RANT TIME: I'm a community college teacher and sometimes it's the most demoralizing "calling" a teacher could ever have.

That's all right, don't take the quizzes and tests.  If the class is hard then getting low grades doesn't matter.  You can always take it again and again until the state runs out of money or makes a case to cut funding.

Ever wonder why community colleges are looked at suspiciously and everyone picks on community colleges, it's because they are waste a lot of money, resources and energy.  I've had students start classes two to three times in a row and keep dropping them when they get hard and then they reenroll again and again.  

Despite the fact that half my students are stars and work all of their butts off, I also have fifty percent the routinely screw the system out of ignorance, selfishness or even malice. That's a 50% waste.

Some of the hard things about being a teacher is the disconnect between how much I and some students care about the their education.  The students who do work hard have their efforts diluted by the apathy and disrespect of the nearly free education they receive.   Some go so far as to blame the teacher for failures even though my colleagues and I work really hard, providing the very best resources, lectures, and fair tests.

At least 30% to 50% of each class cares about what they are learning about.  I'm talking about the students who stick it out and do the work, but the last half of the class that doesn't realize what they are throwing away and how much of the state's money they are tossing out every time they sign up for a class and abandon it or do substandard work.

The best way to protest education cuts and the growing apathy towards education in general is to learn as much as you can and work as hard as you can to suck every bit of the things your teachers offer you and to take responsibilities for your own failures.