Digital Divide Analysis

As I have briefly pointed out, the non-traditional student (at least initially) finds their motivation to go back to college is due to financial hardship. Since the recession we have seen more, and more people find the need/urgency to get a bachelor’s degree. Along with the financial hardship of this culture, the non-traditional student has to over come even more obstacles than their traditional counterpart. These obstacles would include raising children, having a spouse, and working an additional job (or even two jobs). So with all this said, who cares? Well, as the economy has been a hot topic of discussion in many ways, including politically, there must be a need to continue the growth of our economy. The more people we can get college education to, and the more people that can contribute to the workforce at a high level, the more chance we have to fuel that into our economy. To nurture the non-traditional student culture, is to nurture the economy that will benefit the American society at large. On the flip side, beyond trying to avoid the middle class from disappearing, there is a need to push the lower class out of the horrendous state it is in. Lindsey M. Jesnek discusses these issues in the article Empowering the Non-Traditional College Student And Bridging The ‘Digital Divide’:

Her company, rather than giving her the severance package she had been anticipating upon retirement, offered her the paperwork to apply for a federally-funded program that would par for full-time enrollment at a local community college. At 56 years old Beverly, like thousands of other displace workers, found herself in the last place she dreamed of being as an aging adult: sitting, wide-eyed and ill at ease, in a classroom”