Firstly, now I feel like crap for using "living in a van down by the river" as my opening joke for teaching Microsoft Office (When I taught Word our first lectu

Firstly, now I feel like crap for using "living in a van down by the river" as my opening joke for teaching Microsoft Office (When I taught Word our first lecture was writing a letter of resignation, and then each lesson built on doing 'freelance work' like using Excel to calculate the necessary number of bootleg DVDs I needed to sell to not have to live in a van). The number does not surprise me, considering there is a 1 in 7 chance a community college student will finish [1]. This stat was one of the reasons I altered my class to allow 3 hours of open lab time to work on homework with me available. I had a number of non-traditional students (former military, GEDs, single mothers). When they were not in school, they were working (or dealing with kids). We can joke about how computer science students are night owls working on their assignments for long hours, but that seems like an arbitrary ceiling when you have someone that doesn't fit the "young adult that has free time" mold. Hell, its the motivator for my PhD research, making CS work easier to understand/complete. Now, I will also say, this study is glossing over "Pell chasers", who only sign up for community college to get the Pell grant and then never show up again. My initial thick skin came from building a rapport with students only to see them vanish as soon as that check came. It doesn't help they can do this for 9 semesters before getting in "trouble" (no legal trouble, just no more free money). At my school, you had to show up to class once (first day when no one lectures) to get your money. I will say that teaching CC was very interesting and rewarding. I've met deadbeats, Pell chasers, former prisoners, former crack heads, and geniuses that dropped out of HS. Just showing them you actually cared about their learning could be the world to them - some are scamming the system, but some truly don't want to drive a forklift for the rest of their lives. [1] https://www.texastribune.org/2010/02/02/most-community-college-students-never-graduate/ https://www.texastribune.org/2010/02/02/most-community-colle... Edit - Fixed some numbers I had wrong.