Framing Introduction

Framing:

In recent years, a growing number of older students have begun or have returned to college. These include housewives, veterans, clerical workers, and professionals such as registered nurses, all of whom are seeking college credit and many of whom are seeking bachelor's degrees. Although there are a few special courses and programs for these students, most of them are mainstreamed at once into classes with students of traditional college age. The growing number of returning or older students in freshman composition courses, in particular, raises questions about whether they should be taught in the same way as their younger classmates. (Patricia Connors, 1982, “Attitudes” 263)

While we view the different perspectives that older students bring as resources, teaching them well will likely require that we rethink our notion of whom we teach and our assumptions about them. Having older students may ultimately affect our assignment-making, class discussions, and dynamics inside and outside the classroom just as having students from a variety of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds often does. (Beverly Moss and Keith Walters, 1993, “Rethinking Diversity” 166)

From early admission high school students to adults in their middle years, with military veterans, displaced homemakers, unemployed breadwinners, and leisure learners in between, college classes are populated in diverse ways. All indications are that older learners will continue to be a large part of the college population, and an even larger proportion of community college student bodies in the future. Thus adult students represent a cohort teachers must continue to welcome, understand, and assist. (Libby Bay, 1999, 305)

This book is a response to these invitations.