news just as I was pulling into the parking lot here at the school. I was a moderate Nirvana fan, but couldn’t help but consider this tragic news to be a "bad omen". I have no idea what I ended up saying during the interview, but within days I was called back for a "second-level" meeting with the committee, and on April 20, was offered the job.
I’ll never forget the reaction of my dissertation chair when I told him I was accepting a tenure-track post here at PCC. "You’re a fool if you take it, Hugo", he said. By ‘94, I was about half-way through my dissertation. I was giving papers at medieval history conferences, and was enjoying the feeling of being "groomed" by my distinguished adviser. In that same spring of 1994, my adviser told me I was "one or two years away" from successfully competing on the academic job market for a position at a four-year research institution. He was very upset that I wasn’t willing to wait for a chance at a university job. Frankly, our relationship was never quite the same after I came to teach at the community college. He was very helpful as I finished my dissertation (with my teaching load at PCC, it took me until early 1999), and gave me a warm handshake at my doctoral hooding ceremony. But he was clearly disappointed that I wasn’t willing to put research first.
Unlike many of my colleagues, I’ve never taken a class at a community college. I knew plenty about community colleges growing up; my mother taught for three decades at Monterey Peninsula College (MPC). But even as I saw how much she loved her work there, I also had a bit of prejudice against the system. My high school teachers made it clear that the best and the brightest did not go to community colleges, and there was no question that there was (and I think still is) an unfortunate stigma in some circles related to "JCs." I’m afraid I internalized that stigma even as I was proud of my mother’s work. The summer after my junior year, I’m sorry to admit I even paid the much higher fees to take summer classes at UC rather than enroll in a community college.
In graduate school, however, my goals shifted. Though I liked research well enough, I loved my time as a teaching assistant. (I still remember my first section, in the spring quarter of 1991; I was not quite 24, and so terrified I threw up before meeting my first class.) I quickly realized that it was teaching that turned me on, not research. I didn’t like musty old archives, and I sure as hell didn’t like working on long papers. I enjoyed discussing ideas in seminars, but nothing was as "fun" as interacting with students in the classroom. I began to think more and more about what my mother did for a living, and began to wonder if I wouldn’t be better off teaching somewhere where I could "just teach".
I’ve never seriously regretted coming to the community college. If I had gone on to teach at a four-year institution, I could never have developed courses in "men and masculinity" and "American Lesbian and Gay history". My Ph.D. field would have set far more narrow parameters for my academic career. I would have been hired as a medievalist, and would have been expected to teach lower division survey courses and offer upper-division specialist classes until the end of my career. At the community college, where I was hired simply to teach "history" (with no geographic or chronological modifying adjective preceding the term), I have been free to develop whatever courses strike my fancy. At the community college, I have been allowed to grow as an academic. Here, the fact that I was interested in one set of things at age 27 (when I was hired), and another now at 38, and perhaps still another at 49 — that’s not held against me! Indeed, I’ve been encouraged to develop and explore new interests.
As for the students at the community college? They challenge and they humble me. The top 10% of students here are as good as — or better — than the students I T.A.ed for at UCLA. The bottom 10% of students are immensely difficult to teach. Unlike at a four-year university, at the community college one regularly encounters students who are forced to be here by their parents, who face the choice of staying in school or being kicked out of their homes. I have the sullen, the stoned, and the moronic with which to contend — but they are a distinct minority, I’m happy to say.
In the same classroom, I teach the extraordinary, the mediocre, and the dim. I have students who can write breathtaking prose that puts me to shame sitting next to students who cannot form an entire coherent English sentence. I have seen some of my students transfer on to the likes of Berkeley, NYU, Georgetown and Pomona College — and have seen them thrive there. I have had students pass out drunk in my classroom. I have had mothers who couldn’t get childcare hold (and nurse) infants with one hand while taking notes with another. Twice in my career, I’ve had the police come into my classroom and take a student out in cuffs. I’ve had students disappear in the middle of the semester because they’ve been deployed to Iraq. And I’ve heard countless stories of tragedy and persistence and endurance. I’ve had former students become teachers, lawyers, and now, community college professors; whatever they have become, their periodic notes and e-mails cheer me immensely.
If you had asked me a decade ago whether I would want one of my kids to go a community college, I would have said "absolutely not." Even in my early years of teaching here at PCC, I still struggled with a certain elitism that stigmatized the two-year college experience. I am happy to say I’ve let go of that indefensible snobbishness; I would be happy today if one of my children chose to attend a community college before heading off to a four-year institution. Thousands of students have smashed my misconceptions about what it means to be a student at a place like this, and those same students have made me tremendously grateful to teach at such an extraordinary institution. We at the community college are the ladder into the middle class; we are the school of second (and thirty-seventh) chances; we are the school that delivers remarkably quality for very little investment.
There’s nowhere I’d rather be.
Very nice, thanks. I’ve only taught one course at a CC, and taken none, but I’m very much in love with the mission. I’ve got colleagues who would consider a career teaching at a CC a “failure” or “giving up” which is maddeningly elitist.
Thank you. I’m in a top level PhD program right now, and there’s an expectation that we’ll all go on to big time research careers — in fact, one of my committee members has stated outright that we’re here so that we can make him famous. But I’m not so sure I want that kind of high-pressure, research-focused kind of career. On top of that, I’m geographically constrained by my partner’s career — she’s very focused on public interest law, so when push comes to shove my career will be the one to give way. So more and more I’ve been thinking that I’m going to wind up with a teaching job at community college or a low prestige 4-year school. Any time I start to feel like that career path represents a failure to live up to my potential, I tell myself “you’re headed for Hugo Schwyzer’s job. Would you call *him* an underachiever?”
(I should point out, though, that teaching at a 4 year school wouldn’t necessarily have precluded you from making big changes in your interests, at least at a liberal arts school. There’s a professor at my school who was hired to do hydrology, but now does radical feminism.)
“one of my committee members has stated outright that we’re here so that we can make him famous.”
ugh! Is it too late to get him off of your committee? That’s a terrible attitude for a supposed mentor to have.
I used to buy into the stigma around community colleges… then I took a class at one and the teacher was great and the students were plenty smart. I loved that there were older people, and people who got sick of high school and quit but were great at self-educating, and a few who were still in high school. Elite colleges are such bubbles. No one seems to focus on what you _don’t_ learn in that sheltered environment, but I think you do miss out if you spend all your time surrounded by 18-21-year-old over-achievers.
Hugo!
I’m actually a former student of yours from PCC. I took a spring class in 2004 with you on European history and actually came back for the sequel course in summer ‘04. I came across your blog a couple days ago when a friend I’d told you about said he’d found you on Typepad, so I checked it out. Very enlightening! I tend to take blogs with a cheek planted firmly in my tongue whenever I read them, but I’m pleased to see your mind is still open and your convictions justified. I don’t see a whole lot I disagree with, to tell you the truth, but I’m a moderate and an Anglican/former Episcopalian, so I don’t expect a lot of discrepancy, haha.
I never got to thank you for teaching me, so I’d like to do that now- better now than when I’m going at lightspeed in UCLA. I was one of the quieter people in your class, but it wasn’t because I was bored or anything. To be honest, I hadn’t been that engrossed with a class since my sophomore year of high school, let alone a history course. I came to PCC for a variety of reasons, mostly to save my parents money and because I was having trouble deciding which college I wanted to continue on to, so when I came to PCC I wasn’t expecting a high level of education- you know how the secondhand testimony goes. I was wrong. I took courses with a couple of big names there, like Hertz and Richards (!), but taking your course was one of the best things about coming there and why I don’t regret a single second of my time at that school. I mean, sure, eventually I forgot some dates…but I remember Charles I being “tall, brave, and handsome” and why no English king can ever be named James. Admittedly, I liked your ancient history course a little more, but only because I’m such a sucker for Greece and Rome. But, yeah, you turned out to be a class act all around, and all my classmates I talked to agreed you were one of the best teachers they’d had in a long time- a basic but challenging curriculum, a flexible but punctual schedule, and an absolutely enthralling talent for lecturing. You also have an immense talent for storytelling, to the point where you didn’t even NEED to ask us to put down the pens and pencils. I remember the stories you told us about the epic of Gilgamesh and the rape of Lucretia, the fall of Rome and the ministry of Jesus, all in a nutshell but never insultingly dumbed down. I almost wanted to fail that course so I could take it again. It was just that fun. More importantly, it was just that interesting, one of the few times I’ve ever found it a pleasure to take notes- and notes I took. I still have the binders with the notes in them, somewhere in my closet; I associate that very first spring class with one of the happiest times in my life, so be proud!
So, yeah, I do want to thank you for being one of the finest teachers I’ve had in a long time. A few others have brought the same craving for knowledge and the same enthusiasm to the table, but none have proven as engaging as Hugo Schwyzer in the middle of a good lecture. Those classes were beyond my money’s worth, they were my time’s worth and more. Please keep doing what you do, as you simply would not believe how many students you continue to delight and inspire. I’ve never seen so many smiles on a class that packed.
Take it easy, and God bless, my good man!
- Eric Hausdorfer
Did I just say “cheek planted firmly in my tongue”? Uh…that’s a little embarrassing…er, you know what I mean.
Wow, hard to follow a tribute like that. I’m sorry to say I’m not an old student ’cause it sounds like I’d enjoy your classes, Hugo. But just wanted to add a defense of community colleges.
My mom earned the only college degree she has, an A.A., at our local community college in suburban Chicagoland. One of the classes she enjoyed most was Chinese History. So when I was trying to figure out what to major in, and where I was going to go to college, I already had a favorable impression of C.O.D. (College of DuPage), and ended up attending classes there for several years in the late 80s. Since I kept changing my (undergrad) major, it was a lot cheaper doing it there than at a 4-year school. But almost every single instructor I had, no matter what the subject, was great, and I learned a lot. I, too, appreciated the mix of non-traditional students. I also took another couple of classes there in the 90s, and again, uniformly good experiences.
Since then, I’ve attended classes at another community college (in OK), 2 small private colleges (IL, IN), and 2 large universities (IN), and I think my community college professors were at least as good as my professors elsewhere.
Eric, you made my day — wonderful comments. (To be entirely accurate, English kings can be named James, it was John that was the problem…)
So glad things are going great guns at UCLA.
Mychelline, I’m so glad that you share this favorable impression of community colleges; I’ve never checked out the JCs in other states, but hear many are superb.
i am at a big research university now, and am constantly amazed by the horrible chauvinism my teachers show w/r/t liberal arts colleges and community colleges. as if “mere teaching” didn’t deserve the sort of education i’m getting! as if research were inherently more and better! in research methods, there is value placed on including the difficult cases, but somehow that value doesn’t extend to academics’ job in the world. which is to say, part of the evaluation of academic work should be its relevance in the lives of people for whom academics is not an end in itself.
anyway, thanks, hugo.
Very interesting- I think I might want to consider teaching at a JC. Is a Master’s generally “good enough” to do so? I also think its great that you studied history, I’m a History major and a Women’s/Gender Studies minor at Oxy so its kind of similar to your areas of interest!
Daisy–depends. In fields like yours, a PhD will certainly give you a leg up, especially if you want to teach at Community Colleges in major cities or desirable places to live. More rural CC jobs are, I’m told generally easier to get into with an MA, as well as the hard sciences. Hugo knows more, I’m sure.
DJW, you’re right. While I was hired with only an MA, I was “ABD” (all but dissertation) in a Ph.D. program; the fact that I was working towards the doctorate made me a more attractive candidate.
We have hired a few “terminal MAs” recently for tenure-track positions, so it isn’t impossible.
hear, hear. i went to west l.a. college, transferred to ucla through their honors program and then went on to grad school at UofM for a lit phd. i remember my high school counselors looking at me, horrified, when i told them my decision to decline the schools that had accepted me and go to JC instead. my father was going after his bachelor’s degree at the time; we couldn’t afford both tuitions so i went to WLA.
it grounded me, gave me focus, i actually survived the math and science courses that would have destroyed me and my teachers were just as good as those i met at ucla. in fact, it was during junior college that i had a chance to sit in on a derrida lecture; though he was incomphrehensible i thought, this is what i want to do.
(thanks mr. goldberg)
I absolutely adore the CC system. I was accepted to great schools in HS but never went because of financial concerns (my parents were in a financial world of hurt at the time). I had serious reservations about going to a CC, but I found some of my best professors there. even after I transferred to UCI, my favorite professors were for the majority those at CCs.
If I ever finish the degree (I left college before I could finish my degree to pursue my own business), I would possibly love to teach at a CC. I personally found the variety of students at a CC more interesting- and it was exciting to see good professors light up the whole class- even the faces of some kids that had been considered “dim.” I went in with an insufferable attitude of snobbishness, and thankfully, the other students and teachers at the various Cc institutions helped me change my mindset and attitude.