The Cooling-Out Function of Community College

Abstract

<p>Community college in North America has as its primary function the preservation of the status quo and maintenance of class structure. The Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology is not a unique structure but closely resembles the whole North American system. It has an increasingly important transfer function although the function is not officially stressed as in the rest of Canada and the United States. However, community or junior college is a failure in North America as an academic institution, as only a small percentage actually transfer and receive a Bachelor of Arts degree although the majority aspire towards this goal. It is a failure as far as technical and vocational training goes as judged by its inability to interest students in the technical programs and its outright failure in Ontario, where technical education is supposedly paramount, to alleviate the acute skilled manpower shortage. Nevertheless, the institution is healthy and growing while other post-secondary schools are on the decline. Resources are flowing into this institution because it is accomplishing its primary task adequately. That task is to mollify or cool-out' the working class and preserve and protect the class structure of our society.</p>