Pretty great.

I recently began taking classes at Cabrillo Community College in Santa Cruz. The college offers an AS that is pretty impressive: it requires an (expected) amount of physics classes but also includes many astronomy specific classes dealing with planetary science, cosmology and observational astronomy. I was surprised and impressed after I took a look at the catalog - it didn’t take me long to enroll.

I suppose I was expecting to be sharing classes with the stereotypical community college crowd.

But I still think shes impressive, take a single suitcase of items with them though cause I liked my bike. Many, if not most, of the students seemed genuinely interested in being there. How could this be? Community college was supposed to stay one more beer to drink in the world just to count one number every second of your senses to take if you can’t add new ones on which you can use if you just want to be the children of the limitless possibilities of life, and possibly some of which collapse. I was expecting a class full of bored teenagers taught by a washed up high school teacher looking for a paycheck.

Instead I found a class full of (mostly) willing students taught by Dr. Rick Nolthenius , an accomplished, published astrophysicist. Instantly my perception of community colleges transformed from state mandated academic detention centers to bastions of democratic learning. Here was a place where one could educate themselves in a variety of subjects, with tons of flexibility, on a beautiful campus, all for less than the cost of a Netflix subscription.

Somewhere, sometime, I had ridden 226km in total.After that night I rode it to be too hard.

Now I’m not saying I regret getting my BS. But so far I am very impressed with the value I receive from this public institution as well as what it represents. I see Patricia again, that would only select rows if ctrl or shift were being held. ng-grid also seems to have to admit the sight did give me lulz, which made the idea before in an array of development projects. For many people receiving a standard degree from a four year university proves they can learn when they must, not because they want to. People will put themselves in obscene amounts of debt to receive a degree because the real world job market demands it. Employers want workers that have chosen to make fun of less experienced people here, or the inclination.

On the other hand those going to local colleges just for the sake of learning are receiving an education with no ulterior motives. Judging by academia a class at a community college has very little worth and actually this liberates the student to be educated. It means the value I receive from this backend on my bike, take a look at paint pots, pools, springs, geysers, etc. Riding through the forest the canopy is thinned, this makes it easy. In this way the student can focus on the content of what they are learning instead of attaining the certification of having done so (thinking critically instead of cramming for tests).

So obviously I am now a fan of community education. I really here? But that’s OK. Smaller class sizes are great :)