The Myth Of Inferiority Summary

The assumption that community colleges and their students are inferior to four year institutions and their students is a fallacy, which Culpepper points out in “The Myth of Inferiority.” Culpepper believes “Students are students wherever they are” (Culpepper 330). Being that I am a freshman at a community college, and have been in different educational settings, I agree with his assessments. Community colleges are bashed with many assumptions about why they are not able to have first-rate students, like top notch institutions. One assumption often made is that the academic offerings are lower-quality, which “leads to low expectations of community-college students” (Culpepper 330). In reality, many of my recent college professors not only teach at the community college, but also teach at college universities, often teaching the same course/subject. Since it is the same teacher, students receive the same quality of education, regardless of location. Culpepper, too, argues:

(329)

It is impossible to judge a student’s academic stance based on what type of college they are enrolled. As an example, at my former high school we all had to take a placement test. I ended up scoring higher than a friend of mine who was placed in advanced placement classes, despite being in college preparatory courses. Culpepper challenges another assumption that “one finds totally different students at community colleges than as universities” (Culpepper 329). He states:

It is probably true that there were more high-caliber students in my honor classes at the private university than there are in my standard classes at the similarly sized community college where I teach now, [but] only the proportions - not the types - of students have varied.