An institution that society uses to further sort, sift, and weed out its members into
basic categories of winners and losers.
While some students will succeed in community
college and obtain a vocational credential or transfer to a 4-year
school (both of which are noble) many will find it just as difficult as their high-
school experience and will drop out and work in a menial job for the rest of their life. Others will graduate with an Associate's degree in nothing special and will find jobs pretty much as inaccessible to them as if they only had a high
school diploma or equivalent.
Either way, society helps its members find their own level, giving those with merit the opportunities they deserve while preventing those who don't meet a
basic threshold of academic aptitude (or intelligence/ambition/discipline) from obtaining a degree they surely DON'T deserve.
Of course, this is NOT what CC's themselves SAY they exist for--it's what they ACTUALLY DO.
"I
hate high
school. I think I'll go to community
college after I graduate/drop out." That won't work out.
"I'm going to the local community college to get my paramedic's certification."
