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Someone recently commented to me that a community college education is inferior to an education at a four-year college or university. Of course we know this is a myth. But apparently, the stigma still is out there.

This misperception reminded me of a situation that happened to one of my colleagues when I was teaching in the public schools. She was teaching first grade and decided she would like to try fourth grade. She was repeatedly congratulated for her promotion.

"Now wait a minute," she said. "I am still the same person with the same college degree, the same teaching skills, and the same salary. It's the students who move up in grade levels because of their ability, not the teachers."

She explained that the level she was teaching was by choice - not by promotion. If she went from fourth grade to first, would people think she was demoted because fourth grade was too difficult?

At the college level, it's the same. Normally, the level one teaches is by career design and choice. A professor doesn't get promoted from teaching freshman level classes one year to teaching sophomore level classes the next - or demoted for moving from graduate classes to freshman classes. On the contrary, many of the best teachers choose to teach at the lower levels. And thankfully, this is where we need our best and brightest teachers.

As one who has taught all levels - from elementary through graduate level - I have found there are a number of stigmas and false assumptions attached to those who choose to teach at a certain educational level. The truth is that one can find good and bad teachers at every level and in every institution. But most teachers tend to be knowledgeable and dedicated. Another truth is that the college curriculum and outcomes for general education courses students take during the first two years of college is fairly consistent across the country.

Having spent a decade teaching at the community college level and another decade teaching at the four-year college level, I have found virtually no difference in instruction by faculty (excluding graduate students who teach many of the introductory courses at large universities). I also found virtually no difference in students.

At the four-year college where I taught (with a moderately selective admission policy), I found poorly prepared first-generation students with few economic, academic or social resources. And at the community colleges where I taught, I found academically well-prepared, bright, capable, and even gifted students. Just as one can find a wide range of teaching abilities among faculty at every level and in every type of institution, one also can find any type of student at any type of college.

The comment that a community college education is inferior just doesn't hold up. There are literally hundreds of well-known figures in American society who made significant contributions to civilization and who started their higher education experience at a community college. Here are a few: Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise; Forbes Magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard; journalist and news commentator Jim Lehrer; Olympic ice skater Michael Weiss; and oceanographer and explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle.

There may have been some reason to attach an inferiority stigma to the old junior colleges in the early part of the 20th century. But it doesn't hold true for the modern community college. Community colleges are generally progressive, innovative, and are often referred to as the up and coming institution of higher education for the future. Indeed, for a quality educational experience, community colleges are often labeled as the best buy in higher education.

Those who teach and work in the community colleges, like me, made a choice.

Kerry Hart is Campus Dean at Colorado Mountain College's Alpine Campus in Steamboat Springs. He provides periodical commentaries to the Steamboat Pilot and Today He can be reached at khart@coloradomtn.edu.