Source Document

Santa Rosa (CA) Press Democrat, "Junior College Is Recognized," 29 August, 1918.

Interpretation

Much of the debate over the "true" function of the early junior college originates in a false dichotomy. Community college "advocates" argue that the early junior college provided students with the first two years of a baccalaureate program in anticipation of eventual transfer to a university. Conversely, community college "critics" contend that while this was the stated purpose of the early junior college, its true intent was to provide a sham form of higher education that would, in the end, divert students from the university and into low-status jobs of limited prospects.

As the newspaper account reproduced below indicates, neither view fairly reflects the purpose which most junior colleges -- public as well as private -- served for the majority of their students before 1940. Admittedly, some junior college graduates did transfer to a state university or private college to pursue a traditional baccalaureate, just as others completed programs in what Leonard Koos characterized as the "semi-professions" (which, the community college critics might be surprised to learn, included occupations ranging from pharmacist and veterinarian to welfare supervisor and dietitian.) But in a great many public junior colleges, the evidence indicates that the majority of students enrolled with the intent of gaining a K-8 teaching credential, either following a year of additional study at a state normal (the typical pattern in California) or directly upon graduation from their junior college (the practice in many Midwestern states and Texas.) Following the California pattern, officials of the yet-to-open Santa Rosa Junior College were no less concerned to ensure that its students, most of whom would be young women, would enjoy senior standing upon transfer to the state normal at San Jose, and thus only be required to complete a third year of study before gaining their teaching credential, as they were concerned about securing a transfer agreement with the University of California. By contrast, such Midwestern institutions as Fort Scott Junior College, given that state requirements for a K-8 credential were less strict, did not need to concern themselves with transfer agreements, but instead established regular departments of teacher education at their opening. These departments frequently enrolled upwards of 60% of all students.

It should be acknowledged that many nationally prominent educators were displeased with the prominent role played by the early junior colleges in preparing elementary grade teachers, but their displeasure did little to diminish the number of students who gained access to the teaching profession through these institutions. George Zook was especially vocal among those so displeased, yet, as he wrote in the May, 1938, issue of the Junior College Journal, there appeared little that he or Henry Badger of the US Office of Education could do to alter the situation except complain:

A large number of junior colleges have more or less thoughtlessly drifted into the policy of preparing teachers for the lower school units. Mr. Henry G. Badger of the United States Office of Education shows in the forthcoming April number of the Junior College Journal that in 1936 there were 8,332 students in 381 junior colleges in the United States who were preparing to teach. Over one-half of them are found in the Southern States. In the state of Texas alone there are forty junior colleges which are recognized by the State Department of Education as teacher-training institutions...In most instances it seems clear to me that junior colleges, which pretend to engage in the preparation of teachers, are making a serious mistake (p. 412).

By the 1940s, Zook would have his wish, and in most states normal schools had evolved into teacher colleges, and with this evolution assumed a virtual monopoly over teacher-training at the expense of junior colleges. Had it not been for the temporary enrollment gains that many junior colleges enjoyed in providing education for returning veterans, and the long term gains that came after 1948 with the introduction of Associate Degree nursing programs, it might well have been the case that the junior college, stripped of one of its original and prominent functions, might have seen its numbers decline even more dramatically after 1945 than was the case, and the long-term viability of the institution thrown in doubt.

Text

Pupils Who Take Two Years' Course Will Be Given Senior Standing at San Jose State Normal School and Only Be Required to Do One Year's Work.
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Official notice was received by Superintendent Brownscombe from the San Jose Normal school on Tuesday that students who complete the Santa Rosa Junior College course will be admitted to senior standing and may graduate in one year.
By this arrangement our Junior College students at the San Jose Normal school as those who attend the university. This will be a great advantage to our girls especially as there is now a tendency to extend the work of the normal school over three years.
The Junior College of Santa Rosa is now in a most advantageous position, as its students will receive two years of thorough training under competent instructors and may then enter either the senior year of the Normal or the third years of the University. That this opportunity is coming to be understood and appreciated is evidenced by letters of inquiry that are being received from all parts of the county.

The Junior College will open for the fall semester September 10 the same time as the Santa Rosa high school, junior high and grammar schools open for the fall term.

Related Sources:

Zook, George, The Problem of Teacher Education, Junior College Journal, Vol. 8, no. 8, May 1938, pp. 410-416.

Contributor: RP

Last Updated: November 29, 1999