Tex Houston wrote:
I have a lot of hours in college and the thing I liked about community
colleges and commuter campuses was the mix of students you encountered.
The
students who entered directly out of high school, with few exceptions, had
little to contribute. Without some life experience their horizons were
very
close.

So very true. After I got out of the Navy I went back to school to
correct previous errors (I got the worng degree the first time
'round). So I knocked out the Mech E program in 2 years. I had
very little in common with the "regular" students, who were not
that much younger than I (I was 28, these were juniors and
seniors). We had very different goals.


Perhaps no student should be permitted to attend college until they had
worked a couple of years to smooth over some of the unfinished edges. I
was
particularly struck by a literature class where we had just read "Death of
a
Ball-turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell when one of the older students
spoke
up and described his experiences as a WW-II ball-turret gunner.

What a priceless gift!


Jeff