George Lucas Had It Wrong. A Day of Fierce Pride at Modesto Junior College Yesterday

So what was it that he received improper? It was a reasonably minor plot level, however within the film, the 2 buddies Curt and Steve have been on the identical pathways for his or her lives. They have been planning to depart city to attend a “northeastern” faculty (let’s presume an Ivy League college), however after a collection of occasions over the area of 1 lengthy evening, Steve is satisfied to remain in Modesto, attending the “junior” faculty, whereas Curt heads off to nice success, and was finally a author dwelling in Canada. Steve ended up promoting insurance coverage in Modesto.

What’s improper with this image? It was the insinuation that attending a group faculty was one way or the other a lesser choice for attaining success, that it’s indirectly a second-rate training. As I sat proudly by way of our commencement ceremony tonight, I might fiercely argue that getting a level at a group faculty is an excellent achievement, and that I might proudly put my college students up in opposition to any Ivy League pupil on the two-year mark of their tutorial profession.

It does not take lengthy to understand that loads of (however definitely not all) the scholars at a Harvard or Yale are kids of privilege, individuals who have by no means actually needed to battle to get forward in life. They began in non-public upscale faculties, received in on the fast-track to an Ivy League college with the most effective preparation attainable. It is hardly a shock that they’d excel and succeed.

The scholars I work with come from many alternative backgrounds, and most of them are poor and deprived. They arrive from many cultures. Our elementary and secondary faculties are underfunded and generally harmful, and alcoholism and drug use are epidemic in our area. The children in our faculties have the decks stacked in opposition to them at each flip. They arrive to us unprepared and unskilled. We’ve got veterans affected by PTSD, abused spouses, and laid-off laborers. We’ve got big numbers of people who find themselves the primary of their households to ever attend faculty. We’ve got sources at our faculty, however generally the challenges dealing with our college students are overwhelming. And but these college students persist, and so they combat, and so they cry, and fail, after which they arrive again once more. And in the long run they grasp the abilities required to cross their courses. Once you see a bunch of those college students decked out in blue robes, and receiving an AA or AS diploma, you’re looking at a number of the most profitable folks on this planet.

If you’re an employer, and also you see a group faculty on the resume of a possible worker, you’re looking at an individual with persistence, stamina, and an unimaginable work ethic. They have been by way of unattainable challenges and so they’ve succeeded.

I could not be extra pleased with my college students on this nice day.