I have been taking the last few courses for my Specialist in Education (EdS) program this summer, and this quotation is really bugging me. I think it is an unwritten/ unspoken rule for our female college students, and I think some subcultures of students are especially vulnerable to it. Student-Athletes. STEM students (for some reason?). Even our TRIO Student Support Services program, a program designed to support students who either are from low Socio-Economic background, or are First Generation to attend College, or have a disability, wouldn't enroll students in the Summer Scholars program if they couldn't live on campus in the dorms for the few weeks in the summer--and children aren't allowed in the dorms. So if students, including male students, have children but not a grandparent or someone willing and available to care for the kiddos 24/7, they are in effect ineligible for the scholarship and all of the supports that the program offers.
Help me out here--this is a thing, right?
There is a big message about being a 'traditional' college student as the 'right' way to do college. And the only way to be a 'traditional' college student is to be childless. Nevermind that 75% of students who take developmental courses are 'non-traditional' students: we still design the college experience for that minority-majority, the so-called traditional students, who are approximately 18 years old, attend full-time, live on campus, don't have a job that conflicts with schooling (their primary 'job' is to be a student), and have parents paying for their education. And they don't have kids.
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