Community College Alumni Takes on Community (Public Post)
So Community is on Netflix, and naturally I've been rewatching. It got me thinking about my community college years, and the reality versus fiction. Of course, I will be doing my comparisons keeping in mind that the show diverged from any semblance of reality pretty early on.
As this is a public post, I am keeping things pretty general. For all intents and purposes, I will call my school MGCC - My Greendale Community College. Spoilers for all six seasons, probably? But mostly the first three.
The Dean
Given that Dean Pelton seems to run the school, although we do meet the board at one point on season three (after Ben Chang has taken over - at that point, nothing about the show was realistic anymore, LOL), he seems more like a combination of an Academic Dean and a college president. At both MGCC and my four year school, the Academic Deans did often have our backs, but they also weren't that involved in our daily lives. (Although it's supposed to be weird that Dean Pelton is.) They also weren't the ones running the show, and certainly not alone. But I had to meet with Academic Deans once at each school, and both were incredibly understanding and willing to help me. So I guess there's a bit of reality there, although I wouldn't exactly call Dean Pelton "helpful." But he wants to be.
And it wouldn't surprise me if there were Deans out there who overstepped a bit in trying to relate to the students.
"This is a Real College!"
It's mostly Craig Pelton who repeats this over and over, but IIRC a few professors reiterate the point. This definitely happened when I was at MGCC. "You're at a real school." "People often ask why I teach at MGCC and not a four year school. I do it because I love it." "This is a real college, and my class is a real class." If you'd stop insisting on it so much...
Of course, MGCC, unlike Greendale, actually was very much like a real college. We just didn't have four year degrees. The other difference was that it was a community college; things often happened that had nothing to do with academics. We would have art shows for local artists who didn't even attend the college, and there were - still are - a lot of noncredit courses, as well as courses that you could do for credit or noncredit.
The Students
On Community, we see students of varying ages. In the study group alone you have Troy and Annie as the "traditional" students (as they'd be called at a four year), Britta is probably in her late twenties, Jeff and Shirley are in their thirties, and Pierce is in his seventies. The fact that the ages vary so much is probably the most realistic part of the show to me, next to the constant insistence that "it's a real college".
You had a lot of students who were like Troy and Annie - young people who, for whatever reason, weren't really ready for four year school. Which, by the way, is not a bad thing. I know I sound like Dean Pelton, but I really do think more students should consider community college. If anything, the pressure to have gone to a "real school" is probably why so many kids end up flunking out.
You also had students who wanted to change careers or get degrees. Then there were the Pierces, who had apparently been going to Greendale for ten years. I think IRL you'd be more likely to find Pierce in the noncredit classes, but the point stands.
Paintball Fights
We never had a single paintball fight. Or a chicken-inspired mafia takeover. We didn't even get a fake spaceship. I feel robbed of those things the most.
In Conclusion
What interests me is that apparently Greendale is based on Glendale Community College. I'd be kind of interested to know if there were actually more similarities, albeit they'd still have to be very exaggerated, I would imagine. Or maybe it was one of those things that started out one way, came out a very different way, but they kept the name similarities because it was already Greendale?
I can't count the reasons I should stay
One by one, they all just fade away...
As this is a public post, I am keeping things pretty general. For all intents and purposes, I will call my school MGCC - My Greendale Community College. Spoilers for all six seasons, probably? But mostly the first three.
The Dean
Given that Dean Pelton seems to run the school, although we do meet the board at one point on season three (after Ben Chang has taken over - at that point, nothing about the show was realistic anymore, LOL), he seems more like a combination of an Academic Dean and a college president. At both MGCC and my four year school, the Academic Deans did often have our backs, but they also weren't that involved in our daily lives. (Although it's supposed to be weird that Dean Pelton is.) They also weren't the ones running the show, and certainly not alone. But I had to meet with Academic Deans once at each school, and both were incredibly understanding and willing to help me. So I guess there's a bit of reality there, although I wouldn't exactly call Dean Pelton "helpful." But he wants to be.
And it wouldn't surprise me if there were Deans out there who overstepped a bit in trying to relate to the students.
"This is a Real College!"
It's mostly Craig Pelton who repeats this over and over, but IIRC a few professors reiterate the point. This definitely happened when I was at MGCC. "You're at a real school." "People often ask why I teach at MGCC and not a four year school. I do it because I love it." "This is a real college, and my class is a real class." If you'd stop insisting on it so much...
Of course, MGCC, unlike Greendale, actually was very much like a real college. We just didn't have four year degrees. The other difference was that it was a community college; things often happened that had nothing to do with academics. We would have art shows for local artists who didn't even attend the college, and there were - still are - a lot of noncredit courses, as well as courses that you could do for credit or noncredit.
The Students
On Community, we see students of varying ages. In the study group alone you have Troy and Annie as the "traditional" students (as they'd be called at a four year), Britta is probably in her late twenties, Jeff and Shirley are in their thirties, and Pierce is in his seventies. The fact that the ages vary so much is probably the most realistic part of the show to me, next to the constant insistence that "it's a real college".
You had a lot of students who were like Troy and Annie - young people who, for whatever reason, weren't really ready for four year school. Which, by the way, is not a bad thing. I know I sound like Dean Pelton, but I really do think more students should consider community college. If anything, the pressure to have gone to a "real school" is probably why so many kids end up flunking out.
You also had students who wanted to change careers or get degrees. Then there were the Pierces, who had apparently been going to Greendale for ten years. I think IRL you'd be more likely to find Pierce in the noncredit classes, but the point stands.
Paintball Fights
We never had a single paintball fight. Or a chicken-inspired mafia takeover. We didn't even get a fake spaceship. I feel robbed of those things the most.
In Conclusion
What interests me is that apparently Greendale is based on Glendale Community College. I'd be kind of interested to know if there were actually more similarities, albeit they'd still have to be very exaggerated, I would imagine. Or maybe it was one of those things that started out one way, came out a very different way, but they kept the name similarities because it was already Greendale?
I can't count the reasons I should stay
One by one, they all just fade away...