What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

Abstract

TRACY Wang, assistant professor of mathematics at Raritan College, was once embarrassed to be teaching at a community college, but not anymore: "We have a saying in China that if you want to teach one drop of knowledge to your students, you have to have a gallon. Nobody is overqualified to teach at a community college" (Haworth A13). Wang represents the changing face of community college faculty members: the bicultural professor, trained in research and charged with teaching. The new PhD who chooses to teach at a community college and the community college that values the PhD both must consciously recognize the necessary process of acculturation-not unlike the process an immigrant must go through. The issues that are most stark when one makes the transition to teaching at a community college are also apparent (though not as recognized) when one moves into other teaching positions: the tension between the desire to do research (for which our degrees have prepared us) and the desire to be an effective teacher (a skill that we learn by the seat of our pants). Thus a certain period of alienation from one's past and perhaps from one's present is a necessary evil.