Tom Hanks Says Community College Made Him Who He is Today

[Stuart G]

Source: Huff Post

Famed actor and director Tom Hanks penned an op-ed reflecting on his time in community college, crediting it as the "place [that] made me what I am today."

Hanks writes in the New York Times on Wednesday that he applied to some prestigious schools knowing full-well they wouldn't accept a student like him with low SAT scores. He decided to go to Chabot College, a community college that accepted everyone and was free.

Hanks celebrated that Chabot had programs in nearly every discipline, "all free but for the effort and the cost of used textbooks," and his classmates "included veterans back from Vietnam, women of every marital and maternal status returning to school, middle-aged men wanting to improve their employment prospects and paychecks." The op-ed goes on to endorse President Barack Obama's plan to offer free community college nationwide.

The celebrated actor noted one public speaking class at Chabot "was unforgettable for a couple of reasons. First, the assignments forced us to get over our self-consciousness." The other reason was a flight attendant in the class he apparently had a crush on.



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/14/tom-hanks-community-college_n_6470806.htmlLink to source

[big_dog]

1. excellent op-ed! read it this morning in the Times

k&r!

[gabeana]

2. I also went to Chabot College

Was a lousy high school students, went Chabot because didn't know what I was supposed to do

Concur with Hanks Comunity college changed my life, now a college professor

[Skittles]

3. I attended English and computer science classes in a community college

Last edited Wed Jan 14, 2015, 11:37 PM - Edit history (1)

I never got a degree but it served me well enough to have spent the last 34 years in the Information Technology world

[Stuart G]

5. I atttended a community college in 1964, I think it was the summer.

The professor had us read a book of stories, one of which I will never forget because of the impression it made on me...Oddly, it dealt with satire, biting, vicious satire.....

Jonathan Swift..." Modest Proposal" for dealing with the problem of ..the Irish ..in what was called "England" How to deal with the overpopulation of the Irish, and I suppose the hatred the English had for the Irish. It was just a made up story.. one of the greatest satirical pieces ever written, and I read it as a project at "community college"... It is a classic..if you want to read it, here it is written, 1729...odd, this kind of writing is still in the news...about 25 to 30 paragraphs if you have time: (warning, this is ugly, mean, vicious, NSFW, and so on...but, it is truly great)

Title: A Modest Proposal

by Dr. Jonathan Swift

For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland,
from being a burden on their parents or country, and for
making them beneficial to the publick - 1729


http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1080/pg1080.txt

[tabasco]

4. I have a high opinion of Hanks

I believe what he says is true, and I appreciate him saying it. I'm sure Hanks learned more at community college than George AWOL Bush learned at Yale.