The Chronicle: Career Network: 05/18/2001 I watched my mentors in college and graduate school driven to play Ping-Pong with their academic careers and their children's lives. I haven't had to sacrifice my children for my job or my job for my children. That ease has brought me closer to my work -- just as being a parent has brought me closer to my students.

The desire to meld my work and family life is also what brought me to the community college. It is yet another reason that I can say without qualification: Both professionally and personally, teaching at a community college is the best thing that ever happened to me.



What? Teaching at a community college isn't a shameful admission of defeat? Imagine that!