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Essay on Community Colleges and Developmental Education
The evolution of remedial/developmental education was influenced by increasingly complex reasons regarding the need for such services. These reasons parallel an increasingly sophisticated understanding on the part of social scientists about how persons learn, grow, and develop.
The field of developmental education was founded on the democratic ideals of justice, freedom, and opportunity for all citizens. The practice of remedial/ developmental education has not only been influenced by these ideals but also by metaphors like oneness, wholeness, and community. These powerful ideas make the field of developmental education a natural ally with those proponents of an egalitarian educational system. It is, therefore, understandable why the developmental educator has often been a protector and defender of the open access college and why these educators may be among those persons best equipped philosophically and theoretically to deal with the coming demographic changes likely to bring large numbers of at-risk students into every level of education.
In spite of its belief in providing postsecondary education for all who can benefit, the adolescent field of developmental education faces an identity crisis. Will it succumb to the practiced values of the academy which make learning and student development a low priority, or will it take the lead in again making this the academy's first priority? Should the field choose the latter course, it may well become a major force in restoring the integrity of American higher education and thereby make the effective teaching of students the high priority it must become if the United States is to prepare its citizens for leadership and competition in the global society that is now upon us .
Traditionally, the community college has performed a number of curricular functions: college transfer preparation, vocational technical education,continuing education, community service, and remedial/developmental education............
