Jill Biden, The Merasi School and the community college model

Yessie, a learning student

In a recent NYTimes article, Jill Biden, community college professor and wife of Vice President Joe Biden, described community colleges as the "way of the future" for developing countries. As Pakistan and Qatar pore millions of dollars into what they hope will be the future Harvards and Oxfords, well-educated minds have been emerging from less ivied, less endowed institutions since their formal inception in the 1970s.

What, exactly, do these little educational nooks have to do with The Merasi School? In essence, everything. The community college model is shaped around community needs: it draws students from the immediate area, offers practical classes with functional application at a suitable time of day and, to stay in existence, must be constantly revising the curriculum to maintain relevance. They are repositories for fast, efficient training necessary to participate in the workforce, which is exactly what the global economy needs at the moment.

We're not so different out in our desert classroom. While few community college students work from slates or sit on brightly colored rugs, both of our curricula are functional by design. Classes are tailored to give students the most useful, applicable skills to participate in and shape the landscape within which they exist. Or, as an elementary art teacher once said: "Our job is to give you the basic skills to paint the full expression of your ideas."

The job of The Merasi School, that is shared with many community colleges, is not to develop learned individuals, but learning students who, from their education, gather the ability to articulate their most constructive thoughts in words and action.