Misconception #152: Community colleges are America's best kept secret

Over the years, I have been writing about misconceptions regarding the schooling process. The purpose of these posts is to explain why I disagree with various comments that I have heard people make about schooling. These are meant as personal thoughts rather than conclusive proof, and I will admit that I'm not always the best at explaining my thoughts. Regardless, I have decided that I should be willing to share these posts when I encounter someone online who makes an argument that I have already discussed.

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Have you heard that community colleges are America's best kept secret? Of course you have. This is an argument that has emerged as a copy-and-paste cliche. Are community colleges America's best kept secret? Not a chance.

Did you know that I attended a community college? I live in a state with a dual enrollment program known as Running Start. I was a part of this program, and I attended a community college during my high school years.

I attended an absolutely horrible high school. Students were expected to mindlessly absorb and regurgitate whatever we were told. Practical learning was prohibited, and independent thought was punished. Teachers were intolerant and even abusive of students who struggled to live mentally inactive lifestyles.

I wasn't like most Running Start students. My classmates were pursuing college credits. I was there because I could no longer attend my high school, and everyone around me told me that Running Start would fix all my problems.

I knew on my very first day that college wasn't going to work for me. It was the exact same mind-numbing environment as high school, and I couldn't handle the mindlessness that was being demanded from me. Obviously, I didn't last.

I could take the easy route here. An excessively copied and pasted cliche does not qualify as a secret. In this case, I would actually prefer to go a different route. The way this cliche is presented strongly implies that community colleges are wonderful institutions that people would benefit from. This narrative is clearly wrong.

Community colleges are essentially two-year extensions of our disastrous K-12 schooling system. Development of our mentally destructive K-12 schooling system has to be among the biggest mistakes in American history. Instead of fixing the problems with our K-12 schooling system, community colleges extend those problems. If we really wanted to talk about America's best kept secret, I would prefer to reserve that terminology for something better than an expansion of one of the biggest mistakes we have ever made.