Teaching the State of California

I'm teaching a night class this summer. We're studying English literature since 1800, and we've made it through the Romantics and are almost finished with the Victorians. This is a good class, filled with lots of smart students from throughout the state. I know they are all students at my college now, but here's just a few of the places where they "regularly" study: Fullerton College (naturally), Mt. San Antonio College, UCLA, Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, Biola University, Stanford University, and the Cal State Universities at Fullerton, Long Beach, and the Channel Islands. That's quite a range. Apparently, very few colleges or universities are offering summer school classes, and those that are have a very limited set of offerings for students. We seem to have attracted people from all over the state. Perhaps next summer we'll go national or even international.

Some of my colleagues will, of course, state that the reason the class is so talented is this mix of students from the universities. I think, however, that our community college students are just as well suited to this class as those coming from the four-year schools. The home-grown students seem to be just as insightful and participatory as anyone else. It's good to have a chance to compare, and it's perhaps even better when the comparison comes out so favorably.