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Someday I need to write about teaching for a community college

Tuesday
July 5
2011
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4 Comments

Larry Crowne has been getting walloped by several reviewers as saccharine, sweet and unrealistic about the current economic situation but at NPR Tom Hanks, makes a worthy argument about hopefulness and the reality of the community college classroom (which he attended as a teen):

"I was sitting sometimes right next to people who were twice my age," Hanks says of his time at junior college. "Mothers whose kids had gone out of the house; there were divorced guys; there were people there who were retired and taking on new jobs; there were also guys who were just back from Vietnam. "

He says that's where he developed the idea of community college as a cross-generational meeting place, something that couldn't really exist at a four-year university. And that idea stuck with him.

I taught at a community college for five years and while my classes were held on an army base and less open to a certain degree, they were filled with everyone from nineteen-year old fresh recruits using the military to help pay for college to fifty-something retirees who were taking advantage of lower tuition costs to embark on new lives. I had husbands, wives, parents, children, young adults who came from segregated southern schools (yes) and thirty-somethings who were preparing for what would come after the military. It was not at all like a typical college classroom and 100% like those portrayed in every movie and tv show about community colleges. It was wonderful and desperate and hopeful all at the same time.

Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to seeing Larry Crowne.

And please, could we just once embrace a hopeful movie where no one dies, no one blows anything up and no great big huge lessons are learned? Life is hard enough - if Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts can show me a good time (with scooters!!!) then I'm willing to take it. Heaven knows, Harry Potter is going to suck the life out of me this month. (Cowboys vs Aliens should make everything all better after that though....)

comments

Jodie
Tuesday
July 5
2011
02:45 AM

I saw Tom Hanks on Graham Norton and he said something to the effect that in lots of rom com films the female lead doesn't really get to do much. She's the focus on the guys quest, his affections, his soul searching journey or whatever and he wanted to create something with a good juicy part for the woman. Then he said that's why he asked Julia Roberts if she'd be interested, because he wanted a forceful actress to fill that part and she doesn't take any rubbish, knows exactly how to get what she needs to get from a film.

I just thought that was really refreshing to hear. The reason I don't respond well to a lot of hopeful, cheery movies it because they seem limited and typical in whose (and which) hopes and happiness get fulfilled. If someone can make a film that is cheerful and make an effort to avoid that partiality I'm all in. Romeo and Juliet is great, but some days you just cna't take that kind of narrative.

Jenn Hubbard
Tuesday
July 5
2011
02:58 PM

"He says that's where he developed the idea of community college as a cross-generational meeting place, something that couldn't really exist at a four-year university."

That was probably true 20 years ago, but less so today. The cross-section is more apparent at graduate schools, even at the "typical universities," where the old model of "Grad school is a full-time pursuit for twenty-somethings" has been totally out the window for at least a decade.

More and more, college is a place for a wide spectrum of older adults. To cater to the older audience, most of whom already have a day job, schools have been scheduling more evening and weekend classes, and more online offerings.

Colleen
Tuesday
July 5
2011
05:39 PM

I dunno, Jenn. I taught through 2001 and I had students from 19 - 60 in my classes each and every time. I agree with you on grad school - we ranged in age from early 20s to 50+ there with many older adults simply in grad school for the sheer enjoyment of it. (How awesome is that?)

I would be curious to see the community college stats these days with so many students making that option out of high school due to cost and those, like Hanks' character, who are going to change careers. Around here the state school tuitions have skyrockted. They just opened a new vo-tech school campus for marine engineering because demand is so high. Personally, I think it's awesome. Community college is an excellent idea for just about everyone.

Edi
Thursday
July 7
2011
06:43 AM

I went to see Larry Crowne yesterday. I didn't want to see Transformers, Green things or other movies directed at a segment of the population I've outgrown. I enjoyed Larry Crowne. OK, it wasn't a great movie, but it was a good story made for a generation who doesn't get to see "the saccharine".

I thought the good juicy part for woman was the Gugu Mbatha-Raw playing Talia. She brought the story to life! I could go on and on about the messages in the movie,certainly among them was the validity of community college education and the importance of learning and evolving, especially in an unstable economy.

And I have to say I want a scooter! I've wanted a scooter since Taiwan. Scooters rock...and they save gas!!

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