The Adult Learner

The divide between race, while having reduced somewhat over the last 40 years, is still a divide none the less.  It is especially noticeable once a person becomes an adult and decides to pursue a college education.  When we are kids, things are pretty much handed out to everyone the same and the levelness of the field is not as noticeable, while that is still not true of every part of our country.  Gender and race come into play in a huge way once we arrive as adults.  I have often seen areas in colleges where white males excel with ease and females as well as minorities have a slippery slope to hold on to.

I found this resource   http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/op_comings2.pdf online and it attacks the very soul of the issue – especially when it comes to level playing fields for women and minorities.  I agree with Michelle that possibly having courses that were more reflective of all groups in college would go leaps and bounds in reducing the great divide in our college system.  I have personally witnessed discrimination at the high school level while working at a 99% non-diversified school in a rural area.  While the discrimination was overt in nature, it was still demeaning and made a mockery of the civil rights movement and where we ARE SUPPOSED TO BE!

Read the first chapter of Building a Level Playing Field and I think you will agree we have a long way to go in making the community college experience equal for all.