Get Ready For Spring

I know that it seems early but it is not too early to be thinking about signing up for the spring semester. Though you can't register for classes yet, the schedule is available. It is important to be proactive in planning. Classes take different amounts of time and energy. The worst thing you can do is save the hardest class for the last semester.

Each semester pick one of the hardest classes for you. Make sure to pick a time that will allow you to attend every class. Try to chose a time when you are most productive. If you are morning person make it the first class of the day. If you are a night person, try a night class.

Similarly, don't take all your easy courses in one semester, spread them out so no semester is too taxing. Always keep your entire educational career in mind. Don't fall into the trap of thinking only about the current semester.

Also now is a good time to write up a check list for next semester. Are you going to need to register with Disabled Student Services? Have you applied for all the financial aid that you may be eligible for. If you are SSI you don't have to pay for the health fee but you need to get a current statement from the Social Security Administration.

Finally don't forget about the cost of books. They will run about $150 to $250. There are a number of strategies to deal with this ruinous expense. Often the best strategy is to buy the book from a student who took the class the semester before. Another option is to buy a used version on eBay or such service. Some of the required books, though inexplicably not all required books are available as reference books in the library in the Learning Resource Center. Sometimes the books are even available at the San Diego Public Library.

Some warnings about these tactics are necessary. Often times a previous edition of the book will suffice. But sometimes the professor requires homework questions from the book. In this case previous editions will often not suffice because questions are often changed from edition to edition. Ask the professor about whether an older edition will be usable.

If you use a reference edition you must be active about getting to the library often because such a book will often be being used by a classmate. Similarly a book checked out from the local library will come due before the class is over.

Start Acting Like a Grownup

When you are in high school learning seems everybody's problem but your own. The evil Republican tax cutters and Democratic spendoholics ran off laughing together with your book money. Your parents are too busy with their two jobs (maybe three if your not white) apiece to help you with homework. Or else are spitting out welfare babies while applying to appear on Jerry Springer and simultaneously smoking unfiltered menthols and drinking a 40. Your teacher makes your average teamster look like coked up aerobics instructor with an IQ that rivals Stephen Hawkins, the speaking voice of James Earl Hones, and the charisma of a young Elvis (watch the damn tapes, or blue what you ma call it you young folks have--the man was a force of nature.)

All that falls away when you enter college. You are expected to buy your damn books (Don't be surprised if your professor requires her latest book for every class she teaches even the book is about Aliens and her class is about ancient Greece--true story. At least this little joy of college life might not hit you right away at city)

No matter what your mother your, pastor or David Horowitz has told you, no one really cares if your teacher is the second coming of Socrates or an alcoholic boy buggering madman. And if you ever plan to have any sort of an academic career you will see far more of the latter than the former. Higher education is mad mix of different ambitions and priorities and the education of students often doesn't even merit a mention.

In this respect City College is almost certainly going to be as good as it gets. At City College the pace is slow enough for the professors that if they chose they may dedicate far more thought and attention to the students than is remotely possible at a four year institution.

You are even almost certainly going to have ample access to your professor during office hours. In comparison when I took Cold War Presidents from Steven Ambrose, the man himself was organizing the draft Colin Powell for President campaign. We watched him through magic of the VHS Video Recorder Machine, as was the style at the time, and rarely but occasionally saw his hippie looking TA. And, believe me there was no question about his political leanings. Though to be fair he was never overbearing or abusive in any way.

But forget about being spoon fed the course content as you languidly while away the time at the Professor's feet. The best professors will assume that you have read the book and done the homework and will only touch on this material in reference to a student question or to clarify a particularly difficult point. The lecture will be completely different material only accessible to those who have prepared for class.

During my time at city there was only one instructor whose lectures completely removed any need to read the book. And, I left this class bitter at my wasted $150 and wasted time.

And while you don't have to worry as much about your ancient professor hitting on you as you once did. Short shorts might be worth a half a grade or at least it sure seemed so for boys in my German class (also not at city). And, the professors in general don't give a damn about your sensitive feelings whether you are tree hugging granola eating vegetarian lesbian too pure for actual physical displays of love or George Bush supporting bible thumping Wednesday church attending country music fan. And, if you are thinking it is going to be any better at the workplace you have some disappointments awaiting you upon graduation.

The key thing is that the teachers have what you want knowledge and grades that imply knowledge and any day you can get little of either without a tube of lube is a day you should be grateful. In your adult life you will find that sometimes the most useful information comes from the most surprising sources.

In one class the professor (this was a city) said he was going to discuss the relation of brain structure to homosexuality. Two, one would assume evangelical Christians, immediately left. What followed was thirty minutes of the most compelling arguments that homosexuality is maladaptive in humans that I have ever heard. I wasn't convinced but this not time to fight that fight. The point is that the students who left will almost certainly never get that chance again.

At City its all up to you and that's a good thing.

Being There

Imagine if someone told you that you could attend a school where your fees are very small, where the classes where very small, where almost all classes are taught by persons holding a doctorate in the field they are teaching and many are taught by full professors and department heads. These kinds of luxuries, found at San Diego City Community College, are hard to find at even the most expensive and exclusive schools in the country. Yet many of the students who attend City College do not feel happy.

Higher education in the state separates the high school students into the winners and losers. The winners progress to nationally respected Universities where their career prospects seem assured. The losers must fight themselves though a maze of community colleges and State Universities to emerge hopefully employable.

This system was created years ago when college education in California was supposed to be free. Student were given opportunities to attend the best universities because of good grades and high scores on standardized tests. The student who graduated from a prestigious university could be expected to work the same job until their gold plated retirement.

We of course don't live in that world anymore. College in California is anything but free and no one expects to a job for life anymore. The ridiculousness of choosing life's winners and losers in the junior year of high school is incomprehensibly absurd.

The world has become an incredibly competitive place where it is impossible to rest upon what you learned in college. Those who will keep their jobs will be those who continue to grow and outproduce their competitors. If you really want to teach yourself how to learn so that you can continue to grow long after you have left school San Diego City College is an excellent place to start. But. if you rush to get to where you think you should be then you will miss the wonders that exist where you are.