Being a community college professor has pushed me to breaking point

America’s two-year public colleges are often romanticised as engines of social mobility and the epitome of the educative mission. But one academic has found the reality to be very different, with callous management failing students and staff in equal measure

Published on
October 13, 2022
Last updated
October 13, 2022
Anonymous
Source: Stephen Schildbach/Getty
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Reader's comments (8)

#1 Submitted by collegeguy92 on October 13, 2022 - 11:46pm
This anonymous story is likely fake. Just the typical “America is evil” rhetoric. Why would an American community college instructor use British vernacular, like “mum” and “chemist?” Even if the anonymous writer is British, by now he/she/they would have abandoned such words, after living such a workaday life in the States. Especially after so many years working at what is apparently a pretty lousy community college.
#2 Submitted by mwalls on October 14, 2022 - 1:59pm
Times Higher Education is published in the UK, hence the British English spellings.
#3 Submitted by kkeh78 on October 14, 2022 - 2:26pm
Spellings are changed by a publication to suit the publication's preferred format. Also: there are British professors teaching in the United States. Finally: Not fake. This is a very realistic depiction of what decades of "creative" budget cuts have done to community colleges -- the largest and worst-funded sector of American higher education.
#4 Submitted by collegeguy92 on October 13, 2022 - 11:46pm
This anonymous story is likely fake. Just the typical “America is evil” rhetoric. Why would an American community college instructor use British vernacular, like “mum” and “chemist?” Even if the anonymous writer is British, by now he/she/they would have abandoned such words, after living such a workaday life in the States. Especially after so many years working at what is apparently a pretty lousy community college.
#5 Submitted by ... on October 14, 2022 - 4:56pm
Not fake, it describes what I know very well, trying to teach part-time mature students in an institution that doesn’t value us.
#6 Submitted by ... on November 9, 2022 - 10:18am
It’s not fake. In fact it mirrors what is happening in many mixed economy colleges (FE/HE) in the UK. HE staff are often overvalued.
#7 Submitted by sicilia.sheila on November 12, 2022 - 9:41pm
It's not fake. Sadly similar to my experience in a US Community College
#8 Submitted by ali.... on March 11, 2023 - 1:31pm
Also very similar to experience I have had with a for-profit HE provider in the UK. It is not just an American problem.

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