Community colleges and high/low culture

Like everything else in life, I approach this question from a cultural perspective.  What would life be like if there were no options?  Or, more specifically, what would American culture be like if there was no distinction made (however trivial) between what is considered to be high and low culture?  From the readings we have done this week about the significance of community colleges in American education (as well as culture and economy), it seems clear to me that what we have here is a classic example of high and low cultural distinctions.  Since I am an English PhD candidate, I will use my knowledge from my own discipline as a way to demonstrate what I am saying.  From an English studies perspective, high school teachers are considered to be novice writing instructors from the perspective of the university professor.  This is regardless of the number of years of experience that either the high school teacher or college professor may have in comparison to one another.  For example, a high school English teacher can have over ten years of experience and a university-level professor can be fresh out of English pedagogy training with no real classroom experience and yet, the professor will be looked to for authority and expertise.   I can even use my own personal experience here at ODU where a professor proceeded to inform the class that high school instruction, online teaching, community college, and non-university level instruction was not “real teaching.”  This particular professor had never taught at any of these other levels or institutional levels, but ethos and cultural perceptions allowed him to make such statements and get away with them.  I would also like to mention that the classroom was comprised of all of these quasi-experienced instructors, many of whom had been teaching for longer than this professor.  Experience, it seems, doesn’t matter when it comes to what is “better” instruction.  I believe these distinctions, however trivial, will continue to exist as long as there is something better to strive for.  (As a side note, even think of the different names/labels that we give to high school, community college, and university professors as another example of this high/low culture distinction.) As long as high school students strive to go to college and as long as community college students strive to attend a “real” university, this hierarchy of culture and class will continue to pervade.

Sounding off…