its so interesting that these are the same people that say 'not everybody has to go to elite college, community colleges are wise economic choice' etc etc. https://twitter.com/ProfMMurray/status/1339779093819080706

i went to a community college and taught at a community college. i enjoyed both. i even taught first year writing--and 100% of the so called 'slow learners'? were exceptionally smart, gifted thinkers that had been *fucked* by their under funded, under resourced public school.

i had to tell half the kids i worked with that the A paper they got in high school was an A paper bcz they actually turned the work in. about half of those kids then wrote their final essays on what bullshit the education system was an how to fix it.

the other half had been told since they were teeny kids that they were worthless and so blew off school. some of them needed help with undiagnosed dyslexia even. most had gotten so much bullshit from teachers, they didn't think they were smart enough to write papers.

most of the bullshit from teachers they talked abt were overly restrictive classroom management efforts that as a teacher, i could recognize came from classes of 40-60 kids and needing to be an asshole about 'sit down and stop disrupting.'

in short, the single most positive thing about community colleges is that they can act as a 'corrector' of injustice of sorts. kids that fall through the cracks of unjust under resourced schools can be and ARE picked up by community college teachers-

brought up to speed and sent back out into the world, many times to elite universities (like myself, for example). but you have to have skill as an educator, skill that FAR exceeds teaching to elite kids with all the resources in the world.

the one thing that kept me going to school after i had first one kid and then another? was a community college professor that sat with me after class and talked with me abt my life. thats it. he showed interest, i shared w/him how hard it was, he encouraged me.

i gave birth while attending elite university, and was told i had to turn in my final, no exceptions (due two weeks after birth). they didn't tell me that an 'I' was a possibility, and i had no idea incomplete even existed. so i did it.

that was before the internet existed--i had no friends or family that went to college, and i was a mexican whose self worth was all tied up in 'working hard' and 'following the rules.'

the only reason i didn't drop out was bcz i had talked with that professor at my community college. he had prepared me for 'it was going to be hard' and that 'elite universities aren't used to students like you' but 'that doesn't mean you don't belong there.'

and eventually i found a bunch of extremely supportive, helpful, kind and justice oriented women of color professors that helped me. but it all started with a kind, few years short of retiring english prof that told me 'you belong in a college classroom.'

basically, i AM the 'slow learner' that article talks about--but more importantly, i'm part the cohort of students that Dr. Biden did her research on. and i am eternally grateful that there ARE professors that worry abt how to keep their students in the classroom.

and more specifically, professors that worry abt how to keep non-traditional students, poor/working class students, undiagnosed students, students dealing with trauma/depression, etc in the classroom.

our brilliance, our thought, our creativity, are all deeply necessary to this world.

we are not mindless automatons there to do the shit jobs the rich people don't want to do.

every single kid should have all the resources thrown at them that kids in these elite universities have had thrown at them since before they were born. while we work to build that world--

I will always support community colleges, kids going to community colleges, getting better more more resources for working class/poor schools and schools w majority kids of color. i will aways support professors researching how to keep those kids in school-

and I will always call @DrBiden Doctor Jill Biden.

and let me just add, in case you are the student that is pregnant and unemployed and not sure if you should be doing this--like i was. those universities aren't prepared for people like you. but that doesn't mean you dont belong there.

you belong wherever you decide you were meant to be. and this world needs your brilliance, your intelligence, your creativity and wisdom radiating out of the spaces you decide you were meant to be in.

fuck the people that try to limit your brilliance.