Tag: William P. Schmidt

🇺🇸👩🏽‍🏫👨🏻‍🏫 EDUCATING FOR AMERICA’S FUTURE: COMMUNITY COLLEGES ARE KEYS!🔑

Imagine an institution of higher learning where:

  • Students want to learn;
  • Professors want to teach;
  • Training and certification in trades, skilled crafts, technology, and other essential occupations are readily available; 
  • Students who seek a four-year degree can earn transfer credentials;
  • Tuition is affordable;
  • Work/study is a “norm;”
  • Those already in the workforce are sought and respected;
  • Diversity is “self-created” by the students;
  • Equal educational opportunity is a reality;
  • All are welcome;
  • Future employers can have input into the curriculum;
  • Practical training in real world skills is emphasized;
  • Adult enrichment and continuing life education are encouraged, not afterthoughts;
  • Parents don’t need to inflate their kids’ athletic or artistic profiles to beat the “admissions racket;”
  • More is spent on classrooms and educational support than athletic venues;
  • The football coach doesn’t make more than the college president!

There’s probably a community college (or colleges) near you. Whether you are a prospective student, employer, retiree, community activist, someone looking to sharpen existing skills or broaden your horizons, or just a curious community member you should check out America’s best educational bargains and the future of affordable, practical higher education!

Here’s a recent timely article from David Kirps, professor emeritus at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley, in WashPost on how community colleges are a source for a diverse group of highly-qualified students ready to take their skills and talents to other campuses and the real world:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/18/community-college-affirmative-action/

My only “beef” with Mr. Kirps’s article is the he passes over the important “other cohort” of community college students: Those who don’t necessarily aspire to transfer to a four-year college (at least not immediately), but rather seek the skills training and expertise to immediately enter the workforce in key, well-paying jobs. Our granddaughter, Cassie, who graduated from community college in Wisconsin last spring and is now gainfully employed as a licensed dental hygienist is a good example. 

Full disclosure: Our son Will is the Manager, Business Engagement and Industry Initiatives at Northern Virginia Community College, where he concentrates on developing and insuring compatibility and employability for the “other cohort” of students and the employers who need and rely on them as the workforce of today — and tomorrow!

DPF!

PWS😎 

11-21-24

Related posts:

  1. JENNIFER RUBIN IN WASHPOST: “Trump’s Most Evil Act” — “an act of uncommon cowardice.”
  2. O CANADA: TRUMP POLICIES AID CANADIAN LOBSTERMEN AT THE EXPENSE OF MAINE! — CANADA BRACES FOR INFLUX OF “TPSers” FLEEING US!
  3. CATHERINE RAMPELL @ WASHPOST: Trump’s Immigration Restrictionism Is Destroying America, One Dumb White Nationalist Scheme At A Time! – How Racist Stupidity Is Sending “The Best & Brightest” Students Elsewhere, To Our National Detriment! — A WINNER OF THIS WEEK’S “FIVE CLOWNS” AWARD!
  4. ⚖️ THE GIBSON REPORT — 11-07-22 — Compiled By Elizabeth Gibson, Managing Attorney, NIJC — HEADLINERS: Analysts Agree: Immigrants Are “Political Toast” Regardless of Midterms’ Outcome — Neither Party Sees Legal Immigration, Human Rights, Rule of Law, Racial Justice As “Electoral Winners!” — Garland’s DOJ “On A Roll” In Courts Of Appeal, Snuffing Asylum Claims in 2d (2x), 3rd, 8th, & 9th Circuits!

🇺🇸HISTORY:  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY COURTSIDE — “America’s Long Struggle Against Slavery” — Lecturer: Professor Richard Bell, U of MD, College Park — What Most Of Us Never Learned In High School!

Tulsa Race Riot
Result of Tulsa Race Atrocity, June 1, 1921
“All that was left of his home after the Tulsa race riot”
Unknown photographer
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Here’s the “trailer:”

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/americas-long-struggle-against-slavery

As we recognize the 100th anniversary of the “Tulsa Atrocity” and our failure to properly acknowledge it, teach it, condemn the failures of our legal system, and/or hold the perpetrators accountable, this is a course that every American should view!

Dehumanization of “the other,” grotesque minimization and distortion of their achievements and key contributions to our nation’s prosperity and survival, and legal systems that knowingly and intentionally denied legal, constitutional, and human rights to our fellow Americans are a long and dishonorable part of our history, often denied or intentionally whitewashed by those who fear truth. The long struggle against “America’s original sin” involved fierce resistance by African American slaves as well as concerted cooperative efforts between free African Americans and White opponents of slavery. But, there were also tensions, squabbles, false starts, petty “turf wars,” and fundamental disagreements among slavery’s opponents. Shockingly, but not surprisingly, many slaves found that suicide was their only effective form of protest against, and escape from, this vilest of all American institutions. 

The struggle against slavery’s toxic legacy and its existence in various forms in modern America continues. And, there is a direct connection with America’s continuing mistreatment of immigrants, particularly people of color and asylum seekers, and the failure of our legal system, even today, to protect them rather than abuse and dehumanize them. 

The ongoing struggle is reflected in the Biden Administration’s apparent naive belief that they can effectively address racial injustice in America while continuing to treat asylum seeking migrants, many women, children, and people of color, as “non-persons” or “less than human” under our Constitution and laws. Ending “Dred Scottification of the other” — in all its forms  — is key to America’s getting beyond the mistakes, tragedies, and injustices of our past and creating a better future for all persons in America!

FULL DISCLOSURE: Our son William P. Schmidt works for The Great Courses.

🇺🇸🗽⚖️Due Process Forever!

PWS

05-31-21

Related posts:

  1. 🏴‍☠️☠️🤮⚰️👎🏻 “PERP NATION” — DHS’S “NEW AMERICAN GULAG” IS A DEATH TRAP FOR MIGRANTS SEEKING JUSTICE — So Why Haven’t Congress & The Federal Courts Required DHS To Comply With The Constitution? — Because We Have The Wrong Folks In Congress & The Federal Courts!
  2. CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH @ DHS: ICE DEPORTS BLACKS TO DANGER & POTENTIAL DEATH, MANY WITH NO DUE PROCESS!🏴‍☠️ — Legislators Call On Biden Administration To End Racist Enforcement Policies!
  3. 🤮👎🏽ULTIMATE HIPOCRACY: EVEN AS AMERICA FINALLY CELEBRATES JUNETEENTH HOLIDAY, DRED SCOTT & INSTITUTIONALIZED RACIST DEHUMANIZATION REMAIN REALITIES FOR BLACKS & OTHER MIGRANTS OF COLOR AT EOIR & DHS — Imprisonment Without Trial, Bogus Bonds, Mistreatment In The New American Gulag, Jim Crow “Courts,” No Rule Of Law,  Still Realities For Those Of Color Exercising Legal Rights In Broken System!
  4. 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️RACE IN AMERICA: CARRIE ROSENBAUM “GETS IT,” EVEN AS MAYORKAS, GARLAND, HARRIS & THE OTHER BIDEN HYPOCRITES PRETEND NOT TO:  “Immigration reform, and a more robust application of the Equal Protection doctrine to all those inside the country, and at our borders, is necessary to move towards meaningfully dismantling systemic racism.”